We live in the area south of Columbia University. I just got back from a long walk and was reminded that we have so many food markets in my neighborhood. Within a five-block radius there’s a D’Agostino (a NYC chain supermarket), a Westside Market, and a Garden of Eden, as well as a twice-a-week sidewalk farmer’s market, a Japanese food store I’ve never walked into, an Italian market, and probably other stuff I’m forgetting. I went into the Westside Market yesterday for the first time — it’s just a few blocks away, we’ve lived in our apartment for almost a year, and I just walked into there yesterday for the first time! — and their produce section had every sort of produce imaginable. Tons of green things, tons of other things that didn’t look familiar. They also had a full aisle containing nothing but different kinds of cheese.

I hate the fact that I rarely take advantage of any of this. All these great opportunities to expand our food palates and we never do it. My parents got us a food processor for Hanukkah that I still haven’t used, and there’s a housewares shop a few blocks away that sells almost any kind of cookware or bakeware you could need. And we eat the same old stuff — which we usually order in.

I like cooking and baking, but I rarely do it. It requires time and effort and it costs money to buy ingredients (like it doesn’t cost money to order in?) and I’m kind of scared that I’ll do it wrong. On the other hand, cooking and baking is very therapeutic, because you’re engaging in tasks that require your attention, and you’re making something new.

I really should take a boring Saturday or Sunday afternoon and make a new dish. I should try to buy a new ingredient every weekend and make something with it. I live in practically the center of the universe with every food I need at my fingertips — there’s this world of exciting opportunities out there and I never take advantage of them! I hate when I let things like that slip by. That has to change.