Understanding The Ingredients

Salad: garlic shrimp, tomato, cream cheese, celery and green onion on butter lettuce.  

Dressing: lemon juice, dijon mustard, honey, extra virgin olive oil, salt & pepper.  

So, today I decided to do some impromptu food photography. This usually tends to happen when I decide to put the extra effort to make a meal. 

But what is the extra effort? Well, for me, it's about putting the perfect combination of ingredients together and just the right balance of each to make a visually appealing and tasty dish.

It's about understanding each ingredient and its relation to other ingredients. How it tastes, its texture, colour and what condiments to pair it with. It's only when I reach that level of understanding do I truly feel that I've mastered a dish. 

To be very honest, that's my approach to life in general. When I have to make an important decision or if I have to accomplish something, I collect the 'ingredients' I need (usually in the form of information) and try to understand how that decision or accomplishment would affect myself and my future. I become this overthinking person that analyses every angle and try to control everything. Sometimes it works for me and other times... It just gets extremely taxing. Because life is unpredictable and there's no real right or wrong.

I think what I'm trying to do here is to acknowledge that I have this tendency and learn to know when and where to use it appropriately. It serves me well in the kitchen but not so much in other aspects of my life. But hey, nobody's perfect and thank God, it's never too late to reflect, learn and change :)