Cooking makes me feel productive in ways my academic career doesn't often offer. Food is a great way to appreciate people in one's life, and a good way to communicate cross-culturally. Good ingredients = good food. Sunday dinners. Traditional chicken mole', cooked in Asia for Europeans. Over-softening Phad Thai noodles by boiling them before adding them to the other ingredients. Ended up with extremely flavorful rice pudding, still craving the noodles.