Foodie vs Foodiot: No one cares about my cheese? But it's artisan!

So, I was procrastinating and reading archived entries of this awesome, local food blog Fidel Gastro and I saw how he highlighted an article from the New York Observer in 2009 about how the culture of food has changed since the advent of the organic/slow food/local food movement. The author of the article, Joe Pompeo, went on to discuss how there is an over saturation of talk about food and what we're eating and how we meticulously document everything we are "shoving down [our] pie holes". He went on to indicate that no one cares about the awesome artisanal cheese we, the foodies/foodiots, get our hands on or how we paid for the feed for a pig that will be slaughtered at the end of a year (a venture that I am attempting and will get back to you about if it actually comes to fruition).  He also says that most people are discusted and grossed out by all the talk of food and are pretty tired of it.

This hit home and really irked me. I consider myself a foodie and am always afraid that I am crossing that line between foodie and just annoying/boring/grossing people out with my talk of food. I love food. And I think more and more that the average person cares more about not only what they are eating but where it comes from and I don't think it's a bad thing as Pompeo implies. I think that the more people care about what they eat and where it comes from the more the industries that supply and produce food are forced to care. I think that a lot of the foods marketed as natural and organic are using the term as a marketing ploy instead of a movement in better, healthier, and more sustainable ways to produce food. I think if the public starts caring more, prices will start to become more competitive and that maybe organic will become the new mandate instead of a choice for those who care/can afford it. To me, it is a crime that healthy, fresh food is more expensive than packaged "food" and is a huge contributing factor to the so called "obesity epidemic".

One of the things I have struggled with in the creation of this blog is whether or not I wanted to have it be a "food blog" specifically or have more of a blog with foodie posts, or just not include food at all in my contributions to the blogosphere. I have read a lot of successful blogs, some of which I will highlight when and if I try recipes from them or springboard posts from things they write (like Fidel Gastro mentioned above). There is also the fact that so many of them document their dining experiences outside their own kitchens and how they have really high quality cameras they take to restaurants with them. I have been debating whether or not to do this and chose not to (alike in one of my first posts about El Rey where I detail the food and restaurant but have no pictures). I read somewhere, I forget where now, how some chefs/restaurateurs think that people are obnoxious taking pictures of their food or posting blogs about their dining experiences. I would really hate to put the people who work so hard for me to eat so well in an awkward or unwanted position, but I also want to share and publicize the best places to eat in my fair city.

Oh the conundrum! The choices! The decisions! I guess this will have to be a continuing struggle and ultimately determined by how good my camera is. Hint hint T ;).

PS I agree with Senor Gastro, Joe Pompeo can suck it.

I can't really come up with a cohesive thought...

So, I am having difficulty coming up with any real interesting topic to talk about, so i think i am going to do a bit of what my English teacher in college used to call "free writing". What she would tell us to do was to just write whatever came into your head. Of course, it was "guided free writing", so we were supposed to prattle on about some literary topic like what Faulkner was getting at in "The Sound and the Fury" or why Morrison's Beloved was so effed up and weird (both some of my favorite favorite works of fiction ever. yeah take that Myer you hack...easy, the time is not right...anyway where was I? oh yeah real writers and free writing) So, here goes:

I never really understood why some couples are together. I mean, I am with my boyfriend because I love him, we get a long really well, and he totally gets me. Some couples, it just seems like there is no real reason why they should have ever gotten together in the first place, let alone continue to be together for freakin' years and then get married and make other unhappy people. Just doesn't make any sense to me.

I have gone into another one of my phases where I have decided I want to be thinner but i want to expend as little effort and discomfort as possible. So, I have piggybacked this new idea with my desire to be more thrifty and have come up with a plan! Before, we would go out to eat at least once during the work week and both days of the weekend and then order take out for two or three other nights of the week. Instead, I have decided to bring my lunch to work (lean cuisines, smart ones, healthy choice etc. all frozen and quick and ready to go) and cook healthy dinners for me and T all during the work week. Then, have one semi-indulgent meal during the weekend. This has been quite successful for going on our 4th week now. So far we have saved around $400. And, I've lot some weight...not nearly enough but these thing take time.

The English teacher I mentioned above was one of the best English teachers I have ever had, but she was loonier than a fruit basket. She was a total cat lady and a feminist. She actually changed her name back to her maiden name when she got her PhD in women's lit. She would always wear over-sized t-shirts and sweatshirts, usually with pictures of cats on them. I remember one was almost the exact same one I had in elementary school; white with a big cat face outlined in black but with bright green eyes. Weird the things you remember. She was the one who really got me into reading real literature like Faulkner and O'Connell and Morrison. I also took Woman's lit (clit lit as the kids used to call it)and discovered how awesome and creepy women writers can be. MJ, I miss you and your wacktastic self.

(I just noticed that i really, really like to use parentheses when i write...and ellipses. not sure why but i am pretty sure that i always have, much to the chagrin of my English teachers)

At work, it seems like i keep surprising the people I work with; that i am surpassing what they thought i could do. At first this was pretty cool, but now i am starting to think that they did not think i was as good at my job as i am and that i am surprising them more than impressing them. Maybe i am wrong, i mean i am on the paranoid side when it comes to what i think other people think of me, ask any of my friends and they will tell you i have always been this way. When i was younger i always used to think everyone was mad at me when really they were just living their lives thinking we were best friends. I have gotten into more than one stupid fight because i thought people were mad at me when they weren't. I think I am going to avoid that and just think that my coworkers/bosses are impressed and leave it at that.


Okay, i think that's enough, I am tired now.

A holes - can't live with them, can't stab them in the face...

Lately, I have been realizing more and more that most people are really dumb; that the average person is a few fries short of a happy meal. And usually, because people are stupid, it makes them jerks. Ass hats run a muck. Sometimes, I think it is a Philly thing or maybe even an American thing, but then I play an online game with people from all over the world (like Halo Speaking of which the beta is over so I can play again and have my TV back!) or watch the BBC World News and I see that it is really the whole effing human race. The majority of people are just imbeciles. And I have noticed that people will turn really mean when they are in a situation that they are unfamiliar with or it becomes apparent that they are inadequate and they feel stupid, mostly because they are stupid, but the mere fact that people found out that they are stupid makes them all defensive and mean.

I see it everywhere. Take my old job. There were quite a few people who were hacks and had no clue what they were doing and everyone knew it, but they worked really really hard to pretend like they were good at their jobs and new what they were doing typically by belittling everyone they could. I mean, every time I or anyone else would know something that they didn't, they would pretend like it was their idea all along and that they were testing us. True story. Quite a few times my old boss would tell me to do something, I would tell her that it was impossible or that it was against policy, and she would tell me that she was just testing me. And she wasn't joking either! She actually would try to pull off that she knew it was wrong the whole time and that she was trying to prove that she was smarter by testing me. Unbelievable. That is one of the many reasons why it is my old job and not my current job. I got the eff out of there as soon as I could and now I am so much better off.

I digress. Where was I? Oh yeah people are mean and stupid. Another way people try to pull off that they are not as dumb as they actually are is that they immediately blame you for a mistake they made. Take a woman who works for my landlord, lets call her Mary. Mary told me the wrong place to park when I first moved in and a neighbor of mine had my car towed because I was in his spot. And then Mary tried to tell me that it was my fault that I had parked in the wrong spot. She told me the wrong place to park! She got her left confused with her right and she was reading off an old chart of spots. See what I mean? Dumb da dumb dumb duuuuuuumb.

It amazes me that humans have been in charge of the planet for as long as we have given that so many of us are more stupid than a bag of rocks. Maybe that's why Stephen Hawking is convinced that the human race is destined to destroy itself far before the sun collapses or alien life finds us.

Philly sports AKA an excuse to throw batteries at Santa

In response to the Philly sports post by my biffle Beckles I think it is only appropriate that I write one too. I guess my take on the Philly sports phenomenon.

I didn't grow up in Philly, I grew up in the Boston area. Not even in Massachusetts, but the area so I was a Red Sox/Celtics/Bruins/Patriots fan. It was not until i moved to PA for college that any of these teams started to win, but even by then I was being turned. The Philies/76ers/Flyers/Eagles were starting to turn me. Philly fans are wild and their enthusiasm is infectious. Then the Phillies won the World Series and it was all over. Philly sports franchises had me and were not letting me go. Did I run into the streets and start rioting with my fellow Philadelphians? no. I can proudly say that I did not. I watched the game and cheered, but I did not take to the streets causing mayhem and destruction. But when the Flyers beat the Bruins I was cheering on Philly instead of Boston. Again, didn't really celebrate or even go anywhere to watch. Okay I didn't even watch it, but I heard it, looked at the website and got excited. What can you expect? I am a geek remember. I am not a hard core fan of sports, which I guess is why I could be swayed from team to team, but Philly fever is crazy and it is hard to ignore!

My Weekend or why i hate flying...

So I had to go to my brother's graduation this past weekend. After college I stayed near my college, which was just outside of Philly and conveniently close to 400 miles from my parents. It was a pretty good decision on my part I think. I was able to build a life completely apart from who I was growing up or who my parents are. I was able to get things for myself and truly be independent. However, when I need to travel back home, say for something like my little brother's graduation, there is really no easy way to get there. Sure I could drive for 6 or more hours fighting some of the worst traffic in the country, but oh wait, that's right I don't have a car. So I could either take a bus for 6 hours (I am not a bus kind of girl) or I could take a plane.

The plane ride is easy, don't get me wrong. It is a nice easy flight and cheap if you book early and with a cheap airline like SouthWest, but I hate flying. I really REALLY hate to fly. Firstly, I always get sick. Since I was little I never sleep well the night before a flight, I always get a killer headache/migraine, and I will sometimes even get ear infections. When I have ruined more than one vacation by having to go to the doctor due to severe, flight induced ear infections. Then, of course, there are the passengers on the plane. I swear, as soon as you get on an airplane, you turn into an inconsiderate A hole. An A hole who doesn't put the seat back, even when the flight attendant asks. An A hole who talks really loudly to all the people around them while on a red eye. An A hole who got there late and had to take the middle seat, hogs the arm rest, keeps getting up every 5 minutes, turns the fan on while the cabin is freezing and takes all the overhead storage space. And has a baby. Who cries and poops and is its annoying baby self who will turn into an A hole and fly with me in 20 years and make my life miserable then too. The worst part is that there is no escape for the duration of the flight. you can't even walk around the cabin because of federal regulations! I hate flying!

What was interesting about my time at the airport though was that a lady was sitting near me waiting for the same flight as me and she asked me to watch her bag while she went to the bathroom. Now, I had never met this woman in my life, and I am a huuuuuge rules person, so I told her no and quoted the FFA regulations about leaving bags unattended or with people not a part of your party. Since looked at me blankly and said "you mean I have to drag it around with me?" Yes, ma'am that is what I mean. Maybe next time you will pack lighter! Sheesh!