Food Lust

I love food. I know, everyone loves food and it seems like everyone is blogging about it nowadays. Food blogs have become a dime a dozen lately. I get it, everyone has something to say about their particular food obsession. But I don't really have an angle, no food crusade, no specialized skill or niche. I just love what I love and want to tell everyone about it.

What's not to love about food? Food has so much more to offer than mere sustenance – it's loaded with meaning - emotionally, aesthetically, culturally, pleasurably . . . you don't just eat food, you live it.

I won't lie and say that I'm not a bit of a snob, I don't love everything and I do draw a line in some places, not every restaurant or food gets equal treatment. But the line isn't always where you might expect. I have just as much love for a good diner or hot dog stand as I do for haute cuisine, maybe even more. And I have to say, I've eaten in way more diners than five star restaurants. I also have to admit that while I prefer to steer clear of chain restaurants there are always the guilty pleasures. I know I can't talk smack one day and then sneak off to McDonald's when no one is looking so I won't cast the first stone (chicken nuggets are my kryptonite).

Now I mentioned that I don't have an angle and I don't really, but there are some food topics that interest me more than others like the culture and traditions of food and foodways. I'm fully inspired whenever I listen to Alton Brown or Anthony Bourdain talk about the cultural impact of food or how it carries historical and cultural meaning. I live for figuring out regional specialties and variations and understanding the people behind those foods. I'm somewhat of an introvert especially around new people so I often try to experience new places through food instead of actually talking to anyone. If I'm headed on a trip you can bet I'm reading up on what foods are special where I'm headed - what foods are the ambassadors of those places and where I can find them.

I'm a self-professed food geek. I admit to reading foodtimeline.org during my lunch hour and studying up on the history and variation of a particular recipe before I try to prepare it. Generally when my kids ask me what we're eating for dinner they get a dissertation on the historical and cultural implications of that food along with the etymology thrown in for good measure.

Finally a few notes on what I love. As I already mentioned, I love regional food, I love to find the local hole-in-the-wall that does it the best (whatever "it" happens to be). I also love to seek out and try every different kind of ethnic food I can locate. I have a particular weakness for every type of eastern cuisine I can get my hands on: Vietnamese, Thai, Lao, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Malaysian, Indian, you name it. As you can see from the name of this blog, I really love pork. I once watched an episode of a Mario Batali special called Mario Eats Italy that was devoted to sausage and I experienced uncontrollable cravings for sausage for a whole month afterward. I would be lying if I said that I didn't eats ribs from the Dinosaur BBQ at least three times a month and for the last six months or so I've been trying to perfect my recipe for pork carnitas.

So what can you expect to read here? Probably a smattering of things from the story of a restaurant I love or a new one I've tried to a really great recipe or how I finally got my ribs smoked just right. I just hope you come away hungry, I expect if you're anything like me you'll read about something here and just maybe you won't be satified until you've tried it too.