Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Well as much as it pains me to disagree with my favorite student, I must say that the premise of her argument (and all those commentators who agreed with her) seems misplaced. What does it mean for something to taste good? There may be broad categories of flavors about which people agree, but that is just the aggregation of everyone's personal taste.

In the Philippines, Taho was a favorite snack in which tofu was served under a generous slathering of brown sugar and vanilla syrup. One would be hard pressed to taste any soy in this mixture but the texture was like a delicate custard. It brought back memories of past creme broulees I have savored and I always finished every last drop my Taho. Was I mistaken about how good it was?

Having said that, Chichi is no doubt one of the best writers around: clear incisive and thought provoking. She makes me think which I like even if I think her philosophy of food is mistaken.

FP

PS In my defense the picture of my dish above did not reflect the final product. My 89 year old mother was shouting for dinner. Had there been more time, you would have been able to see the tofu mixed in with the orzo and blending in almost completely. I thought the tofu had a nice texture that blended well with the orzo. The tofu tasted meaty, like chunks of tomato in a good sauce.