I read recently that Howard Junker, in the ZYZZYVA Speaks blog, made a list of the top ten annoying groups in San Francisco, and number 10 on the list was foodies. It hit me in the gut like a White Castle hamburger. I hate labels, but I would, I’m afraid, have to count myself in that group. “Hi, my name is Dave, and I’m a foodie.” At least he put us at the bottom of his list. Depressed, I opened my desk drawer at work and mechanically lifted into my mouth TGIF Potato Skin Chips, one after another until my tongue turned red and white from the “seasonings.”
The word “foodie” was coined by Paul Levy and Ann Barr and used in the title of their 1984 tongue-in-cheek manual, The Official Foodie Handbook. Gourmet food critics, they used it to derisively refer to yuppies that obsess about the latest food trends, celebrity chefs, and restaurants. (A few years ago, Levy posted an interesting blog in which he reflects upon the term.) Over the last 25+ years, food has become a hobby for all income levels, fueled by TV shows like Top Chef and the merchandising of chefs Wolfgang Puck, Martin Yan, Rachel Ray, etc., etc. The pursuit of good eating has helped to increase awareness of nutrition, historical value, place of origin, and method of production.Specialty food markets like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are everywhere. Everyone and their mother post their opinions about restaurants on Yelp. Buffets in Las Vegas are outnumbered by hip eateries and theme restaurants. Local upscale restaurants are selling ready-to-eat meals at Bay Area CostCo’s. Betty Crocker has a line of gluten-free cake mixes.
The definition of a “foodie” can nowadays mean anyone who enjoys what they choose to eat and pursues their next meal with passion, whether said food is a five-course gourmet meal or the preference of the Angus Deluxe from McDonald’s over the pedestrian Big Mac. But I have high standards for myself. If I’m going to be a foodie, I want to be the best foodie I can be. And people-pleaser that I am, I certainly don’t want to be seen as annoying to the random blogger. As foodie self-doubt and insecurity creeps in, I am compelled to submit myself to a full analysis.
| Good Foodie | Bad Foodie | Better Foodie |
| Can’t wait to read the Food Section in the Sunday and Thursday San Francisco Chronicle. | Don’t subscribe to any food magazines or blogs. | Should clip and save the Chron’s Taster’s Choice column and seek out the Hall of Fame winners. And perhaps expand my sources of food information! |
| Almost always read nutrition/ingredient labels and choose products low in trans fats, preservatives, mystery chemicals, sodium, and processed sugars. | Sometimes you just got to have a Snickers or Ball Park franks. | Some mass-market products like Dinty Moore Beef Stew have no artificial ingredients listed on the label so that’s a plus. But a dedicated foodie would distrust where the meat and vegetables came from. |
| Usually buy organic, but not necessarily local, produce at the supermarket. | Don’t shop at Farmer’s Markets. Too crowded, too many booths with the same wilted produce, too haphazard. And I sometimes wonder if a vendor didn’t just buy that box of strawberries at CostCo and is passing them off as farm-fresh. | Consider subscribing to Farm Fresh to You organic produce service. Or starting a plot at the community garden. Or getting to know the vendors at one of my local farmer’s markets. |
| Prefer leaf lettuce and mixed greens over iceberg lettuce. | Sometimes resort to bagged lettuce. | Wash bagged lettuce, even when it says it’s triple-washed, because with e-coli and salmonella going around, you can’t trust any farmer or manufacturer. Be in total control of what goes into my mouth and body. |
| Hardly ever use French’s mustard. | Grey Poupon Dijon mustard, made by Kraft Foods, is the only “gourmet” mustard I like on a regular basis. | Try making my own mustard that suits my taste and texture preferences. |
| Love cookbooks and trying new recipes. | It’s been a long time since I’ve invented my own dishes, using creativity to combine available ingredients. | Trust my instincts more and don’t be afraid to cook without a recipe. Especially when it’s just for Eric and me—if it doesn’t turn out, I can always put it in the produce recycling bin or the organic composter. |
| Thanks to my mother’s influence, I enjoy cooking and baking from scratch as much as possible. I like being in control of my ingredients, and it’s not that much extra work. | Sometimes I use frozen peas and corn, and canned soup and broth. | If using pre-packaged foods, get organic, low-sodium brands. |
| The original Joy of Cooking is my primary go-to reference book. | I frequently don’t follow the time-consuming techniques exactly. | Update my cookbook library by consulting the Foodie Cookbooks list on Amazon, so I can cook amazing food using the latest and greatest—but time-saving—techniques. |
| Have made fresh aioli—it’s the best. | Most often buy Best brand of jar mayonnaise. | Try specialty mayonnaise and aioli from local markets. |
| In the past year, have twice made one of my favorite dishes, cassoulet—a hearty and delicious baked French casserole of white beans, rich sauce, and a mélange of sausages and meats. | But horrors, I took a shortcut and used frozen duck confit—pieces of duck legs and thighs that are marinated in fat and seasonings. A friend’s brother makes duck confit from scratch once a year, a grand process that takes several days. Incidentally, the frozen confit was available at CostCo for half the price of that at a local gourmet grocery store. | Come on, next you’ll want me to make sausages from scratch too. Maybe when I’m retired and have unlimited time on my hands, I can abide by the sacred preparation of cassoulet. Either that, or travel frequently to Paris—the Brasserie de l’Ile St Louis serves a cassoulet that brought me to tears. |
| Enjoy going on wine-tasting day trips; belong to Chateau St. Jean wine club. | I know what tastes good to me, and what tastes like vinegar, but haven’t fine-tuned my wine-tasting vocabulary or palate. Plus as I age, unlike the wine, I’ve soured towards drinking wine very often at home. | Pop the cork 3-4 days a week and have a half glass of red wine—with dinner not before so I don’t get such a buzz. Savor the nuances and vocalize confidently. |
| A cup of fresh-brewed, sustainably-grown, organic coffee can be divine. Aromatic, earthy, flavorful. | Not living close to a neighborhood café, most mornings I jumpstart with Taster’s Choice Gourmet Roast instant coffee. It’s quick and there’s no messy cleanup. | Consider getting a one-cup coffee maker. At the Westin-Tabor hotel in Denver, they have Starbucks coffee in individual serving pouches for the Wake Cup system. Too much caffeine for me but great flavor, even if it isn’t freshly ground. |
| Always read in detail the Chron’s annual Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants magazine and keep as a reference. | Most of the restaurants are expensive, and we usually only go to them on birthdays, anniversaries, and Valentine’s Day. | Visit the restaurants that most appeal to us, and don’t go hog-wild every time. Some are casual enough where entrees can be shared. |
| Subscribe to the Chron’s Inside Scoop SF column to stay on top of the latest local restaurant openings and closings. And grieve when our favorite restaurants, like Citron, suddenly close. | How many bar/gourmet pizza joints do we need in the Bay Area? Seems a new one opens every week and they’re wildly popular. The last one we visited, well-reviewed everywhere I looked, was cramped, noisy, and everything was super salty, in order to keep the specialty drinks flowing. | Start my own restaurant called “Pizza-Less Paradise Bistro.” |
| Use Open Table to make reservations whenever possible and read diner reviews. Also read reviews on Yelp before trying a new restaurant instead of relying just on newspaper reviews. | Hardly ever post my own restaurant reviews online. Most diner reviews are too subjective to take without a huge grain of kosher sea salt. The things some people complain about are ridiculous, while others wax poetic about their great meal after having had several drinks when anything would taste good to them. | Accept that posting my simple review may be helpful in the overall average rating of a restaurant, which is really the useful barometer of diner reviews. |
| Avoiding national chain restaurants has always been a personal conviction. When I was younger, I had the energy to hold out in unfamiliar cities until I could search out the local food coop or the lone organic café. | On trips outside of big cities, sometimes I give in to fast food and chains out of fatigue and poor planning. | Many chains have become hip to the foodie revolution and serve some pretty decent meals. If you’re selective, you can survive the indignities of laminated menus and assembly-line preparation. I’ve enjoyed some tasty meals at Pasta Pomodoro, Chipotle, Rainforest Café, and Chili’s. |
| Have a decent understanding of French, Italian, Spanish, and German food terminology and can roughly translate menus. | Cringe when I see “with au jus” or apple pie “with a la mode” on a menu and hope their cooking skills are better than their language skills. | Don’t judge a book by its cover because great chefs have a language all their own. Still, perhaps I could offer my editing/proofreading skills in exchange for a free meal. |
| Frequently order the salumi and cheese platter. It’s basically cold cuts and curdled milk but with my nose high in the air, it smells so refined. | Don’t ever buy salumi for homemade sandwiches. Instead buy Hormel lunch meats. | But they’re Hormel’s Natural Choice preservative- and nitrate-free line of meats and bacon. |
| I know who Alice Waters is and respect her legacy and efforts to promote organic, locally produced food. | The dark side of Alice Waters is that she’s an exotic meat eater. I’ve never dined downstairs at Chez Panisse because you have to make reservations months in advance and the menu is unpredictable—would you want to get stuck eating boar’s neck soup? | Become involved with Waters’ Chez Panisse Foundation, which is dedicated to improving national school lunch programs. Locally, the Edible Schoolyard, a one-acre organic garden and kitchen classroom, teaches public school students about organic gardening and eating. |
| Trusted in the chef at a French restaurant and ordered the chef’s choice appetizer platter. | The waiter looked at me dumbfounded when I didn’t eat everything on the platter, including fresh oysters, which I’m sure were exquisite. | No one should have to eat something, no matter how inspired the chef’s creation is, if it could make them sick. Due to digestive issues, I won’t eat raw fish, fresh oysters, calamari, blue cheese, raw beef, raw onions, or jalapeno peppers. |
| Moan and swoon after a bite of something amazing. Most recently, it was a warm edam cheese soufflé at La Folie in SF, and Sticky Toffee Pudding at a dinner party. | Too often I rush through meals without savoring every bite, or at least not verbalizing my experience. | Make an effort to fine-tune my palate and describe the flavors with the skill of a celebrity food writer. Use chopsticks with every meal–I find that they force me to regard every morsel intimately, and my skill with chopsticks also makes me feel superior to fork-using diners. |
| Shared food with strangers in a restaurant. The arugula salad at Wood Tavern in Oakland is amazing. Eric offered a taste to the friendly woman of a certain age at the next table. In exchange, she put pieces of her roast chicken onto our bread plates. We all hugged at the end of our meals. | I prefer to have my own table, instead of sitting at community tables which have become a popular trend. | Before going to a community-style restaurant, have a drink or glass of wine somewhere else first, so when I arrive, I’m ready to commune with strangers. Be open to not just embracing other foodies, but to publicly embracing the foodie that I am and always will be. Face it, once you’ve tasted “Seared Liberty Farm Duck Breast with Duck Confit Shepherd’s Pie, Wild Hedgehog Mushrooms, and Spiced Cider Jus,” there’s no turning back. |
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I’m inviting you to our next potluck. And/or, let’s go out to dinner!
Comment by Julie Ray — July 5, 2010 @ 9:24 pm |
OK, thank you! I’m sure it will be a foodie extravaganza!
Comment by Oh Dave Now — July 7, 2010 @ 4:43 pm |