Re-Learning to Cook

It didn't long for me to figure out that my cooking skills were almost entirely limited Italian. Sure, I had dabbled with couscous and few other random chicken things, maybe even stuffed peppers in some vague Spanish way. Truth be told, I've got an extremely limited repertoire.

While cooking through another cookbook will surely be a good way to get started, I was thinking something a little more social. Not quite like a dining club, but I want to learn to cook from friends and strangers alike in an informal setting. So how do you go about setting it all up in such a busy city?

A story. A friend of mine threw a housewarming at her place last night. I had brought over a couple different kinds of brew, but it was quickly apparent that beer was not going to take the spotlight. The host had spent the better part of the day cooking penne vodka, rice and beans, buffalo wings, pizza, roasted chicken, coconut shrimp, guacamole, salsa, and something I'm now forgetting. Then came the cheesecake another friend had made and brought over and the curry chicken that was just fabulous. Here, near the bronx, were about 3 of my friends who had some serious cooking skills. Moreover, despite the range of pizza, penne, and buffalo wings, it was the latin flare that really stood out.

I tell this story because I want to start cooking and eating with people from what they know best. Learn how to make rice and beans and guac from my friends whose families from from latin america and beyond. Learn how to bake bread from, well, bakers, and so on. More than the food, people are connected to their food heritages in ways that make for heartfelt stories that make the dinner all the better. I hope to start soon!