embracing the foodie nation

“A person that spends a keen amount of attention and energy on knowing the ingredients of food, the proper preparation of food, and finds great enjoyment in top-notch ingredients and exemplary preparation.  A foodie is not necessarily a food snob, only enjoying delicacies and/or food items difficult to obtain and/or expensive foods; though, that is a variety of foodie.”  - Urban Dictionary

I thought I’d start off with a basic definition of a foodie, since I claim to be one.   I wanted to do this blog for my friends, so I’m going share some anecdotes with you, as I explore everything food related. 

It’s a fun time to be a foodie, and there are so many outlets for us to turn to. I find myself appreciating food more and more each day.  My subscription to Netflix (courtesy of Stephanie) has truly expanded my knowledge on food; where it comes from, how it’s grown and its future.  There are cable channels that are totally devoted to food; not all the programming is great, but each show does appreciate food in some manner.  I even stumbled upon this fun new webseries http://freefoodies.com/. It started yesterday, so check it out; I think it’s pretty funny!

So I thought as a foodie, I’d tell you about my first food memory, but for some reason, I’m not sure what it was!  Yeah, I have pictures documenting many food-important events of my life, like my second grade birthday party at King’s Cooking Studios in Short Hills.  What eight year old tells her mom she wanted to have her birthday party at a cooking studio??  Ummm me! We made pizza and cookies, and it was a fantastic time!  From then on, at every book fair, I was buying cooking books with my allowance money! 

But even before this were those trips to Corrado's in Clifton, NJ; http://www.corradosmarket.com/home/store-clifton.html. Back then, it was a little bit more bare-bones kind of store, with open 3 story ceilings and a vast array of international foods  Mom would spend hours in each aisle (not that it's much different than today), and she’d whisk my sisters and me away to shell sweet peas to make our Corrado Day "fun." What she didn't realize the fun part was when she wasn’t looking; we were too busy poking at the snails on the crates!  But it’s sad that I can’t distinguish my first memories. It’s hard to imagine my life without good food, and I’ve been very fortunate. What were your first food memories, maybe it could jog my memory!