Hello from Edinburgh,
I thought I’d do some creative writing during my short trip up here. Time to exercise two muscles: observation and creativity. I got inspired by Craig Mod’s popup newsletter:
As we traverse these neighborhood gradients, we’re looking for the same thing we feel in a city like Morioka: Functioning infrastructure enabling life, creativity, independence, pride, love, and delicious toast and coffee.
What am I looking for? Not sure yet. But life is usually fun, weird or endearing. Or a combination thereof.
As I observe through the day, I’ll send random updates in this thread. Don’t know how many yet, but do not be alarmed by the fact that you can’t unsubscribe (isn’t it nice that I can force my friends to subscribe to my newsletter? That’s what Roman emperors must have felt like when starting a war).
After a four and a half hour train ride, where I heard a lot about toxic masculinity and train cancellations, the ramen at Ikigai in Edinburgh was a spoonful of comfort. Spicy. The pork had soft and hard bits, which gave it a nice play of texture. Marinated egg. Sesame seeds. Perfect noodles.
It reminded me of the Chef’s Table episode where this Jewish guy from New York opens up one of the most successful ramen shops. In Japan. His secret? Roasted tomato. Go and try it and you’ll thank me later.
The Ikigai ramen was made by two Nepalese guys who were playing Nepalese rap. One of them started explaining with a big smile on his face that even though it sounds cool, the lyrics are very sad and dark. He then played the theme song from Naruto. They learned how to make ramen in Edinburgh. I wondered if they had found their ikigai.
As I was slowly (yes, you saw that adverb in the context of Florin eating!) digging into the cucumber wakame salad, a thought arose: wouldn’t it be cool to get 3 quarters through this and then be delighted by a surprise in the middle? Let’s say a spicy pickled onion or something like that. Made me think I want to experiment with surprises in food.
When I was a kid, my grandma used to make me a great polenta. But before she placed the piping hot yellow goo on top of the plate, she snuck a bit of cheese under it. That was known as ‘the surprise’ - and, of course, the most privileged member of the family (read: me) was allowed to try out every corner of the polenta to try and find ‘the surprise’. Good memory.
Tomorrow we start with a 9:30 am meeting and then need to find a way to buy a presentation clicker, because Anthony forgot his and desperately needs one.
That’s it for the first dispatch.
Dream of your ikigai or your favourite surprise,
Twobob
Edinburgh Dispatches