Welcome to Urban’s Kitchen and my little corner here on the digital landscape. I had the opportunity to blog for many years on a different personal blog as a hobby since around 2004-2005 (Online Gaming) way before blogging was cool. But I’ve moved on a bit from that somewhat as I’ve also had a life long interest in food as i’m much a foodie. On this corner I will talk and document my “Journey” to becoming more than just the average home cook with heritage of two food cultures (Caribbean & American). It’s my personal journey to becoming better skilled in cooking techniques, tips and preparation; cooking with flavor & spices, cooking dishes of my Caribbean heritage, as well fusing Caribbean Cooking of dishes I love with other Worldly Cuisines I have a palette for. So this is my corner where I love to cook and sometimes whip up something different with a twist. Overall, I’m just trying to improve my home cooking skills from just being above average to being totally awesome home cook and that’s my journey. If your still learning how to cook, wanting to improve your cooking skills and enjoy a good food journey, well I have a spot here for you to enjoy the journey.
About this Blog
This blog is about my journey in cooking. Hopefully becoming a much better home cook and the vision of a great home cook that I know I can be. I also hope in becoming a better home cook to reconnect more with the foods of my Island heritage, foods from the Caribbean region. As well I look forward to combining foods and flavors from the Caribbean region that I love, with other various world cuisines for fusion of flavors. Here I will document my journey and adventures in the kitchen. Despite the challenges of life I’ve long aspired to be a great home cook, cooking both Caribbean flavors and other world cultural cuisines. I hope in my journey I can maybe inspire some of you to become a better cook, maybe cook some more, cook healthier and maybe add some rich Caribbean flavors to your food.
Who Am I
I’m a young early 40 something guy who was born and raised on the beautiful tiny Caribbean Island of St.Kitts.
St.Kitts
As for this blog, I’m a Self-Taught Cook who is still learning. I grew up living there till my late teen years. After completing high school I had the opportunity to relocate to the U.S. Growing up in the islands Caribbean Food was a very big part of daily life and local culture. Food is a huge part of my local community and family surrounding life. Food bonded a lot of people together in my local community where I lived on the island. Almost every community event involved food. Food bonded a lot of our family life and daily happenings. Many in my family actively cooked, some were kitchen bosses. Everyone I knew in my family pretty much could cook and do so regularly. I grew up eating mostly home cooked healthy foods all the time that was full of nutrition. We ate a very healthy diverse array of nutritious tropical foods grown, locally along with lots of seafood from the sea. For me, I loved to eat and enjoy good cooking. I love good nutritious flavored food!
Why did I decide to start this blog and Food Blogging
Some time ago I decided I really wanted to be a much better cook than I was. Yet I was’t a beginner just learning how to. At best I was just above average in cooking skills. Few people that I know cooked at home, while I seemed to do it somewhat regularly. I realize I was also above average in kitchen skills than many the friends and other people I knew who cooked at home. So I just started taking photo’s of all the food I cooked, often sending them to close friends. Friends would envy how great the food looked and be annoyed that I was sending them pictures vs inviting them over to have some the food. But taking pictures was a way to document my progress in bettering my skills. So starting a food blog became inevitable to continue my journey.
Salmon Balmoral
Mako Shark Stew
Food has always been a big part of my cultural heritage and being of two cultures. I’m first generation Caribbean American. Growing up as a kid in the islands, I never remembered anyone actually teaching anyone how to cook, but people learned somehow. Family members were often around during cooking of the meals and always anticipated eating some awesome cooking. Those who cooked never ever seem to measure anything for ingredients, they just “Eyeball Everything”.
You add some of this and some of that kind of ingredient cooking. Growing up for me in the family household meant I saw a lot of nutritious and healthy food been cooked and it’s preparation. Sometime’s I had to stir the pot making sure the food didn’t burn when the person doing the cooking had to jump into the shower or quickly run off to do something else important. Sometimes I had to help peel the vegetables for the cooking and many times more than often I was tasked with cleaning up the kitchen mess after all was done. The kitchen was a place I knew well! I liked to eat and taste the food my family was cooking and it was quite tasty and full of flavor. I never cooked growing up as a kid, but I observed many things and just recorded it all in the back of my mind. I hoped someday I’d take the time to become a much better cook. Starting this blog would be my companion on that food journey from Average to Great Cook.
Contact
If need to contact me, you can reach me on any of the social media platform via @urbanskitchen or on Email: urbanskitchen@gmail.com
Photography & Equipment
Currently, all the photographs on this site are taken with just my iPhone 7. Hopefully, sometime soon in the future, I can advance up to a DSLR Camera.