Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

She does not cook anymore

Nizar
Nizar
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SHARED THOUGHTS -


Of late I have observed the mother of junior spending more than half of our households’ monthly food budget on products that don’t require cooking.  She has developed a strategy of spending the monthly food budget on meals prepared outside our home. She defends her new strategy saying that she has become so busy to find time to cook meals. In addition to that, she claims that whatever one wants, is readily available in the market.


In the old days, the only wife that I have used to make eating so fun at home especially whenever she tried something different. Her cooking has always been so adventurous and delicious.


She has always been excellent when it comes to mixing-up some spices and some foods to bring out something so tasty.


In all the years that we have been together, the mother of Junior had perfected her skills in artistically and creatively putting together the mixed vegetables and salads.


I remember one time when she mixed milk with salt and even went ahead to fry it. Well as it turned out, it became the tastiest experience I ever got. It was so delicious!


Then came the mouth-watering rice and vegetables mixed well with aromatic salt, pepper and vinaigrette dressing.


Junior and his sister along with their father are a people very much fond of rice cooked at home - whether it is in form of biriyani or pilau or just plain white.


Nothing would bring us together than these white grains that provide calories to millions around the world. Some of the time, the mother of Junior would serve it mixed with fresh peas, carrot, crispy red cabbage leaves and French beans.


I have known the mother of Junior as an expert in grilling beef steak and she puts some sauce on both sides for it to look juicy. She then arranges them so neatly on a plate, dressed up with roasted carrots and pepper so it will appear very appetising.


But now, all that is history. She doesn’t cook anymore.


All she does now is pick her phone and order for delivery and wait for the meat rolled in bread that is wrapped in pieces of white papers to our home.


You hear her speaking over the phone listing items like big Mac, Chicken McMuffin with Egg, Cheeseburger – Combo, Mac Arabia, Super Supreme, very veggie, fish & chips, burgers etc.


As a man, I expect my wife to cook meals at home. And when I engaged her as to why it is not happening, she gave me many reasons, but I will mention a few.


She said that she gets up very early in the morning before everybody else and proceeds to work hard all day long, so when she comes home all she wants to do is to put her feet up and relax.


She also said that beauty expectations also prevent a woman from doing any cooking. A woman can’t be scented like a flower after spending two hours boiling and frying things in the kitchen.


She claims that modern women have discovered the concept of “me time” and she now knows that she, too, deserves some including going out for girlfriends’ night out on a regular basis.


The modern woman has also finally realised that she has the right to be just as successful or even more than her man. It is no longer a crime or an inconceivable sin. There is more still to come so she told me to get used to ordered food because the modern woman phenomenon is here to stay and cannot be avoided.


As you can see, the challenges these have on me are numerous and I need to move with time. I can no longer expect my wife to cook food at home nor can I dictate terms on her. Perhaps the only solution left is to learn how to cook so that I can continue enjoying home-made foods.


nizar.nmh.musalmy@gmail.com


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