This is why you are fat 3 - Colleagues who poison you

Illustrations by John S. Dykes [full article @ Wall Street Journal]

I am not sure whether this happens in your office. But in my office, it is more of a case of "I am trying out a new recipe, would you like to try?" =D I have to admit, I used to be the prepetrator. I used to bake for Valentine's (I <3Valentine's, as you know), Christmas and during 端午节 I used to make my specialty rice dumplings, i.e. endamame + 三杯鸡, and passed them around. Haven't done that this year because I am too busy. I already cook at the new apartment now though I still get grumbles from B1 for not cooking enough times a week. Hey I am tired too! Since I always take my time to cook, I waste about 8 hours per weekend for my mis en place, which robs me of my painting time.

Anyway I will QC before I give them out, since I am attention-hungry, so I crave the praise I get for them *shameless*. Sometime ago, a guy I knew tried to bake cheesecakes for his friend's birthday, and used to pass his failures around to get feedback. Since I was hardly around as I was always at meetings, I did not get a try until several attempts later. I tried a bite, but it tasted really mechanical and nasty. Note: it was not cheesecake because he realized he was not up to it, so he dumbed it down to a ready mix chocolate cake.

"What is this? Where did you buy this from?" I asked him suspiciously. By that time, nobody from the office wanted to eat his failures, and he used to put his cake on tissue for the others (which they would discreetly dispose of after a while).

"I bought this at the shop across from NTUC". WTF the dollar shop? Other than bacon, pork balls, and sometimes cookies, I cut down on processed foods as much as possible and cook from scratch (another reason for the 8 hour mis en place). To know that it came from a shop which brings in foodstuff of dubious origins!

I knew this guy was (sweet but) a tight pussy but this was beyond.... I excused myself, went to the toilet and threw every bit of that vile brown crap up. Anyway this also explains why I have not been into baking or eating cakes recently.