I’m in something of a cooking mood right now, as can probably be seen in these fine dishes of lamb with mushrooms and tomato with basil.
I think the word I’m reaching for here is “delicious”!
Actually, I'm usually in a cooking mood, or for eating out (though there are fewer opportunities to do that right now, for slightly obvious reasons). If I were forced to choose between the two, however, I would choose to prepare a meal and then eat it with family or friends every time.
This is partly because of the journey from thought to plate; what to cook, which ingredients to choose, how to cook and then present the meal, followed by the celebration of it and the pleasures to be had in the eating. You also know what you are consuming when cooking your own food and how the meal has been prepared - the pleasure to be had from knowledge and certainty.
I get asked regularly about what to eat to achieve the contemporary ideal of the "healthy diet", which does interest me. It is important. But what is more important are maintaining the principles that have been built up over centuries and which have been passed down, lovingly, from parents to children, about how to cook and eat well to achieve the social pleasure of a wholesome meal.
Somehow, I don't think that is achieved at fast food outlets or in food "on the go".
It is also not achieved in a protein shaker (or indeed within the chemical combinations that make-up the kinds of liquid supplements on the shelves of the gym cafes and marketed so aggressively at the fitness trend gainers and reducers amongst us.
So, don't neglect the pleasures to be had in the social ceremony of the shared meal or what comes before it in the kitchen. It is these events that lead to a healthy life, just as much as exercise does.
💪😋👍