Philosophical hedonism

I eat, therefore I am

Going on a culinary voyage of discovery is my raison d'être

usually the origin of my happiness

regretfully sometimes a streak of sorrow

because every euro I spend

must be an investment in my taste buds

therefore i will spill all the beans

on an assiette poétique with a beurre blanc philosophique

Click below for the different sections:

(Come back every Monday for more tea)

And/OR: A-

Signatuur: A-

Roji: D-

Madonna: B+

Untitled. : D-

Blueness: F-

The Jane: A+

AND/OR

One of my favourite philosophers, Peter Singer, wrote the famous book Animal Liberation(1975). The argument he cites in the book begins with utilitarianism, (= the greatest happiness for the greatest number). According to him, this is the only measure of ethical action. He extends this towards animals. According to Singer, there is no valid reason why we cannot or should not apply this yardstick to animals.

While I am not a hardcore vegetarian or vegan, I try to use as little animal products as possible in my daily diet.

Dishes containing meat or fish is something I will only eat when I'm at a restaurant, never at home. On the other hand, you will almost never catch me eating anything vegan at a restaurant because experience shows that my own vegetarian cuisine is usually better.

Why should I pay 25 euros for a vegetable pie that barely has any flavour when I can turn it into a sensational dish at home?

Fortunately, there are exceptions like AND/OR that blow me away. This chef absolutely knows how to transform vegetables into true taste sensations. I highly recommend any meat-eater to eat here!

Signatuur

I read on my favourite philosophy website a statement by philosopher Désanne van Brederode. She stated that 'To taste is more like to listen than to transmit' (Conversation with Désanne van Brederode and Michiel Korthals by Ira Pronk on 14 July 2023,

Emancipation of touch, smell and taste , Philosophy Magazine)

For me, this sentence describes the total experience. When you taste, you use all your senses, just like when you consciously listen. You have to look at what is in front of you, you have to understand it fully. You obviously can't smell a conversation but you can sense the smell that surrounds you and sometimes this makes understanding the context a bit easier, doesn't it?

The total experience of tasting, smelling, seeing, feeling AND hearing was omnipresent in Signature.

My heart broke into a thousand pieces when the hostess told us that they were on the last pages of their hospitality story. Indeed, the entire journey through the menu was a sensation of flavours I hadn't tasted in a long time.
From the unique amuse of spinach shaped like a jell-o , to the scrumptious plate of Belgian caviar on a bed of silky-smooth mashed potatoes. I still dream of this divine creation and exquisite combination.

Although the sceptic is actually a philosophical killjoy according to British philosopher Timothy Williamson, scepticism is still a mindset that is peculiar to me.

I was sceptical to dine at Roji restaurant's summer pop up.

And yes, the empirical observation did satisfy the sceptic in me.

In scientific scepticism, the observation must be repeatable.

And so it came to pass.

The woeful repetition of an expensive bill with no cause. (280 euros for 10 sushi rolls? Were these perhaps made with edible gold?)
The embarrassing addition of extremely inept staff. (Surely white wine doesn't sound like rosé? Surely a smile should be standard equipment of people working in hospitality?)

And finally the annoying addition of the soundsystem you could already hear 10km away. (Since when is a restaurant the same as a club where you have to shout to understand your table partner?)

Next time, I'll listen to my inner killjoy with more conviction.

“Garnaalvissers op de beneden-schelde” -  RICHARD BASELEER

Madonna

Like modern hedonistic philosophers, I celebrate life with all my senses.
For me, life is about the pleasure and all the joys of empirical reality.

Rich portions are therefore par excellence, the ideal of a hedonistic life.

Roger Scruton, a British philosopher, argued that art teaches us how to feel.

"(...) It has been argued on several sides that it is art and art alone that is the source of our ideas of beauty, and that if nature sometimes seems beautiful to us it is only because it echoes
something that we first learn to appreciate in art. As a manifestation of the human spirit, art must have a significance wholly unlike that of any natural thing. Indeed, we describe a landscape as beautiful only if it shows the kind of relationship to human
endeavour that is characteristic of an artefact (...)" (Roger Scruton, Art and Imagination, p162) 

Some of the dishes in this restaurant are based on the works of art on display at KSMKA. So when I took a bite from the shrimp croquettes, I envisioned the painting. I was able to taste how the shrimps gad been caught by 'The Shrimp Fishermen of the Lower Scheldt'. How they toiled in the early hours of the morning in search of those sublime sea creatures that would bring me joy on my plate.

How the blue cloudscape and its' light breeze made the salty sea sway.

Untitled.

If your dining companion turns out to be unwell

and the reservation requires a credit card

you wander lonely but confident into the gourmet venue.

Unfortunately, Michel Onfray's quote proved hugely apt,

"Hedonists also want another person to enjoy, not because it is a moral duty, not out of altruism, but because the pleasure of another ultimately enhances one's own pleasure."- (Interview with Michel Onfray by Florentijn van Rootselaar on 06 December 2010, Taste of Life, Philosophy Magazine)

Dining alone when on holiday can be enriching.
In a sunny paradise or on a rainy cliff, it even has something fairytale-like about it. Unfortunately, in your own city it seems rather tragic.

Balancing on a not-so-comfortable seat among the couples in love, I began my solo journey.

The first two dishes were a mad start, my papillae jumping out of the taste plane with pleasure.

A parachute would have come in handy because the descent came rather painfully with the arctic cod dish.

My notes therefore included the poetic 'artic cod = wannabe fancy plane cod' .

No need more words needed.

After dining in Blueness, I immediately thought of Nietzsche's concept of 'Eternal recurrence'. The litmus test, states the recurrence of life and how well you would endure this knowing that everything will recur again.

"What if some day or night a demon were to steal into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: ‘This life as you now live and have lived it, you will have to live once again and innumerable times again; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unspeakably small or great in your life must return to you, all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!’ "- (Nietzsche, the Gay Science, 1882,

Book IV - Aphorism # 341)

If I were to apply the litmus test and I was forced to return to Blueness, we speak of:

the demise of the soul

the defeat of satisfaction.

Or in other words, the tale of me still starving after 5 courses.

Number 1 on the scale of rebound and therefore counting down to redemption in the form of another restaurant where the portions are big enough.

Can anyone tell me how 1 gyoza per person equals a full course? Not to mention the one oyster that preceded this and turned out to be the first course of disillusion.

The Jane

Oh the Jane.

Even though it was years ago, even though I was younger than Jesus on his deathbed.

Still, this remains the best thing since sliced bread

It was worth the long wait. Or as Epicurus said:

'Do not indulge in pleasure here and now if it has to be paid for later with a lack of pleasure. Refrain from that. Better: choose lack of pleasure now if it leads to pleasure later. So avoid the pure celebration of the moment. For pleasure without consciousness is nothing but the demise of the soul.' - Epicurus

For wait you shall! We booked 6 months in advance. We had to confirm our reservation 3 times by mail, by phone, by credit card, by pledging our first-born child.

Only then thou are deemed worthy to taste the 16 courses of the earthly paradise.

After 16 courses and 16 glasses of wine (selected wines with each course yes thank you sir), I couldn't actually walk anymore. Or at least not on the heels I was wearing.

This too contributes to the high score.