Interview With Elle Singapore (With The Naughty Bits)

“I saw you in a Women’s magazine!” exclaimed TTC, “actually, it was my wife who saw you”. I was about to give the Madonna Defence (I was young and I needed the money), when I remembered receiving a questionaire from Lu Jing Shia of Elle almost 2 months ago on their “Insider” issue.

It was a great fun and gave me a glimpse of how hectic the schedules were for print materials (hi Pau Ling! Hi Hsueh Yeng!) I wish I had more time to do a funnier interview, but alas. The final version was more severely cut than Sushi and that changed the intent of certain phrases, so here’s the full uncut version with the naughty bits:

(Oh yes, I wish they’d used the photo above because I think photos of people peering over LCD screens is so 5 minutes ago.)

How did it all start?
- It all started when my friends (and I) started to forget where and what we ate, who we ate with last night. Something had to be done to preserve what organic memories cannot; something carved in stone like Sillicon so that we can review our repast in stunning digital format.

Why food blogging? What’s the obsession with food?
-A blog is a great way to preserve memories for later consumption, much like Marmalade. Obsession is the uncontrollable desire to dwell on an idea or emotion, frequently involving an urge toward some form of action… Hmmm… I’m hungry, are you going to eat that?

Describe how it’s like in the day of a food blogger. Describe a typical day perhaps.
- A typical day would consists of Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Gaps in between are spent procuring resources and planning for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

Do you pay when you go for food reviews?
- I don’t really do reviews (so far only 2) because, while I know how to eat, I really want to enjoy my meal without having to perform a detailed analysis like a medical autopsy because it makes you hate the food you eat. Having said that, I was reimbursed for the meals that I reviewed, in the form of an inter-bank funds transfer.

How often do you go for food review?
- I don’t. But I do have meals with my friends almost every week. I try concientiously to record down what we ate, like an Archivist. The meals are often more funny than I write it.

How do you choose what and where to ~~review~~ eat?
Usually on a whim, mostly through recommendations from friends and family. However, I try not to visit restaurants that have just opened because invariably service and food is below par. I typically wait for about 6-9 months to give them time to settle down and find their groove. Chasing restaurants is a job for professionals.

Is there a secret to successful food blogging?
- With grim determination and a singularity of purpose, you firmly click on the “Publish” button of your blog. After you write something of course. 9 times out of 10, your entry will be published. Success is a state of mind.

Share some of your dirty little secrets (in relation to food blogging) that we may delight in? Not something that will spoil your reputation but something that readers don’t know about you perhaps?
- I see dead people. Haha! Not really, although I was told that one dinner I missed had a few uninvited “guests” hanging about. Fortunately, that restaurant has been demolished. That would really put a dent in my appetite. My private joy in blogging is to see where my visitors come from. I get mostly people from advertising, legal and government agencies as well as, to my horror, educational institutes like middle school. People younger than the wines I drink are reading my blog! I have toned down my language after finding that out although I sometimes “accidentally” link to goatse images purely to illustrate a point or two about some people. It’s educational really.

Do you go anonymous for food reviews? Relate some experience or incidences and what happens after.
- Like people standing in Trafalgar Square don’t see England, people usually miss me. When alone, I usually choose a quiet corner away from the main floor but with a good view of everyone. I get very embarassed when restaurateurs recognize me, one even recounted a tale of how a customer came to the restaurant with a printout of my blog entry demanding to be served the exact menu. I am very shy.

Do you normally pay? Anytime food was offered for free or the owner decided to give you food on the house after realising who you are.
- Definitely always. My friends and I were invited on several occasions where the stall owner or restaurateur offered free food in exchange for a good write-up. We were not told that until it came for us to pay. Getting free food in exchange for a review or write-up cheapens the craft and dilutes the integrity. While we paid for the meal, I felt so tainted that I turned that blog entry into how the town of Tampines (where the restaurant was located) had a very amusing pronunciation. Think Urotsukidoji. Having said that, I am always pleased when the Chef sends an Amuse Bouche to my table as a way of summarizing the concept for the entire meal in a single bite. It sets our mind in the correct frame to enjoy the meal.

Any interesting bribes you wanna let us know?
- Not really. I am the product of a Quality Singaporean Education System where I learnt that Bribes Are A Bad Thing because The Authorities Will Lock You Up. Besides, I am hardly recognized which is a good thing because frankly, I want to eat in peace and not in pieces because of the pressure from all that scrutiny.

What’s your motto when it comes to food?
– It changes from time to time, once it was Dum vivimus, vivamus, then it became Clamo, clamatis, omnes clamamus pro glace lactis and currently it is Da mihi sis crustum Etruscum cum omnibus in eo. As for blogging, it’s Illegitimis nil carborundum and usually, when dining in Italian restaurants, In dentibus anticis frustrum magnum spiniciae habes.

How long have you been food blogging? Did you gain/lose any weight in that duration? Or better yet, how do you keep fit or you don’t bother at all. Some say a food blogger got to look like someone who eats good food right?
-I’ve been blogging since 2004. I’ve actually lost weight because of all that chewing. I keep fit in a small, securely locked box.

What is your greatest food experiment? Anything you’ve tried at home?
- Teochew Preserved Crabs. Female crabs drowned in soya sauce and after a day or so, everything turns into delicious goo. It was so shocking that it got posted by an alert reader on the BBC forums. At home, I like comfort food like steak, buttered mushrooms, steak, poached eggs, steak; nothing too adventurous.

What and where is the best food you’ve ever tasted. Something you recommend that everyone should try before they die.
- Uni butter on toast made by my friend Casey Tan who is going to be a great Chef some day. Creamy sweet French butter on warm toast punctuated by sparkling Uni is a taste sensation I will remember forever.

Tell us more about this “floggers” dinner. What goes on in there and what do you think about it.
- It’s an excuse for a group of Food Bloggers – we are not floggers as we don’t sell fake watches nor participate in a niche segment of the sex industry – to get together and take photos of food before eating it. I think it’s great fun to see new people every year and to have unfettered fun at snapping photos in a restaurant. While it can be terrifying for the restaurant because it is a double-edged sword to host so many bloggers, I must say so far all the dinners were great. The Chefs worked very hard at the dinners.

In your opinion, what is the future of food blogging?
- The fun thing about the Internet is that with such a huge community it is very hard to predict what will come next. It usually starts small and suddenly we are all overturned from the groundswell. After all, August Everding once said “whoever marries the zeitgeist will be a widower soon”. All I can say to bloggers new and old is Illegitimis Nil Carborundum.