You don’t realise until you leave home just how idiosyncratic every family is, and how many of its customs are tacit, invisible, or maintained by someone else. Now you’re among people who emphatically aren’t related to you. How would you have any idea which of your practices were universal, and which common courtesies your upbringing had totally skipped?
How do you even know how to keep your own body and soul together without the behind-the-scenes input of parents, who also have peculiarities of their own? Here’s a starter pack on how to function. Anything with blood goes at the bottom of the fridge (although fridge-sharing between vegetarians and meat-eaters should be negotiated first thing).
Refrigeration is a game-changing technology but it doesn’t work if you just leave food near the fridge, even for a couple of hours. Likewise, nothing that’s been defrosted should be frozen again. Don’t put a cooked chicken on a board that hasn’t been washed since it had a raw chicken on it.
Likewise, without getting overanxious about it, exercise caution around all raw meat. Don’t cross-contaminate utensils (that is, use the same knife on raw chicken and then salad, without washing it). Hopefully, you won’t have a dishwasher, as washing-up is a life skill.
But if you do, don’t put anything with an electrical plug in it. Don’t use a wet cloth to protect your hands when you take things out of the oven. Something quick that has protein in it and is not toast.
Something that is a full meal, covers protein and vegetables, and can be eaten over several days. Suggestion: bolognese or vegetarian chilli. Something that you can scale up to feed two or four without bankrupting yourself or showing off.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
