Harlequin wrote:
....
> In a sense, my question is about how to understand and appreciate good
> art, rather than how to be an artist yourself.
>
> Does this knowledge come only with eating out and trying a lot of
> things? Or cooking a lot? Are there any books which can help with this?
> Does reading books on cuisines, and recipe books, help? Any good
> websites or other resources on the Internet?
>
> Any answers would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

tastes and preferences vary so much from person to person
that what i can recommend is to get out and try as many
different things as you can.

cooking skills you can watch the many shows on t.v. which
demonstrate them and talk about food. some cooks are much
better at explaining things than others.

for now you can do things like think about what you have
experienced and what you've enjoyed and the various aspects
of those times.

if needed keep a journal and develop a plan to try new
things that you've not experienced before.

to me, since i've been cooking since i was a fairly young
kid and i've tried to learn how to cook new cuisines as time
has gone on so i'm fairly open to trying new things, but
where i'm at right now is pretty limited for time and money
so i have to experiment once in a while and be happy with
that. the person i live with has a very simple and restricted
palate and special requirements so i go with the flow as much
as i can here and then once in a while make something for
myself that has different spices or ingredients.

i do think that reading cookbooks can help to expose you
to how dishes can look and ideas of how to present things
but i'm not huge on presentation as much as i want the dishes
to taste authentic enough that i would recognise them again
(no matter how they are presented) and understand the basics
of the different ingredients and the history is also too
sometimes pretty interesting.

if you are not already familiar with the basic kinds of
cooking techniques and the terms that is a good place to
start nibbling away at as you have time. reading various
cookbooks will give you that information and exposure to
different methods of getting the same sorts of results.

nothing wrong with taking your time, enjoying the journey
and finding out what you like and what to avoid.


songbird