Welcome To Urban’s Kitchen

If you’ve somehow managed to stumble onto my little kitchen corner hangout on the digital block I’m humbly thankful that you somehow manage to make it here. If anyone ever tells you that starting a blog is easy, well they lied to you! Deciding to Food Blog is certainly not easy. Deciding to jump into the Food Blogging pond is a different beast as well. Of all the reasons I thought of why I should start blogging, I seemingly came up with 10x more reasons in my own mind why I shouldn’t. Listening to a Podcast recently about food I heard someone say something like the fact that your scared means you’re doing the right thing.

Starting off with your first post is a nerve-racking mental experience of second guessing yourself if you should get going and if you’re even ready. I even kept trying to put off writing the first post because I didn’t have a recipe. Well, I’ve never made one before either. But at some point, you just have to take that leap of faith regardless. I guess the simple answer in the journey of a thousand miles simply and boldly just take the first step into the unknown and keep making another step. At some point, if you keep going you will be further along than where you started.

Food Blogging as a guy is certainly not a common thing either, it’s dominated by females. But I’m a guy who enjoys being in the kitchen, I grew up being in the kitchen living in the islands and it’s still my favorite place in the house to be. I also liked to eat and still do. In my own kitchen today I greatly enjoy cooking as a single guy, if even just for myself and sometimes for friends. It does make me feel good to be able to feed myself and cook healthy meals and take care of my own health. As well I inspired to become a better home cook. Often my friends are mystified that I know how to cook and the dishes I sometimes make. It amuses me often. I’m a foodie, I enjoy a wide range of foods, I like trying new dishes. I enjoy experimenting and twisting recipe creations changing it in some way making it my own.

“Tell me what you eat, and I’ll tell you who you are” by Jean Anthelme Brilliant-Savrain via Iron Chef.

I enjoy just looking around my kitchen and whipping something up for a dish. Sometimes adding a little bit of this and some of that because, in cooking you experiment. That’s how many of my family members cook, adding some of this and some of that ingredient. You’re not going to get exact measurements from any in my family on dishes. I think that’s an island thing too. I’m not a chef, I’m a self-taught cook who’s still much learning, who was born and raised on a tropical island in the Caribbean (St.Kitts). I’m from a family where everyone seemingly knows how to cook and food was a thing that bonded family and community growing up on an Island. If I failed to know how to cook then I’m breaking a multi-generational tradition in the islands.

I’m a Field Service Engineer by day for a day job which does occasionally include traveling, sometimes for extended project periods. I live in the city of Pittsburgh, PA. Though I do enjoy doing other things for hobbies when I’m home in the evening from the job, I’m the Chef in my kitchen. I like to try new things and making it look modern and elegant. I love cooking, cooking is an art. For me, it’s also a hobby of love and I get to eat and enjoy my creations for a plus. Sometimes things go wrong and that happens sometimes trying new things. I’ve been inspired by many other great Chefs and Home Cooks. I’m still learning and hoping to become a much better cook. This blog will help me to be more accountable to that and exploring new flavors and dishes. Maybe help you even learn a few new dishes. I hope the things I cook here in the kitchen will help me to reconnect more with the foods and flavors of my heritage region. A region with its diverse array of foods and fusion of flavors with dishes from other cultures.

I think I’m a decent cook, that’s what my friends say. But I aspire to become so much better than I currently am. All the food pictures here on this blog I made or was inspired by others through their recipes to make or twist and fuse on my own. In Urban’s Kitchen, I hope to explore and try new dishes and flavors. And just maybe you too are inspired and decide to cook and or try some those flavors too 🙂

I’m a terrible Food Photographer, all I have is an iPhone and bad kitchen lighting. But I’ll make do with it.