I have recently become totally addicted to the show Good Eats from the Food Network, which I had never heard of before joining Peace Corps. One would think that this would be the ideal time to learn some new delicious cooking techniques, but I've mostly reverted to bachelor mode and eaten the food equivalent of unleaded petrol: giant pots of rice and beans for 3-5 days at a time. The incentive of delicious food simply wasn't enough to persuade me to cook interesting things. Alton Brown (the host) brings a Bill Nye-style approach to his show and explains a lot of the underlying science behind whatever he's cooking. For me, the explanations are key. Some time ago I took the Myers-Briggs personality test, and while I take it with a grain of salt, one result that definitely fits with my self-perception is a love of theorizing. I do love to eat delicious meals, but what overcame my laziness is understanding what's happening when I throw the ingredients in th...