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2012-02-17
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Dialogue in the Dark was a concept started in Germany, and although I have known about this from around 15 years ago as they held pop-up events all over the world and now permanent set-ups - this was actually my 1st time paying them a visit. Thanks to OPENRICE.COM for the invitation. Dialogue in the Dark comprises of two sections - one is an Exhibition side where you get to experience how a blind or vision impaired person will experience in real life, the 2nd is the Restaurant side where
Dialogue in the Dark was a concept started in Germany, and although I have known about this from around 15 years ago as they held pop-up events all over the world and now permanent set-ups - this was actually my 1st time paying them a visit. Thanks to OPENRICE.COM for the invitation. Dialogue in the Dark comprises of two sections - one is an Exhibition side where you get to experience how a blind or vision impaired person will experience in real life, the 2nd is the Restaurant side where you are led by hosts (with visual impairment or are totally blind) to your table. The impact really hits you as soon as you enter the dark room as one becomes completely lost in the labyrinth, and surprisingly and perhaps ironically, it's your blind hosts for the night who will be guiding you between the tables and walls, or how to pour a drink properly... .
Our Hosts...All of them either have heavily blurred visions to the point they could barely distinguish between light and darkness, or a few who are completely blind either from birth or since deteriorated in a majorly fashion. Although many people have mentioned and even suspected that the hosts seemingly were able to navigate around like they had infra-red goggles on in the darkness - I actually don't agree with this assessment fully and find it a smidgeon exaggerated. I did notice that our hosts certainly had much higher sensitivities and experience than us, but they still had slight deviations in the way they placed the Food Plates in front of me (a little off-center spot and too near the edge of the table), and they still needed our assistance to hand back our emptied plates and glasses to them... I just find it unfair to overly godify their abilities in the dark and to think that our hosts are not impaired in the dark at all much like we were also experiencing in there. They have a disability which is disadvantageous to them, they are just making better use of their remaining senses
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EATING THE FOOD IN THE DARK & THE FOOD ITSELF -- The food is cooked by Gingko House, which itself is half a social-service restaurant who supports older retirees and also using local and organic produce, itself a socially responsible act!
- I already had expectations as to how manageable I will be eating in the dark or tasting the different ingredient compositions, but although the latter was easier for our Table A as we had a lot of experienced eaters, I was surprised at how many pieces of croutons or anything else I managed to scoop off my plate and onto the table cloth I had particular trouble forking my pieces of meat, or being able to detect the shape of a dessert. And despite being able to identify 5 ingredients out of 7 for the dessert course, I was disappointed that I had missed out on the remaining 2 because they should have been very obvious in the mouth. Talk about blind tasting... It's not as easy as it seems at all.
- The food taste itself was ok-decent, although a meat course was said to be a little stringy tough. There were in total 3 Courses, 1 Glass of decent Wine and 1 Coffee/Tea - the normal price for this is around $850. 我覺得雖然這次是 Openrice Sponsored 的晚餐經驗, 但如果以這比較普通的食物質素來說 (雖則如果再複雜的話, 在黑暗中的舌頭也未必可分辨出是什麼. 所以簡單也是好事) - 但正價來的話又有點貴, 又或許可以俾多一些 courses 例如多個頭盆 或 Palate Cleanser. 要吸引到多些人來試試後明白到我們身在福中, 但世界是不公平的, 也先可以吸引到其他人來!
謝謝 William 同 阿威, 同其他枱的 hosts. 你們做得好好, 下次再來找你們!
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