I am a picky eater. I still don't like a lot of things that I didn't like in grade school such as tomatoes and raw onions but at the same time I am getting better. I am willing to experiment. I will try almost anything once.
I am a vegetarian. Not completely strict but with tastes trending away from meat in general and I am easily frustrated by how confused people get over what to serve a vegetarian. The large majority of our food was vegetarian or with minimal meat added as an ingredient for the larger portion of our history due to economic in-feasibility of having a big chunk of meat with every meal and vegetarian food is not something to be looked at with fear. It is tasty, filling and healthy when done right.
I am not a professional. I have rarely taken any classes and I tend not to listen to my mom until I have messed something up and need help. But I am fearless, I made haggis when I still didn't eat any meat and in the world of Google and food blogs there is little excuse for not trying something.
I live in Portland, OR. For those unfamiliar with us, we are weird and we care to a sometimes obscene degree about our food. We have one of the largest Farmer's Markets in the country. We have one of the strongest restaurant and food cart scenes too with new things popping up almost daily, ever ready to surprise us with their offerings. We are not health nuts, we will fill our diets with fat, salt, cholesterol, etc. in the form of local cheese, vegan chocolates, wines, beers, bacon, and any other tasty ingredient we can find as long as it is high quality and preferably local. We want to know where our food was raised, what the environment was and how we can do it ourselves next time. We have been called snobs but it is short sighted to call someone a snob just because they care about something or because they choose to look at the complete picture rather than the plate in front of them. We literally are what we eat, the cells I am today will be gone in a year and I'll be made up of what I'm putting in me now. The world I live in, the parts of it I love are affected by how my food, clothing, home was sourced and made. It is in my interest to worry about where they are coming from.
Stepping of the soap box now. I'm an a young foodie. I have only really cared about my food for the last couple years and I am only just beginning to explore the options available to me. I've invited friends along in the past for dinner parties or just cooking and I would like to invite you along too. It will not always come out right but that's part of the fun.
