The first mouthful

Source A: an original contemporary non-fiction-style account.

The restaurant placed a bowl before me that appeared to contain almost nothing. A pale sauce occupied the centre, surrounded by deliberate emptiness. Three green leaves leaned against a piece of fish no larger than a matchbox. I looked for the rest of the meal and found only my own reflection in the spoon. Across the table, my friend was already eating with the calm of somebody who trusted the arrangement.

Then I tasted it. The sauce was bright and sharp, followed by a warmth that arrived slowly, as though it had taken a longer road. The fish broke into soft layers under the fork. A crisp fragment on top supplied a sudden crackle, a tiny interruption that made me notice the softness again. I had expected smallness to mean absence. Instead, each mouthful seemed crowded with events, none lasting long enough to become tiresome.

I still wanted more food when the bowl was empty. Admiration had not abolished appetite, and I ordered bread without embarrassment. Yet my first judgement had become harder to defend. The plate had not been pretending to be a large meal. It had asked for a different kind of attention, and I had nearly answered it by counting the leaves.

Refer to the whole of Source A. Analyse how the writer uses language to convey the writer’s changing response to the food. Explain the effects of specific words, phrases and language choices, using evidence from the passage.