I remember when our house go our first microwave. It was the size of a TV and the first thing we did was watch it boil water. It was exciting, but that was 1978.
44 years later, not much has changed in microwave technology, except we no longer are warned to not stand near it when it is on. Back then, it was suspected that microwaves would make you sterile.
Now today, because the microwave has been part of our lives…many people can’t live without them, I mean they are a time saver, but how many of us have created a special bond with the meal warmer.
While there some people who think it can cook just about anything, they can’t, or at least, shouldn’t. Even if they can, things don’t always come out right. My parents have this thing about cooking everything in the food nuker. I can’t tell you how many scrambled eggs (which come out like a rubbery yellow loaf that always has this liquid center of uncooked egg) and chicken breasts have been fed to my sister and me in our youth.
Just so you know chicken breasts in the microwave don’t come out looking right. Actually, kind of gross. Its more like a rubbery whitish-grey blob. My parents do this all the time. As a matter of fact, while they are eating it and all of the sudden realize that the chicken isn’t thoroughly cooked (i.e. you see pink, uncooked chicken on the inside.), they just pop it back in the microwave and cook it some more and then it’s time to chow down again.
Um…salmonella…hello!
I know you are saying WTF? So do I, which is one of the many reasons I don’t (and won’t) eat there. To this day, I am surprised that I am still alive and never contracted e-coli.
Shit talking bad cooks aside, we have all created this reliance on this appliance that has evolved from the food equivalent of Pong to more of an Atari 2600. Basically, there haven’t been that many advancements, but our love for this machine has grown, where we have created games and other things while we are impatiently waiting for our food.
For example:
- Opening the door just before the alarm sounds that it is done cooking
- Aimlessly staring at the food as it turn around and around, through the perforated window
- Humming the same frequency as the microwave
- Starting the microwave and cleaning up before the cook time ends
- Seeing if you can keep time with the cook time countdown
- Forgetting that you put something in the microwave and realizing that you did much later, when you get really hungry or the next day when you want to use it again.
- You get irritated that it is taking so long
I think we all have done at least one of these, if not more. I counted, at least 4 from this list alone.