I exaggerate: first the bamboo is soaked for three days, THEN boiled for five days. Hopefully after all that we'd still in the mood to cook and eat it.
The main gist: major household projects always begin when we are just about to go somewhere. Or when we are both starving, then in the middle of cooking she cleans some neglected corner of the apartment. And then we are both starving, angry and...well, one of us usually gets hurt. That one of us us ME.