And this is, where the cooking parallel is that great: How do you become a decent cook? Well, there are recipes, but this is neither your judgement, nor your te

And this is, where the cooking parallel is that great: How do you become a decent cook? Well, there are recipes, but this is neither your judgement, nor your technique, or maybe art, you're just following along, hoping for the best. This is not you. But, eventually you'll have a dish. You may get lucky, but there my be room for improvement. The only way to tell and to improve is to eat what you've cooked… at least, eating was the general idea right from the beginning… next try, there may be things you like more, and other things that you had better avoided… you discriminate, too much of this, too little of that… this starts to be fun… and eventually, you may be able to produce a pleasing meal to your own standards and satisfaction. It's your meal and probably (still) a decent representation of the cultural standard. (And, as you learn to generalize on this, gaining sovereignty to express yourself while respecting the general idea of a specific dish, you may actually become a decent cook. At least, that's what your meals are telling you, and with a bit of luck your guests, as well.)