I’m telling you, this is going to get weird and esoteric.
See, punk isn’t just a style or a music genre or a fashion statement. Punk is really about authenticity and honesty, about raging against machines and growing your own food. It’s about loving fiercely and wearing spiky shields to protect the unabashedly gentle souls within.
Punk is about longer tables, and it’s about burning down fences. It’s about anarchy in the sense that people should not be governed by the whims of those they have not consciously and willingly agreed to be governed by. Punk is loving whomever you so desire, in whatever way makes the most sense between you and the object(s) of your desire, and it’s about feeding that passion with every good thing you can get your hands on.
Food is love. Love is punk. Punk is definitely food.
Mostly what you’ll eventually find here is a bunch of… well, not recipes per se but definitely methods. I have some strong opinions about how kitchens should be run, what they should have on hand, how they should be cleaned, what kinds of gadgets should be kept, and generally how best to take care of your homies. I talk about how to accommodate dietary restrictions and preferences, what good substitutes are for diabetics, and in general, what counts as Good Food.
Some things you should know: The biggest one is that I am autistic and have ADHD, but I’m from the generation where we just called it being fuckin’ weird.
(Oh, yeah, strap in for this big shocker: I curse, sometimes a lot.)
A corollary to that last thing is that there are actually a lot of aging punks who turned out to be neurodiverse. Weird.
Another thing is that how I handle decision fatigue (a frequent problem for AuDHDers) is with a weekly meal prep service. I won’t name names (unless they ask me to), but it’s one of the least expensive ones you can get in the US, and it does require a pretty good amount of manual preparation. A lot of what I’ll share will center around how to make the best of these types of services and what your absolute go-to kitchen accoutrements should be.
Where the hell do I get off having these kinds of opinions about food?!?
Bruh, have you ever been in a professional kitchen? We are evenly divided between every kind of derelict and social reject imaginable. Kitchens are reliable work for people who have to pick up and tour for six months, and they generally don’t require piss tests. Myself, I haven’t been on the front lines in years (and it’ll take an act of Dog to get me back there), but working the back of the house made an indelible mark on my soul – and I’m not just talking about fatty livers and flat feet.
I also have a huge family, and I host regular events, so the cooking genie gets to come out to play. While I sit here every night deciding on what seasoning to add to my roasted chickpeas or calculating the time it’ll take to roast a pork shoulder to perfection, I think a lot about the philosophy of what I do and what I would like to share with others.
So, this is my attempt at doing just that. Yeah, there’s going to be recipes and techniques – I’m planning a big series on food safety! – but you’re also going to get subjected to my meandering thoughts.
You might want to buckle up for that part.