Puffy Eyes, the Smell of Raw Chicken and Other Horrible Things

This post is not for Jenny, the most positive person I know.

I love cooking. I love thinking about food, the history, the politics, the flavours, the weird cultural practices, the chemistry and of course the actual practice of cooking and eating.

On the other hand, after a life of being immersed in it, there are also many things to do with cooking that annoy me (that is putting it mildly). What follows is a short list of my favourite cooking hates.

• Puffy eyes from onslaught of tears due to chopping onions
• Peeling sticky sweet garlic (love the results HATE peeling the thin film that refused to release)
• Cooking show cooks who talk nostalgically about how their mom influenced their career
• Washing spinach
• The smell of raw chicken
• Prepackaged fish cakes
• Green peppers - unless literally just picked of a plant and eaten within ten minutes
• Being sprayed with greywater
• Correction - having even a drop of grey water on me
• Smelling like lamb after cooking of a ton on the bbq
• Any amount of water inside rubber gloves 
• Lemon and chocolate combined in any form
• Water running down my sleeves
• Those cooks who spent their youth in university, then decided to become a chef, resulting in a unsubstantiated kitchen arrogance (its not all of you, just a memorable few)
• Most farm raised fish (i don't have a problem with guppies)
• I don't really like washing lettuce either
• Washing dishes that did not need to be dirtied
• Stinky washcloths, tea towels etc
• Dogs in the kitchen (at home) - don't really like the cats there either
• Dirty dishes in a sink of cold water in the morning
• Wooden items left in water
• ANY SIZE KNIVE IN A SINK OF WATER
• Wet spots on the floor
• Pancakes turned too many times (hahaha Michael, hope you are reading this)
• Loose vegetables (carrots, potatoes, beets) in plastic bags from the grocer 
• Fish cleaned inside the house, or any building
• Burning nuts - because it is, at the very minimum, the third hundredth time i have done it
• Boards not being bleached immediately after working with chicken (its the smell!)

Wow, that was satisfying.

Anyone want to add their dislikes to the comments field? Tag! You are it!