Italian or Asian....?

So I went to explore little more of my surrounding environment, and found a fabulously amazing supermarket that sells products easily available in NZ. So instead of making asian style dinner; as I have been doing for most of my month in Jakarta, I decided to make a fancy Italian for change!!

Eggplants, courgetts, mushrooms, yellow capsicums, tomatoes, cannelloni beans, cooked with fresh garlic (what a pity I didn’t have any fresh basil or olive oil!).  Grilled chicken breast, water cress salad and garlic bread on the side!!  Now I was ULTRA happy.

But the funny thing is, besides the different combination of vegetables, it is hardly any different to what I’ve been cooking for my asian meals – garlic, salt and vege.  But having a different combination of vegetables was already enough to make this tasty dinner taste like Italian, not Asia. And it is AMAZING what small things like that can influence culture and flavour perception of food.

At the end of the day, that’s what my job is all about.  Creating a seasoning – a flavour to enhance the appetite of customers of various country, religion, ethnicity, gender and culture.  For me, a simple difference in food like this puts me in utterly good mood.  When I have a good meal that is exactly how I wanted, I am happier than ever – almost as happy if I’ve been dancing the whole night non stop.

In the past week or so, I’ve been training myself to know the different flavours used in this country, both artificial and natural. Some of the ingredients are really good quality that even the diluted flavour for profiling makes me hungry.  But then when it comes to trying the finished product, I’m not even slightly motivated to eat.  More closer to hesitating to eat actually. Now I’m just wondering, does this feeling come from the fact that I’m just not familiar yet, or I’m just stubbornly in love with the “real flavours” I guess I’ll find out once I start making my own seasoning!!  Knowing the core ingredients are definitely important though, the more I understand the individual flavours, more am I inspired to apply that ingredient in my cooking.  Now what a shame that I haven’t been getting that inspiration over with seasoning alone.....

Oh well, at least I’m starting to like my work.  A month and a half since I’ve started work with this company, I finally understand what my future road is going to look like.