Everyone has their special time and place.
It may be an exaggeration to say that I am guided to places, but there are places I am naturally drawn to.
It's the kitchen.
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In the kitchen of my one-room apartment, I always have a saucepan, one large and one small, and a frying pan ready to go. I bought a cloth cloth after reading a book about it, and it's now very useful for wiping dishes, draining food, and cleaning tools.
Although the kitchen of the apartment is too small to use a wok, it is very delicious to steam chicken breast or sockeye salmon with vegetables using a steamer. The single-person clay pot is in full swing regardless of the season, making hot tofu, kimchi hotpot, and rice. If I start talking about my favorite tools and how to use them, such as the pure copper milk pan I bought at first sight, I will never stop.
At the beginning of the year, we have rice porridge with seven herbs, clam soup in March, and plum waka udon for Doyo no Ushi (we don't have the money to buy eel). We check the seasons for vegetables and fish and cook according to the season. As long as we have the right seasonings, we can try foreign flavors.
Being in the kitchen, choosing and using tools, and cooking are my primary hobbies.
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There are two words that have helped me in life.
It's natural that life doesn't go well
These are words from a manga I read as a child. I have always kept these words in my heart, and they have made my life much easier.
Try making your daily life into a hobby
But I also had a dream. When that dream, which I had cherished since I was little, was shattered, someone spoke to me in my despair.
Two words that are important to me.
I feel like it's because of these things that I've been able to live my life so carefree up until now.
It's natural that things won't go well, but there will be times when it gets tough. At times like those, if you treat life itself as a hobby, you won't lose your enjoyment. In other words, you'll somehow be okay.
For me, that means working at the dinner table or in the kitchen. Thanks to this, I've come to feel calm and excited just by being in the kitchen, even if I'm not doing anything.
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What makes me happy is being able to make and eat warm, delicious meals myself.
However, perhaps because I've only been cooking for myself recently, I've noticed that people often give me strange looks when I feed them my food.
So, let me lower the bar a little.
Even if it tastes a little bad... it's normal for things to go wrong. As long as I can make and eat hot rice, I'm sure I'll be fine.
TANAKA Natsumi