Sometimes, something comes along that is so unexpectedly good you find yourself quietly saying. “Wow. This can’t be!” And if you watch these two objet d’art together, which will take you just around 32 minutes out of your day, it may become the most feel-good moment of your day. It might put a smile on your face, perhaps help you feel a little less jaded about what is happening in the world, and maybe, just maybe make you believe in sweetness again. And it does so within the context of trays of desserts. Effortlessly, it becomes a full-fledged BL and with more sincerity than most BLs do with their constant theatrics and feigned setups. It is also done with a gentleness and softness that is almost imperceptible until you feel its results at the end.

It centers exclusively on the tenderness between two young men who are trying to sort out how they feel about each other with both being just slightly off point. However, both are consistently moving forward. Neither slipping back; just inching forward at different speeds. It starts out in “Pure Vanilla” with Gabriel (Braven Yeo) running the café with his colleague, Charlie (Soh Deng Xun) who remains in the background, quietly but ever-present. Always looking at Gabriel with puppy-dog eyes yet sensing something more is going on between them. Their relationship seems to be entering a different phase when one day, after a particularly arduous moment, it does. The tranquil spark that exists between them suddenly turns more intense. It is captivating in its simplicity and captures a moment of love with such tenderness you cannot help but to be moved by its cruciality.

However, humans being what we are, sometimes actions do not necessarily mean confirmation. It has to be followed-up with the words we all want to hear. When it comes to love, we seem to want to have validation from both actions and words. Charlie in action shows love but in words, where it also counts, remains hesitant. So, in “Recipe for Romance”, his retreat to the underworld of hesitancy is no longer a haven. Garbriel’s endurance of patience with Charlie’s hesitancy is tested to the limits as he wants/needs to hear from Charlie those most powerful and final three words closing the threshold of unambiguousness.

An old friend from college, Alex (Leon Koh) enters the picture and there is an obvious spark between the two. Charlie is faced with a new reality that he cannot escape. Gabriel reacts as any newbie would who has just entered a fledgling, unsure relationship. With jealousy, anger, frustration, and a lot of anxiety. Finally, as Charlie hears words from Alex about how he liked him in college and how he still does, suddenly has to grow up and inexorably enter the world of fidelity. Who does he really want to be with?

I shall not spoil the impact for you. All I can say is that you do not need to have hosannas sung from heaven, or the sky open up with mana raining down, or even, for that matter, lustful embraces, to present love. The simple truth is all that is needed is a good bowl of warm soup, and the realization of the joy, ecstasy, and bliss of two individuals who finally crossed that arbitrary barrier each set for themselves that says, “I’m not really sure what we are’ to ‘Yep, we are!”

What a feeling! What a wonderful and glorious feeling! And you cannot get any sweeter than that!

Rating- 5 out of 5

Streaming on- 250 YouTube Channel