Who Am I? Why does this blog exist?

My name is Promise (yes, actually). I am a 16 years old high school girl in bay area. I am a fan girl of cooking and baking. I am also a novice chef who is discovering and learning about food on her own.

This blog exists because I really want to share my beliefs and thoughts toward cooking, baking, and food. In the 3 years of self-taught cooking experience, I have learned so much about food, and how big of an impact food can make. To me, food is a form of love. You demonstrate your love when you're putting in the effort and time to cook for people. It's not about the taste or the time it takes, it is about the effort and love you put into it. I find myself super excited and creative when it comes down to food. Therefore, I just feel that I need to have a place to record my self-taught journey of cooking and baking. I also need a space to express my beliefs and concerns about food. 

My family and I moved to here from Hong Kong about 3 years ago. I started cooking when I moved to here because the food in here really wasn't so great. I remembered how in the beginning we had to eat take out food everyday since we haven't had the appliances installed. I didn't like the take out food because they are often oily, salty, and unhealthy. Besides that, I have read articles about how most fast food restaurants use extremely low quality ingredients in order to gain more profits. I have been cooking for about three years now, and I found myself falling in love with cooking.

Before I moved to here, I am pretty much a "princess" in HK. All the chores, including meals, were made by the nanny in the house. I can never imagine myself standing in the kitchen preparing fresh and bloody ingredients like pork, beef and shrimp (it's disgusting to peel out the shrimps' veins, I won't lie ). But somehow the power of food magically changed the disgusting, gross feeling I used to have when I was in HK. Surprisingly, I am so excited to go to the market and choose some fresh meat and produces. I always feel like I'm in my playground when I step in the market . I cook Chinese dishes (mostly Cantonese food) for dinner the most. I am also interested in western food such as pasta, salad, sandwiches, and soup because they are generally pretty easy and take very little time to make. Best part is you can always make it super healthy by adding vegetables in. Also, I always look at what I have in the fridge and play around with the ingredients that compliment each other well to generate new dishes/meals. That is one of the reasons why I love cooking. It's like you're the Magician (I chose purple because it represents a mystery, secret feeling :P), and with little time and thought, you can turn some simple ingredients into a delicious meal. I will talk more about this in another post because I feel like I have so much to share xD