Master Chef strikes again!

Stop playing Halo 3 if you misread the title. Master Chef, of course, refers to me. If you remember, my previous culinary creations include Cold Soba Noodles (with sesame oil somemore), Baked Pasta with Sardines (which was horrible) and Breakfast Muffins with Canned Salmon. The hyperlinks are working a little oddly now, you have to click the links repeatedly for a minute before being directed to the relevant posts.

My family went to Malaysia for my grandmother's birthday so I had the chance to do a couple of dishes that have been bugging me for a while. The first was poached salmon, simply dressed with with oil and whatever herbs or herbs-like ingredients I can find. It turned out okay but then again, how can you fuck up poached salmon?

The second was spaghetti in Alfredo sauce. My desire to prepare this dish stems from my first tasting of it when I was eight years old. At that point of time, my father, the sole breadwinner, was still working his way up the company and as a result, I did not have many chances to eat food that was normally served in nice sit-in restaurants. But, we were at this European food fair at basement of Ngee Ann City, crowded as fuck and there I was, having my first ever taste of pasta, with tears in my eyes.

Then again, that might have been due to my mother hitting me because I could never shut the fuck up or keep still like a normal child. But ahh, I'm digressing, still can't shut the fuck up. I remember it being a small plastic cup of flat noodles in a white creamy sauce (fettuccine in Alfredo sauce) and after finishing it, I looked up at my parents with a smile and probably some cream around my lips (insert inappropriate joke). I remember saying, "I like this." and my parents encouraged me to get one more cup, "Go on, go ask the man over there. (HAHA we don't have to feed the little fucker for dinner HAHA)"

With a dramatically slow turn of my head, I looked over to the pasta booth.

I couldn't see shit.

Fuck! I was really short so I had to move a few steps so I can actually see behind the booth and the man preparing the pasta was this huge man, as Italian as they come. 80s' moustache, thick hairy arms and a red cap on his head. Wait, that's another Italian guy I was thinking of. Just take away the red cap and there he is, the man behind the pasta booth. Summoning all the undeveloped balls I had at that time, I walked towards him. He noticed me and he stopped scooping fettuccine into small plastic cups for the other cheapskate Singaporeans, his hands now on his sides.

I looked up at him, "Hello, can I have one more?" His scowl broke into confusion and then into a huge smile.

"HAHAHA Why-Ah of course-ah! You can-ah have-ah more-ah!"

He scooped me an overflowing cup of pasta and patted me on the head before waving to my parents and I walked back, all cocky now because I was making the first step towards Singaporean citizenship: Getting a second serving of free samples.

I looked back at the Italian stereotype and even though he was busy, he smile and nodded at me.

There it was, my precious first pasta experience. Hence, my decision to make my own Alfredo sauce for my dinner. Butter, milk, cheese, parsley, some more cheese and oil, wasn't hard to prepare at all, just a matter of adding the right amount. In fact, I got an idea of preparation by looking at the ingredients list on a can of Alfredo sauce in NTUC. The spaghetti was done nicely, not al dente, but good enough. I then poured my precious cream all over her face the spaghetti and I took a bite. My first pasta meal created from scratch.

I know it has become a trademark of mine to disappoint after dramatic build-ups but I can't do that this time, because it really tasted good. Add some mushrooms, bacon bits and maybe a few more sprigs of whatever herbs they use, and I'm ready to run that shame of a franchise, Pastamania, out of business. I'm going to call my chain "Rastamania", a reference to the unique herbs that I will be using.