Mitchell's Ice Cream

688 San Jose Ave (& 29th St)
(415) 648-2300

Ice Cream Shop in Noe Valley

Mitchell's is definitely a San Francisco staple. Although yelp says it's Noe Valley, it's like borderline Noe Valley/Bernal Heights (or even Glen Park according to someone else, but I think that's really stretching it - I just tagged it as all of those places kind of). Parking isn't bad since it's pretty far out, and there's also a small lot behind the place. It's also pretty accessible by public transportation - it's a decent walk from the 24th & Mission BART station, or you can MUNI it.

Expect a wait. On any given day. You can also buy their ice cream in cartons and to go.

Mitchell's is known for their "exotic" flavors, meaning Filipino flavors like ube, halo halo, etc. All of their flavors are pretty good, including the standard ones (french vanilla custard? mmmm). A lot of people like Tropical 4, but I think it's kind of boring. Their "grasshopper pie" is REALLY GOOD (mint chocolate chip + fudge + oreos), and that's coming from someone who isn't big on chocolate. They also offer ice cream sandwiches (between 2 cookies, reminiscent of Diddy Riese), shakes, and other sweet concoctions.

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lychee & black tea granita

IT'S HOT! LET'S MAKE GRANITA!

I was at my parents' house this weekend and wanted to make something since their kitchen is so much nicer than mine, but they had hardly any ingredients to make anything and I didn't want to spend any money... but I found some cans of lychee. My mom is also a tea fanatic, so I thought why not.

I also got this idea from Sketch in Berkeley after a recent visit there (actually, I don't remember if they also used tea in theirs). It pretty much tastes exactly the same, except the lychee overpowers the tea in mine. I'll have to use more tea bags next time (I just used one).

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peach clafoutis, or I am the Best Friend Ever

So my friend asked me to make something for a morning meeting because it was his turn to bring food. I decided to make banana nut muffins (easy) and something a little less normal - clafoutis - as inspired by this class I took recently. Although clafoutis is traditionally made with cherries, I decided to use peaches because I had peach pie on the brain. That almost sounds dirty.

I didn't follow any particular recipe exactly, but kind of tweaked a conglomerate of a bunch of recipes I found via blogs/slashfood/epicurious. Pictures aren't very nice because I made this at night (finished around midnight) and I had to give it away. Thus, no natural light for nice pictures. The other is taken by a camera phone.

How does it taste? Not bad. Pretty much how it was supposed to taste (custardy). People supposedly liked it. This dessert is all about the fruit... too bad you can't see how nicely I fanned the peach slices out! It was pretty. =)

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Sushi House

2375 Shoreline Dr. (@ the marina)
(510) 865-0999

Japanese in Alameda

Anyone who went to Cal has been here. Just a 10 minute drive down 880, Sushi House is the reason why people even know where Alameda is. It has definitely gone downhill over the years (portions are smaller, food is less carefully prepared, etc), but it will always hold a special place in my heart as comfort food should.

What's special about this place is the large selection of sushi rolls - many of them baked or accompanied with a special sauce. These mega rolls have caught on to most sushi restaurants, but none can beat Sushi House's. The Bay Scallop roll is by far my favorite, but almost all of them are good (another popular is the Lion King which is a California roll topped with salmon and then baked with a sauce).

Another dish I like to get here is the chirashi, which is like a sashimi salad or an open sushi roll, depending on where you are (like in San Diego, there's this place where it really is like a salad salad). At sushi house, it's just a bunch of raw fish and stuff on top of sushi rice. Since Sushi House is so popular, they are constantly getting fish, so you know it'll be fresh. Hamachi is like butter here.

If you have never been, you should eat at the restaurant at least once. It's a long wait though. You honestly would have to go at odd hours in order to avoid any wait at all. Calling ahead and getting take-out is ideal if you don't have the patience.

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Rivoli

1539 Solano Ave. (and Neilson)
(510) 526-2542

Italian/Californian in Berkeley

I've been here twice - the most recent occasion was for 2 family birthdays a few weeks ago. The other was over a year ago, and although I never wrote my own review, I found Kevin's travbuddy review from way back then. It's quite amusing, and it definitely describes the feel of our meal that night - e.g. being the sommeliers that we are, we chose the wine based on the fact that we thought the name was cool haha.

This place is pretty small, but the mirrors that line the walls and the huge windows definitely create the illusion of more space. During my recent visit, we started with their signature portabella fritters (fried mushrooms? how can you not like that), cheese souffle with prosciutto (yum), and this minced scallop thing in a phyllo shell (don't really remember).

For entrees, my dad and I had stuffed veal (pictured) and it was incredibly good. I'm a sucker for veal, and this one did not fail. My little sister got the ravioli Kevin had last time which was eh (but a first for her! She just about ALWAYS orders chicken or whatever the most boring item on the menu is), my other sister got a risotto cake which I really liked, my mom got salmon (like my little sister, she gets salmon everywhere she goes. I don't know why though, because it tastes the same no matter where you go or how it's prepared), and the Joe got a big chunk of pork which was fatty.

Service this time was definitely more competent haha, and I think any waiter/waitress that can serve my family and still be really nice is always a trooper. Desserts were typical. No wine this time - my mom freaks out if I have more than one glass of wine because I'll "get drunk."

Note: I tagged this as a wine entry per the travbuddy review.

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chocolate mousse

I know I said I didn't want this blog to do too many things, and I still want to maintain that. However, I made this yesterday and just couldn't help myself!

The mousse was incredibly rich and denser than I had imagined, even after reading the reviews. I'm not a huge chocolate person, but it was pretty good (yes, I am patting myself on the back as I type). I also made shot-glass sizes, and that was the perfect amount for me because I personally cannot eat that much chocolate.

In the picture on the right, those are just phyllo squares/triangles I made to use up the rest from the rolls I made recently. Not the best pictures, but whatever!

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San Tung

1031 Irving St. (between 11th 12th Aves)
(415) 242-0828

Chinese-Korean in the Sunset

This is another of my favorite places in SF, and it never fails. Anything with dough is good (i.e. noodles, dumplings), and they're pretty well-known for their chicken wings.

What to order: chicken wings (dry), dumplings (either shrimp+leek or pork - i prefer the prior), fried shrimp (served with the same sauce as the chicken wings), noodles (their black bean noodles aren't that good... but the peanut sauce one is pretty decent, as is the spicy combo noodle soup thing). Their green beans aren't bad either.

This place is pretty much packed every night, and during lunch on the weekends. Expect a wait! It's worth it though.

*** Edit: There was a time when I ate here every week (good lord! I know. Almost as bad as Brian Sze and Hotei!). Now it's like once every other month after Kevin moved. However, the other day I tried their pork+pickled vegetable noodle soup for the first time (which is more of a Taiwanese dish), and it was quite satisfying. I like!

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phyllo rolls w/ ricotta & strawberries

So I don't want this blog to try to do too many things at once, which is why I never post about stuff that I make (I bake). However, I took some relatively decent photos of my food today, and I had nowhere to post them... so I'm just going to classify this as an "I'd Hit That" post. This is the thing about how important visually eating is: good pictures/good-looking food just makes you want to eat it (I mean, tastespotting seems to accept anything as long as it's a good picture). The rolls didn't taste bad (Karen described them as "danish-like"), but these pictures are definitely deceiving....

I had two firsts today: using phyllo, and entering the world of molecular gastronomy. For the prior, I thought "Oh, ricotta+strawberries+phyllo? That just makes so much sense! " Well, I must've been on crack at the time I made up this recipe. I added an egg yolk to the ricotta mixture (cinnamon, orange zest, vanilla, honey) thinking that it would stabilize when baked, but maybe one wasn't enough. Or maybe it was the fact that strawberries have a lot of water in them and boil when baked. Or maybe I just put too much filling in (although I don't think this is the case because I tried making them as thin as possible). Or maybe I should've baked them in smaller rolls instead of one long one. Whatever the reason, they all burst in the oven. The picture above shows some of the salvaged pieces with drizzled honey and...

... watermelon "caviar." Yes, I realize that watermelon doesn't go at all, but that was the only juice I was able to make without going to the store, and it didn't really matter what I used in the long run. With my handy dandy UCSF-stolen lab syringes, this was pretty successful and I came out fairly unscathed (I stabbed myself once, accidentally of course). Some of the pieces look oblong, and that's because it look me awhile to figure out how to position the syringe and how far to distance it from the bowl so there wouldn't be a tail. The first batch looked a lot like pink sperm (appetizing, I know), but when they're grouped together like above you can't really tell - phew. They aren't as delicate as I had imagined, and they don't really taste like watermelon at all. I'll try something with stronger flavor next time.

*** Edit: after writing this post, I realized that the problem was very much the fact that I used strawberries. They're like sponges! I should've known better. Oh well!

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21st Amendment

563 2nd St (and Brannan)
(415) 369-0900

American Brewery in SOMA

After my coworkers had raved about this place for the past 6 months, I finally got a chance to check it out before seeing Spoon (they were playing at popscene, which is very close). This is a great restaurant to go to before a Giants game, or after work for happy hour since they have a pretty unique beer menu. I got a very sweet pomegranate ale (not on the online list), and Jason got a tall glass of their signature watermelon wheat, slice of watermelon garnished on the lip and all. Never in question, Jason's masculinity barely wavered when he was served his girly-looking drink. Kudos. You couldn't taste the actual watermelon, but he said it was definitely sweeter (I couldn't tell).

So I came here for the jerk chicken, and I'll agree that it was good. It was moist (I almost never get chicken at restaurants because it's so normal and oftentimes dry) and had a lot of flavor... but I just don't think it was worth $15. I also expected the portions to be huge, but I thought they were normal-sized... or maybe I just eat a lot. Either way, it was good but not $15 good. Jason got fish & chips, which he said were ok... so I'm going to take that as ordinary and nothing special.

Like most breweries, this place is more about the beer and the atmosphere, so I wouldn't come with high expectations for the food. Spoon ended up being an unfortunate experience, too. They had no advance tickets so we had to wait forever in line and in the cold! We barely made it and when we finally got in, there were no openers and Spoon's set was incredibly short. Despite it being short-lived, they're still good live. I don't really remember which songs they played from their new album, but they did start with "Don't Make Me A Target."

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TOP 5 alimentos de Ecuador

I recently returned from a trip to Quito + the Galapagos (also part of Ecuador) and of course, I just had to post about the food!

1. Cuy - guinea pig (can be prepared whole roasted or fried. Ours was fried after being cut up). Aaron and I seemed to be the only ones who didn't mind eating it. I thought it tasted like a gamey fried chicken (rabbit-like) with hardly any meat. The skin was so tough it was inedible - I just took it off and ate the meat I could dig up. I don't really eat fried chicken skin anyway (let alone fried things in general). We also saw a live guinea pig a few days later. They're so cute! Like little hamsters... in my tummy.

2. Choclo - this tasted the best toasted ("chumpi," although I'm not sure about the spelling). Toasted, it tasted like corn nuts, except 10 times better! I actually don't like corn nuts, but I had to ask for more at El Pobre Diablo in Quito.

3. Plantains galore - they're basically potatoes here. They come as chips (chifles), fried, grilled, you name it. Plantains are nothing new, but they're just so everywhere outside the US.

4. Llapingachos - these are basically potato+cheese pancakes. With some good ahi (freshly made, not bottled because bottled tastes like tobasco), this side dish is very satisfying. (pictured on the right - the yellow things accompanying the lechon)

5. Ceviche - Ecuadorian ceviche is different than the Peruvian version, primarily that it's kind of like a cold soup. We had a few different kinds, but shrimp seems to be the main attraction in the dish there.

Honorable mentions:
- empanadas: (pictured on left) also good at El Pobre Diablo
- guanabana: I actually don't like this, but I thought it was interesting. In ice cream form, it tasted ok, but that was primarily because the milkiness of the ice cream overpowered the flavor of the actual fruit. Fresh, this tasted kind of nasty... like a cross between a guava, banana, and coconut, but slightly bitter (= nasty).
- tomate de arbol: Erin really likes this fruit, but when I tried the juice I was just left with a really bitter aftertaste. Before the aftertaste, however, it's like a really sweet guava-tomato which was interesting.
- hearts of palm: (pictured on the right - the 2 triangle pieces standing vertically with the shrimp salad) this is very common in salads (even my airplane food had them). They're SO good! The only reason why I didn't put it in my TOP 5 was because they exist in the states (but I had actually never had them until this trip). If you've never had it, it tastes like baby corn, except smoother and BETTER.
- suspiro de limena: it's kind of like a custard+meringue (all the desserts we tried had meringue! Strange). The guy at the restaurant described it as "dos leches," so I guess you can imagine the custard tasting strongly of condensed milk, although according to the link that's not how it's made... so I have no idea! I wish my Spanish was better and I didn't have to rely on confusing google translations.
- nescafe: somehow, they rule Ecuador (alongside other companies like Pilsener and this phone company that I forgot the name of but distinctly remember the logo of). You would think Ecuadorians would drink fabulous coffee, but they all drink nescafe! WTF indeed.

Actual description of my trip will be on travbuddy.

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Yoshi's

510 Embarcadero West (Oakland)
(510) 238-9200

Japanese in Jack London Square

So this was my second time coming here and seeing The Bad Plus, but this time we wanted to take advantage of preferential seating at the show and decided to eat here. I ordered the Niman Ranch beef tri tip with some kind of mushroom sauce which sounded mediocre and tasted mediocre... go figure. A few others in our party ordered grilled salmon and sushi rolls: the fish was thankfully fresh, but the flavors were typical.

The service was terrible: our waitress forgot one of our orders, got one of them wrong, and consistently tried to hustle us into buying more food, which really made us all uncomfortable. I really don't want to talk about the restaurant anymore because it's making me kinda mad when I think about how we spent $400+ on food which was small and overpriced, so on to the show...

The jazz club is really the only reason to come here and if you like expensive, but good cocktails you'll probably find good reason to get hammered like my friends did! The venue is intimate, the lights are dark, the acoustics are good, but the problem with the performance this time was that it was unusually short: a 35 minute set for a band with 7 or 8 minute songs was disappointing. Maybe they were jet lagged or maybe it was because they've been playing 2 shows a night for four days... I don't really know, but the performance was just like the food.

So yeah, overall, I think none of us really had a good time. The only reason I would ever come back here is if an artist I REALLY wanted to see was playing here and they didn't have any other shows at any other venue.

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Hayes & Kebab

406 Hayes St (& Gough)
(415) 861-2977

Mediterranean in Hayes Valley

This is a very busy place on the weekends, especially for after church lunches (saw everyone there, including my pastor and his family!). In the center of Hayes Valley, it's great to sit outside on a nice day and just people watch with good food.

We just had lamb gyros - the meat was moist and flavorful, unlike a lot of mediocre gyros I've had in the past. The only caveat was that since this place was so busy, we had to wait FOREVER for our food. The staff felt bad though and gave us free baklava (score! either that, or they heard Jesse say that he wanted some).

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Incanto

1550 Church St. (& Duncan)
(415) 641-4500

Italian in Noe Valley

I've never really had faith in San Francisco's Italian selection, since most of the places I have been to before this have been so-so or bad. But of course, there are a lot of restaurants I haven't been to that are supposed to be good, but I just haven't checked them out yet because I've been trying to not eat out so often (which explains that lack of restaurant reviews as of late). However, I decided to go to Incanto on a whim, and I was pleasantly surprised.

First of all, I really like Noe Valley. It's a cute area that's close to the Mission and the Castro, and it's a great neighborhood to walk around in. Secondly, it was surprisingly easy to get a day-of reservation here for a party of 4 on a Friday night at 7pm! I don't know if that's good or bad, but I was very surprised (that's prime eating time... maybe more so on a Saturday, but still). The service was ok (not great, not bad, but normal), and the ambience was nice. The big windows let in a lot of natural lighting.

The Food:
- to start, we had the handkerchief pasta: the pasta itself (i.e. the noodles) was cooked perfectly. The sauce was nothing special - a ground pork red sauce that I could probably make myself.
- I had the braised pork shoulder with rhubarb and fava beans. I say any meat that you can eat without a knife is always a good indicator for tenderness. I'm not a huge fan of rhubarb, but altogether, it was a good complement to the savory (a little too sweet for my taste though).
- My sister and her fiancee had the roasted lamb, which was ginormous. It was a little too hickory-tasting that it kind of threw me off.
- for dessert, we had a bay leaf panna cotta with strawberries drizzled with balsamic vinegar. I'm more of a dessert snob that anything else, and I must say that this was a thumbs up for me. Simple and clean, this dessert was the perfect ending to a light dinner on a warm day. Bay leaves and fruit just go really well together (top chef anyone?).

We also got a bottle of red wine (sorry, I don't know anything about wine, but it was similar to a pinot) which I liked, but I'm easy to please when it comes to wine. This place is known for it's wine list, but I can't really vouch for that. All in all, this restaurant is great for a light dinner.

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QUESTION: what kind of bear is best?

No, that's not really my question, but the answer is obviously black bear.

THE REAL QUESTION: what type of Asian cuisine is the most romantic?

I was having a conversation with Francis about this, and he claims Vietnamese (I think he's a little biased). I, on the other hand, have no idea! My first thought was Korean - not because of the food, but because they're known for their dramatic films and soaps. But if you were to judge by food alone? I'm really not sure, since our (i.e. America's) notion of romance is usually inspired by European countries like France, Italy, etc.

This is what I do at work.

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TOP 5 things to eat in financial without trekking to the ferry building in 73 degree weather

Side note: I'm trying to capitalize and punctuate as a discipline, in case you've noticed my writing looking a little more formal than usual.

It's so nice! Even when it's relatively hot in the bay area, San Francisco is usually 10 degrees cooler than most cities, but today the weather is great here! I don't feel like working, so TOP 5 it is!

1. Vietnamese vermicelli: it's light, not greasy or oily, and the citrus tang is perfect for warm days. Don't go to a Vietnamese restaurant and order pho! That's just silly. =)
2. Jamba Juice
3. Iced coffee: one of my coworkers always gets an iced coffee any time the sun is out. Perfect combination for the warm food-coma-inducing office atmosphere.
4. Salad/Sandwich: there are SO many good salad/sandwich places in the area! Focaccia (my favorite) and Mixt Greens are the best. Seller's Market, Mondo Caffe, Specialty's, Lightning, and Birley's are all pretty decent too. The main reason why Foccacia is the best is the price. Who wants to pay $10 for a salad when you can pay $5??
5. Crepe with strawberries: I'm actually not a huge fan of crepes and would rather just eat strawberries by themselves (especially since they're in season), but I don't really think you can do that around here (unless you brought it from home).

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i like food, food tastes good

intersection of music + food. fabulous!

myspace
get it here!

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TOP 5 foods found backstage after the shins

i just happened to have newfound connections to one of my favorite bands, thanks to my friend jacob! his cousin, dave hernandez, plays bass/electric guitar for indie pop band the shins, and we were fortunate to get backstage! it actually wasn't all glamour and lights, probably due to the band's, well, chillness. didn't have a plethora of food & drink, either, but we had fun with it regardless. =)

1. MINI TOASTS: these were definitely the highlight of the evening. tiny (~1 inch on each side) little toasts with a crouton-like texture, these mini toasts smelled like cardboard, but tasted like normal, unseasoned croutons. i was successfully able to cut off the crust of one side, but ended up breaking it while attempting to do the same on an adjacent side. so much for crustless mini toasts.

2. cheese: something smelled like sour parmesan, so i turned around expecting pizza... but lo and behold! a cheese plate of brie, blue cheese, gouda, and this greyish-green oily hard cheese (did not dare try it, although my friend vik kept eating it... he later went on to make a "kamikaze" mini toast club: a little bit of every cheese on the plate. it was a bad idea in hindsight). i used the brie to make a mini toast sandwich, which i offered to james mercer, the lead singer of the shins. he was struck with awe and fascination at its bite-size cuteness, although he politely declined. at least that gave us an in to a brief yet interesting conversation with him (e.g. "the tenderloin is more than tender... it's beat down! raw!"). afterwards, it was decided that mini toasts serve as great pick-up lines, and since they're so tiny, you can always keep a stash in your pocket!

3. coppola: the only type of alcohol found in the room. strange, yet i guess it went with the cheese

4. tejava: jacob was tempted to run away with bottles and bottles stuffed in his jacket. unfortunately, this idea never came to fruition.

5. soy milk. LOTS of it! talk about wholesome.

twas the most sophisticated backstage "party" i could imagine.

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TOP 5 things to eat before i die

this is inspired by this post. it was SO difficult deciding what my top 5 would be, so i divided it into two categories. these are foods i would want to eat (again) before i die, not things i haven't tried yet. i interpreted it this way because when i tried to think of things i haven't eaten before that i would want to try, i couldn't think of anything! it's not like i've eaten everything in the world... these are just my favorites of all time (i'm sure the list will change when i get older)! besides, californian food is pretty damn good.

dishes from restaurants:
1. chef's tasting menu at french laundry (inc. foie gras, "oysters & pearls," wagyu beef, and lots and lots of gooood wine. is that cheating? not that i'm not already cheating....)
2. clementine french toast
3. bay scallop roll + chirashi from sushi house (so this includes different types of raw fish. i'm so cheating)
4. animal fries from in n out
5. special noodles from mandalay

food food:
1. avocado by itself (i.e. cut open, eaten with a spoon). some people think that's gross, but it's like eating butter that's good for you. mmm
2. fresh ripe organic strawberries with some milk
3. cheesecake made by yours truly (i don't post about baking/cooking, but i'm not too shabby)
4. black sesame mochi soup balls
5. mac 'n cheese: a combination of two of my favorite things - cheese and some form of dough

Note: i didn't take any of these pictures (links are included). they aren't ideal, but they're the best i could find without looking too hard.

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Andalu

Asian/Spanish/Fusion?? small plates in the Mission

This place is pretty popular and in a prime area of the mission district. Parking's a bitch, so carpool or take public transportation if you don't live in the area. I went here for the first time last night pretty much knowing what to expect, and I was actually a bit disappointed. I think I'm just used to going to small plates restaurants in parties of two, allowing me to taste more of the food. Regardless, the food was definitely solid, but it didn't blow me away.

- polenta fries: because the menu said "curly," I was expecting something along the lines of curly fries, i.e. spiced, but it was just literally curly in a half-moon shape. These were good though, and definitely a nice break from the grease of normal fries
- halibut: don't get this. I've had much better at chinese restaurants (yes, they were going for asian fare here)
- duck confit dumplings: tasty, but mostly because they were fried. There was just too much wrapper (like a won ton wrapper) and I couldn't taste the duck at all.
- mahi mahi: the fish itself was ordinary, but the artichokes were quite complimentary
- roasted portobello: there were only 2 pieces for a party of 4, but even my half-a-mushroom was meaty and savory. If only there were more....
- pork wrapped in bacon: is it possible for something to be wrapped in bacon and not taste good? I really liked the yam puree
- coke short-ribs: I actually didn't think they were anything special, although jess really likes them. The coke flavor was non-existent, but I'm not sure if it's supposed to be?
- donut holes + mexican hot chocolate: good stuff, although it would've been I'D HIT THAT-worthy if they were served fresh and HOT.

All in all, this place is pretty solid - food-wise, ambiance (although... what's up with the KOIT music?), wine list. Good for smaller groups (I'd say no more than 4).

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a non-food post about food, kind of.

2 topics of discussion: (1) foodies, and (2) food blogs. let's start with #2.

recently there was an article about food blogging in the SF chronicle, and apparently 2 very popular blogs for the city are tablehopper and becks & posh (???). now, there are gazillions of blogs for basically every single topic of interest that it's just impossible to keep tabs on everything. i honestly only read slashfood because it references a lot of other blogs and resources out there that i have no desire to research myself.

i'm not about to hate on those two aforementioned blogs, but when it comes to restaurant reviews, i personally only care about what to order - hence, most of my reviews will mostly say "good" or "bad" and then highlight the winning dishes. i also don't like vague and romanticized writing - i don't care to read about the intricate details of the place or the food. i just want to know if i should go there or not, and what/what not to order. also, who i'm getting the recommendation from is really important. for example, i'm not going to 100% trust a rave review of ton kiang by a white boy from kansas. i will, however, trust his review if i know that he knows asian food, and can tell the difference between what's good and what's bad (although i still would never go to ton kiang). it's like me and korean food. i like steve's, but apparently that's like panda express for korean food. now you know not to go to me for korean restaurant recs (although, i can recommend some places based on my korean friends' opinions).

back to the article - a chef was quoted as saying "Everyone has become a food critic. They think they're real big shots. They probably can't even make scrambled eggs." this brings me to topic #1: "foodies." and let me just say that i CAN make scrambled eggs. in your face, teo kridech! (hey whatdoyaknow... his restaurant is the reformed watercress. no wonder he's getting bad reviews....).

according to wikipedia, a foodie "might dedicate significant time to food-related pursuits, including the pursuit of a specific item, such as the best egg cream or burrito." in other words, someone who likes and is interested in food. well, you say, doesn't EVERYONE like food?? sure, but doesn't everyone wear clothes? doesn't everyone like music?

being a "foodie" is really just about having an interest, and spending time learning more about that interest. it's about appreciating the ingredients, the technique, the art, and the innovation behind what you eat, not just about the newest hot spot or trend (although it might be like that in other more pretentious hipster scenes). with that in mind, let's address some unjustified generalizations:

- foodies only go to fancy shmancy restaurants: sure, i can appreciate fine dining (e.g. french laundry lives up to its hype), but it's not like i equate good food to expensive food. some of the best food in the world costs a few bucks or less. this guy blogs about hole-in-the-wall joints, but he's obviously a total foodie.

- foodies are snobs and elitists: as one who has been accused of being snobnoxious, my argument to that is... everyone has their own opinion! yes, i did just hate on ton kiang a few paragraphs ago, but so what? that's my opinion. you, my friend, can eat whatever you want. i LOVE hazelnut, but i hate ginger. not everyone has the same palate as me, and i'm not going to press my preferences onto other people.

- foodies are self-proclaimed experts whose only credentials are reading reviews and watching the food network: just because i didn't go to culinary school doesn't mean i don't have a decent palate (btw, culinary school really doesn't teach you anything that would make you a connoisseur) . refining your palate comes from eating a lot of different kinds of food (not just locally) and knowing what you're eating (i.e. ingredients). i also do not watch the food network except for iron chef once in awhile. i did, however, grow up on pbs cooking shows which has nothing to do with restaurants.

- foodies have a stupid name: you have a stupid name.

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