Do you like to cook? I do. I also like to watch some cooking shows occasionally. Gennaro is one of my favorites.

I am vegetarian. Even though I don't care about cooking, I am forced to, because in this country it's near-impossible to get vegetarian food. I even invented a recipe of my own.

Seems so that if you care about what you eat, you have to cook your own food to some extent. I even used to grow my own food. I was born to a family of farmers.

I'm not strictly a vegetarian, but seeing how I don't tend to eat meat it's usually easier to say I am.

I'm not strictly vegetarian either, but I should be. More precisely I'm pescetarian. Non-eating is easy for me, but unfortunately I have family etc. It's not nice to inconvenience them by starving myself to death.

Btw, the recipe I invented myself is a kind of mix of cheese soup and rice porridge. Do you have some simple and convenient vegetarian recipes you have tried and can recommend?

The base of most of my cooking tends to be onion, garlic, and mushrooms stir-fried in some (olive) oil. You can pretty much take that in any direction you want, depending on the vegetables and herbs you add.

A direction that rates highly on my convenience factor is to add e.g. some green beans and some peas, or whatever vegetables are easily available to you. After stir frying the whole thing for a couple of minutes, add (part of) a jar of tomato chunks, and while that's heating up add some seasoning (salt, pepper, oregano, basil, whatever rocks your boat). By the time you're done adding the seasonings and stirring it all in, the dish will be done. Then you have a sort of tomato soup you can eat with some bread on the side, or if you boiled some pasta in the meantime you've got a pasta dish. All that within about 10 minutes. If you want to eat it with e.g. lentils just be sure to start those on time, but besides that it takes no extra effort.

I imagine I'm not telling you much, if anything, you don't already know. But if I am, I'll be glad to share some other possible directions.

I like to cook and make recipes on the fly. I'm big on soups. Just yesterday I bought a package of hulled barley to make some beef barley soup.

I also like to dabble with assorted pasta dishes. I have the ingredients for lasagna, which I'll make this weekend. And also the necessities for a Middle Eastern dish that I've been making...not often...for a long time, green beans (string beans) and lamb.

Anybody like chili? Got a good recipe?

After stir frying the whole thing for a couple of minutes

That reminds me of another favorite, fried rice.

I'm not a vegetarian and I don't understand vegetarians.
Man is naturally omnivorous, as teeth disposition and shape, as well as the digestive system clearly shows.

I suspect that one of the roots of vegetarianism is the belief that all critters are related, and that eating meat is like eating a relative or friend. And that pain inflicted on an animal...not us, of course, because we're not animals...is akin to pain inflicted on a friend or relative.

Personally, being a soft-hearted, kind and loving person, I can't bear the thought of a carrot ruthlessly pulled from the ground, its root hairs snapping.

Do you like to cook? I do.

I do most of the cooking here.

I also like to watch some cooking shows occasionally.

The only one worth watching is this :viking:

I watched it for a bit, but it got somewhat old.

What a human being likes to eat corresponds to what his/her organism is lacking at the time.
For example, I eat buckwheat twice a year or so - when my biosystem gets to require iron.

I used to do quite a bit more cooking than I do these days. Since the last move (March of 2012) my cooking has been pretty sporadic. Mostly, the landlord brings stuff in from the fast-food? franchises around here and we eat that. Every now and then I rebel however, and a few dirty dishes and the sound of the smoke-detector is my reward for a halfway decent meal.

the sound of the smoke-detector

Boy, what are you cooking?

I'm not a vegetarian and I don't understand vegetarians.
Man is naturally omnivorous, as teeth disposition and shape, as well as the digestive system clearly shows.

It's a funny thing. Most of the time during the day we don't eat. We do all sorts of other things. Then again, we (tend to) eat every day. (I don't eat every day, but I don't know anyone else like me, so I can't say the world is weird. It must be something with me.) So, are we eaters or are we not? It's said we eat to live, but in reality we live just a couple of hours and then we fall back to eating again. Pointless vicious circle.

The base of most of my cooking tends to be onion, garlic, and mushrooms stir-fried in some (olive) oil. You can pretty much take that in any direction you want, depending on the vegetables and herbs you add.

Right. Already here shows the big difference between a cook and a non-cook. I don't have "the base of my cooking". I eat whatever is universally edible. I care little beyond this.

As to my totally unique recipe, I had these initial requirements:
- Simple ingredients (available at any grocery store, no additives)
- No weird utensils or cooking tricks, just a knife, stove, pot and/or a pan
- Can be kept overnight and warmed up again

I like cheese soups and I studied the recipes to get ideas. There was a problem with all the recipes. It seems that cheese soups invariably require bouillon cubes. This is already an additive and goes beyond the requirement of simple ingredients. So I began forcibly experimenting by melting cheese in warm milk. Most cheeses turn into ugly clumps this way, but I found some smoked cheeses that don't. Some types of smoked cheese melt evenly. So I settled with those.

So, this is the "base" of the cheese soup part: Smoked cheese melted in warm milk. Nothing else. Literally.

Then there's the rice porridge part. It's just cooked rice. Nothing else. Literally. I mix freshly cooked rice in the milk-cheese. If the density doesn't come out right (too fluid usually) then I add crumbs of bread too. Black rye bread of course. This is the only bread I acknowledge.  

And this is it. No salt even. The cheese contains enough salt of its own. With sufficiently thick density, the leftovers can be kept overnight in the fridge and warmed up on a pan for next meal. This of course gives rise to the last ingredient: some grease or oil on the pan.

I imagine I'm not telling you much, if anything, you don't already know. But if I am, I'll be glad to share some other possible directions.

You told me a bunch of stuff beyond my level. I don't understand the idea of seasonings and "whatever rocks your boat". I eat to be able to stand up, not to get rocked. The idea of having base ingredients and then taking this to some "direction" when cooking seems reasonable, but my base is evidently too basic and everything beyond it is too complicated for me.

Our approach to food is diametrically opposite. You watch your diet to get full and tasty meals. I watch my diet to avoid things that are too weird or directly harmful. If I could, I would avoid eating altogether. Eating is a nuisance.

Nothing beats a good ole fashioned BBQ ...... steaks, chops, fish, eggs & bacon, sausages (pork just to piss off Mohammud & his clan of bottom dwellers), shrimp, roast corn, hamburgers, franks, etc,,,etc,,,,etc!!!

It seems that cheese soups invariably require bouillon cubes.

Depending on the ingredients, bouillon cubes can be alright. If you want to be sure it's decent, you can make your own stock. In a sense you're already doing that, but I'd try boiling some onion in the milk prior to adding the cheese or perhaps simply alongside for some extra flavor. If you didn't get the message by now, I love onions. Best of all, onions are also some of the most convenient, healthiest, and cheapest vegetables. But I'd probably add a bunch of other veggies too.

I watch my diet to avoid things that are too weird or directly harmful.

Shouldn't everyone?

If I could, I would avoid eating altogether. Eating is a nuisance.

It can be. Especially in the morning. But at night, surely it's some nice time to spend with your family?

It can be. Especially in the morning. But at night, surely it's some nice time to spend with your family?

Of course...in my case that would be my wife and I who spend all day every day with each other.

Question...how do I access smilies when posting this, or any, entry? I don't see any.

Of course...in my case that would be my wife and I who spend all day every day with each other.

True, but still you're both busy during most of the day, even if it's just reading a book.

Question...how do I access smilies when posting this, or any, entry? I don't see any.

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It's a funny thing. Most of the time during the day we don't eat. We do all sorts of other things. Then again, we (tend to) eat every day. (I don't eat every day, but I don't know anyone else like me, so I can't say the world is weird. It must be something with me.) So, are we eaters or are we not? It's said we eat to live, but in reality we live just a couple of hours and then we fall back to eating again. Pointless vicious circle.

So... you don't eat everyday... original, I must say.
Well, what you call a "pointless vicious circle" is nothing but the very definition of organic life. You need energy to stay alive, you get such energy from food's digestion and nowhere else. You don't eat, you die.

A different matter would be the pleasure that people takes from eating, which is the base of culinary/gastronomy and a characteristic that defines people's cultures.
It varies very much from person to person and it ranges from those that eating it's a burden ( your case? ) to those that lives just for eating.

I prefer very much to eat tasty food, on small quantities and from different things, at each meal. Turning gourmet.
Another thing it's the availability one has for other's food. When out of the country I always insist on eating the local food and experiment their specialities.

It repugnates me when I see that kind of tourists that wants to eat what they eat back in home. If I had a restaurant I would not serve them anything at all.

Well, what you call a "pointless vicious circle" is nothing but the very definition of organic life.

How atheist of you.

It repugnates me when I see that kind of tourists that wants to eat what they eat back in home. If I had a restaurant I would not serve them anything at all.

Presumably you shouldn't have to worry about them even entering your restaurant?

Well, what you call a "pointless vicious circle" is nothing but the very definition of organic life.

How atheist of you.

At Fridays, I always feel a bit atheist 
Anyway, I said "organic" life, not spiritual, so don't start commemorating...

It repugnates me when I see that kind of tourists that wants to eat what they eat back in home. If I had a restaurant I would not serve them anything at all.

Presumably you shouldn't have to worry about them even entering your restaurant?

Oh but they do!
Specially the British, they want to bring Great Britain with them. Why do they travel so much instead of staying home, it's a mystery.

Other tourists are usually not like that, a much open mind. Including the Americans that have always surprised me, very open mind and curious about everything, I like them.
Course the Americans that travels here aren't surely the average American...

Your description of the British reminds me of Colin Farrel's character in In Bruges. It's decent; basically a kind of movie adaptation of The Dumb Waiter.

Well, what you call a "pointless vicious circle" is nothing but the very definition of organic life.

How atheist of you.

At Fridays, I always feel a bit atheist 
Anyway, I said "organic" life, not spiritual, so don't start commemorating...

Baby steps

It repugnates me when I see that kind of tourists that wants to eat what they eat back in home. If I had a restaurant I would not serve them anything at all.

Presumably you shouldn't have to worry about them even entering your restaurant?

Oh but they do!
Specially the British, they want to bring Great Britain with them. Why do they travel so much instead of staying home, it's a mystery.

Beats the hell out of me. Presumably there's a german restaurant somewhere not far from here, people keep telling me about it when they find out where I'm from. But why in Cthulhu's name would I want to go there? I'm not exactly home sick, and what I miss about Berlin is the diversity, certainly not cliche german food.

I just walked home, which is about 3 to 4km, and felt somewhat hungry. Since it's still a few hours till dinner, what I whipped up looks like this:

• 2 (thick) slices of bread


• 1/2 slice of cheese divided over the two slices of bread


• 1 to 2 teaspoons of nice Kölner garlic mustard spread over the bread or the cheese


• 1 (organic) fried egg, sunny side up, on top

This is what Dutch people call an uitsmijter (outthrower), and what German people call a Strammer Max (stiff Max; sounds more like slang for penis but I guess Germans are weird or maybe I'm missing a joke).

NB This hardly qualifies as cooking, but I use it to illustrate how easy it is to add some gastronomic and nutritional value to a quick meal. Because the egg fries while you prepare the other ingredients, it doesn't really take any longer than a simple cheese sandwich. Note that there's absolutely nothing wrong with a simple cheese sandwich. I just want to emphasize that there isn't some huge chore involved.