Keep It Simple, Stupid

As someone from the food writing industry, and more importantly, as someone whose purpose in life is to try and experience as much as possible, I am slowly coming to a realisation. The era of over-engineered, fanciful food and beverages is coming to an end. What started with El Bulli’s genius has run its course. We may have moved away from molecular gastronomy, sorry Hervé This, in restaurants with lesser smoke and mirrors on the plate, but we haven’t moved away from the flash yet. It’s so easy for restaurants, chefs and diners to get seduced by the mirage of a good food experience. A little foam there, a drop of basil oil here, an interplay of unusual ingredients, and there, you have an award-worthy dish. 

Not quite. 

I, and many diners around the world, are getting tired of the bling. Where’s the crux of the story, we ask, as we flip the pages one by painstakingly next one. The prelude is long, the characters unfold slowly, as course after course is served. But with a build-up like that, the main plot falls flat. There is no crescendo. Only chorus. The appetizers often please, sometimes the eye more than the tastebuds, but more often than not, the mains fail to deliver. 

Just when we thought that the days of deconstructed tiramisu and the likes are over (construct my tiramisu please, I didn’t ask for mascarpone and soaked lady fingers to build my own dessert), the sticky trend has moved on to beverages. Cocktails, which used to be a delight, are now a tedious read on a 20-page menu. Crispy ants sprinkled on top, the savoury cocktail trend, and overuse of pandan and such, have rendered the cocktail menu unnecessarily complicated. Where’s the one-pager classic cocktail menu gone? Give me my Old Fashioned with angostura bitters and an orange peel please. Bring back the classics such as my favourite – espresso martini on the menu, and take away your pandan martini or (ugh) an overtly sweetened chocolate martini, for the love of god. 

There’s a movement coming, and not a moment too soon. Good food (and tasty beverages) need to be left well alone. Bring back the bowls of hearty Thai curry, a whole steamed fish dunked in an addictive chilli lime dressing. Let bar foods go beyond oil-drenched croquettes and bring back nuts on the table, or even simple crisps with a flavourful dip. Bring back authenticity in food, and stop hiding behind the smoke and the mirrors. Bring it back, because diners like me are tired of paying top dollar for theatrics. If I want drama, I’ll go to the movies. Bring back lip-smacking, plate-licking, good food, I say. It’s about time.