1F's Cultural Fusion

My form class was buzzing with excitement today, because for that day, every Sec 1 class had to execute a project, called Cultural Fusion, that they had been working on tediously for the past term. Each class would have to create their own restaurant, and their restaurant must have their unique theme of combining two cultures together (e.g. Thai + Chinese = 'Tai-Chi'). With that, they also had to whip up fusion dishes according to that theme. The whole class was divided into groups, each in charge of various aspects like Food, Decor, Invitation, Logistics etc.

My class's theme was 'Itadian' (i.e. Italian + Indian) and I was invited to sample their cooking at 10.30am (each class was allowed to invite a maximum of 6 teachers). When I went to their classroom, those students had already spruced up the classroom, set the tables (with cute romantic candles!) and played soothing music. Upon seeing me, one of them dragged me to sign the guestbook before seating me down at a table opposite Ah Tan. We were then served our food.

Ah Tan and I, with the head chef and servers behind us

It was really refreshing to see those kids getting so into the act, with the servers trying to speak Italian and one of them actually dressed up as a chef, complete with a curly thin moustache drawn above his lips (However, that was just for show - he was not the one doing the cooking).

Ah Tan and I were first served this Spicy Crazy Mee Goreng with pineapple salad, which really tasted good. Dessert was this apricot bread pudding topped with sliced almonds, raisins and a cherry. I was delighted by its eggy taste and creamy texture until Ah Tan cautioned me against eating too much because she (being the kitchen supervisor that day) oversaw the student cooks in the Homec kitchen using one whole block of butter for the pudding. So that amounted to about a quarter block for that cup of pudding I was feasting on. I shivered and quickly pushed it aside (after snacking on the almonds). We were then served this iced apple blended, which was no longer 'iced', and had a mushy texture. They should have strained away the pulp, but heck, I gulped down the drink anyway.

Ah Tan and I had to give feedback in the form of ratings, which would help pull up their project marks. Ah Tan left to visit other classes after finishing her meal, while I stayed on to be tortured by my students. Some of them tried to make me finish my food, some tried to grill me for information on the promotion criteria for Sec 2, and some were bitching to me about who did the least amount of work, who created the most trouble, who was not contributing at all, who was unhygienic in food preparation etc etc etc.

Marshall trying to feed me broccoli using the 'aeroplane' trick

I thoroughly enjoyed myself, but till today, I still could not understand how their dishes were related to their theme (for once, Mee Goreng is not even an Indian dish).