First Post - Food For Thought

My entire philosophy on food has changed dramatically within the past 5 years of my life. Up until my freshman year of college, I was prone to plain turkey sandwiches with cheese, burgers with nothing on them, chicken tenders, and the occasional Frosty. My palate was undeveloped, undeserving, and unloved, and I pretty much ate like a six year old. Oregano? Psh. Who the hell likes spicy mustard? And why would anyone ever make a career out of something as boring as food?

Well, I remember that fateful day where my eyes were opened and my palate awoken. I strolled into the buffet style dining hall of my university with a few friends who were a little more adventurous than I. They declared that day, "monster burger day", and decided that they would create a burger so epic, so insanely tasty, that no one could resist its intricately mouth-watering construction, including myself. I laughed. Silly foodies...

Normally, when someone included more than the basics in a dish I would over analyze the ingredients and find it unappealing. Well, this was not to be the case. Utilizing every random food station, including the basic obligatory burger one, my friends piled patty after juicy patty between two buns, and intermittently threw in slices of provolone, american, and swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, salt and pepper, oregano, cooked onions, a slathering of chili, crunchy sweet banana peppers, a splash of vinegar and oil, melted nacho cheese and tortilla chip crumbles, and God knows what else. That burger was the mother of all burgers - and I was going to try it.

I don't remember the exact mechanics of how I managed to fit my whole mouth around that bad boy, but I did. My friends looked on, anticipating a reaction of disgust and waiting to die in laughter, but I just stopped thinking at that point. I didn't care what was on it - there was too much to analyze, too much to decide what was disgusting and what I wouldn't like. I was forced to focus on the simple interweaving of flavors and textures into one bite.

I bit down.
I chewed.
I swallowed.
I smiled.

It was a like a little light bulb went off in my head. Everything was amazing, the melodic harmony of so many different delicious things into one amazing palatable bite made that burger its own category of food. From then on, I couldn't wait to try random combinations of food and flavors, from the basics I had managed to forego (mayo on a sandwich, salad dressings other than ranch, any spicy food) to more advanced flavors and dishes (integrating mascarpone cheese into desserts, butternut squash and pancetta ravioli), or anything I could find to put together that was unusual. As an artist, once I was introduced to the concept of beautiful food presentation and design, I then knew I was hooked for a lifetime. After 5 years of exploring food with an open mind and heart, I am ready to call myself an official foodie.

Who knew burgers could be so influential?

So the posts that will follow will hopefully enlighten you to the ever-entertaining world of food, wine, the art of it all, restaurants I like or despise, occasionally vegan or vegetarian options, etc, and all done so in an unpretentious manner. If I feel like reviewing Subway, I'm going to do it, dammit. Food is food, and if you think you need to spend a fortune at an upscale restaurant to really enjoy it, you're sorely mistaken and doomed to deprive your tongue of the simple yet radiant flavors of life.