A day old cold rice-noodles straight out of the fridge is… bland, and not something I consider to be a part of an otherwise enjoyable dining experience.
Mixing a day old cold rice-noodles straight out of the fridge with straight-off-the-grills kebab, and the resulting lukewarm mush is also not something I consider to be a part of an otherwise enjoyable dining experience.
Laziness, precipitated in part due to the fact that it’s a quarter past ten at night and I’m tired, is not something I consider to be a part of any enjoyable experience, dining or otherwise.
Yet, a combination of “all of the above” lead to surprisingly enjoyable dining experience. Once upon a time a few months ago, I picked up some kebab from a restaurant roughly a five minute walk away from the apartment. By the time I got home (at a quarter past ten, at night), I was too tired to do much. So I pulled out a bowl of day old rice-noodles out of the fridge, stared blankly at it for fifteen seconds, and decided to eat it as is. I opened the packaging that the kebab came in. Started eating. And was pleasantly surprised by an otherwise enjoyable… well you know.
As it turned out, the key to the whole thing was to keep them separate. Until the very last moment, anyway. The noodle was cold & bland. The kebab was spicy and relatively hot. Mixing them in the bowl would have resulted in a lukewarm mushy mess of a meal. Mixing them, in my mouth, resulted in me “tasting” the strongly contrasting flavors, textures and temperatures. Even as they mixed. And while noodles & kebab are delicious in their own right, it was the process of experiencing the well defined contrast, as well as the eventual loss it that made it memorable.
Plus the experience had the bonus effect of enlightening me to the facts that certain foods (or condiments, or drinks, or what have you) are best combined during the moment of consumption. Like instant coffee & seltzer water.
Recent Comments