<\/p>\n
Sometimes, when I cook rice, I heat the pot first before adding any water. I like that small moment when the first drops hit the metal and vanish into steam it feels like the kitchen breathing. I used to ruin tofu steaks every time. They\u2019d stick, tear apart, and refuse to behave. Eventually I learned to just wait. Once the water inside them evaporates, they release themselves, flip cleanly, as if forgiving you for your impatience.<\/p>\n
Most of the non-dairy milk substitutes are full of additives, so I started making my own. Oats, water, blender, sieve done. About 40 cents a litre, and no mystery ingredients. Too bad in grade ten chemistry they didn\u2019t teach us to cook; it would have made the lessons infinitely more understandable, not to mention edible.<\/p>\n
A few piano teachers tried to teach me when I was a kid. I never knew what they wanted from me. I could play whatever I heard on the radio, but I wanted to understand how to build on that. They wanted me to worship the page all those dots and stems in their vertical hierarchies. Everything else was wrong.<\/p>\n
Later, when I started teaching, I realized that good teachers don\u2019t force students into a single shape. They start from where the student already lives what they love, what they\u2019re curious about and build a bridge from there. Engagement isn\u2019t optional; it\u2019s the ground the whole thing stands on. The best teachers honour the student\u2019s experience, not because it\u2019s perfect, but because it\u2019s real, and because without that connection, nothing truly sticks in cooking, music, or life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"