In a year of nostalgia, celebrating the past should not overshadow living in the present

Be wary of the nostalgia that tells us that there is a simple answer and easily identifiable villain for everything we don't like.

- Jeremy Au Yong

Tell me if this sounds familiar. You are revisiting a long-time favourite eating establishment. Since the last time you came, they've clearly made some changes. The wall is a different colour, the old man behind the counter must have retired and there are also new dishes — there seems to be a memo going around about putting mala spices on things — but there is enough here that is recognisable.

You order your usual and eagerly tuck in, anticipating that familiar yet specific comfort the place used to bring. But wait... what is this new feeling? Could it be indifference?

The dish looks the same but something is different. You can't put your finger on it. The emotional high is not there, the spark seems to have gone out of this epicurean relationship.

"Standards have dropped," you inevitably declare, chalking up one more to the list of places that seem to have lost it. This has been happening to you a lot of late. You can't remember exactly when it started but at some point, standards of everything started to decline.

At a recent disappointing meal, I asked my dining companions if anyone could think of any eating establishment whose standards have risen. We struggled with this for a while, but ultimately could not name a single one. At best, someone offered up a handful of places that maybe sort of managed to stave off decline, but that was about it.

Given the lack of examples of improvement, and the numerous instances of decline, it stands to reason that as a whole, the experience of eating out has been on an inexorable downward slope.

Modern life has ruined food, as it has nearly everything us older people are fond of.

But has it?

If I take a step back and think about it, I can't say definitively that it has.