Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories

Such a lush treat for the eyes and heart.

Food's such an integral cornerstone of everyday life, and I love how Netflix pays tribute to this through sense of place in a traditional diner so small it can barely fit eight huddled around an open kitchen.

Binged 4 episodes tonight and the last was especially heartwarming. It's a typical story of love and opposites - Japanese physicist meets Korean nightclub girl in diner, they fall in love, she learns to cook his favourite omu rice from Master, but parents from both sides oppose due to debt and cultural differences. She returns to Korea to help with her parents' diner while he sadly devotes himself to his work, till one day he hears that there's a popular restaurant in Korea selling omu rice which the lady chef had learnt from a little diner in Japan. He flies over and spends every day conducting his physics research, patiently learning Korean to win her parents over.

The episode never lets us in on the ending (did they get together? did they not?) and to be honest i don't care because that's not the point -- the food is. This series shows us what food truly is. Not the rabid segregation of food groups and counting of macros, nor a product of consumerism to photograph and share on social media. Not just a plate of onions, ham, leftover rice, ketchup and eggs - but a dish melded from these elements to create a multi-sensorial experience that people interact with, attribute meaning to and (un)consciously remember. Food memory.

I sound like a geek..... Someone once asked who my idol was and i instinctively replied Tan Hsueh Yun ha ha.

Today during yoga class i suddenly remembered the heavy taste of almond paste, so vivid i could almost taste it on my tongue. Not almond butter but a faux almond-flavoured sugary paste with chopped almonds. It took all of 5min to realise where i'd had it. So much for "clear your mind of all thoughts" -