Poisonous Food

The vocation in which I am having my current internship has a self-imposed invisible rule that requires me to take work home and is not leaving me with much free time. But I have been taking out snippets of half hour breaks from my 'work from home' time to indulge in a passion which I know would most probably be warped once August arrives - reading. Now, free of the rigidity of reading titles handed out on a piece of paper, I have the liberty of selecting what I want to read and hence my choice for Jim Crace's The Devil's Larder.

The process of devouring each of the 64 dishes with relish has left an aftertaste that has poisoned me into seeing the world in terms of food. It was with such food smeared lenses that I celebrated Samuel's birthday yesterday. Despite the lovely company and the immense fun we had with the KTV (I can't believe I'm actually buying into another Japanese craze), my main course @ Pasta de Waraku could only be described as poisonous. The melted fusion of sweet curry and cheese on the Okonomiyaki starter warmed the palate, but eventually soothed it so much that the clash of wasabi cream pasta with bacon and oyster came as a rancid shock.

I admit I only chose the combination 'wasabi cream' over more palate friendly sounding names like 'miso cream' or 'original cream' for the matter simply because I once read an article of an Italian chef (authentic pasta here!) bemoaning the fact that Asians request for the 'shocking' combination of spicy with cream. Japan - land of all things innovative - I really had to see for myself how they managed this blasphemous Orientalization of Cabonara (which, by the way, is an Americanization of Italian pasta).

The $14.80 heap of noodles arrived with a beautifully poached egg perched on top. I remember how I started. I scooped a bit of the part gelatinous, delicate albumen, coated it with the offending cream and took a bite. I remembered repeating the phrase 'a taste of innovation' to myself. I mean, if you choose to partake of the innovations from the country that gave you Kimchi Calpis, Bilk, Boy Lolitas and Uruha, you'd better psyche yourself to be shocked in al ways possible. So I ate of this innovation with almost mechanical emotions, and was met with a childhood memory inducing nostalgia when I chomped on a soft oyster which innards burst out of its rubbery coating and homogenized with the wasabi cream. Cod Liver Oil. The horrors!

And yes, I did finish the entire plate. While the experience with wasabi cream was certainly an exercise with exerting the mind over matter, the few morsels of curry meat sauce pasta that I nipped off Jie's plate proved to be a heavenly case of Japanization that would compel me to go back for more!

And speaking of food. I am of the opinion that cheese should be confined as a topping on pasta and pizza, sandwiched between 2 slices of bread or cubed and speared with grapes as an appetizer. If there's anything that cheese does not go well with, its with words.