Chatterbox: Face Value

25th January 2008

"Who's having the Chicken Rice?" the waitress asked, looking for a confirmation before placing the platter down right in front of me.

I gazed upon my well-presented platter, scrutinizing the serving of the portion on each plate or bowl. Patiently, I picked up my chopsticks and dug them into the bowl of rice, taking the first bite. Nicely glossed with a layer of fragrant spices, a mouthful was already enough to validate the quality of the rice used.

Mandarin Chicken Rice: Seven Times Prettier than the Average-Joe

"Umm, the rice is REALLY fragrant." she exclaimed, as I fed her a spoonful of the light-brown quality rice.

Eager to tantalize my taste buds further, I grabbed a off the top layer of the nicely-spread platter of white chicken, bringing it to the level of my nostrils to get an appetizing whiff, before putting it to the test that was my taste buds. The classic-roasted restaurant-quality Hainanese Chicken was relatively more succulent (by a mile, in fact), yet hardly as smooth as the sauce-drenched white chicken in neighbourhood hawker centres that I was accustomed to.

Yes, picky perhaps, but considering that the Chicken Rice in front of me costs approximately 7x as much as your conventional, everyday plate of chicken rice, at a whooping $21.50, I figured that it would only be natural that one would scrutinize all the way down to the underside of the plate just to find the value of where the extra cost went.

In front of her, her bowl of Lobster Laksa was extravagantly presented with two halves of lobster, in portions that were hardly sloppy at all. Richly cooked with the appropriate amount of saltiness, spice and a tinge of sweetness, the Lobster Laksa was easily in the upper-tier of Laksas; of course, the presence of the Lobsters hardly hurt the judgment passed at all. The overall bright orange-tinge of the gravy, complimented with the extravagant serving of lobsters, gave the dish a somewhat flamboyant and obviously upmarket look, instantly validating the $33 price-tag *ahem* tagged to the dish.

Lobster Laksa: Pageant Dish

I reached out to grab 1 of the 7 Fried Dumplings and took a bite off the steaming hot delicacy. With a crispy golden-roasted skin and juicy prawn-fillings, the Fried Dumplings had the taste of familiarity, but with the juiciness kicked into overdrive. What set it apart from the everyday dumplings was when it was thoroughly dipped in the given Wasabi Mayonnaise, endowing the dumplings with a hint of wasabi-bitterness subtly hidden underneath the richness of the mayonnaise.

Fried Dumpling: The Secret's in the Sauce

After moving full circle around the table, I continued to indulge further in my platter of chicken, all while experimenting with the 3 different sauces that were provided, Chilli Sauce, Soy Sauce and Traditional Green Ginger Paste. I realized that the drier texture of the chicken actually complimented the sauces really well, especially with the viscous, black soy sauce provided. But the real money shot hit when I reached the bottom layer of the chicken platter. Soaking it in the light sauce at the bottom of the oddly-shaped bowl, the true flavours of the chicken erupted in my mouth, satisfying my eager taste buds, finally validating the relatively hefty price-tag on my chicken rice.

Perhaps this principle applies to our choice of romantic partners as well. Whereas some of *ahem* us, have our values instantly validated upon the look and feel of our presentations, with an appetizing personality only serving to match up to our initial impacts; there are others who are seemingly simple and a lot more ordinary upon face value, but only to have the true value validated much later into the meal. I believe that she and I are one and the other, but no prizes for correct guesses on who's who though.

Cheeky on Chubby

But whatever the value of the dish, the true value in fine dining comes very much from beyond the platter, as the price encompasses the entire experience of the meal. The feeling of being able to dine amid the atmosphere, painted red and black with the brushes of traditional Chinese furniture against a fusion-based backdrop, more that accounted for the value that was bought with the respective prices stated on the menu with its staple of upmarket local delights.

Again, perhaps similarly, Romance can be seen in this sense as well. As the entire thing about Romance is that it is greater than the sum of its parts; it is essentially doing all the seemingly unnecessary, going the extra mile to put the signified being the signifier, adding an additional layer of meaning to the seemingly ordinary; all in the name of an Experience or a Memory. And yes, deep down under the dark exterior, vampires innately know how to pull the strings of behind the scenes of said Romance, or at least that's what I've had hypnotizing her into believing, hah.

Better Late than Never