Are you a foodie?

kuan · #1 09-25-2002, 01:45 PM

Well, you might be if...

1) You bring your own aged cheddar to McDonald's

2) Only "gwai lows" order Beef and Brocolli

3) You assume the person who ordered that well done steak is a complete idiot

4) There's never anything on the menu which excites you

5) While dining at Applebee's, you ask for your fish done rare

6) You prefer your creme brulee made with Madagascar vanilla bean, but what you just got served is "ok"

7) You have a hankering for an open faced rosemary smoked free range turkey breast over organic whole wheatberry ciabatta bread

8) Wash that down with a muscavado sugar caramel machiatto of course

9) You neighbour comes over to borrow some salt and you ask... "what kind?"

10) You have a cheftalk email address!

So are you? Be honest, I know who you are!

Love you all

Kuan

Jock · #2 09-25-2002, 02:49 PM

LOL
That's me all right

Jock

coolJ · #3 09-25-2002, 06:20 PM

How about if you've ever asked for poached soft eggs, at Mcdonalds

Jim · #4 09-25-2002, 06:53 PM

.... if you insist on grainy Pomeroy mustard for your hot dog at Veteran's Stadium...

Kimmie · #5 09-26-2002, 09:48 AM

Yup, that looks like me, although I NEVER go to McDonalds and I don't think we have Appleby here.

Ditto Jim's comment, although I have a preference for a «smooth» Dijon!

Peachcreek · #6 09-26-2002, 04:47 PM

You never leave the house without your travel peppergrinder. The "stuff" on the table? NEVER!

chiffonade · #7 09-28-2002, 05:51 AM

I'm a foodie bordering on the insane.

* I travel with 3 old Dionne Lucas knives wrapped in a linen dishcloth and secured with a coated rubber band (for my hair) on the outside chance someone might need my assistance in the kitchen - and doesn't possess a decent knife. (Ginsus don't count.)

* In the years prior to Food Network I used to cruise the channels in the hope of finding that ubiquitous overhead shot of a bubbling saucepan. Didn't care who was wielding the wooden spoon - someone was COOKING!

* No matter where, when, in what circumstances, or with whom - any conversation of which I am a part turns to food.

* I include a line at the bottom of any party invitation I extend that says, "Bring your appetite." I've had the experience of people coming to a party and being disappointed because they "ate dinner prior to coming." They were accustomed to party food consisting of a dish of sliced pepperoni and cheese whiz.

Mezzaluna · #8 09-28-2002, 01:33 PM

Chiffonade, 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!

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

.

Grocery stores in cities I visit are tourist attractions for me. Menus at interesting restaurants deserve lengthy perusal as I "taste" the flavors in my mind. Cookbooks are for reading like novels. 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". Rummage sales are for seeking out kitchen tools. 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.)

You get the idea.

Leo R. · #9 09-28-2002, 02:19 PM

You`ll know when you`ve really become addicted to work when you watch cookery programmes on your holiday.

I`m definitely addicted,as i try to go to as many catering exhibitions as i can.I regularly buy catering magazines and spend time looking at U.K. catering websites.These,of course,must take second place to ChefTalk. I think i`ve become indoctrinated!!

A chef i work with recently went to Singapore on holiday,he said that he spent part of the time going to street markets.His girlfriend said he was like a kid in a candy store. Leo.

Isa · #10 09-28-2002, 10:01 PM

That is too funny!

I would never put store bought mustard on my dog though, I prefer my home made mustard...

When I think of it I think I would bring my own sausage too.

chiffonade · #11 09-29-2002, 05:06 AM

...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.

liebkuchen · #12 10-01-2002, 02:11 PM

i am certain i have baked and cooked for many foodies: crazed restaurant owners, demanding and valued regulars, beautiful and appreciative restaurant guests, other kitchy-cool cooks. but i'm not sure i'm a foodie.
after marinading, steeping and being enveloped in food year after year i find myself fascinated with very simple details ie wanting to eat toasted tomato sandwiches for the entire time the tomatoes are perfect. Unadorned and instant served up by mother nature excites me the most.
i think its a new way of being food obsessed for me i can reserve the intricacy and menu writing for my career(by theway i'm thinking of starting and english grammar course for all those chefs who produce those wordy atrocities specifically for pretentious foodies)
love cooking but some times loathe describing why i want cook when i want to cook it.
one last thing do you think a foodie might be someone who equates great dining with a little peace of mind in this world?

kuan · #13 10-01-2002, 03:21 PM

Why liebkuchen my friend, times change! There are new rules now! These days you don't roast anymore, you pan roast, not in a baking pan, but a pan, you know... a pan?!?

Pan searing is also popular, but only if crusted with an exotic nut, or a nut made to sound exotic such as Mambolino county new crop Macadamia. Keep in mind that you cannot use clarified butter, it must be plugra, and if you choose to forgo butter, use an xtra virgin olive oil at least 8 years old, made from olives handpicked off old vines of course!

Hrm, time for another top ten

Kuan