Today I found out about the shows 4 Ingredients and Extreme Cuisine in Lifestyle. The 4 Ingredients show seemed to liven up that craving to be able to cook meals for myself and for my future family. This yearning involves not taking much of kitchen space (no going here and there or cooking different things at the same time, less ingredients = healthier?), not spilling ingredients here and there (for easy cleanup), simple measuring (so I can toss the oh-so-plenty measuring cups), not hard-to-find ingredients (so I won't have to go to the supermarket all the time) and making everything taste good so that there will be no leftovers (or I don't eat them by myself). Oh, I am so much tempted to buy that iPhone application. Good thing I don't have the gadget or it's an extra expense if I tuck away the idea again.
Extreme Cuisine is a different matter. After the show, I was left with the thought that it would be nice to go to Morocco, not for some of the delicacies that were featured in the show but for the experience and the hospitality of the people. I am guessing that majority of the population were Muslims. Maybe it's the show, but I'd like to experience life in Morocco as he did, except for the direct drinking of the camel milk and the eating of the the eel, the pigeon and the entrails of the ram. I learned about the making of the expensive argon oil from the collection of argon seeds from the discharge of the goats, the cracking of the seeds, the mashing of the inner white parts of the seeds to a paste which eventually leads to the mixing, squishing and straining of the paste to get the precious oil. The show also featured the adventure-seeker eating corn couscous with eel and rolling them in a ball before eating with their hands, actually catching the big eel with the fishermen, making cheese out of camel's milk, preparing and eating somewhat like a pie with layers of pigeon meat and almond paste, buying meat from a butcher who placed it in a jar and added a special spice mixture including aged butter, going to a place near public baths to bury and cook that meat in a jar, traveling and even climbing elevated areas to get to the different villages in Morocco, placing the ram in an oven made of earth and sipping a mint tea with a Moroccan elder. I would so love to break out of my comfort zone and eat in one of those rooftops, even using only my right hand, as what was the custom, to eat what I can eat, while experiencing life, culture and tradition with the locals, maybe even learning some of their language.
