...I know what you mean about cooking shows. I was delighted to find them on PBS, and when we got Food TV last December I found myself in seventh heaven!
When we first got TVFN in New York on Time Warner Cable, it was presented from midnight to 8:00 a.m. on a station it shared with a New Jersey station - I believe it was NJN. I called Time Warner
weekly to plead with them about nuking NJN from that station. NY Foodies must have come out in force, because in a relatively short time, TVFN occupied the station full time.
I always thought I had a slightly warped fascination with food, and once sought help for what I had considered an unhealthy fascination. Now I know I'm as perfectly sane as most of Chef Talk.
Ain't community grand?
Grocery stores in cities I visit are tourist attractions for me.
Went to San Jose, Costa Rica see a FSIL. Spent all my money at the supermarket. (Tuna with jalapenos right in the can!!!)
Menus at interesting restaurants deserve lengthy perusal as I "taste" the flavors in my mind.
...And learn what the regional specialties are?
Cookbooks are for reading like novels.
People read novels to escape to exotic places, far away - Foodies read cookbooks to escape to a safe, familiar place.
Conversations with people I've just met usually include the question, "Do you like to cook?" Recipe inquiries are mandatory if the answer is even close to "Yes".
Do you find yourself
not as interested in fostering friendships with those who say "no"? I know I'm much more interested in learning about those who do like to cook. I'm not doing it consciously but I have less to talk about with someone if I'm relegated to "How about those Mets?" as conversation.
Rummage sales are for seeking out kitchen tools.
My weakness...yard sale cast iron and measuring gadgets. Old cooking vessels that resemble those used by my grandmother are prime targets. I traded a brand new food mill to a friend who had procured an old one at a yard sale.
Among my most cherished mementoes of my grandmother are her wooden potato masher, wooden spoon, graniteware saucepan and large breadboard from 1910. (Not that I don't like her gold pin, but it gets less use.)
This is getting downright scary...LOL. My grandmother's dutch oven comes out at only the most meaningful meals - and her clay crock was packed to within an inch of its life during our recent move. I have a 1 qt. one-handled saucepan of my grandmother's. The bottom had warped so she opened a window and banged the pan on the outside wall of her Brooklyn apartment in an attempt to level it out. Now it will only stand on the burner if there's something in it. It hangs in a place of honor in my kitchen and is usually the first thing I hang in a new home. It's next to my mother's cutting board with the hole she bored into it (many chicken cutlets gave their lives on that board) - but that's another story. As for the gold pin reference - I have a beautiful brooch set with earrings and yes, I love that too - but like your grandmother's pin, it gets less use.