Dating : How to Turn Ready-made Dishes into a Homemade Gourmet Meal

The bed in his Parisian apartment was close enough to the kitchen island that I could almost reach out to touch him. The reason why I didn’t was that I was having too much fun watching him sing along to his favourite song, trying to look professional as he warmed up the frozen Gyoza for me.

Gyoza are Japanese dumplings and thus the obvious welcoming dish for someone coming to visit you in Paris. He used chopsticks to mix a sauce in Tupperware containers, looking adorable as he tried to convince me that it’s how the great chefs in Tokyo do it too.

“The chopsticks are the most important part,” he said, nodding his head appreciatively as he added another dash of vinegar. “Everything else can be improvised,” he grinned, finally admitting that he was not entirely sure of what he was doing.

Tupperware and a plate of the now golden brown Gyozas in hand, he fell down next to me, converting the bed into a dining table because it was the best solution for both of us to be able to eat comfortably. When I had finished my portion, applauding him for the effort, he pulled out some mochi for dessert.

I couldn’t help but smile at the proud look on his face. It didn’t fit the classic definition of a gourmet meal, but that’s not what mattered. As I bit into my mochi, appreciating the frozen treat for the perfect blend of matcha and vanilla, I could picture him picking them out for me.

The way he had probably entered the store in his too thin winter jacket, snowflakes in his beard and a determined look on his face. That look would then turn into one of deep reflection as he chose which brand to go with, making sure he treated the question with the respect it deserved.

While I’ve had my share of Gyoza after, they never tasted quite the same as they did when he made them after picking me up from the airport. They had lost the magic that came from watching him prepare them.

I’ve found that this is the case with most meals. Even meals I usually hate taste different when I know they were carefully prepared by someone who loves me.

I’ve always hated Maultaschen, a German kind of vegetable dumpling, but watching my teenage brother make them immediately gives them a different taste.

He’s developed a weird passion for them, consuming them at all hours of the day. When my parents left me to take care of him for a week, they bought six packets of ready-made Maultaschen for him, in case he got hungry between meals.

He prepared a few for me and I wolfed them down, wondering how he had managed to make them taste this good. While he makes a great eggs benedict, he hasn’t been known to be much of a chef. As he described how he had made a goatcheese, honey and mustard sauce, I figured it out.

What had made me love the dish was not only the dish itself, but the proud look on my brother’s face. It was the way his teenage aloofness had turned into glowing pride as he described how carefully he had chosen the ingredients and how he had found just the right combination.

His blond locks fell into his face, his look of excitement only fading slightly as he quickly brushed them away to resume his commentary. “It’s the cheese you see,” he said, as one particularly rebellious lock tumbled back into its original position on his forehead, “I used the softer kind that melts just right. So then it mixed with the honey and there you go!”

“There you go,” I repeated as I held out my plate for seconds and felt a warm feeling entering my stomach. A feeling that I suspected didn’t have as much to do with the dish I had just consumed as with the fact that he had put so much love into preparing it for me.

It’s tempting to feel like pre-packaged meals are a cop out, but this is not always the case. Buying frozen Gyoza or dumplings that come in a plastic bag doesn’t have to mean that these dishes can no longer be prepared with love or that you have to choose the unhealthy option.

Both my brother and ex-boyfriend have turned ready-made dishes into something of a gourmet meal by picking the right items and then taking the time to turn them into something special.

This piece is in no way a suggestion that everyone should start consuming ready-made meals with homemade sauces, but I do think we should take the time to appreciate those who cook for us.

Appreciating the food they make us shouldn’t be about wondering if they prepared every single ingredient by hand, but about the fact that they are making an effort to take care of us and turn an ordinary meal into a special one.

Especially when they initially have no idea what they’re doing.