I just had a conversation with a fellow freegan. It was quite interesting cos it gave me some fresh perspective.
I think many of us know that cooking at home isn't really cheap. In SG, cooking at home is about as expensive as eating out. But usually we get better quality stuff at home and it's healthier.
But for freegans, we get a lot of our food for free. And I'm really happy with it. Cos I get free food and I can cook it. And you know what they always say, free food just tastes better.
But during my conversation with my freegan friend, she says she doesn't get much additional happiness from eating free food.
And that baffled me.... I was like... HUH???
And she said. Yea free food doesn't really make me happier, furthermore, most of the food I get is raw.
And once again I was like... HUH!!!
Raw is War.
That's the best form. I love it when I get raw food. Cos I can craft it into whatever I want. I can cook it however I want.
When I get precooked food, I don't have much choice to adjust the flavours anymore.
And that's when I realized...
I've been taking for granted my ability to cook.
Now, I'm not saying I'm a great cook. I think I can make healthier meals at home. Which taste good enough. Meaning I'm willing to sacrifice some taste for a healthier, less salt, less oil meal. So it's a trade off.
Whereas for my freegan friend... She doesn't or can't cook. Or isn't used to cooking for herself. So to her, getting raw food is pretty pointless to her.
And this realization made me look at things in a different light. Cos... Basically I've been taking a lot of things for granted. Like... I've been watching my mum cook since I was very young, so I more or less know how flavours work and blend and all that.
Whereas my friend doesn't cook, so getting raw food is pretty much useless to her. Or more troublesome.
Also, food knowledge is also useful when it comes to preparation and preservation. Like, after I get my free produce, I know what I need to do to process them, clean them up, cut them, lightly cook them, and how to best preserve them, or what to do before freezing them, canning them, etc.
And apparently this isn't really common knowledge... The thing is, I've been watching these since young, so it's really normal stuff for me, so I take it for granted that everyone should know it, but in truth, it's not a general knowledge kind of thing.
This led me to think about other stuff which I take for granted. Like being frugal. I've been frugal since very young. My dad taught me to be frugal. Although now when I look back, he wasn't really frugal himself.
So when I look at things now, I assess the value of the item before I buy something. IF I ever buy it at all. I take some effort to memorise some prices for estimation so that when I see things, I'm able to better assess if something is worth buying or whether I can get a better deal elsewhere.
Sounds like a normal ability? Apparently that's not entirely common. I know many people who just buy stuff without assessing the value of the item. Just feel like buying them just buy.
A lot of people don't see the relationship between their money, their decisions and their future.
And what else do I take for granted.
Well probably the ability to understand Cantonese and Hokkien. I've never officially learnt them, but my grandmothers conversed in dialect so I managed to learn some to be able to speak a little and understand.
My wife isn't good with her dialect.
I know my nephew's will probably not learn them.
It's a bit sad cos I can see that our next few generations will slowly lose their ability to speak their dialect, which to me is a sad thing cos it's a lot of our history and culture.
And the thing is, all of us have these different small skills which we take lightly that we have obtained since young that we don't think much about.
And it's only when we talk to others and realize that many others don't have these skills that we realize that these abilities are pretty unique. Especially within your own generation.
Then again I wonder... Am I unique within my own generation? Or how unique am I? Or maybe the few years around 1982 are the years straddling the old generation and the new generation and I'm one of those standing in the middle. Who appreciates the old generation and culture and yet understand the new generation.
Or maybe my sample size is too small.
Or maybe I'm just an old uncle in a 36 year old body.
Or maybe I AM an old uncle already. LOL
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