Gastrosexual?

via Ezra Klein

The article itself is kind of lame and boring and focuses on how men don't think of cooking as unmanly anymore... uhm, yeah, and I don't think that is particularly new, but whatever... give credit to Gordon Ramsey if you want, I don't care... but I do find it to be an interesting starting point as to how food and cooking can work in relationships.

I started cooking for reals about the time I started dating Anna, and while I'm not sure it was an effort to charm her, it did give us an extra something to do together that was both fun during the process and even ended with us having something to eat. I think this is especially important for us since I'm an omnivore with a somewhat poor relationship with vegetables and she's a vegan... if we didn't cook together, food might have ended up being a barrier between us since we really couldn't share too much. We still cook on our own, and often make things the other can't or won't eat, but some of our best times have been dishes we've spent all day cooking together and I think it's a pretty key part of our relationship.

I think everyone who cooks knows that cooking for yourself really isn't the same as cooking with your partner or with friends... in fact, one of the reasons I blog about cooking is to try and bring some of that necessary social aspect into it even when I'm doing it just for me. What I've found sort of interesting is that all it takes is to have Anna around, even if I'm making something she won't eat, to make cooking more fun... I guess because she'll appreciate it even if she thinks it's gross? Regardless, when Anna is in Maine I eat much worse (i.e. lots of takeout) than I do when she is here... even though we probably don't cook together more than once or twice a month.