Heya everyone, it’s ya boy Choujin here for this Friday’s fan work. Fresh from my Spring Semester of writing college. It’s something simple but it’s something you’ll enjoy. It’s a piece of non-fiction that describes my first time adulting after my great-grandfather’s passing.
With that, sit back, grab a drink and snack and enjoy the story.
Yakisoba: The Adulting Rite of Passage
Everyone throughout their lives has learned the basics of cooking a dish. Usually, something enjoyable but straightforward helps them throughout their lives. Though the first thing I learned to cook was an egg, any child can cook one. One meal I remembered so well, and I prided myself was yakisoba, or fried noodles for those who might not know what the dish is. It played an essential role in my life as it was the first authentic dish that I could cook while on my own.
I remembered my grandmother cooked this dish during my later high school and during my college years. It was pretty good when those noodles were served with cabbage, sliced up pieces of sausage, and with a side of spring rolls that complimented the dishes so well. Best of all, it was something you couldn’t get anywhere from any Chinese or Asian restaurants in the neighborhood. It was a simple dish that used two packs of ramen, some Hillshire Farms Sausage, and cabbage. My grandmother said it was nothing special, even though I really enjoyed that meal and wished I could make my own yakisoba for myself. Oh, how I was going to learn that in a positive way.
2015 was one hell of a year that sucked severely for my family; it was the year my great grandfather passed away. Though I now inherited his house, it was empty, and I was all by myself throughout that entire time. It was a low moment and something that made me feel like I had no purpose. It was also a moment that I had to learn to grow up, and it was the best time to learn to practice cooking. We usually started with things I was familiar with, such as your usual pre-packaged Hamburger Helper, Pasta Roni, and ready-to-heat pasta. This was to prove if I could follow essential recipes. Luckily I still retained that knowledge from high school cooking class. Those were easy to thrive on, but they weren’t something one would want to thrive on for the rest of their life. So one day, my grandmother asked me what I wanted to learn to cook first. I told her I didn’t know what I wanted, but I asked for something to learn that didn’t take many dishes to cook. She then suggests that I cook yakisoba.
I was flabbergasted because I asked her if it took one dish to make. She laughed at me and said that it’s “simple enough” that I could do it in a skillet all on my own. So I agreed, and we went shopping for the ingredients needed, and the next day, we began that rite of passage to cook.
I remembered how it went, how I took a pair of kitchen scissors and began to cut the sausage into smaller stout cylinders of meat. Then I prepared the skillet with some sesame oil as I began to heat up the pan. Then when everything was nice and hot, I began to place the cut sausages into the pan. The sound of the cooking sausage as my grandmother and I discussed good memories about my great-grandfather. Though I also learned a critical rule about cooking: Never take your eyes off the stove! Lucky for me the sausages weren’t burnt, so we turned the heat down as I added the parts of chopped cabbage into the dish. I hated cutting heads of cabbage as it was one massive thing, and I had to use half of the cabbage just to make the dish (I couldn’t use the whole thing as it was too much). However, I managed to fit that into my pot and eventually followed the steps for making yakisoba by placing the ramen noodles. The meal tasted well, even if the sausages were a bit overcooked. However, I did enjoy cooking this dish. I viewed me completing something this simple was the first step I viewed as a rite of passage that got me enjoying home cooking.
Over time, I’d learn to cook other things besides yakisoba, but that dish I enjoyed as it’s the first one I ever learned to cook well with. It’s also a dish I don’t mind cooking again and again. I later began to cook recipes from other things and got some excellent praises from friends and family because I can make something that could wow people. I could cook some good dishes like a turkey lo mein, chicken, or pork schnitzel. Later on, in my time, I began to take on some more adventurous ideas with the first dish I ever cooked with.
Over time, I began to improve on that dish to fit my taste and make it stand out independently. I remembered I would substitute the cabbage with coleslaw mix. I found this method to be an improvement. It meant I didn’t have to deal with a rotting half of a cabbage head. It had the just-right portion to fill that skillet without overflowing it. Sometimes I would also add in other vegetables like shredded carrots and peas. I even added some Mongolian fire oil and crushed red peppers to get that spicy flavor and footprint needed for my tastebuds. Either way, I made that yakisoba recipe my own, as it was my pride and joy that it ushered me into adulthood.
Sometimes I wonder what it would have been my life if I didn’t cook that yakisoba successful. I would imagine myself as someone that couldn’t boil water and only thriving on an egg, hot dogs, and instant food meals. It is not the life someone in their 30s should be living and something I would rather avoid thinking of right now. I do enjoy the meal, and I still cook my take of that dish of yakisoba. For if it wasn’t for that dish, I may not have been emboldened to even cook any other dish out there and thus couldn’t be viewed as a functioning adult to myself.
Plus, I really enjoy cooking for myself and others as it’s something I want the most.
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