Foodie Confessional

I was always a foodie. When my mother took me to the local pizza place, I liked a lot of garlic on my slice and instead of folding it in half like everyone else, I piled all of the cheese to the center so I could savor the concentration of its flavor. I would chew it until there was not a bit to taste.

Pizza remains one of my favorite things in the entire world. All different kinds of pizza. Whether it be the neighborhood pizzeria or something more upscale like Otto's in the East Village, I love pizza. At Otto's, I fell in love with their olive oil gelato. Sweets are my other food obsession, but that is the next part of this post. When I traveled to Connecticut to try pizza at Pepe's, all my New York friends questioned why I would leave New York to have good pizza. I am going to New Jersey soon for cupcakes as well. I have wended my way through endless New York City neighborhoods to have different culinary excursions. Any place I go in the city I can tell you where I will eat, or what place I want to try.

Will travel for food.

I think about food all the time. Anywhere I go, whatever activity, I wonder where am I going to eat before or after. Preferably after because then I have something to look forward to as I rehash whatever experience it was that I had. In the past week, I have had Russian, French and Ethiopian. I am due to have Moroccan and Indian in the next few weeks; I like all kinds of cuisine. I'll try anything. I recently signed up for Gastronauts because I really am everything they embody and I patiently wait to be invited to my first dinner!

And after dinner there is dessert...

Ahhh dessert, the thing that I live for the most. The cherry on top of every day. Chocolate is a big love of mine. I remember a quiz in Cosmopolitan to determine how sensual are you. One of the questions was which food can you not get enough of--gooey, cheesy pizza and rich decadent chocolate mousse were two of the possible answers. Honestly I could not answer because both of them create a sense of insatiability in me if they are good.

Is it the flavor, is it the punctuation that food creates around so many experiences in my life since I was a child? Is it the exploration of other cultures, or my love of novelty and trying new things? Whatever it is, food and eating and the environment I do it in are major productions, almost like theater in my daily life. Three times a day, the show must go on...

Recently I was studying up on Ayurveda, and implementing parts of a sattvic diet in mine,

getting recipes from Aparna Khanolkar's site. I read Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet and have implemented vegan and vegetarian aspects to my diet. My relationship with food is like any love relationship; I try things that I have never tried before. Try never to be complacent with eating the same things all of the time. Life is too short and there are too many edible things that I can try. I recently became a fan of beets which I never liked as a child and now love. Brussel sprouts and goat are my next targets. Whether I hit the bullseye or not, whether they become new favorites or not it is the experience. I am all about the experience with food.

Photographs by F. Solomon