The food on Terrace House is known for looking appetizing. The cast members cook a lot and seem to enjoy what they’re eating, because they comment on the taste, with reactions like “yum” and delicious,” to show their appreciation. It’s admirable, the joy of cooking and eating on display in this series, and so rare to see real people on reality television eating anything that isn’t part of a disgusting food challenge. This post is not about good food, though.
The recently released Tokyo edition of Terrace House, now streaming on Netflix, features Ruka, the youngest and most naive cast member in the house and maybe ever in the entire franchise. Ruka has minimal life skills and wants to play Spider-Man in a Marvel movie but has never taken an acting class, which tells you all you need to know about him. “It’s my first time making pasta,” he says in an eerie prelude to disaster in Episode 11, “Broccoli Pasta, Carbonara-Style.” The horror of this meal is universal… and also beautiful.
To begin, he’s making a broccoli pasta, carbonara-style. Here’s a recipe for that on Food Network. He has the main ingredients: broccoli, pasta, eggs. But Ruka misunderstands how eggs work. I’ve made plenty of meals that’ve ended poorly and lost countless young eggs to negligence, but I can say I’ve never tried to crack an egg over water into a pan filled with pasta noodles and never let those egg bits swirl around in the water.
Let’s enjoy the horror show.
1) Boil water 2) Put pasta in water. 3) Crack egg into water. This is the part where you scream, “Noooo, what are you doing?! No, don’t go in there!!!”
He adds broccoli.
When it’s not in egg water, it doesn’t look so sad…
“It’s not simply funny, Torichan. It’s horrific,” Ryota Yamasoto says during panel commentary.
You might be asking where’s the sauce or cheese or something. There is none and also no flavor? I disagree. You don’t need flavor. All you need is you. Sometimes that means no flavor. Just raw pasta. Enjoy.
