I had this show on my NetFlix watch list, but I only started watching it because it was going away. The premise is simple: a salaryman has a wife and daughter who attend concerts every weekend. This gives him a weekend by himself, and he drives around the country and car camps at scenic locations. At the same time, he would sample “endangered food” around the area, from diners on the brink of closing down.
I thoroughly enjoyed the journey I was brought through. Each episode gave me a big flashbacks to times when I’ve visited old diners and eateries.
In Singapore, the idea of food going “extinct” because of a lack of succession is quite real. We have hawker centres, where a lot of local cuisine is made. Years ago, hawkers would park along the roadside and serve their customers. As Singapore progressed, the government made food centres, where a hawker would now own a storefront, and have seating for their diners. But also with progress, the hawkers wanted better lives for their families, and many younger generations were encouraged to further their studies and become professionals. In recent years, there has been a revival for younger hawkers, but the current rent for hawker centres are not cheap as well.
The show, Zetsumeshi Road, connects this emotion: the presence of good food was made for the sake of making money, and if there was a choice, sometimes the chefs would not have even started the shop. But because it was necessary, they started it, and it would become successful. But that’s not the life they wanted in the first place.
Not all the stories carried this same angle, but it does make me consider, how much of the world we currently live in now was made because previous generations didn’t want our generation to suffer? And in our current generation, would we even think that far ahead?
Perhaps as I approach fatherhood, this is a thought for me to mull on: what I would do for the sake of my children after me?
And also, they would be missing out on some really good food…
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