Title of my autobiography: “But why?”

When I finally write this autobiography, people will invariably ask, “But why?” And I’d be like, “Exactly.”

So, when a friend confessed that soup was one of his favourite things, I wanted to ask, “But why?” My friend isn’t a senior citizen, nor are his teeth plastic like mine. What kind of Millennial chooses soup as their favourite food?

My favourite food used to be sushi, but since visiting Japan in 2014, I’ve been disgusted by the quality of most of the sushi found here: the rice is often poorly prepared, and restaurants tend to go overboard with the specialty rolls. 2016’s trip to Mexico, thankfully, did not ruin burritos for me, so as long as I’m not in Japan, vegetarian burritos are my ichiban (that’s Japanese for number one).

Now that I’ve got an acrylic sheath over my front teeth, preventing me from biting into food, burritos are no-go. My soup enthusiast friend saw this as the opportunity to defend his favourite meal and loaned me a cookbook containing 65 soup recipes. Along with this book, I also lugged a 10kg tome of assorted recipes to be served on a plate home.

I was ready to give one of the soup recipes a try until I came across this on Reddit. It’s a rice bear sleeping in a beautiful garden of broth:

If I had to choose a favourite country of those I’ve visited, it would be Japan. The Japanese are aggressive about making things cute.

I LIVE FOR CUTENESS.

I mean… PandaBus? With eyelashes and a bow!

Even their No Smoking sign was adorable. Again with the bow and eyelashes!

I had to recreate Rice Bear.

So I did:

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I think I nailed it, albeit with a couple of strategically placed tofu cubes for presentation. I did this without a step-by-step guide, which I feel is commendable.

I sure have made strides in my culinary skills since 2009. Indeed, I was responsible for this abomination:

When I don’t have the time nor energy to prepare something cute, I have Gwyneth Paltrow’s Banana Salad to fall back on: