About Me





I LOVE FOOD!

Why else would I have a food blog?

I started this blog as a virtual recipe box, a place where I can keep recipes that I have tried & like so I can refer back if I ever had the need.  As I started to write my first recipes, I began to care more about that I was eating & the role food played in my life.  I quickly became fascinated with food - eating it, cooking it, learning about the science behind it, & writing about it.

I used to think of food just as fuel; it's like putting gas into a car.  And just like gasoline, there are different levels of food quality; & some people are willing pay extra for those premium foods in order to maximize the performance of their cars...I mean, bodies.  As I got into this whole food thing, I learned food was more than that.  Food is a common language shared by everyone across the globe.  Take meatball as an example.  Most people know & love the classic Italian meatballs but Italian cuisine doesn't monopolize this concept.  In Chinese cooking, there is the Lion's Head which is a meatball the size of a fist cooked in a really rich sauce.  In Mexican cuisine, Albóndigas is commonly served in a soup.  If you take a leap, even a falafel can be think of as a "meatball."  Food defines culture.  Just like traditional garb or dance can define a culture, so can food.  When you think about Japan, you think of fresh sashimi & ramen noodles.  When you think of India, you think of rich & fragrant curries.  When you think of Hong Kong, you think of...I don't know what you'd think of but I think of disgustingly dirty food carts parked on street corners selling the most delicious eggettes, roasted purple yams, & curry fish balls that are skewered to order.  This little blurb brings me to my last realization: Food defines us as people.  We all know the saying "we are what we eat."  Not only is this saying true in the sense that better food = better nutrition = better body; it is also true that we are - to a certain extent - molded by our memories which are often associated with or involve food.  For example, people who grow up having regular family dinners are more likely to have regular family dinner when they have their own families.  When people go out to eat food that they grew up eating it's never as good because it's never exactly like "how grandma made it."  For me, I now have an unhealthy relationship with gummy bears because my high school chemistry teacher used to sell them to students & as his TA, I got to eat as many of them as possible for free.  I can also never walk by a durian without thinking about how 1 time my mom brought a durian home thinking I wouldn't be able to smell it since it was wrapped in layers of newspaper & hidden next to an open window.  Boy was she wrong about that one.

Food has become more than a hobby to me.  I find this subject fascinating & for a while I seriously considered applying to a Masters program in Gastronomy (it was too pricey).  I also find food-related activities to be quite relaxing, almost therapeutic.  Regardless of how crappy a day I am having, I can always manage to find joy in writing a blog post, watching an episode of Chopped on Hulu, or baking a chocolate cake & trying not to eat the whole thing.

Oh, maybe I should explain the title even though it's pretty self explanatory...?  Well just in case.  If you are not familiar with the picture of the mouse @ the top of this page, he is Remy - the character behind the title of this blog & the main character in the Disney Pixar movie Ratatouille.  If you haven't seen the movie, go watch it!  But if you don't want to for whatever reason that's OK too, you're missing out though.  I named this blog after Remy because (1) the movie is set around food & (2) this blog is my outlet to sharing my journey with food & cooking, sort of a way for me to showcase the "little chef" that I have sitting inside my imaginary toque blanche.

Although I think everyone who reads this blog has read blogs before & understand that they reflect only the authors' thoughts, I should still have a disclaimer:  The contents of this blog solely reflects the views of the author (me) & does not necessarily reflect the opinions of those people, place, & things mentioned.  The author (me) will be as diligent as possible in double-checking factoids & including references when appropriate.  If any reader (you) should feel the need to address the contents of this blog, please leave a comment.  Please note that any comments that are not relevant to the contents of this blog and/or any comments which are crude & contain derogatory language will be deleted.  Thank you.

And with that, happy reading!