Contemplating the role that ketchup plays in my life.
Retrieved from my memory.
The affair between me and my local KFC is a story I’ve been rehearsing as college icebreakers penetrate my little life: whenever school [in Vietnam] is over, I will find asylum at the KFC next-door, buy a mini fries as a token of residence, sauce each with as much ketchup as possible, and conclude my eating session with at least 2 refills of ketchup. My dad noticed this pattern and scolded me a bit, “You shouldn’t eat that sauce, buy the one at X market with all ingredients on it.
“Why is the best fruit always forbidden?” Yes, Cardi and duh, dad, if only was it that easy. I traveled many supermarkets yet those acclaimed ketchup never have the taste I wanted. They are too sweet and somehow artificial, I need that sourness and “tomatoey” linger that the precious KFC ketchup gives me. I waited for the chance to study in America to stock up my pantry with ketchup. Years later, my US dream came true, though the ketchup quest soon turns sour (oops) as I gradually discover that this American condiment is the most artificial sheet you could ever taste and the science behind its addictiveness is both an intelligent product of design scholarship and a grotesque artwork of capitalism.
Despite those facts, I admit being a sucker for ketchup. I put it on salad, pizza, and even rice, I treat it no less than other functional sauces. On the one hand, I recognize that this must have been the intended result of this product’s designers and food engineers, but on the other hand, admittedly, the mindset I have for ketchup also shapes my identity.
Ketchup constructs my taste bud – a preference for sour dishes and after school snacks: sour mango, tomato-sauced king fish, tomato-sauced tofu, and tamarind fish sauce. It registers in me a wondrous memory of culinary acidity and salivates me with every bite I could have of these dishes, homemade or street-bound.
Ketchup motivates me to go to the States (in a very subconscious manner) and has been keeping me quite pleased with my bland college meals. French fries, boiled eggs, vegetables,… I must say they are the mere devices that carry ketchup to my mouth. From here, I do see myself growing into eating very frugally and it has been my way of life ever since.
Ketchup also affects my current career trajectory: analyzing the success in user/consumer experience design of a product. Fight me if you think that it is all incidental that ketchup is among if not the most consumed condiment(s) globally.
I will continue to document and analyze the role of ketchup in my life until a new condiment grabs my attention.