Hello Everyone,

Welcome to The Invisible Vision Project’s Blog.

Food is an important source for life and wellbeing, it’s essential for almost all living beings (humans and animals alike). Personally, I think of myself as someone that loves to enjoy good food. And, I also love to explore food from different countries and cultures. But more importantly, I love to make food.

When it comes to cooking and having a visual impairment, it’s not always easy. It often takes extra effort and even precaution when working in the kitchen. Sometimes, certain adaptive tools are used for some blind and visually impaired people. As for me, I don’t need or have many adaptations made in my kitchen and I’m comfortable and confident if and only if, I’m cooking in my own kitchen. Also, I find it extra hard when I’m cooking and someone is watching me (yes, I’m very self conscious) and, I find it uncomfortable to cook in someone else’s kitchen.

Speaking of cooking on my own and for the very time, it all began at the time when I was a freshmen in university. Because I was assigned to an upper year dormitory, there was a common kitchen in the dorm and this allowed me to ‘explore’ the kitchen. Back then, I only know the very basics about cooking: such as- I knew that if I need to fry something, I need to put oil in the pan before frying. Or, if I want to boil something, it’s better to put more water in a pot than less (in case of drying out the pot). But over the years, I’ve gained so much experiences, from so many incidents of trial and error. And of course, there were times when I cooked something but it was not cooked properly or even fully. But now, I’m (for the most part) very confident and comfortable with my own cooking, I’m able to control heat very well and make sure that my food is not under or over cooked. And one thing for sure, I’m fairly proud of myself that I’ve never created a mess in the kitchen (a.k.a. burning down the kitchen) so I suppose, that’s a good thing!

In today’s blog, I thought to share with you some of my favorite foods and also, some of my satisfying and proud cooking. But before that, I do have a kind reminder: if you are extremely hungry at the moment of reading this, maybe it’s not a good idea to read it further, unless, it might become a motivation for you to start cooking!

One of my favorite food of all time is of course, sushi! I love sushi with a passion, and think many people from many cultures and backgrounds around the world would agree with me. Sushi is not only delicious but it’s also an art in food and cooking, it has an elegant look if its well made. Luckily, I can make sushi by myself but, I can only make the simplest version of sushi rolls. The process of making sushi takes a very long time (especially if you are inexperienced like me, it could take about half a day!). So, it really takes a lot of effort and energy into making good and delicious sushi.

Another food I also really like is Pho. Pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup.

I really like to order a big bowl of Pho whenever I’m at a Vietnamese restaurant, and I just can’t have enough of it. Personally, I love noodles more than rice and, I especially like noodle soup, it’s warm and comfy for the stomach. I have only made Pho a few times by following an online recipe, the taste turned out good but, not as authentic as the ones I had in a restaurant. Probably, the hardest part of making Pho is the soup base. The soup base has a distinct taste and even some grocery stores or Asian markets sell some types of soup base for Pho, it is not exactly the same as when it’s made in a restaurant. But, I guess, I could still call my version of Pho a success, because after all, it tasted good!

Do you love curry? Have you ever had curry? If you have never tried curry, I really urge you to try it, you might end up loving it! So far, I know that there are Indian curry, Japanese curry and Thai curry (let me know if there’s other curry that you know!). I’ve tried all three curries, they are all distinctively unique and tasty in their own ways.

I love Japanese curry and I make it almost all the time- especially in the fall and winter seasons. But recently, I tried making Thai curry for the very first time, and it was delicious as well. I love to eat Indian curry at an authentic Indian restaurant because, (I think) Indian curry has a more unique taste that it’s much harder to make it at home to get the authentic flavor.

Aside from all the Asian cuisine I love to eat and to make, I also love to eat and make food that’s not from my own culture or where I live. One of my favorite is actually Mexican food. The one thing that got me into Mexican food is probably Nachos. I love Nachos with no words can describe. I couldn’t tell you how happy when I found out I could actually make Nachos on my own without having to go to a pub or a restaurant. But, Nachos is a food that’d be really good for sharing. I remembered my first time making Nachos, it also made me cry. Because, I made and ate too much of it. So, I made up my mind that I’ll only make Nachos if someone is willing to share it with me.

Other sort-of Mexican food I like to eat and are also easy to make are Burritos, Tacos and Fajitas. They are more or less like sandwiches and wraps. I love burritos but I’ve never made them myself. I made Fajitas and Tacos only a couple of times before and it all turned out pretty well. I think, these kinds of foods are also an easy pick to pack for lunch (or on the go)since, it’s easy to make, quick to eat and less likely to make a mess.

By now, you could probably tell that most of the food I liked or made are most likely for lunches or dinners. You haven’t heard me saying anything about breakfast. So, what about breakfast? Well, here is something you will hear from me for the first time and hopefully for the last time, and that is, I’m not really a breakfast person because, I’m not really a morning person (I can be when needed to be, otherwise I won’t). However, I do still eat brunch, which is, a combination of breakfast and lunch. Sometimes, I grab a brunch sandwich from a nearby coffee shop and other times, I make my own. And, if I don’t feel like eating anything that’ll make me really full, I can always have a bowl of cereal. But anyways, one of my favorite breakfast sandwiches of all time this has to be the English muffin, I like to have it with cheese,  sausage or bacon and egg.

Now, back to Asian cooking. Just about over a year ago, I started learning how to make Korean food. I watched several Korean YouTubers posting homemade Korean food, some of the recipes are easy to follow and I could get the ingredients easily at any Asian Market. And, that’s basically how I started my journey of making Korean food. Personally, I do like spicy food and I think, food tastes better with at least some spiciness added into it. One of my favorite Korean soup dish is Korean Spicy Soft Tofu Stew. It is so spicy but also so very delicious. Of course, when I make it myself, I can always adjust the taste to my liking.

So, even though I do love to eat and I love to cook, I don’t cook every single day. Usually, I cook food that could last for just one more meal for the next day (I usually don’t cook food that could last for a long time because, it’ll not only lose its flavor but rather, I’d soon get tired of eating it, even it’s something I love to eat). But, there’re still some days that cooking is just not doable for me. When cooking becomes a challenge, I’d either go out to eat or make something that’s simple but delicious. There are two types of foods are what I call comfort food for me- whenever I don’t feel like cooking or I’m not well enough to cook. One of my comfort foods is congee. Congee is also known as rice porridge. Since plain porridge would be too plain and tasteless, it’s better to add some spices, vegetables, meat or seafood in it. By doing so, it could really bring in the flavours and make a huge difference to the plain porridge.

Another comfort food that is even simpler than the rice porridge is hot steamed eggs. This is something I ate often when I was a child and whenever I got sick and don’t feel like eating anything else. Obviously, I won’t feel all better after eating this, but at least, it will give some of my energy back. On some of the most difficult days of my life, this is probably all I could eat in a day, and that’s all I need.

Lastly, there is one more food that I would like to share it with you, this is something I just made very recently and, it is a very popular food in Japan. It is called Omurice. You have probably heard of or tried omelette, right? Well, this is the Japanese version of omelette with fried rice.  It is also a very popular food for young children. And it is also very easy to make!

So, here you have it. This concludes today’s long blog post on the Blind Girl’s Passion and Love for cooking. I love food, and I love cooking. Even though I’m visually impaired, even though it might take me longer to make delicious food, but I will still do it, with my own pace. After all, hard work always pays off, that is, with the reward of tasty homemade cooking. Also, let me know in the comments: what is your favorite food? Do you have a comfort food? Do you also enjoy cooking? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Thank you for reading to the end!

By: The Invisible Vision Project