[Are you throwing that away?!] Living with a French boyfriend who is particular about food: Cooking Edition

Hello, I'm Miko.
Today, I'm going to talk about chicken skin.

I once lived with my French boyfriend in Japan. We mostly cooked for ourselves. Since we both love cooking, we enjoyed making meals together every day.

He was also a fitness fanatic. Not a bulky bodybuilder, but what you'd call a lean, muscular guy. He was quite careful about his diet.
The high-quality protein loved by serious fitness enthusiasts is, as you all know,chicken breast. Chicken breast appeared on our dinner table quite frequently.

Personally, I grew up in a home where only chicken thigh was served, so I lived with the mindset that "chicken means thigh meat." However, he said he didn't like chicken thigh much because it was "too greasy."
I had thought, "Isn't chicken breast dry and tasteless?" But when I tried it, I found it was surprisingly delicious, and it was also a great way to keep food costs down, making it an excellent ingredient. "Not bad, chicken breast!" and so, chicken breast became our staple ingredient.

Shortly after we started living together. One day, we were preparing chicken breast for dinner.
When you first start living together, everything is fresh! The time spent cooking together was a lovely and fun moment.
Today, he was in charge of the chicken. While I made the salad, I watched him work as he swayed to the music.

Opening the pack of chicken breast~♪

Me: "(Yeah, yeah)"

With a knife~♪

Me: "(Be careful~)"

Peeling off the skin~♪

Me: "(Uh-huh, uh-huh)"

Into the trash can~~~♪

Toss♪♪♪

(Time stops for a second)

Me: "What!!!! (Shock)"

I doubted my eyes for a second. But there it was, a piece of chicken skin defenselessly discarded in the trash. Its glossy, plump surface looked up at me from the bottom of the bin. With an expression that seemed to say, "What happened to me? Where am I?"... It could never return to this world again...

Yes, I am a woman who absolutely loves chicken skin.

The skin is my favorite part of roast chicken, and I also love yakitori made only of chicken skin. For me, chicken skin is, so to speak,the highlight of chicken dishes.

Chicken dishes without chicken skin are to me like "the four seasons without summer," "rock and roll without a drummer," and "The Lord of the Rings without the ring"." Furthermore, now that I had given up on chicken thigh, it was the only part left for me to enjoy that rich, fatty flavor. And it had been mercilessly cast down into the abyss of the trash can.

Him: "Hmm? Is something wrong?"

He asks me as I freeze. Snap out of it! Come back to reality, me.

Me: "Hey... did you just... throw away the chicken skin?"

Him: "Yeah. Because it's gross and greasy."

I was shocked. So shocked...
But I also know he has no ill intentions. He doesn't know how much I love chicken skin. If anything, this is an incident caused by me not sharing that with him.

A common argument foreigners make is,"Chicken skin is only good if it's crispy. Soft skin is gross."They say they want to eat it if it's crispy, but not if it's soft.

I love chicken skin in any form. When it's crispy, when it's soft, in sickness and in health. Well, I definitely shouldn't eat sick chicken skin.

Personally, I actually prefer it soft, and the moment I stuff my cheeks with that juicy, soft skin is a moment of pure bliss.

Me: "............ R-right............ (forced smile)"

And when he reached out to peel the skin off another chicken breast, I shouted immediately.

Me"If you don't need that, give it to me! (desperate)"

Him: "Oh, you want this? Okay, sure."


Since then, all the chicken skin that hits the table has become mine.
It's hard to remove the skin after cutting, so I peel it off first and cook the skin in large pieces without cutting it. I made sure the chicken skin didn't bother his plate.
My plate now features two extra-large pieces of chicken skin sitting there, "BOING!!" It shows off the presence of the chicken skin as much as it possibly can. As a result, I get to eat even more of the chicken skin I love, which is a very satisfying outcome.

Summary

When I lived in Australia, I was surprised to see chicken meat sold normally in the meat section as"skinless chicken."In Japan, there are some chicken skin fans like me, so it sells even when packed separately, but I always wondered where all that massive amount of peeled chicken skin goes in Australia.

Food culture and preferences vary from person to person. Especially when countries are different, right? I thought it was important to find a happy middle ground while respecting each other.

Thank you so much for reading until thevery end!(Thank you so much, really!)

Here is how I met that French boyfriend. Please take a look if you'd like♪

The story of when I got a foreign boyfriend for the first time. Please check this out too if you'd like♪