Editorial: Do your dishes.

Tēnā koutou e hoa,

Food is a fickle subject for students. Some of us love to chef it up in the kitchen, creating culinary masterpieces to fill our pukus. Others resort to a steaming mess of Indomie noodles, without the chilli sauce, of course. One aspect of food that binds us all together, regardless of our cooking skills, is the fucking dishes. Instead of using my editorial to preach sweet nothings, I thought I’d impart the only ounce of wisdom within my body, and share my new-found love of dishwashing.  

I probably wash two to three batches of dishes a day. Dirty cutlery, plates, bowls, spatulas, and Tupperware go into the sink filthy and come out reborn. I dry them with a heinous tea towel. I put them away. Eat, drink, repeat. 

I’d say roughly 30 minutes of my day is spent dealing with dishes, mostly other peoples. That’s 10 whole days a year with my hands immersed in Morning Fresh-soap-spiked water – my fingers left wrinkly as fuck. It's an amount of time I could be doing literally anything else. Reading a book, going to the gym, hell, I could even kick on writing content for Massive, but I find there’s solace in the mundane.  

When it comes to a meals, there’s always too much emphasis on the cooking, the ingredients and importantly, the eating. There are thousands of books and TV shows dedicated to doing (and enjoying) each of these to the best of our ability. But to my dismay, we never see a single form of entertainment romanticising, the washing of dishes. Though largely disregarded and sometimes loathed, the washing is as much a part of the meal as all the rest. If a meal were a film, dishes would be the climactic final scene. 

There’s a tranquilising rhythm to washing the dishes by hand, which, despite the clatter, can be meditative and perfectly solitary. It’s one of the rare household chores that can be done standing still and without bending over. Doing the dishes is a time to remove yourself from the chaos around you, but still get ahead in life. This is especially true if you manage to clean your dishes as you cook. It’s a proven fact (by me) that your meal will taste astronomically better if you take the time to do your dishes before you sit down and eat. I mean, you’ll also be the favourite flatmate by a country-mile. So it really is a win-win. 

So, if you managed to read this entire personal recount of dishwashing, don’t be a loser. Pick up that crusty Tupperware container you refuse to remove from your bag, find that fork that fell behind your bed six months ago, and give it a scrub for me. If Massive Magazine’s editor dedicating an entire editorial to not being a shit flatmate isn’t a sign, then frankly, I don't know what is. 

Kia pai tō rā, 

Mason Tangatatai