A Cooking Dream - Or Maybe Not

15 years ago

What with work being crazed and our refrigerator dying, I haven't cooked anything for a while. The last was some forgettable mulligatawny soup. Since then, it's been stuff dredged from our freezer, and takeout.

So I had a dream about cooking last night. This is the first cooking dream I can remember ever having, and I hope I don't have another.

It was at a party in a big, two level house. Maybe more of a ''grotto'', because I don't remember any architectural details or windows or, for that matter, any staircase between levels. Each floor was one big space full of people. So many people. All of my friends and acquaintances, and dozens more who seemed to know me, while being unknown to me. I don't know how I got here, in the midst of this party. Everyone is in a jolly mood, laughing and talking, music playing, drinks flowing. It dawns on me that I am supposed to cook. Maybe the clue is every third person greeting me with how much they are looking forward to this dinner, our dinners are always so great, etc. Looking for food, I find myself holding an impossibly long rack of pork ribs, ten feet dangling, as if it came from a pig-snake. And a ten foot long halibut fillet. Something else that is unmanageably sized. Trying not to drag these on the floor, I'm looking for a pot. There are pots everywhere - teeny little pans, giant stock pots, hammered copper saucepots, stone turrens. They all seem to be in use, full of smoking oily stuff. I can't find knives or spices. Or counterspace. Where are the aromatics? I keep bumping into, tripping over, hearty people who clap me on the back and tell me they can't wait to taste my dinner. I struggle and start prepping some dishes. It is so crowded. I have to run back and forth, upstairs to downstairs. My half prepped dishes keep disappearing. I realize that people are ''helping'' me, spiriting away my food and malcooking it before it's ready. Running from oven to oven, I find my dishes over-cooked, spilled, blackened. Rushing to make new dishes. I'm having trouble doing basic things. How to make a vinaigrette? And I'm still wrestling with the rack of pig-snake ribs. It is wrapping around my ankles, slapping my face. Faces keep turning to me, looking forward to dinner. I feel myself losing heart.

Dreaming about cooking, as a nightmare, isn't how I wanted to start the day (at 4:30 AM!). I suppose the dream wasn't much about cooking anyway.

If you have dreams about cooking, I hope yours are more pleasant.

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Comments (10)

sally2_gw
15 years ago
Sounds like an episode of Top Chef, lol!

Sally
dedtired
15 years ago
Maybe you are subconsciously trying to rationalize buying that huge new refrigerator. You need it to accommodate pig-snake ribs.

Don't you just hate dreams like that? I had some last night, too, but not about cooking. I dreamed that I went back to the hospital where I used to work to do some kind of stint as a volunteer. While I was volunteering, all my credit cards were stolen and I couldn't find the number to call and report the theft. The everyone I told said their cards were stolen too and they thought it was hysterically funny. Isn't that the strangest dream??

Sally -- that's funny.
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dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
15 years ago
Posted by sally2 "Sounds like an episode of Top Chef, lol! Sally"

Funny! :-)

I don't remember ever cooked in my dreams, but I dream of food occasionally.

Most my other dreams are kind of black & white, or in washed out colors, but my food dreams are very bright and vividly colorful.

Interesting that I have never tasted food in my food dreams. I will always know that I am in a food dream, and I would not bother eating the food, because they are not real.

dcarch
teresa_nc7
15 years ago
Wow! What DID you have for dinner that night, johnliu, to prompt such a vivid dream? I have very vivid dreams sometimes that stay with me for a day or so after. Sometimes someone from way in my past will be featured in such a dream and I wake up wondering "where did he/she come from? I haven't thought about him/her in years." Other times I will dream about a house or many years ago I went through a spell of dreaming about babies - at a time when my sons were no longer babies.

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coconut_nj
15 years ago
John, it sounds like a horrible dream but, I have to confess I almost woke the dog up laughing. I was having trouble controlling myself. I have very vivid lucid dreams often so I really do commiserate. Christy laughs at mine often and shakes her head even more often. I'm not real sure I want pig-snake ribs though. LOL.. especially if they slap you around....loling again....
loagiehoagie
15 years ago
Wow John, reading that almost put me into a panic attack and I rarely ever entertain...and certainly not for that many people! Surely an anxiety dream that may not have anything to do with food at all. But I'm not an interpreter.

Not to hijack your thread but do you or anyone have recurring dreams of the same thing? I often dream of having to take a year-end school exam and realize I have not attended class all semester! Or I'm at work and forget to punch in...that one seems the current one.

And although I haven't had this one in years I often went back to a place with huge pine trees and a swimming pool where I swam and it was so beautiful.....I used to go there over and over and over....but not lately.

Dreams are fascinating stuff!

Duane
kathleenca
15 years ago
Wow, John, that's almost enough to make one stop cooking forever. I think it's the classic theme of anxiety caused from not feeling prepared. Most of us have probably had similiarly-themed dreams.
lpinkmountain
15 years ago
Sounds like working in the restraunt from you-know-where! I had a similar dream this weekend, I was trying to cook for a buffet party at my folks house, people told me they were going to help but backed out, and meanwhile my dad was interviewing people for some project of his at the house, and there were potential applicants ringing the front door while he was out back interviewing someone, and there were applicants showing up at the back door waiting, etc., all interrupting while I was rushing around trying to get the food on the table before the guests arrived. I think it is a result of me now having to put a decent meal on the table every night now that BF is more or less living with me. My usual PBJ and cottage cheese dinner just won't cut it. He helps, but it still stresses me out. I'm more of a person to cook on the weekend and just heat up leftovers during the week. Meanwhile, he wants to get out and play on the weekends! I'm going to have to adjust!
John Liu
Original Author
15 years ago
I've been remembering more dreams lately (we always dream, but don't always remember them). For me, remembered dreams are usually a sign of stress/anxiety.

Interesting story about dreams. I used to be a lawyer. Every time I remembered a dream, I'd rush to the office and go through all my files. It always - really, 100% - meant that there was an approaching deadline I'd forgotten about (this was before computerized calendaring systems). My subconscious warning system never let me down. In my current career, dreams have not served that function.

For you, dear, my answer is that playing outdoors is overrated. Do your playing indoors.
lowspark
15 years ago
No cooking dreams here, but when I was remodeling my kitchen, I dreamed about it almost every night for a while there. Stress I guess! LOL

My son and his girlfriend are moving down from NY as soon as he graduates in a couple of weeks and I guess that was heavy on my mind. I woke up the other night in the middle of the night, dreaming about how she needed to put down shelf paper in the kitchen of the new apartment and how I would probably have to help. It was a ridiculous dream which, for some reason, caused me anxiety. Anxiety within the dream, I mean. Once I woke up, I couldn't figure out why it had bothered me enough to make me wake up. Maybe it's just the anxiety over the big change manifesting itself in shelf paper.

Don't get me wrong, though! I'm very excited and looking forward to the two of them living here. I can't WAIT! Just the usual stress I suppose.

Not about dreams, but about sleeping, your story about your dreams helping you with deadlines, John, reminded me of another story. Back when I was in high school, I used to work at a department store after school. I had to take two busses to get there, about 20 minutes ride on each bus. I would regularly nap on both busses, but I never ever missed my stop. I would always awaken one or two stops before mine. I guess my body just knew to wake up about 15 minutes after falling asleep somehow. Funny!

A Cooking Dream - Or Maybe Not

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sally2_gw

dedtired

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A Cooking Dream - Or Maybe Not

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