A New Philosophy on Food, for the New Year

Hello, my darlings.  The Foodie's been on break for far too long now.  I've been contemplating switching to a new blog...still including lots of food, of course!  (I could never deprive you of that...how cruel would that be?)

Now, for your reading enjoyment, a slightly more philosophical piece.  Bon lecture.

I am a disciple of this thing called "good food."

What a subjective thing, right?  Everyone has different tastes...for some people, TGIFriday's is about as gourmet as it gets, and for others nothing short of Alinea is worth consuming.  I like to think I fall into the group in between.

I still eat stuff from places like Friday's, and I've been known to patronize the Olive Garden.  But I also adore trying food created by "celebrity chefs" like Rick Bayless.  I'm dying to go to Grahamwich, and if Girl and the Goat is someday within my price range, I'm going there too.

I follow mainly chefs and restaurants on Twitter, and I get giddy when handles like Lettuce Entertain You and Antico Posto follow me back.

I recently watched an ah-mazing documentary on Netflix called "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" (at the recommendation of Iron Chef Alex Guarnaschelli...she tweeted about it).  It tells the story of a legendary Japanese sushi chef, but it also delves into what makes good food, well, good.

Jiro talks of people training their tastes to appreciate delicious food.  He and his sons also tout the importance of quality ingredients and tasting food as you go along to make sure it is up to snuff.

The film made me rethink food and why I like it.  There are certainly dishes that I eat that I'm not wild about.  I can't really afford to be too picky as a college student (it's not like I can eat at Antico every day...I wish...)  I don't think I could ever be like food critic Anton Ego from Disney's "Ratatouille" ("I don't 'like' food. I love it. If I don't love it, I don't swallow").  But I'm considering being a bit more selective about what I eat, and I want to be more aware of my eating.  If I don't love the food I'm eating, I'm going to eat less of it.  Because I want to train myself to appreciate delicious food.

Who ever thought I'd be taking advice on my food philosophy from an elderly sushi chef and an animated food critic?

I guess, like good food, good advice can come from anywhere.  It's just about how you utilize it.

-AF