This week went by in a flutter. Literally. Incessant fluttering of my stomach after catching a gastrointestinal virus. I’ll skip the sordid details, but in five days I ate just over five meals, and visits to the toilet number many more counts than that. I was tracing back to what I have eaten, but that’s a lot of food to trace (what’s new…), so in a case where there’s an overwhelming number of suspects, taking the blue pill seemed the wiser choice.

I was watching The Matrix the other day, and I couldn’t help but noticed that I took the movie more seriously. It wasn’t just about bullet-dodging scenes and cool shades; I understood as a direct representation of Plato’s allegory of the cave. Taking philosophy in school is akin to taking the red pill, or getting out of the cave. I’m not assuming that philosophy itself is closer to truth, but it forces you to consider what exactly is closer to truth. Huh? I know I’ve lost many of you by now, and I’m not going to explain myself because that would amount to forcing people to their red pills. Morpheus gave Neo a choice (although I would admit that Neo’s choice was non-existent). I would maintain that in some cases, ignorance is bliss.

But it comes with a hefty price, just like what I had to pay for a ticket to Savour 2014. Nonetheless, it turned out to be a positive and inspiring experience. We tasted a wide array of food prepared in temporary kitchens by a variety of chefs from everywhere, although the variety was not as wide as we wanted it to be because some restaurants weren’t available on the day we went to the event. Some delicious oysters made up for that. . The food from Mikuni was great too – miso braised beef and truffle kampachi. Yet for me, the highlight was the demonstration by Chef Ryan Clift from the Tippling Club, during which he made an ingenious faux pear with beurre noisette sorbet. The sorbet had the rich flavour of brown butter, yet it was refreshing to the palate. More restaurants to add to the hit list, at the same time less money for our wallets…

That was last weekend. This weekend, after a week of battling the virus and catching up with work, I decided to “let the wind take me” and enjoy a day without having to think about time, schoolwork, or utopia.  The wind brought me to Nylon Coffee Roasters, opened by a couple with tenacity and passion towards which my admiration grows. The place and their coffee deserves a post of their own, so I’ll write more about it another day. In short, Sunday morning entailed great coffee with a lovely ambience. It seemed to me like some, if not all, worries were momentarily washed away by the much-awaited rain (finally huh). Here’s to a good week ahead!

http://www.savour.sg/