I came across an old article of mine that I wrote back in December 2010 which was fully published in the internal magazine of the company I was working for at the time.
I don't have a picture of it, but I do have an e-copy which you can read below. Enjoy the read! It is rather long but it is a series of questions that the magazine asked that I answered. I re-read it myself, and it reminded me why I love food so much, love chocolate in particular, and why I have to be careful.
At present, this is my little weakness that I try not to eat too much of:
Because if I indulge too much, my teeth would rot, my waistline would expand, and I'd be a sad mofo! Arghhh!
P.s I don't mind crickets nowadays but they are low on my 'to eat regularly' list, lol!
THE ARTICLE:
My best chocolate experience and why
The best chocolate experience I had was when I tasted really good, 75% cocoa chocolate for the first time. I think I was twenty when that happened. I’d never had it before, because I was used to eating commercial milk chocolate like Flake, or milk chocolate and caramel combinations, like Mars. I’d even tasted white chocolate (which I know isn’t real chocolate in any sense, but is mostly cocoa butter fat with flavourings) in the form of Milky bars.
I had no idea when growing up that there was a better form of chocolate out there! However, I always had an interest in trying out new chocolate bars as they came out. If it said ‘limited edition’ I’d buy it just to see what made it so different from everything else. Most of the time, there wasn’t anything that really stood out. The only thing I really liked was Picnic’s, and that was because of the different textures and ingredients used in it that made it interesting for me. So I graduated to eating plain dark chocolate like Bournville. I remember thinking ‘Wow, I really like that!’
Then I decided to take the ultimate plunge, and picked up a bar of 75% cocoa chocolate. Once I tasted that really amazing chocolate (and it had no additional flavouring whatsoever), my taste buds were spoiled forever! By choice, I didn’t get commercial chocolate anymore. I went for the intense stuff, the stuff of my dreams, that rich, chocolately hit that you can’t get with milk, white, or plain chocolate. I started to notice that the less cocoa solids there were, the less satisfied I felt. I was cheating myself by eating something that was not 'great quality’ to me if I found myself reaching for something like a Twirl, and would eat more commercial chocolate to compensate. I also noticed that commercial chocolate in other countries was inferior- for example, the first time I tried Hershey’s in the USA whilst on holiday, I found it unpalatable. Most chocolates I tried over there felt like extra sugar had been poured in willy-nilly! The only thing I could eat was the Hershey’s plain dark unsweetened chocolate, and that was because I needed a chocolate fix. In the end, I decided that I’d rather go without chocolate if I was going abroad.
Anyway, I digress. The point is: Really Good Chocolate should always be savoured. To not do that is sacrilege! When I try to tell my friends that experiencing great chocolate for the first time is akin to having the most sensual experience ever, they grin at me because they know my character as being intense and passionate when it comes to things I really like...like chocolate! They will (more often then not) try it because I coax them to and because I say that ‘you can’t say you don’t like it if you’ve never tried it’. Most of the time, my friends don’t like it because they have, what I call, ‘safe’ tastes. But amongst my friends and acquaintances, I seem to have built up a reputation of ‘you will try anything edible at least once...and like it’. I find that funny, but what is life but one big time span filled with experiences? And what better way to fill it with experiences then to try different taste combinations when it comes to great quality chocolate!
What is your guiltiest pleasure when it comes to chocolate and to food in general?
My guiltiest pleasure when it comes to chocolate is eating something that is chocolate upon chocolate upon chocolate. To clarify, that would be something like a rich chocolate sponge shell which would enclose an oozingly smooth and hot viscous chocolate sauce middle, surrounded by a moat of chocolate custard, and sprinkled with cinnamon to enhance the warmly satisfying chocolate flavour. Failing that, I would go for a rich chocolate pot- something like Gu, or I will bake something like chocolate cookies to eat with belgian chocolate icecream. I have my own special recipe for the cookies, and it seems to go down a treat with my sister’s chocolate-loving italian boyfriend. I don’t buy commercial chocolate cookies often. I prefer to make my own because they taste better, and I know what raw and natural ingredients I’m putting in. I don’t like reading a long list of ingredients on commercial chocolate cookie packages when half of them sound as if they should be on a pharmacy shelf!
My guiltiest pleasure when it comes to food is either longanisa or tocino. Longanisa is a cured filipino pork sausage within which tiny pieces of pork fat are dispersed, and tocino is a cured piece of meat (usually pork) which is eaten during a typical filipino breakfast consisting of: fried garlic rice and fried egg. I don’t eat it often because it’s pretty unhealthy, but it’s so tasty to me, and as an occasional guilty pleasure, it’s great!
Describe your favourite restaurant and non-restaurant food experiences.
Why were they so special to you?
My favourite restaurant experiences...that’s a hard one because I like trying lots of different types of food, and each one has its own merits. So what I’ll do is limit myself to saying: One of the best food experiences I had was trying different regional cuisines in different restaurants in China.
Amongst other things, I tried fish cooked in a pool of hot oil flavoured with dried schezuan peppers, I tried soy-marinated cold chicken stomachs, and I tried cumin-marinated pig tails. I have a strong stomach in general because I will eat everything and try anything at least once. This is how I know that I don’t like fried crickets! But the main reason I do this is because I love tasting new flavours, new textures, and new foods.
My life doesn’t revolve around food, but the human body needs food and water to survive, and if I’m going to live a long time, I might as well make eating food an enjoyable experience for myself! My taste buds will (and do) thank me for it! I’m not sure if my hips are as forgiving, but staying active keeps my weight in check anyway!
My favourite non-restaurant food experience- growing up with a mum that liked cooking from scratch. Her mother was a caterer, so she learnt from watching and participating, and I grew up on a robustly flavoured diet of good, wholesome, filipino food. I loved my mum’s cooking. That’s why I love food. It’s as simple as that!
The most essential store cupboard ingredients I can’t live without: tumeric, paprika, onions, garlic, ginger, salt, pepper, chopped tomatoes, rice OR wholemeal pasta, corned beef, brown sugar.
The signature dish that I make from the ingredients listed above is a corned beef meat sauce eaten with either wholemeal pasta, or rice. It’s simple and quick to make, and whenever I’ve made it, it’s eaten to the last dregs. It’s amazing how simple ingredients can make such a tasty meal!
What is the one, ultimate meal you would like cooked for you and by whom?
My one ultimate meal:
A deep pie with a surprise filling that is very flavoursome. Crusty roast potatoes with a fluffy interior. Roast carrots and parsnips with a slight crunch and a little sweetness. Mushy peas. Properly savoury and dark gravy.
Made by Heston Blumenthal.
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