10 food situations where luck is truly on your side
A baked treat you slaved over for hours that comes out of the oven an absolute disaster. Your favorite supermarket wine suddenly being discontinued. A hair in your food. Just a few food-related situations that drive you absolutely up the wall. Yep, sometimes things just don’t go your way. But don’t despair: there are also plenty of moments in the kitchen, supermarket or restaurant when luck is truly on your side. If you’re lucky enough, you’ll instantly recognize one of the 10 situations below.
When you get the skin off the onion in one go
That skin, peel or whatever you want to call it around the onion is my biggest kitchen irritation. If I’m unlucky, I spend half an hour pulling little bits of onion skin off. Awful. But sometimes, very rarely, I get an onion where I can pull off the entire skin in one go. I’m telling you: that’s when I hear the angels sing.
… just like the shell of your egg
Eggs actually fall into exactly the same category as onions. Sometimes the shell just refuses to come off. How incredibly satisfying is it when you tap it once on the counter and the shell slips off the egg in one piece? Great, right? If you could still use a little help, we have a great tip for peeling your egg in no time. It could save you a few hours of your life.
When you’ve cooked exactly the right amount of pasta (or rice)
‘This can’t possibly be enough,’ I think—every single time—as I put half a pack of pasta into the water for two people. Better add a little more. And before you know it, the entire pack of pasta is in the water and you could feed the rest of the street. That’s why it feels so wonderful when you finally get a good instinct while cooking pasta. The result: exactly the right amount. The same goes for rice, of course.
When the bag of chips is properly full (and not 70% air)
It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes we get our hands on a bag of chips that’s genuinely full. Of chips, that is—not air. Granted, the air does serve a purpose. It keeps your chips fresh for longer and prevents them from breaking as easily during transport. So a little air is fine. But we still feel incredibly lucky when we’re holding a bag that actually contains more chips than air.
When the first pancake turns out perfectly
It seems like an unwritten rule: the first pancake goes wrong. Why is that, anyway? You might as well keep the trash can next to the pan when you start cooking. And yet, every now and then, the first one actually works out. It’s almost unbelievable, but there it is: it’s edible. And then you really feel like you’re on top of the world behind that pan.
When your basil plant is still alive after a week
We have a love-hate relationship with it: the basil plant. It brings a delicious herb to life and looks great in the kitchen. But why does that plant always die so quickly? Surviving for a week feels like a record. Until you suddenly realize that you’ve been picking leaves from it for several weeks already. What’s happening? Is it magic? Help from above? No, that’s called luck. And the right amount of water and perfect temperature conditions in the kitchen.
When your steak is cooked to perfection
Cooking steak isn’t as easy as it seems. If you want it to be perfect, it requires serious skills. And luck. Sometimes it works out, but only after you’ve cut the steak in half three times to check the color inside. Such a shame. When your steak turns out perfectly cooked and you didn’t have to split it in two to get there, you really feel like a star chef. And rightly so. Want to know how to get that steak right the first time? Chef Gordon Ramsay gives you 10 handy steak tips.
When that pan of pasta water doesn’t boil over for once
Boiling pasta water over isn’t just annoying. It’s scary too. Why does everything suddenly bubble, froth and hiss so violently? As if a volcano has erupted in your kitchen! You already assume it’s going to happen, but when the moment never comes… Well, they call that luck. Want to give luck a helping hand in advance? With this brilliant trick, your pasta water will never boil over again.
When the Bonus deals at Appie are fantastic
The Bonus booklet is out and you see it immediately: this is going to be a fantastic grocery week. Those expensive jars of herbs are buy one, get one free, 50% off your favorite (unaffordable) coffee and stackable discounts on your favorite wine too! What did you do to deserve this? Sometimes luck is on your side, darling.
When you eat red pasta sauce without spilling a single drop
If there’s one moment in life when you feel like a three-year-old again, it’s when you’re eating pasta with a bib around your neck. Or rather, a “bib”: a tea towel serving as one. Without that thing around your neck, you might as well throw your new white blouse straight in the trash. You know what true luck is? Forgetting to put on the bib, wearing your white blouse and not spilling a single drop of red pasta sauce. You actually pulled it off. How lucky!
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