I spent a lot of time conceiving and writing this piece! I am genuinely proud of it so I would love to share it with the world! I won’t paste the whole text except the first part here since it is gonna be too long for Reddit. The full story can be accessed here.

Title: I’m a good cook when I have the right guests

I am a good cook typically. I love the smell of fire and sizzling food. Give me a spacious stove and a cast iron wok, pass me a handful of mushrooms, two eggs, some green onions and basic seasonings, and Imma make your mouth drool.

I adore all of that, both the cooking experience and the taste of the final product, except for one thing: a room full of dull and unappreciative guests. You know, those that take all for granted, eat them all like fast food, and move on straight to something else of higher priority, usually with a sight of leftovers on their plates.

Normally, I can have all the food for myself at least, sharing food with unappreciative guests is like wasting all that time, nutrients, and calories down the drain. Honestly, I get why fast food has a huge market, it may have more to do with the cook than the customers I fear. You know, at times, even I feel a spontaneous urge to discourage myself from cooking good food, the unnamed guests in my gut have voted to consume something quick and cheap, or microwave some frozen orange goo, albeit in a non-human language I do not comprehend.

Poor guest -> poor cook -> poor food -> poor mood, an infinite loop, right?

That doesn’t make sense: Nobody asks me to put in so much wok work and be frustrated afterward, nor do I know if my guests truly prefer the “good” food over the orange goo. At least from my side, it is all in my mind, in my expectation. Eventually, I learned that being a good cook doesn’t mean I ought to cook good food, and I learned to toss certain people into the “unworthy bucket” of tasting good food to save myself the trouble. It is like if Lionel Messi were to play in Sunday League, he would just stroll casually to avoid injuries. No obligation = no stress.

Something’s not quite right here. Although I lowered my expectations and mental stress, this mindset shoots up the probability that I won’t be able to exercise my skills and talents, and that my guests will consistently taste sub-quality fast food (given that a proper sense of appreciation of good food might take years to hone and evolve). It is like Messi keeps on strolling while Sunday League keeps on trolling. The lose-lose deadlock still hasn’t been broken.