I started cooking, or thinking about cooking, during college. It was not because I finally left home and lived on my own. The college dorm and the shoebox studios for students and singles strongly forbid any kind of cooking. And food was too easy to get around the clock in Taiwan, there was no point of toiling in the kitchen.
I started cooking because I was in the hiking club. And the job of meal planning of multi-day hikes falls naturally on the female team members. Quite horrifying to think that the first-hand practice of cooking happened in the mountains where food are crucial for survival. There were no easy dried food packs, and the budget was modest. So the day-to-day menu is ordinary, and heavy!