FNBE 0413 Cheah Teck Wei 0315215 ENGL 0205

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT

NAME: CHEAH TECK WEI

STUDENT ID NO: 0315215

TOOL SELECTED: CUTTING BOARD

WORD COUNT: 636

ENGLISH 2 (ENGL 0205)

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: NARRATIVE ESSAY

LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA

SUBMISSION DATE: 14th NOVEMBER 2013

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FNBE 0413 Cheah Teck Wei 0315215 ENGL 0205

As a cooking lover, the cooking utensils are part of my life which I can’t live

without. Every of them are unique and specific to me as they carries out different

functions and helping me preparing dishes in a blink of eye. Among the cooking

utensils, the one that I loved the most is the cutting board.

Some of you might be unaware of it, but its existence is undeniably crucial to

neither me nor every chef. A cutting board is basically a rectangular board, which mostly

made in wood or plastic. For my own lovely cutting board, it was made in wood and it’s

approximately the length of a normal men’s palm to his elbow and with a height of one

and a half palm of a men. It was slightly bigger than normal ones as I use it to cut bigger

ingredients such as chicken, beef and so on. It’s only a nail thick so it is only slightly

heavier than a book. There is also a rectangular shaped long hole on the right side as a

handle to provide convenience while bringing around and also a stainless-steel ring on

the top right corner which allows you to hang it. The brown colored woody pattern on it

enhances its appearance. Besides, there are dense knife cuttings on the middle of its

surface as we use it to cut the ingredients hence giving it a rough texture while you

touch and sweep on it where other areas of the board gives a smooth texture as it was

processed before selling. In addition, the corners of the board are not sharp-edges so

that it won’t cause harm to people while holding or moving around. The name and logo

of the company of this cutting board is carved beside the handle.

Other than its physical appearance, it is hard and stiff which it cannot be bent or

changes its shape. It also produces a bright and clear “knock knock” sound when you

knock on it. Normally the board has no temperature, which I call it as neutral. Its

temperature varies when I put different ingredient on it and later on it will return to

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FNBE 0413 Cheah Teck Wei 0315215 ENGL 0205

neutral again in a short while based on the nature of wood. Moreover, it also gives a

wood smell like a dry furniture smell and also a little bit smell of the mixtures of different

ingredient which I cannot name how it really smells like. It can also absorb little amount

of water on its surface and drying out very fast.

After all these observations and explorations towards the board, I can

confidentially tell that the board is used as a platform to prepare the ingredients by

cutting, slicing and so on without doing it on the table as well as damaging the table

because of its hard and stiff characteristic. More than that, it provides a clean platform

to prepare the ingredients and it can be cleaned easily.

While I am digging out what it is, I sincerely found out that this is a great and

useful cooking utensil in term of its function and also design. I observe the cutting board

first, whether in close or far and look into details. Then, I move further on testing what it

is by carrying out certain experiments such as applying force on it, hitting on it, sinking it

in water, feel it with bare hands and so on, trying to find out more about it. The

information I got from my experiments are recorded in a piece of paper and arranged

accordingly as pre-writing. Finally I wrote a narrative essay with the information I have.

It is a smooth process for me as I had stated out what I should find out before I started

my experiments hence everything worked in a smooth manner.

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