Behind everyone who spends time in the kitchen is someone who once caused or experienced disasters during the art of cooking.
Looking at the prompt for the week that said
Share your most memorable/recent kitchen story, maybe a meal that went bad, a joint cooking with a partner or friend, a kitchen mishap. Happy or sad kitchen story, let's have it.
I remembered that one day, some time around last week in the kitchen.
That fateful day, I wanted to prepare yam and egg sauce. When I cook, I like to ensure all my ingredients are in place before hand. And to prepare my egg sauce, I needed tomatoes, pepper, onions, eggs and some seasoning. That particular day, I had sliced my tomatoes, pepper, onions and all I needed to slice for my sauce. But pepper was the last thing I sliced. About to start with my yam, something flew past my ear. It didn't just fly. It hovered. Instinctively, I reached for my ear.
Slapping the outer part of my ear, I washed my hands and continued. I didn't know what happened in that instant till after a few seconds had passed when I began feeling this hot and harsh sensation from my ear. I had somehow put pepper in my ear. The hotness increased with time but it was bearable at least since it was only in one ear.
At that time, I hadn't even cut my yam into pieces so I couldn't take time off. I continued with my yam even though I was sure I wasn't hearing things with that one ear then. There was this woosh-woosh-wiush sound that just kept on going in my ear and the music in the background only seemed to be coming from my right
I stood, peeling and cutting the yam in a tray into a bowl of water in the sink ignoring my ear as I could. I threw a cut piece of yam into the bowl and the water in it splashed. On me.
I was wearing a cropped top so my belly was bare. The yam water splashed on my stomach. I had even forgotten the rule of never letting any part of yam or the water have contact with your skin. I hadn't really experienced it before so it was one lesson that was quick to escape my memory.
For a split second, I was able to put my knife through the piece I held in my hand, and the next, an intense urge to scratch shot through me. I tried holding out but it was too strong. I still had a measurable quantity of yam un-cut. I took the little napkin we used for cleaning hands and wiped the water off. It didn't do anything to help. Worse still, I could not scratch it using my hand because I still had remnants of yam water on it.
I tried switching from one leg to the other to at least get my mind off of it. Bending from one side to the other, touching my toes, my feet left and right to create fiction. Nothing
Instead, The sensation in my ear intensified. The itching on my belly increased. Everything increased. From my ear down to my waistline was literally on fire.
I couldn't handle it anymore as I stripped and went to bathe. I had my bath and the itch reduced considerably. My mom then advised me to apply white powder on the place of contact. That was what seemed to do the job for the yam water completely. Although the heat in my ear wasn't gone completely, it reduced as well.
Before going back to the kitchen, I made sure to cloth myself from neck to ankles. I couldn't risk exposing my skin to such harshness twice. I went back, completed all processes and when it was time to eat, I was rewarded.
It came out nicer than any yam and egg sauce I had prepared before.
The whole ordeal was for a worthy cause I guess
Thanks for reading.
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