Isn’t it weird how sometimes you never know something about yourself until someone else points it out for you?
This last Saturday I was at work. It was a fairly quiet day after a busy week of new stock deliveries. Usually deliveries aren’t that exciting, however this month, was a month of new release cook books, and the week of the new October Delicious magazine. I suppose for some, this event would not ever be worth drawing attention to, however for me, I felt like a fat kid with cake…..quite literally. My face lit up at the prospect of a quiet Saturday with the ability to flick through the new cook books and marvel at the glory of all the wonderful food photographs and recipes.
I know this is beginning to sound kind of weird, but I wasn’t alone. My colleague and I have a ritual of rating the cookbooks based on presentation,
photography, and of course recipes, and thus this is what we did on Saturday. We managed to make it through all the new books and the magazine. It was a hectic day, and we finally decided that Jamie’s America was a clear winner in terms of the best cook book of the day, however, Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Companion was definitely a book that deserved a lifetime award (the Kitchen Garden Cooking with Kids is also fabulous for those with green thumbs and green kids). When we were completed, we returned all the books to their respected areas on the ‘Cooking’ wall, and gleefully returned to the counter feeling very euphoric. I do believe my face could have been glowing. My colleague turned to me and said that it wasn’t until she met me that she appreciated food quite so much, and that I was a bit of a food addict.
This is not new to me. It is something I have always known in the back of my mind… I always knew I was a foodie…I just never though of myself as an addict. It was later that week that my dad pointed out that he thinks 90% of the time I converse with someone, the topic is in relation to food. I quickly rewound the days events and skimmed through what I could remember, stop-starting at points of conversation…and alas….it was true. It then sparked another thought that not only when I am talking to people do I think about food. I often use my free day dreaming time to contemplate wonderous recipes and potential concoctions of goodies I can master for dinner. At home when I’m bored in between refreshing Facebook I read food blogs, such as Not Quite Nigella, which are beginning to beat my love of cook books, as they are updated more regularly, and can provide faster satisfaction.
I have never thought that my adoration of anything edible could be a bad thing. I think of myself as a Samantha from Sex and the City in the food world, just more Steffi in Food and the Recipe. You could say I was very confident in my restaurant food-ality. I am what one might term a try-foodual….i’ll try anything once! And I’m a bit of a restaurant whore. I work my way around the city and take my friends along. The more the merrier, and these things can get dirty. Some of my…alright who am I kidding, ALL of my…..fondest childhood memories revolve around a family meal. Having grown up in a family of European descent, I am sure you are aware of their obsession with meals and gatherings around meals. Even today, when we meet up for friends it’s usually for coffee or a dinner party….and thus to me, an intense relationship with food could only make sense. Perhaps one day I might make a career out of it. I think the best job in the entire world would to be a global food critic! To be paid to travel, and eat exotic and delicious foods could only a positive right?
