My life in NYC: It's all about cooking...

If I were in Taiwan, I wouldn't make the following dishes at home, most likely. A lot of them were my first try. If you would ask me why I could cook, it's all about sense, I would say. And of course, the experience does help. The more you cook, the easier you can get it through.

Living in New York City, besides the incredible taxes, the rent and the food take a huge part of my income. One way to spend as less money as possible is to cook for yourself. Ideally, if you can get company on board to share the cost, that will be the best way. As my host mother said, cooking for one more person doesn't make a big difference.

Sometimes cooking can make you very tired; especially after working a whole day, even just think about it. I always count myself to finish cooking within an hour, hopefully. The thing that is frustrated is that I spend an hour cooking and I will finish my dinner in 15 minutes. Afterwards, I need another 5 minutes for cleaning up. I wish I could eat slowly, so that I won't feel "that's it? that's my exhausted one hour?"

Cooking is not all about the down side. When I successfully made new dishes, I feel good about myself because they are like my accomplishments one after one. Thanks for those of you who give positive feedback.