The Perfect Meal.

If you had one last meal to eat, what would it be? It would obviously have to be the perfect meal. The mother of all meals? All your favorites whipped onto one meal. This question has been asked several times in the newspapers and asked in my Anthony Bourdain book that I was reading. Is there such thing as a perfect meal?

In my platonic search for gastronomic perfection, I have gone through many restaurants, hawker centers and coffee shops throughout Singapore gauging and tasting looking for good food in Singapore. But is "good food," just dependent on my taste? Science has often shown that people have different taste buds. In a test to taste bitterness, a chemical was used in a taste test and it was a 50-50 result. Some could taste it, some could not. Doesn't that mean that what food or dish is tasteful to me might not be tasteful to another, hence the perfect meal or that best dish is actually not that great and not that perfect?

Is the perfect meal dependent on the techniques cooked or the emotions and memories they invoke. Like women craving chocolate, its not jut because chocolate is delectable but it invokes comfort and memories of good time and at the same time provides some kind of sexual relief? Or is it the flash frying of the fried rice at Din Tai Fung that makes the fried rice fantastic?

I personally am dumb founded because I don't have a perfect meal and I probably won't even know what I want to eat if I knew I were to die tomorrow; simply because if I knew I was going to die tomorrow, I wouldn't want to be caught eating. I would be telling people that I love how much I love them and going to a corner and curl and getting ready to die. I know how I want to die though but only my wife knows that!

Truth is, I like good food and I have to say that as much as my mood is dependent on it, I have to eat my wontan noodles, char siew and roast pork rice and hainanese chicken rice at least once a week. Crazy? You bet. I hear stories of how my wife could eat pancakes for dinner for 2 years growing up in Wisconsin so I don't think I have that bad a habit.

The perfect meal or the last meal has to be a perfect storm. The mood that I am in. The people I am with. The restaurant I am at. The food that is being served. The service of the restaurant. The ambiance created by the restaurant. And the state of my mind. A great example of this was the dinner I had on my birthday at Valentinos. I was in a great mood because it was my birthday. All the friends I love were there, the food served was fantastic (never had such great oso bucco before ... or ever!), the ambiance was homely and warm, service was excellent as usual and the state of my mind was nothingness, because I was satisfied. If I died in my sleep that night. I would feel that I was satisfied because all was good with the world.

I guess what I am trying to say is that despite all these write ups and reviews from so many people including myself about food and restaurants, the only person, the only thing that is the most important to even decide how good food is, or how delicious it is: is you. The reader.

Perfection is subjective but the power to pontificate of vilify food still lies with you.

So what is the perfect meal?