Food, Glorious Food!

Next time you bite into your favourite chocolate bar, please be forewarned that you might be eating a faux chocolate!

This was succinctly conveyed by Mort Rosenblum in his NYT article "Chocolate Fake'.

Real chocolate is made from crushed cacao beans, which provide not only solid cocoa mass but also cocoa butter that is vital to texture because, quite literally, it melts in your mouth. Industrial confectioners have petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to be able to replace cocoa butter with cheaper fats and still call the resulting product “chocolate.” The reason: the substitution would allow them to use fewer beans and to sell off the butter for cosmetics and such.

He went further to paint us a bleak picture when the guidelines over which cheaper fats could be subtituted for cocoa butter fail to be properly drawn. Mass producers would take advantage of such arbitrary rules to offer chocolates of inferior quality, so much so that the world's population is distinguishable according to the ones who can afford to eat 'real', refined chocolates and those who can only buy off-the-shelf ersatz cocoa products.

I'm horrified to discover that some of the famous chocolate brands that I've consumed over the years are in fact, to borrow the French's epithet, 'cocholat' in a variety of gradations! Being part of that species branded as clueless and guilible consumers, I have this foolish notion that, save for the obvious junkfood items that litter our supermarkets, chocolates, in their purist form, would be religiously exempted from any chemical modifications. How naive I can be in readily bestowing my trust on these so-called goodwill manufacturers!

Since constantly lavishing myself on just echt chocolates would be inconceivable, let alone economically unwise, I have to make do with 'cheap' imitations for my TOTM* choco-craves while vigilantly looking out for that helpful label that says "contains vegetable fats in addition to cocoa butter". Oh well, it is the lesser of two evils. :)
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(Saturday, 10:45 a.m.)
Heaving a sigh of relief for finding a semblance of tv entertainment amid the protracted Wimbledon mania, I was highly amused when one of the Saturday Kitchen's guest chefs, prepared ayam golek with a rojak side salad!

Australian master chef, Tom Kime, regaled us on Saturday morning with his authentic preparation technique which caused the other guest chef, Paul Rankin, to remark that it looks complex and inquire as to whether a 'shortcut' exists. Of course, Mr Kime replied in the negative. Any simplications would simply adulterate this traditional favourite!

This episode in turn brings me to this eye-opening article that I found at Jeff Ooi's late last year.

It centers on James Oseland's cookery book entitled 'Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia'. Through an interview with Mr. Oseland, an average Malaysian reader like myself can't help but to feel proud about her region's rich culinary heritage. Here are some of the praises he has sung:

I tend to think cooking at its highest is an expression of home and of family and its bonds. And I suspect that's one of the reasons that Malaysia produces such miraculous and pure cooking. It's chilled out. People connect to what they eat in as fun and relaxed a fashion as possible, and it ultimately tastes better.

I adore a really good French sauce as much as the next person, but I think a lot of times in the West we conceive of flavor as this very fragile, poetic thing -- and it's almost a kind of miracle when we can sense the faintest essence of sage that once passed through a stock. At that point taste becomes an intellectual conceit more than a sensory one. So there's something about the bold taste of Malaysian food that's just immediately and passionately accessible.

Mr. Oseland also drove home the point the need to "understand the roots, the underpinnings, the histories of a particular food" before attempting to cook its dishes. Granted, a healthy dose of trial and error is permissible so long as the cook gets a feel of the exquisite culture behind the cuisine.

I couldn't agree more. While the food preparation might look complicated at the outset, once you set your heart to patiently plow through it, you will gain momentum and eventually adapt to this 'laborious' cooking style. And believe me, the end results is worth all the toiling in the kitchen!

Next on the menu: Ayam Golek, anyone?

*TOTM = Time of The Month