A foodie's problems

I love food. Actually, if truth be told, ever since I quit smoking 6 years ago, I have been eating non-stop, all the time. If I don't eat, I graze, and if I don't graze I munch on fruits, or snacks, or seeds. And then, short of that, i drink water or coffee or tea.

The problems I am faced with since moving to Australia are purely logistical. While in Singapore, I could just go the canteen at lunchtime and have anything my heart desired. This was within 10 minutes maximum walk of my office and hence I did not have to spend too much time on lunch. Food was cheap, too!! Lunch was my main meal of the day and, not counting the Tom Yam noodles I had on most climbing nights, I did not really eat anything for dinner.

However, it all went downhill since I moved. Firstly, there ain't no canteens here and the food is not cheap! It's not close either, at least not the good kind of food. And so I am introduced to the world of lunchboxes and of preparing my own food.

At first, I tried to have only fruits for lunch. This didn't work out because the only kind of fruit you can get in winter is ... apples, and there's so many green apples (the only ones i like) one can eat. And then, the lack of food makes me VERY grumpy, just as anybody who has ever met me just before breakfast or lunch can attest to. This has a very important consequence since I am meeting students almost every day. And honestly, I want to scold them because they deserve it (99% of the cases), not because I am grumpy because I'm lunchless...

And thus, it looks like i finally will get to hone my cooking skills ... and they really really need honing. As any true geek, I started by downloading a bunch of cookbooks, and i shall be posting here the results of my [probably pathetic] attempts. Tonight: cauliflower gratin.