🍜 Table Talk #78: Instant Noodles Appreciation Society ⏲️

TABLE TALK #78

At Wednesday’s Domaine, we believe in the power of food and drink. We believe in it as a force to bind us together when we sit down for a meal, its ability to unite us in shared interest or in despair as we fail (again) to bake the perfect banana bread.

What we also happen to believe in are the joys of simple food, and today, when I say simple, I mean real simple…

🍡 AMUSE-BOUCHES 🍡

Celebrate: our brilliant illustrator, Alec Doherty, launches his latest collaboration with Paul Smith.
Alcohol free: Ghia founder, Melanie Masarin, on the evolution of alcohol free and her business.
Remember: how one couple became the face of Woodstock. 

PS. It seems there were a few links missing last week, so check them out here, here and here in this week’s mystery link tombola.

🍝 MAIN COURSE 🍝

India Knight, renowned food columnist and regular in The Sunday Times, recently announced her undying and longstanding love of instant noodles, and people didn’t seem too happy. There were comments about her taste and questions over whether subscribers were getting value for money, but for me, it was the kind of revelation we should admire. 

“Several decades on, my love of instant and nearly instant noodles remains absolute… But some days you want something quick that tastes deeply savoury, something comforting but not soporific (quite a small intersection), and in those moments you can’t beat cup noodles — specifically instant ramen, preferably Korean.”

When an esteemed food critic, one with easy access to the world’s best restaurants, says that you sometimes can’t beat instant noodles, you know she’s one of us. And I say us, because if you claim you don’t like instant noodles, you’re either lying or well… lying.

 Customise to your heart's content

Whilst I have a minor quibble with the fact that attempting to eat them shortly after the advertised cooking time is akin to drinking directly from a recently-boiled kettle, the depth of flavour they provide is nothing short of remarkable.

For those budding gourmands amongst you, they also present virtually limitless customisation opportunities, whether through the addition of fresh spring onions, a boiled egg or pickled mushrooms.

Food doesn’t need to be complicated, nor expensive, it just needs to be able to satisfy certain needs at certain moments. And if those needs are screaming out for instant noodles, more power to you.

Sanguine at last week's GANNI dinner

🍮 SWEET ENDINGS 🍮

Farnam Street go deep on what it means to find inner calm in one of their most recent and enjoyable podcasts.