The Art of Cuisine

A man once told his newly married wife to prepare lettuce salad because he would be inviting some friends home that day for lunch. Not knowing how to prepare the salad, the woman immediately went for the lettuce, poured them into a mortar and begun pounding. She removed the blend, placed it in a plate and started adding the ingredients. At lunch, the man showed up with his guests. And guess what happened.......

Most men have always confided in me that 'cooking is an art' and the more their 'bellies' are capably taken care of by their women, the more attached they become to them (women).

Without much hesitation, others have put it this way: “You see, the stomach is not something to joke with, in any case. So, in a typical African context, no matter how smart, pretty or attractive a woman is, if she lacks the ability to not simply cook, but to cook a hearty meal, then she has a problem. The quality of food a woman cooks at home even attracts her man to her the most. This also encourages most men to hurry home to eat. Some will even leave room for the meal at home.”

On the other hand though, some men will eat any food they meet at home simply because they have no idea about cooking or really don't give much about the taste of the food. Others will be fastidiously selective about what they eat, especially when it comes to how tasty, seasoned the food is.

What makes the food tasty actually depends on the seasoning and preparation style. No matter how many ingredients ---ranging from the different kinds of fish, meat, shrimps to crabs and other exotic elements you might have in there, if that food is not properly seasoned, the taste will not hit the right spot.

There are some women who are fond of cooking elaborate meals. Unfortunately, with all the flesh and bones that make up the body of the dish, it goes nowhere without the soul---the seasoning. In this regard, scores of Liberian men have told me that they often get turned off as soon as their ladies tell them what they (ladies) would be cooking for dinner.

According to them, they are immediately drawn closer to restaurants or to 'another woman's kitchen' upon hearing of their ladies' desires to cook a home meal. If this resembles you, the answer to your problem is quite simple, though somewhat but sophisticated.

An experienced cook simply needs just a few elements to nail that sumptuous meal for her man. Simple meals like dry rice with fried fish are so excellently prepared by this category of women that they have always gotten their men longing to go home to eat.

Meanwhile, the next category are those [young couples] you will often see hopping between restaurants, cook shops or even the “food booths” across Monrovia and its environs, simply because the woman has no idea about, nor time for, cuisine.

Such couples simply dedicate their bellies to these different food courts all year round with absolutely no attempt by the woman at a home-cooked meal. Half of their monthly budgetary allotment is set aside for eating-out, which of course, is extremely costly and sometimes unhealthy. The good thing is that, eating at home can be less expensive, sufficient and even as nicely prepared as that of some outstanding restaurants.

There are yet others who also become the regular visiting type, especially around lunch or dinner time, to other relatives. They can't cook at home. But their situation has less to do with cooking and more to do with self-sustainability. From a traditional or cultural standpoint, during the very first encounter between a woman and the parents of her man, the first thing they want to know is whether she learned to cook. They can hardly wait until they have tested her cooking ability.

“So when will you come and cook for us?” they ask at the first opportunity. Do not underestimate this question. They actually mean it and she can never escape it. Usually, they will want her to cook the meal in their presence to erase every doubt that someone might have assisted her in the preparation. So, she has to try to prove herself capable of doing it.

Moreover, some die-hard African traditionalists continue to hold that “a woman is incomplete, once she cannot cook well.” Many marriages in the African tradition are easily broken because either the husband or the husband's people realize that his wife cannot cook well. She is often sent to her parents to go learn cooking and may return later---or never.

A question which eventually erupted into a heated argument among a cross-section of men during an interaction with me was: “When was the last time a woman cooked you a really mouth-watering meal? Not just an excellent meal, or a simple delicious meal, or probably a hearty Liberian dish; I mean a culinary work of art that, if you could, you would frame it and put it on a wall?

Some of the men contended that they have never had such a meal from the hands of a typical Liberian woman. They acknowledged that their own ladies were very good at catering, not at cuisine. They proudly divulged that they, themselves, were the best cooks at home, even if they only cooked once a month to give their wives or girlfriends a break. These men further contended that the cooking of their significant others was usually poorly done because they (ladies) usually performed what they had to, not because they so loved the kitchen.

Combining a number of seasonings matter somewhat. It is not only about adding salt, cubes and curry to the concoction (mixture, blend). It is about knowing exactly what goes with what.

For many young Liberian women, cooking is simply another household chore that might require the usual haste that most mundane (ordinary, routine) tasks require. As such, the risk of arriving at an insipid (dull, bland) creation is high.   The old-school rule: “do it with lots of love in your heart,” and the inevitable flavorful dish striven for will prove gratifying. 

The opposite would be a tasteless, watery and salty cassava leaf dish, prepared and served with overcooked butter rice. Just imagine that. Or a spicy and equally watery 'pepper soup', with all of the ingredients settling at the bottom, leaving the clear water at the top. If you positioned yourself at the right angle, you could even see yourself in the soup.

There are some women whose soups often are taken off the fire prematurely, be it cassava leaf, fried potato-greens, fried eggplants, palm butter, to mention a few. In that case, you will always find more water that is needed in there, which dilutes the taste, kills the presentation and causes the dish to go bad sooner than it should.

Finally, how the dish is served also counts. How it is presented can make or break the appetite of your man. Believe it or not, we have been talking about a very sexy affair, this cooking business. So, imagine you were the dish, and tell us whether you wouldn't want to be tasty both inside and out?