First Night in Florence

 

I developed a bad habit during my days when I used to work in non-profit which was to always eat my meals quick (literally in 5 minutes) and I never cared for what I ate because I would eat them in 5 minutes anyway. There was really no time to actually enjoy my meal.

The mentality was the there was just too much work to be done. So much work that 8 hours was never enough to finish it and so I was always working - mornings, evenings, weekends. Taking up a full lunch hour or even 30 minutes was a privilege that I felt I couldn’t have, especially working in a field where you are trying to fight injustices.

So while I had many foodie friends who took their time eating and sought out restaurants to taste the latest trends, I was never one to really care what I ate. Even after I left the non-profit field this indifference to food stuck with me. I continued to wolf down my food and order anything that would fill my hungry tummy. Even while we traveled to Germany and Korea my main priorities were sightseeing and seeing as many places I can. Not go to popular eateries.

A few months ago though I began to get picky with coffee (this was another thing that I never cared for). And then the pickiness grew to other foods.

I’m not sure if picky is the right word. What was really happening was that I was getting more and more interested in eating tastier things. And so I began to get more creative in the kitchen. I learned to read recipes carefully. I read about different techniques and kitchen tools and learned to not skip important processes for the sake of saving time (like I never dried my vegetables or meat which caused a lot of watery dishes, which I hated but never corrected because the step was just too time consuming/annoying).

I’m still very much not versed in good food. But I am for the first time enjoying learning more about it.

Last night I made First Night in Florence bucatini. I have heard of Food52 before but it was just recently when I really began to pay attention to their content. I came across a IGTV video of this dish and decided I wanted to make it. The only thing I wasn’t able to get was Ortiz tuna and I forgot to snip the stem off of the spinach, but Yangkyu and I enjoyed it very much. I even finished eating my dish at the same time Yangkyu did, which was the most surprising part (Yangkyu chews and eats slowly).

I can’t wait to try out more things. I am anxiously waiting to get my hands on some yeast to try baking some bread but in the meantime we’re going to spend the next couple of meals finishing leftover pasta (that is another thing I am learning to do - making meals instead of cooking huge batches).

The recipe for First Night in Florence can be found here.