Sometimes, a dish is beautifully prepared, cooked just right. A pleasure to behold.聽 All the expected conventions for it followed. And I don't like it.
This comes to mind after eating a bowl of nicely-prepared pasta with meat sauce at a downtown Victoria restaurant. I struggled through it because I was hungry. But the pasta wasn't cooked enough. Eating it was on the verge of being of an unpleasant experience. Nothing was wrong with the dish. Something might be wrong with my pasta tastebuds.
The People Who Decide How Things Should Be have decided:
Fish must be cooked medium rare.
Beef聽 steaks must be served pink.
Pasta must be al dente.
Sushi rice must not be dipped into soya sauce.
There's a sign posted outside a downtown restaurant 鈥� I think it's still there 鈥� that says: we cook our fish medium rare. The chefs must have had one too many a frustrating encounter with a taste-bud-challenged customer who insisted on well-done. Yuck.
But, I'm a guy who willingly eats canned pasta, in all its mushy glory.
And some of my relatives insist on well-done, grey beef roasts. I once served slices of pink roast beef to them. They stared and shifted uncomfortably in their seats. I got the hint, took away the beef, and heated it some more.
Amid all this turmoil over when good food is indeed good, I've made a pledge to myself. Remembering how I initially turned my nose up at sushi, and now love it, I'm working harder to have an open mind about food.
When I go to a decent restaurant, I'll trust the chefs. If they think under-done pasta is the way to go, I'll accept that.聽 If fish must be cooked medium-rare, that's OK too.
Part of the restaurant experience is allowing someone else to make decisions about your food, to allow them to introduce you to new things.
Stay home and cook it yourself if you want grey beef drenched in ketchup.
But it's a delicate balance. When is a dish cooked to perfection? When is it a disaster?聽
On second thought, despite my avowal to be more open minded, I'm going to avoid al dente pasta. In addition to trusting the chefs, I'll also trust my tastebuds.
- - -
I just discovered this food and wine website, which appears to be run by newspaper people:聽
And, a couple of stories at nytimes.com:
Might have something to do with rising prices for the real thing and dropping prices for breast meat.
-- a story about a website that has inspired a book. A lot of professionally-made cakes apparently get sent out with oddball spelling mistakes and words like: "leave blank" and "nothing".
