I’m excited to finally get the ball rolling with this, it’s something I’ve been thinking about and working on for quite a long time.
This is my first blog post ever – and I realize I’m like 15 years late to this “blog” game… (but who’s counting). Apparently blogs are still relevant, so I’m gonna figure out for whom…what could go wrong?
Basically, I love cooking, baking, preparing and experiencing food (..and eating it). I consider myself fortunate to be a bit of an experimental eater – who is excited to try new foods when traveling outside my daily life. I’ve always been drawn to try new foods and the experiences that come along with it. At its best -it’s usually tied to travel, new cultures, or some special events and holidays. At its more mundane… it’s just getting in the kitchen for the simple satisfaction of making something homemade.
The latter was 100% our experience during the COVID lockdowns (now some time ago). For the first time ever, living in a place like New York City and having to be as self-sustainable as possible became a reality. I recognize this isn’t too extreme sounding for all the suburban and rural folks out there – but to live in NYC and not be able to dine out and order in as much as we do (not to be dramatic)…was quite a shift. This shift was pretty inspiring and oddly satisfying though – strangely while the city was as quiet and dark as I’ve ever experienced it, the new work/life balance (because: working from home) of having to make our every meal was realllly rewarding. It just felt surprisingly good to slow down and focus on what’s important and to take a pause from the constant hustle of the city
So, like the rest of the world… that time to slow down and focus on what’s important while a deadly virus wreaked havoc was really the only silver lining I can think of. It’s terrible that THAT’S what it took for this shift in me – but I know I’m not alone, if all the posts of everyone’s sourdough starter to re-growing chives and heads of lettuce from root stems was any indication – I think we all took a minute to recognize how satisfying it is to be able to provide for yourself and your household from the confines of your own living space, no matter how small.
Of course, we did miss going out, we missed travel, we missed experiencing other cultures and foods. We are used to traveling and exploring as often as we could- and definitely for us, the best thing about really traveling is trying new foods on that travel journey. So while part of this project for me is all about being all homemade-ie and feeling satisfied that we used up all our food in the fridge…the other half, maybe even the original half of this inspiration is all about food that comes from new experiences. And, new experiences don’t need to come from any fancy vacations – there’s plenty of food to discover that’s close to home. Be it Queens (the food capital of NYC), or visiting family down South – there’s always something new to try that we haven’t quite tried before
