Clam Chowder- My new lover

I consider myself as a very arrogant and dominant Asian guy. And if someone says "ok! let me change your mind", I will say" no, thanks". However, since I have become a GBC culinary student, those thoughts have been replaced by open-minded ideas of several dishes that I experienced although the pandemic is still around. One of the dishes that participated in changing my arrogant thinking is Clam Chowder.

The first time I tried it once I had a soup-making assignment in week 4 of the culinary foundation class. I was surprised and amazed by the flavors trapped in this soup. It was creamy and fatty from the milk and butter, the freshness from celery and onion, a little bit salty from the sea which was the clam and its juice, the sweetness from the clam when chewing it, the amazing aroma from parsley, and the smoky fatty flavors from the bacon. I can say that it was a masterpiece of combination and flavors created by someone from somewhere out of Asia.

In Asia, when talking about soup, people might think it is a side dish, and normally we eat something else with the soup. However, the creamy textures and other elements mentioned above had caught my palate at the sight. It looked really familiar but strange, familiar is because it reminded me of a dessert called "che thap cam" in Vietnam which roughly stuck in my childhood memories when the summer came. But it was strange is because the taste and cooking method were totally different. "Che thap cam" is really sweet, but this Clam Chowder was what I aforementioned. Nevertheless, the taste of it was like watery congee with minced pork. To me, the perfect combined flavors of this dish mixing with my memorial childhood create specialties for this dish.

After experiencing this dish, my palate has been open-minded to new things that it craves to try many new things. I learned how to accustom my palate to pure and original natural flavors. I did enjoy this dish a lot. however, if I replicate this dish in the future, I will try to season less salt a bit to balance the whole dish, and also prepare a bowl of vermicelli to try mixing two cultures in one dish.