Relay Column: Philosophical Considerations from a Near-Future Banquet Adorned with Real Deal "Proper Nouns" (Nozomi Nagata)

Yesterday, I attended a home party hosted by my longtime friend Bravat. He is said to come from a well-known real estate family in Bangkok. However, a few years ago, Bangkok was hit by massive flooding, which caused property values in Thailand to plummet. As a result, Bravat complains that he can no longer live as luxuriously as before, but compared to me, he still seems to be living quite lavishly. What caused the flooding? There are theories about sea level rise due to global warming, as well as claims of land subsidence. However, this issue is entwined with political interests and motivations, and an international perspective on the truth has yet to emerge.

Bravat's friends prepared some impressive dishes. He reportedly worked as a sous-chef at a restaurant in Bangkok called "Yarn Restaurant." The shrimp used in the "Por Pia Sod," which resembles Vietnamese spring rolls, were likely cultivated artificially. If my memory serves me right, Bravat had invested in a company called "Shiok Foods" in Singapore. Given the soaring prices of shrimp, it seems unlikely that he would be serving such generous portions of either wild or farmed shrimp. Even if they weren't "Shiok" shrimp, they may have been cultivated shrimp from other brands. While we can now immediately search for visual or auditory information, akin to older Google image searches or Shazam, there still aren’t devices to search for taste. It's challenging to trace the origins of ingredients just by looking at the appearance of prepared food.