First lesson

Since that day, my father no longer prohibits me from watching him work. I also keep my promise to sit still and not touching anything in the kitchen. After some weeks, my father seems satisfied with my obedience and start to teach me little by little about his knowledge of cooking. Of course, he's not allowed me to touch cooking utensils yet but introduce me to many kinds of ingredients

My father restaurant closed when the dusk is coming. After the helper that works for him say goodbye and go to his home, my father closed the restaurant's door and go home with me and my mother. We live in a different place from the restaurant, in the residential district in another part of the Capital city. The restaurant itself is not my father owns it. He just rent it from someone else because the location is strategic and can attract customer to come.

He always goes first time in the morning and going to market to buy ingredients for the restaurant. He goes straight to the restaurant after finish shopping in the market to prepare the place. My mother and I usually come to the restaurant some hours later when the restaurant already open to help my father. Before he opens his own restaurant, my father works as a cook in another restaurant, saving little by little from his salary during working in a restaurant while honing his cooking skill. When he decided to open his own restaurant, the owner of the restaurant where my father working also feels reluctant to let my father left. But if my father already decides something, even ten horses can't make him pull his decision back.

Since my father decides to teach me cooking, each morning when he going to market to buying ingredients, he takes me along with him.

"Little Ben, listen, to make a good dish, you can't do it using ingredients that already not in good shape anymore. Something good must start for something good either, something bad can't make something good. Remember that in your mind okay?"

"Yes, father. is that why you always take a long time when choosing ingredients?"

"That's correct little Ben, you know why? Because the ingredients not coming from the same tree, that is why they never have the same appearance. For example, there is two fruit tree which produces the same fruit. Even if you pick their fruit at the same time, the taste will not the same. Why? That because they're not starting to bloom at the same time. There're also possibilities they didn't get the same amount of fertilizer, and many other things that can cause the taste to become different"

"Then how to know this ingredient is good and the other is bad, father?"

"Use your eyes and nose to select it, little Ben. That's why I take you to market with me every morning. It's to train your eyes and nose to differentiate the good and the bad ingredients"

"Please teach me well, father"

"Hahaha…of course son"

By following my father to market every morning, my sense for good ingredients is being tempered. At the first time, my father shows me which vegetables that really fresh and which one that already starts to wither. Then he asks me why that one is good and this one is bad.

"Little Ben, if father said this vegetable in my right hand is good and in my left hand is bad, do you know why?"

He shows me two green cabbages in his hands. I try to smell both cabbages with my nose but didn't smell anything different. I take those cabbages one by one and examine with my eyes, but still can't find the difference.

"I don't know father, they look just the same to me"

"Hahaha….alright, let father show you. Look at this good cabbage. When picking out green cabbages, look for those that are shiny and bright, almost lime, green like this one"

The other cabbage is indeed less shiny and bright than what my father shows me.

"Also feel the outside to make sure that the cabbage is firm to the touch. If you feel a cabbage and it feels soft and spongy rather than firm and dense, your cabbage might be rotten on the inside. Only pick out cabbages that are firm or hard to the touch"

Oh well, my little hands still not strong enough to feel the texture differences between the two cabbages.

"You should also look for leaves that are crisp rather than soft. Soft leaves mean that the cabbage is a little old or has had damage done to it. Avoid any cabbages that show signs of discoloration or rotting. If the leaves are heavily damaged or there are a lot of blemishes, or dark spots, on the cabbage, you should not buy it. These characteristics are generally associated with worm damage"

After saying that, my father ended his lecture about the good cabbage to me. That's my first lesson from my father