What is a Foodie?

What do you think of when you hear the term Foodie?  Do you cringe or drool?

I started my Blog in 2011 after my work contract ended and my mother passed away.  I had already had blogs but I was home cooking more so I created a Blog to put my thoughts and photos about food onto a blog for myself and my friends.

In 2011 it wasn't a pretentious lucrative thing as it turned out to be for some people and I didn't do it as a career but as a passion.  I had always loved to cook and to eat out at different kinds of restaurants to try new things that I did not grow up eating.  My next door neighbours were mostly Italian and I loved to see what they were eating at their house and that grew my love of Italian food that continues to this day.  My mom wasn't the best at making Italian food but she did know how to cook other Mediterranean food.  I had a very diverse palette compared to most of my friends because my parents had food influences from Greece, Poland, France, Belgium, Jerusalem and Spanish food too.

I am getting ahead of myself now.  Back to the Foodie thing.  When I started my blog I wanted to call it something like Starving Artist or something cool but when I tried to come up with a name I kept going back to Starving Foodie.  The term Foodie was just starting to be used a lot and since I am not a trained chef and I don't work in the Food Industry and I am not a professional writer but I do know my way around a Kitchen and I do know a lot about different ethnic cuisines and what's happening in the food world.   I learned a lot from influences from friends, travelling, going out to events since I was a kid and growing up watching cooking shows on TV.  While I am not formally trained I have been told many times over the years that I should have a restaurant.  I don't because I know it takes a lot of money and a lot of stamina and I don't have enough of either of those things.

So the reason for this blog post and What is a Foodie?  I started watching a New York based documentary on Amazon Prime and right at the beginning they had people from places like Eater and bloggers, and other food writers answer the question about what is a foodie.   Most of them said things like a self proclaimed food geek, someone who just goes to restaurants and a lot more judgemental comments that kind of put my back up.   I often think I should change my blog to my name because I like to write about restaurants less than other things.  I like to write about events,  because I do have an education and experience in that and I also like to write about food films and also have another blog for that.  But I also like to write about sustainability, farmers, trends, great things and not so great things going on in the food world.  My instagram is more of a lifestyle page because I post lots of not so perfectly curated photos.  I have 2 accounts but I just go back to my main account and I like to post things I see, people I hang out with and places I go and things I eat.

My Instagram is more like a visual diary for myself and my friends to see what I am up to.  They like to see what I am eating because it inspires them and gives them ideas of what they can make because I keep things fairly simple most of the time.

During Covid-19 self isolating I have gone back to the kitchen and almost back to where I started even though I have put my time into Instagram instead of my blog because I am still working from home.

I have done all the Covid food things,  make sourdough Starter,  make Dalgona coffee,  I am still obsessed with that one but gave up on the sourdough because it just takes too much of a time investment.  I baked the banana bread,  I made chocolate chip cookies,  I made gnocchi from scratch and all kinds of doughs.  I am trying to push myself to not eat the same even though the food options are a lot more limited now.  I try and make things I have never made before like Okonomyaki.  Japanese seafood pancake if you don't know.  That turned out great.  It's my creative outlet, it feeds my belly and my soul and my creative photography lover side.

The reason I take un-curated photos on my feed is because I have been taking photos since I was 12 years old.  I just take photos of things I find interesting, beautiful or newsworthy for me.  My blog and social media were created for me so I don't expect to become rich and famous from it.   Some have but that has never been my goal.

These are some of my "foodie" friends while we are on an Asparagus Farm Tour.

I am not that person who is more of an "influencer" that's the term I am not crazy about because to me from what I have seen from some of the popular ones is that it is all about them getting the perfect shot of themselves.  If I take a selfie it's either because I just want to say something, be goofie or show where I am or who I am with or like this photo below it's to show the sign of the Sea-Hi restaurant that was about to close after 50 years in business.

I went to a lavendar farm with a couple of friends and what really turned me off where the people who were obviously Instagram obsessed with doing a photoshoot in the middle of a row of lavendar and they wore pretty dresses and big sun hats and then sprawled in the rows of lavendar even though they were told to be careful of the lavendar because that's how they earn their money.  I wanted to take a photo of the fields and my friends and I celebrating my friends birthdays.

I am getting off track again.  Anyway..  I have been to many events where there are a whole bunch of foodies, Instagrammers, bloggers, influencers, writers, fashionistas or whatever you want to call them.  Sometimes when food is presented some will spend 20 minutes taking photos of it and some will take 20 min taking photos of themselves eating it.   Some will take one photo and then dive in as if they have never eaten a meal before in their life.   I like to try and take a couple of photos to try and get the best light and angle and then get out of the way and wait to eat the food once everyone is done.

It's very competitive although I am not competing because it's not my source of income.  I have a day job that pays my bills now but when I started my job just ended and I just gravitated to food to fill the void.  The first couple of years I spend a lot of time on my blog but lately I have not been keeping up because of Covid,  and the fact that there is less to inspire me to write because I am not out and about like I normally would be.   The judgmental comments in that documentary inspired me to speak about what it's like in Toronto and what it's like for me as a blogger.   I am not an "influencer",  although I do get media passes and do write about events mostly or other things I am invited to,  I do not work for a publication so my opinions are my own.  If I don't like something you will only hear the things I am ok with.  If I don't think things are right I will tell you.  Because it's my voice I can speak what I think uncensored by a brand compensation.

Now back to the food thing.  I have been cooking for over 50 years so I think that has given me somewhat of half decent experience and I get bored eating the same kind of food so I am always looking for inspiration.  Currently now that travel is not an option I was able to watch a series about Thailand and the food there.  It was like getting a travel cooking lesson and I find that very inspiring so when I feel like having Thai food I try and take bits of what I have learned from those types of shows.

I have many friends that are different kinds of bloggers, instagrammers, and food writers, tv personalities and such.  Some specialize in specific cuisine, some only go to restaurants,  one of my friends has dumped her blog but continues to search for the perfect beers an puts that on Instagram.  Some are into health,  some farming,  some travel and some Michelin star restaurants. 

We all have our own individual passion for food which is what has brought us together.  Food is the common denominator in the world.  Right now we can't agree on anything but if you post a Pizza Pull I bet a lot of people will like it.   Food itself isn't political,  there may be religious reasons for eating certain foods but you don't eat because of politics.   When I post anything that has my political opinion I get skewered on social media but right now I am going to post Ice cream for National Ice Cream day and I don't think anyone will post a negative comment.

There is room enough in the world for Foodie, or whatever you want to call people who love food and everything about it and influencers,  food marketers,  brands, food writers, content creators, cookbook authors, food bloggers and dieticians.

Let people do what they do and the world will be a happier place.

Now I am going to go back to that documentary called For the Love of Food.  If you check it out leave me a comment about it.

The best heatwave food - Gazpacho!

GAZPACHO- Is it a soup or a salsa or a salad?

I don't write a lot of recipes for a couple of reasons.  One because I hardly ever measure anything unless I am baking and the other is that I generally make classic time tested dishes.  But I decided to write this recipe because it's close to traditional but the way I have been making it for a few years and it's been a go to every summer.  Gazpacho is a classic Spanish dish that is made with just a lot of knife skills and some refrigeration.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Green Onions
• 2 tbsp Red Onions
• 2 tbsp Yellow Onions
• 2 cloves of Garlic
• 1 tsp Jalapeno
• 2 tbsp Sherry Vinegar or Red wine vinegar
• 3 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 lime
• 2 tbsp Cilantro
• 2 Tomatoes- on the stem or heirloom
• 2 Cucumbers
• 1/2 a Green Pepper
• 1 rib of Celery
• 1 tsp salt or to taste
• 1 tsp pepper or to taste
• 1 cup of Clamato Juice or tomato juice
• 3 Dashes of Cholula hot sauce - optional

DIRECTIONS

Squeeze the lime into a large bowl and you can use the zest if you like.  If you don't have a lime you can use a lemon and put it into the bowl.

Grate 2 garlic cloves with a microplane or finely chop and add to the lime juice.

Finely chop about a quarter of a jalapeno.  I used 4 slices of one and used the end where there were less seeds.  Add to the bowl.

Add the Sherry Vinegar or Red wine vinegar, a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce and mix the ingredients.

Chop the green onions into a fine dice, chop the red and yellow onions into a small dice as well and add all of the onions to the dressing in the bowl.

I didn't peel my tomatoes and this is a great time to use soft tomatoes because they break down anyway.  I used tomatoes on the stem and diced them.  I left the seeds as well but you could peel and seed them if you like it smoother.

Finely dice the green pepper, cucumber and celery and add to the bowl.

Finely chop the Cilantro and add to the bowl.  

Mix all of the ingredients.

Pour the Clamato Juice over the vegetable mixture until it covers all of the vegetables.  If you like it less thick add more juice.  I like it chunky and the vegetables break down as it sits in the fridge.

Taste for flavour and then add the salt and pepper to taste.

Let sit in the fridge for at least a couple of hours for the onions and tomatoes to break down and mix the juices.

Serve in a glass or bowl and add a sprig of cilantro for garnish and you can drizzle with olive oil.  If you don't add bread which is in a traditional Spanish Gazpacho I would suggest you garnish with Croutons.  I prefer the Gazpacho like a chunky soupy salsa.

This is great for really Hot summer days because you don't have to cook anything and it can stay in the fridge for days and still be great.  This is one of my friends favourite things that he asks for in the summer.  It's a winner.

Coronavirus and the Food Industry

If you read my previous post I talked about the Restaurant Canada Show that I went to in March 2020.  I had high hopes for 2020 because I had a very rough year in 2019 physically, career wise, financially and of course that affected my mental health as well.  I was hoping to shake off that year and start fresh in 2020 and do what I wanted to do and spend more time with people I like spending time with and do less rushing around for no good reason.   While January and February started off quietly March came in like a Coronavirus Lion. 

I was looking forward to and hoped to have some more fun things to look forward to in 2020 but one thing I have learned over my lifetime is that as soon as I try and plan something too far in the future life smacks me upside the head and changes everything.

Luckily timing was good and I was able to attend one of my favourite trade shows of the year,  The Restaurant Canada Show,  as I said more about that in my previous post but just to sum it up it is one of my favourite shows because it's organize so well and it's the restaurant industry leaders who have booths, do panels and demos and visit the show.   My day job isn't in the food industry but because of this blog I have met so many people in the business and want to know as much as I can so that I can write with knowledge when I write these posts.

I had a fantastic time hanging out with my blogger friends, seeing chefs I knew and sampling all kinds of food over the 2 days that I visited the show.  But little did I know that it would probably be the last big event I would go to for possibly another year. 

Everything changed only a week later.  At the time I was at the Enercare Centre with loads of people, although it is so big it's not crowded luckily,  but just east of the Enercare Centre someone at a Mining Conference at the Metro Convention Centre tested positive for a new Coronavirus - Covid 19.  This virus started in 2019 in China and if you don't already know you are living in a bubble.

I was at the trade show on the Sunday and Monday and within 2 weeks I was working from home.  That doesn't sound unusual but my job was never supposed to be a work from home job.  I work in Public Service.  I knew things were serious when I got a laptop pronto and we had to figure out another way of getting work done.  Luckily I had already started thinking of getting more things done by sharing files on more cloud shareable platforms.  We can't do everything but it's now been about a month since I have been working from home and who knows how long this will go on.

So I will get to my point now,  I never expected the whole food industry to change after that Restaurant Canada Show and i am sure nobody at the show did either.

All of a sudden all events were cancelled until July and then things ramped up with the big step of non essential or big groups had to shut down so that meant Restaurants had to close and they could only provide Take Out.

There are thousands of restaurants of all sorts of sizes and kinds in Toronto and that shut down and within a couple of weeks destroyed the restaurant business.  The restaurant industry in Toronto has already been struggling to keep up with the high rents and the construction, transit issues and staffing issues and now this.  Over night restaurants closed and most will most likely never open their doors again because they won't have the money to keep them going through the reduced business that will occur for a long time to come.

So here's the other effect that happened because of a Virus that spread like wildfire across the globe.
People now fear going for groceries.  I ordered a pizza to support a Chef that owns a couple of pizza places.  It cost me $30 after charges and tax and tip to the Uber Driver for a pepperoni pizza.  I would never normally do that because I have like 5 different pizza places within a few blocks of where I live but ok so I supported local with my $$ and then got a firestorm of opinions about ordering takeout food on social media.  Some understanding supporting the restaurant industry and some totally paranoid about anything anyone touches that they would come into contact with.


While I will probably not order that pizza again it made me think that if this is what the public will think then we may lose 90 percent of the restaurants in this city out of fear and paranoia.   I say 90 percent because I know there are people out there who will still support their friends in the business no matter what.  Even though there are a ton of restaurants in the city the community is very tight.

So what else changed?  Well people buying up all the bread and yeast in the city.  Why?  Well to make all the Sourdough breads and Banana Breads that have been flooding Instagram accounts.

There are a few Instagram Food trends happening.  Here's what you will see.

1.  Banana Bread
2.  Sourdough or other types of bread that require time.
3.  Dalgona Coffee - the whipped coffee craze
4.  Pasta - especially Carbonara and straight up tomato sauce
5.  Gnocchi - following the pasta craze but making it at home now.
6.  Bowls of all kinds - smoothie bowls, bowls of Ramen, soup bowls.  any comfort thing in a bowl.
7.  Mac and Cheese- who doesn't love Mac and cheese... it's pasta with more cheese.
8.  Wine - people are trying to drink the virus away drinking wine while they are on zoom chats.
9.  Beer - craft beer in particular because people need their beer.
10.  And finally Desserts,  mostly chocolate chip cookies but there are lots of muffins, cakes, and whatever they can come up with.  Did you know that people are waiting in a drive through Krispy Kreme for 3 hours?

How many of these did I jump on the bandwagon with?  Well I would say 8 out of 10 just because I am not a beer or wine drinker but I have been putting Kahlua in my dalgona coffee.

The good thing to come out of this insanity though is an appreciation for the hard work that servers and chefs do and how we actually rely on them a lot more than we realize.   I always knew this and miss them a lot.

The servers should be paid more because they rely on tips to make ends meet and most have no benefits so at a time like this their only option is unemployment with will give them half of what they were making.

Also, the other good thing is that people are forced to get back into their kitchens and up their cooking skills or they will just be eating the same thing everyday.  It's a great time to teach kids cooking skills which they will have for life so that they can take care of themselves at any time this or anything worse happens.  I believe more people will start food gardens this year too.

I like to cook when I am inspired but not everyday so I like a balance of cooking and going to restaurants or getting takeout when I have other things that will occupy my time.  That option may not be available as much if this pandemic continues for a long time.

It's interesting how we now realize that Nurses, PSW's, grocery store workers, chefs, servers, Police, Firefighters, EMS, truck drivers and farmers should be paid a lot more than celebrities and sports people.  They aren't going to keep us alive.  We do need entertainment to lift our soul but it's not going to do anything for us if we get Covid 19 so I hope that people's priorities and values shift a lot after we return to somewhat of a normal existence.   Although I believe we will never go back to the way things were.  The world changed after Sars, 9/11 and some other large disasters.   We will never look at handshakes, hugs, crowds and food sources the same way again.

Never take things for granted because everything can change like a virus spreading overnight.

Thank the people that keep you alive.  Help whoever you can.