Thursday, March 28, 2024

Unsatisfied Palate

By Hervey Angelo F. Avenido | Chunchun Maru

Vol. XCI No. 15

Jan. 24, 2020


Everyone loves food, may it be the heavy taste of steaming juicy beef brisket or the lean taste of mixed vegetables in a salad. “A fuel that feeds the very batteries of the human body” is probably the perfect comparison that tells the story of why food has become the thing that most of us can’t live without; a flavored and edible mood-changing object that either pleases or displeases. A very popular example that clearly shows the influence of food on a person is, an angry girlfriend. 

Feed an angry girlfriend a good one, and she’ll love you for the rest of the day. Feed her bad food, and maybe even the ghosts in the corner of your room will flee against the doubled wrath of an angry girlfriend. We wouldn’t want that, would we? 

As much as people claim that good food is the reason behind a good mood, some services in the food industry here in Dumaguete disregard this simple belief and prepare food just for the sake of having food on their serving table regardless of the taste: uncovered food that cools the dish that is best eaten warm, food popularly known for its flavor and spice now taste bland and tasteless, and most of the variety of food here in Dumaguete ends with a name of silog, and that’s for the budget-friendly ones. 

For the more expensive ones, the problem remains the same.  A pricey tag for food that doesn’t taste the way it is supposed to be, for bland and tasteless food, for a poor and tasteless remake of other places’ signature dishes (i.e. sinigang, satti, and etc.), and for food with so little portions that don’t even satisfy. Others, serving something else besides what they are promoting; take for example the famous unli-wings service actually serving unli-breast. There are however a few good ones that are worth the expensiveness, but people won’t always eat expensively, won’t they?

There are countless different food from different provinces that could be taken as inspiration to improve taste and service here in Dumaguete, but why do some still serve mediocre dishes that don’t even live up to the price tag it prides itself in? Do people really pay for the quality of the food? Or just the name of the place where the food is made regardless of how bad and tasteless they cook it? Either way, people have no other choice but to put up with it as these are the only places available for the people here in Dumaguete. In the end, home-cooked meals tailored to fit the preferences of the people are far better off than eating out. Until Dumaguete’s restaurants improve, people are better off cooking their own food in their own houses and maybe order a box of Alberto’s cheap and delicious pizza.

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