Welcome to Calvin's Gastronomical Digest!

Fortnightly (or sometimes weekly) food-and-drink related posts to sate your curiosity and sometimes, appetites. Watch this space for a variety of gastronomic topics, recipes and opinions from your friendly neighbourhood nerd.

Yes, this is a stock photo from wix.com. Until I can learn to photograph food decently in a manner where you, dear reader, won't be ripping your eyes out, photos miggghhhtttt be restricted to an occasional mandatory presence in a sea of words. (Where photos are necessary to do justice to the topic at hand, bear with me while I hone my snappy craft.)

Why Food and Drinks?

“To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.” -François de La Rochefoucauld

Now that the mandatory snooty quote is out of the way, why would I write about food and drinks? Well, anyone who knows me well enough knows that I am "gastronomically inclined." I prefer to think that I'm passionate and that I immerse myself in the knowledge of whatever I happen to indulge in, as an additional layer of enjoyment. Yes, I'm the type to eat a plate of amazing nasi lemak, and then read on my phone about the history of nasi lemak on wikipedia. Do I need a life? Am I in dire need of mindfulness meditation routine? Go figure!

The Purpose of This Site

I will HOPEFULLY be posting tons of engaging content. My inner circle will know that I tend to disappear down a rabbit hole of obsession with seemingly random topics I encounter daily. I fixate on some of these topics and inhale facts and knowledge fervently, and I (MAYBE PERHAPS POSSIBLY) overwhelm some of my peers.

With this site, the aim is to:

• Provide an outlet for my nerd rants so that I still have friends after I'm done with certain obsessions.

• Hopefully share some of my enthusiasm for food and drinks and (cough cough) "inspire" you to explore gastronomic experiences

• Educate and entertain you, the reader, with facts, an occasional figure or two, and some deeper knowledge on what constitutes good food.

Who knows, this site might even provide some conversation topics for you to impress a date or a potential business client!

I will also write the occasional opinion piece on what I think about the current state of food; not just in Singapore, but also across the world. I believe that food is highly interconnected with social affairs and politics: the two topics are intertwined whether we like it or not. While I will aim to keep political discussion and scathing expository to a minimum, it is also my intent to highlight that what goes into our food goes beyond simply taste and aesthetics. Hopefully, through reading my posts, you the reader may be more able to make educated choices about what you put into your bodies.

Cheers!

Calvin Wong

8/9/2021.