When I’m up really late at night, I almost always want a midnight snack and up until recently my go-to was packaged food, leftovers or a giant slab of Nutella on anything remotely edible. On these midnight trips to the kitchen I discovered that there was a time of day when our kitchen was completely clean, quiet and I wasn’t sweating because of the heat or sneezing because of all the spices.

Mind you, I’m no chef or baker and have no particular fondness towards cooking. My only experiments with food happen if there is Eid, Noboborsho or Mother’s Day coming around. For me the kitchen is a place that is hot and bustling. Any move I make while cooking is met with multiple comments from my well intentioned mother.

But in the middle of the night when everyone in the house is asleep, the kitchen is a different experience. It started with me deciding to simply fry frozen food or boil pasta but slowly the experience grew on me. Here are some of the reasons I’ve found cooking at midnight to be a rewarding experience.

Self care

The quiet alone time experimenting with food can be a good self care activity. Everyone else is asleep so you couldn’t depend on other people if you wanted. For someone new at cooking like me, I realised it takes a lot of quick thinking and even damage control but doing it all on your own when the world around you is quiet feels satisfying.

You don’t have to share your food

After you’ve put a decent amount of hard work into your food, no one will suddenly appear and demand their share. You won’t even have to sneak it into your room or hide it if you’re desperate not to share. You can enjoy your food watching your favourite show and none of your siblings need to find out.

You’re free to experiment

You can make whatever you want and experiment without any judgement. You want to try something ridiculous you saw on YouTube? You’re scared something you’re making is going to turn out horribly wrong and won’t even be edible? Well there are no expectations on you and no spectators to see so if your entire pasta dish clumps together and refuses to be separated from the pan, it’s okay. You’ll get there.

No one has to know

While you can improve your cooking skills gradually if you wanted to keep your new skills a secret, you could. After 6 months of midnight adventures you can properly shock your family with your sudden god gifted talent. However, you could keep your newfound talent under wraps for good if you wanted. After all if no one knows you’re a good cook they can’t force you into making them food.

The downside is that there won’t be anyone around to help you put out a fire if you happen to start one so do take extra safety precautions.

Mrittika Anan Rahman is a daydreamer trying hard not to run into things while walking. Find her at anan_rahman7@yahoo.com