My love of cooking Essays - Survival Skills, Foods, Meal, Cooking

I never told anyone how passionate I am about cooking. It wasn?t till I got older and began to travel that I realized the importance of food and culture. Before then I never took pleasure in the preparation of meals. The whole process of cooking was a nuisance. At family functions the women would be in the kitchen cooking, telling stories, and laughing. I would always watch from a far but never joined in for the fear of getting dirty, or causing an accident. I later conquered my fear and began to cook often. My family would get together every Sunday to eat, dance, and enjoy each others company. This specific day they were serving fresh fish. As I devoured the fish, I never stopped to think of the time it took to prepare it, where it came from, or how it came to be? I never thought a meal could give such insight into a people?s culture. Food is influenced by culture. The first time I realized this was when I traveled outside of Puerto Rico. My mother was working in a hotel and was invited to the grand opening of El Conquistador in Catalonia, Spain. It was a different world, a world that revolved around food. The people of Spain take simple pleasure in life. Everyday they take a ?Siesta?. Siesta is the Spanish word for nap. It is around noon, when the stores and restaurants start closing. The town becomes a desolate place. People head home to be with their families, and enjoy their lunch; afterwards they rest. They come back out in the evening. The streets become crowded again, couples stroll by, children run down the sidewalks, music travels from balconies down to the streets. Florescent lamps illuminate the town and the intoxicating smells of food invade your nostrils. It is now dinner time. Dinner time for Spaniards is usually around 9:00 pm. By then I was starving, I asked my friend and guide Laura, to order for us. I began to recognize some of the dishes being set at our table. The aroma brought back nostalgic memories of home. They were typical dishes we would have at our family parties in Puerto Rico. Somehow we crossed paths. We shared something in common. We both shared the same history. Millions of years ago we evolved, we learned how to hunt and gather. We created fire, and realized the importance of heating and preserving food. We nourished our bodies and brains and food became an essential part of survival. There were regions of the world with different climates. Foods that would flourish and grow in certain parts of the world did not exist in others. Explorers crossed oceans, found new land and conquered people. Years ago Puerto Rico was ?discovered? by Spanish Conquistadors. The island was inhabited by Native settlers when the Spaniards arrived. Cultures clashed and what is now Puerto Rico came to be. Spanish heritage has left an undeniable impression on the island and proof of its cultural exchange can be found in the local culinary styles. I now view cooking as a way of reconnecting with the past. I incorporate old traditional recipes and add new ingredients to create something new and unique. The process is what sustains my love for cuisine. The time and effort put into a meal, and the way it quickly disappears. The silence in a room filled with people who are too busy eating to talk. The consistency of things, that no matter where you are in the world it will always take twelve minutes to boil an egg. I now have a new sense of appreciation for cuisine. I love inviting friends and family dinner and enjoying delicious, home made meals together. The fruit of my labor is seeing the satisfying smiles on their faces and hearing them say things like ?Compliments to the chef!? I also realize the importance of preparing your own meals. You have complete control of the ingredients being used, and the finishing product. There are many benefits to learning how to cook. It is a lot more economical to buy your own food at the grocery store then to go to a restaurant every night. Often times in restaurants

The whole towns sleeping Essays

The whole towns sleeping Essays The whole towns sleeping Paper The whole towns sleeping Paper Throughout this essay I intend to compare and contrast the effectiveness of the different narrative styles used in the two short stories, A Terribly Strange Bed and The Whole Towns Sleeping. The stories were written about one hundred years apart, The Whole Towns Sleeping in 1950 and A Terribly Strange Bed, much earlier in 1856. This means that not only will the portrayal of the stories vary based upon the individual styles of writing of the authors but also the social history of the times of writing will be quite different. A Terribly Strange Bed is a story written in the first person narrative, which means it is written as a personal account of the events within the story from the point of view of the main character. It is usually written as a character recalling the story to someone else after the events have taken place. The Whole Towns Sleeping on the other hand is a story written in the third person narrative which means it is written from the point of view of an invisible bystander who plays no part in the actual story. It is written as the events take place and is much like a fly on the wall kind of perspective. The outline of the story in The Whole Towns Sleeping is that there is an air of tension building in a small town as a man nicknamed the lonely one is going around killing women But the others strangled four of them, their tongues sticking out of their mouths, they say. The main theme of the story is about the reactions and feelings of three maiden ladies as they walk through the town in the dark of night to visit the cinema. The tension and fear of the story is increased as the women find the body of a friend who has been missing, Eliza Ramsell, and their response is not to return to the safety of their homes, but is to continue with their plans to walk on, to the cinema. The ladies even flout the advice of the police to return home immediately after the film showing and end up walking through the town at midnight when nearly all the other residents are safely locked up in their homes asleep. The climax of the story comes when the ladies have to separate as they reach their individual homes and Lavinia Nebbs is left to walk the last five minutes alone through the deep, deep and black, black ravine. The story ends with a twist as Lavinia finally reaches the safety of being inside her home. A Terribly Strange Bed is a story about a gambler who visits, as blackguard a place, by all respect, as you should ever wish to see. This is a dirty gambling house where the subject of the story has an astonishing run of good luck and is fortunate enough to break the bank. Whilst playing he is befriended by a rather suspicious specimen of an old soldier. This soldier later gets the subject drunk and leads him to a room where the terribly strange bed is situated. As the subject tries to sleep he becomes aware that the bed he is lying on is closing down upon him, threatening to suffocate him. He just manages to escape with his life, by rolling from the moving bed and leaving the gambling house via his bedroom window and then slipping down a water pipe into the street below. The plots of the two stories are quite different but the themes of creating an atmosphere of fear and tension are very similar. In both stories there is a protagonist who is domineering and who is confidant of themselves and the moves that they take. They do not listen to their peers and dont accept advice very well. However, the tension of the two stories is developed in quite different fashions. In The Whole Towns Sleeping there is a slow accumulation of many events each adding to the tension before the climax is reached when Lavinia, the protagonist, crosses the ravine. In contrast, in A Terribly Strange Bed there isnt as much build up of tension and less events happen prior to the moment when the antagonist attempts murder on the protagonist. However, there is a greater use of language and dialect making the story as long as The Whole Towns Sleeping, but less busy. From the very start there are clues as to what the stories are about, A Terribly Strange Bed starts to build a disturbing atmosphere with a very detailed description of the gambling house which the protagonist and his friend visit. Phrases like,here there was nothing but tragedy and the spectacle was something to weep over, suggests a perfect setting for harm to befall the character. The use of these phrases in the first person shows both opinion and emotion. This is an effective way of setting the scene because an image of a dirty, dimly lit room with badly dressed, unshaven tramps sitting and leaning against walls is immediately thrown into the mind of the reader, creating a sense of trepidation. In The Whole Towns Sleeping the first hint of fear is suggested by the title of the movie the ladies are to attend Welcome, Danger!