And so it is

Just like you said it would be.

Third time's the charm. 

It's been 1 year and 4 months since I had the first idea to start this.

I wrote a couple of things. Then life got in the way.

6 months ago, I was inspired to kickstart this again, and I quipped how it'd been 10 months since the first time, wrote something, and life came by again.

6 months later, look where we're at again.

Has it ever happened to you? You say you'd like to do something, then you get busy. You go on doing your other things. You get busier. Rinse, repeat.

And all of a sudden, boom, you're stuck at this place looking back at all the time that has passed.

I don't believe in New Years' Resolutions - I don't ever make them. But a few days ago, I posted yet another Instagram stories post that was really just a hidden blogpost. And I thought to myself, gosh, I need an outlet for all these thoughts.

And so, here I am, trying this again.

I leave you with the original post, dated Sep 23 2017.

It's a long read, and I promise later posts will be more concise - the past year has taught me a lot about tl;dr - if you'll join me on this Journey, Storytelling through Food.

Note: not everything still holds true; life has changed since then ;) Feedback, suggestions and CSAT are greatly welcome.

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"And so it is."

Originally written Sep 23 2017

Where do I begin?

It all started a fine Friday evening a few weeks ago. I was baking Lemon Tea Custard bread and thought to myself, "aaah, if only I could do this all day. That would be The Life." That sparked off a lengthy thought process and a few short, but important conversations.

I love food. Cooking, baking, eating. I enjoy the multi-sensory experience - food is enjoyed with all 5 senses, not just taste. I don't just eat to live; I live to eat. I'm always looking forward to my next meal, always on the hunt for interesting new eats - new places and concepts; innovative flavours, tastes and dishes. Good food puts me in a great mood. I'm passionate about food.

I'm idealistic and I like to think that if you truly love what you do, work won't feel like work. It's important to me that I love what I do. We should spend our time pursuing something that truly inspires us, that motivates us to keep going and challenge ourselves.

This got me thinking - perhaps exploring something food-related would be worth considering. Cooking is an art; it's a form of expression; it's a universal language. A chef's character comes out through his food. It's a tool he or she can harness to share ideas - on flavours, concepts, inspirations, memories, and so much more - with the world. One of the most impactful and also mind-blowingly delicious dishes I've had was a dessert named "My favourite childhood memory" by Chef Jason Tan at Corner House.

2018 comment: gosh, this was in Nov 2016. I had a note that says "<describe dish here>" and I can..barely remember what it was. Yes apparently it was my birthday.

We were told to try each component separately, then eat it all together. The sweet and savoury came together perfectly (I also absolutely love gula melaka) - it was like an explosion of flavours in the mouth and pretty mindblowing how the combination worked - but we weren't huge fans of the meringue and felt it didn't add much to the dish.

We thought it was a delicious end to an already great meal. But after the meal, on our way out, we happened to meet Chef Jason who offered us a ride out on the buggy as it was a long walk (..we were also the last ones to leave and were probably holding him up from going home, oops!). We politely declined as we wished to take a stroll through the Gardens, but told him we loved his food - it was so unique, the flavours were clean, fresh and came together in a way very different from other fine dining establishments. He described his style as "gastrobotanical" - he believes in bringing out the flavours of the fresh ingredients through his dishes, conceptualisations and intepretations.

And then we talked about the dessert.
"At the breakfast table, there's always kaya and peanut butter. Sweet and savoury. You always have to decide which to eat. But I always thought, why not eat both together? And so I always spread both on my bread." And suddenly it all made sense. The meringue represented the bread. The pandan ice cream, the kaya. And that delicious gula melaka spread on the plate (which I mopped up all of) and crunchy delicious nibs (you know those delicious morsels of stuff you always see in plated desserts that you have no idea what it is but it's so delicious you eat it all? Yep, those.) - the peanut butter. "Eat it all together". That was his favourite childhood memory.

That was the first time I felt I could truly relate to a dish. Most interesting food in Singapore circa 2016 weren't from local chefs and whilst I enjoy their food, there's sometimes a disconnect as many flavours are new, unfamiliar. But this was familiar. Comforting. I felt that I understood. That made the dish even more mindblowing, and brought my enjoyment of the dish and entire meal, experience to the next level.

Thinking back, that was also probably the first time I truly understood what storytelling through food meant, and was pivotal in shaping how I view dining as an experience, not just to fill the tummy. (In the hustle and bustle of my day to day life, unfortunately that's often what meals become though..) 

Anyway, back to the point. I came to realise food is something I'm truly passionate about. What else am I passionate about? Driving change, creating positive impact, making a difference. Always challenging myself and always improving. These are certainly not mutually exclusive. I've been encouraging a friend who's similarly passionate about both food and coffee to open his own restaurant or cafe in the future. He can continue to experiment with flavours and explore concepts, and share these with the world. Diners. To create happy experiences and memories. Perhaps we could open a joint venture together in the far far future, I thought. Since I still have a long way to go in terms of levelling up my baking and cooking skills if I ever wanted to do anything. Dreams for when we are successful and can do whatever we want. I parked that idea aside, and got swept up into everything else again.

2018 fun fact: I happened to show said friend this post, and he quoted this section, instantly recognising himself :')
Fun fact 2: I still have a long way to go in levelling up my skills. Not much progress there.

A few weeks later, I attended the "Great Women of our Time 2017" forum organised by Women's Weekly. A key theme was, how do you keep going in spite of everything?

2 things: purpose, and priorities. Know your purpose, and ensure your priorities fit that purpose.

The keynote speaker mentioned she wants to create positive impact. That really resonated with me. What was my purpose? Where do I see myself down the road? Is what I'm doing now going to get me there?

This, along with having the opportunity to meet so many young, inspirational and successful women led me to comment to a friend, "#whatamidoingwithmylife?"

"You are doing fine," he said. "Path to success is different for everyone, or even what success means."

"Perhaps you could be the first person to discover the recipe to a fat-free guilt free cake and you are no less a formidable force!"

That got me thinking. That'd be pretty awesome. I always struggle with my love for desserts and the sinfulness of it all. It would be a great idea to explore more healthy bakes. I told this friend my thoughts around doing something food related and that his comment was giving me all sorts of ideas. Perhaps it would be something to explore. "Yesss! You have a great palate and you have a talent in telling stories about food. Most importantly, you derive so much joy through it!"

He was absolutely right. We just had a cocoa beetroot avocado vegan cake in the office the previous day which was absolutely delicious and I allowed myself two slices because it was that good, and I believed it was healthy. In addition, whilst I loved the cake (along with my colleague who is even more into Wellness than I am, and another who is going vegan and whom we bought this cake for as it was her birthday), responses from everyone else ranged from "it's interesting.." to only eating one bite of it for a taste. Almost everyone was extremely skeptical before eating it and I daresay felt it would never compare to a "normal" cake even before tasting it.

Despite the increasing awareness of the need for "Wellness" and a wholesome, healthy diet, many have the conception that healthy foods are bland and not tasty. That salads are not filling. Which is most certainly not true - the "CBD style protein salads" like Daily Cut and Omnivore serve huge servings that make me food coma all the time. The sous vide chicken breast from Wafuken was literally THE most tender and delicious chicken breast I'd eaten in my life up till that point.

There are so many misconceptions about food.

About "healthy food", about "expensive food" and "fine dining", just to name a few.

There are also so many ideas, concepts, techniques to be explored around food, that many don't know or realise simply because we don't think about it.

I freaked out on a friend yesterday because he said something to the effect that a sponge cake and chiffon cake were the same thing. They are not!

Americano vs Long Black. Same same but different. Did you know?

How can we change these preconceptions and shift mindsets, to better equip the average person with knowledge on these things, such that they can ultimately how to treat (and feed) themselves and their bodies better? This will improve their lives, create positive impact and drive change. It is challenging to shift these mindsets. And it is centered around food. If all fails, at least we can share fun facts that'd interest them?

I'm always sharing (and spamming) good eats on Instagram / Stories - when the food is good, I feel the need to share this with my friends because it's so good, THEY HAVE TO TRY IT TOO. Good things must share, right?

Storytelling through food.

That sounded like the perfect idea. I had a completely random but throughly enjoyable and thought-provoking conversation with a good friend where I happened to bring up the food thing. She asked if I was interested in food writing but I'd brushed it off. Nahh, writing for a magazine and stuff ain't for me, I thought. But I never thought about it from the angle of storytelling through food.

And so that's what brought me here.

To be honest, I'm not yet sure what the value proposition of this is yet (yes, I am was a consultant after all - it's a work hazard!). Am I going to write about healthy eating? Am I going to debate about the same same but different things in food that most people don't care about? Or am I going to post food reviews? Probably a combination of it all. But why do we need another food blog? There's already so many out there. They all provide similar offerings with limited differentiation (consultant speak again).

This is not yet another food blog.

This, I promise. I bring a differentiated value proposition with my (attempt at) witty writing and will aim to increase awareness of all things food related - concepts, techniques, ingredients, and of course, the latest restaurants - and about the world and life, as I eat my way through.

A little bit of everything - life is about balance. Balance is one of the keys to overall wellness and leading a happier, fulfilling life. It's embodied in omtonom - by now, I'm sure you've thought, "what the damn hell is this random amalgamation of letters - omtonom?! How do I even read that?!" Along with food, yoga is a huge part of my life.

Yoga has made me a lot more aware, of everything. Of myself, of what's around me, of what's holding me, of what I need to be more mindful and aware of.

I practice yoga because I love how it makes me feel - both physically and mentally, and it's also how I shifted from a couch potato who didn't exercise at all to someone who tries to do yoga "all day erryday". It's that little bit of exercise I do, which helps to burn off some of those calories from all my desserts and noms.

I om so I can nom.

I don't claim to know it all, and I struggle with Balance and Wellness myself. But hey; I'm embarking on this journey of storytelling through food and omming to nom, to achieve better balance and wellness for myself, and I hope you can join me in this journey and that there will be positive impact created for you :)

And so it begins.