Food Critics Gone Wrong

Eventhough I consider myself to be slightly introverted, one thing I actually love to do is having guest at home. When having guest around and sharing our food, I honestly belief that it is the act of kindness, and by doing that, I will actually have more 'rezeki' come to our home.

For a small gathering, I very much love to prepare my own cooking compare to catering, if time permit it. I know I am not that much of a cook, eventhough I never poisoned my hubby with my cooking. But still, I noticed that guest (including myself) are more drawn to home-cooked food prepared by the host themselves, somehow we can tell the difference. We understand the effort taken by the host to prepare the food with their bare hands, and food well cooked shows the sincerity of the host.

So far that I have organized a small makan-makan, some food that I cooked will vanished very quickly, and some will slowly diminished towards the end, and some of it took us a few days to finish the leftover. Having the same familiar guests over the years, I have roughly know their individual preference and taken a mental note whenever they mentioned about it, but of course I can't produce a single food that will suit every individual guest, so I make varieties. I sometimes ended-up handling too many types of cooking, and found myself still in the kitchen by the time my firs guest arrived.

I do not expect any compliments from anyone in regards to what I made. I just hope that everyone will enjoy themselves. On the other hand, some guest do make a constructive critism and gave me some plus point or some tips for me to try, which I'll be gladly happy to hear.

Among all the guests I have had, there is this one guest that we have been having over very frequently. On at least 3 occasions, the husband has commented on my cooking. The words chosen was upfront, and the first time it happened, I was taken aback and speechless. I do not know him that well for him to be able to say that to me (he is a friend of hubby's). I tried to brush it off, although I felt a bit hurt and could not forget about it until this day. The second time he commented, I just laughed and smiled, I thought maybe he or his wife is a very good cook, and knows about food very well. But somehow after being to his place many times, I did not really find his wife cooking to be that great, but I always made sure to say something nice to show my appreciation, or if the food wasn't that great at all, I just pass it and there is no need for me to say anything. There were plenty of other food for me to eat anyway.

Recently, we have had them again, and in one night he commented negatively about the food I prepared twice. And on the second instances, he had compared my food with the one he had eaten in the restaurant before. And of course he said the restaurant food is better. I mean, if I can cooked that well, I won't be doing what I am doing right now, I should be opening a restaurant right? Those are home-cooked food, don't they realized how much love, care and effort has been taken to create the food? And if my cooking is not spicy enough for his taste, what about the rest of the guests and small kids who have lower heat tolerance?

After that incidence, I am considering very heavily either just cater everything the next time around, or not organizing any gathering alltogether. Just because of this one person who gave negative comment, and never said anything about the rest of the food that he piled on his plate, it made all my effort to be unworthy, and I started to ask myself why would I bother to do what I did.

P/S : I am sorry for those who have came to our gathering before, I really hope that I do not offend anyone. It's just because of one person, this post come about, I couldn't let it go since it keep on bugging me. Please don't shy away from our invitation next time. For a well-meaning critism, of course I could take it very well, but as the saying goes, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything OR just say something nice anyway!