How This Blog Came To Be

This blog's raison de'tat, if you will, is simple. It was conceived the summer of 2007 when I was in the extremely enjoyable space between completion of graduate school and commencement of full-time employment. One of my summer agenda items (as Earl, the thieving brother in the movie, Rocket Science, tells us, 'you need an agenda and then a sub-agenda and then your sub-agenda has its own agenda') was to back up the data in my computer. I still like my trusty Thinkpad but he had been exhibiting erratic behavior of late. I decided then that this blog would become a repository of the recipes and menus I had been saving in a Word document. Instead of shelving them alongside various graduate school homework, essays and assorted files in the 'My Documents' folder, they would have a site dedicated just to them. This would also allow me to share my recipes easily for friends who've requested them in the past. As I began on this blog, it started to grow and little by little, it has now become a space where I write about anything food-related.

My culinary preferences are strong, as are the people who have influenced the way I think about food, such as my Peranakan grandmother and my mom who juggles work and family and takes pride in daily home cooking. And of course, there is the inimitable Jacques Pepin who makes French cooking accessible to all (Jamie Oliver, Rachel Ray, Nigella Lawson, Bobby Flay, you are all wonderful and I like you too but there is only one great TV chef for me). Food is comforting, unpretentious and always enjoyed best with company. Good food comes from the heart, is timeless and brings people together. And my taste for ingredients and flavors is as diverse as the places I have traveled to and the foods I have grown to enjoy. They reflect the spiciness of Indian curries, the delicacy of Japanese sashimi, the heat of Mexican mole, the freshness of Provencal cooking, the richness of foie gras, the inventiveness of fusion cuisine, the earthiness of Ghanaian food, the pungency of cheese, the sweetness of Southeast Asian desserts and the heartiness of good ol' Southern cookin'.

There is so much interest in cooking now. It has become quite the activity of choice for any self-respecting metrosexual and hosting dinner parties with fancy canapes is simply de rigueur among well-heeled (maybe with Jimmy Choo's) sophisticates. A friend of mine who knows the folks at Williams-Sonoma tells me that their latest product line is built around developing high-end cookware targeted at men. And you know this is reaching peak levels of interest when every kind of media is exploding content around cooking and chef-wannabes (Has anyone watched reality TV, cartoons or the movies lately? Say, maybe you've heard of Top Chef, the Next Food Network Celebrity, Ratatouille or No Reservations?). Who knows how long all of this interest in matters culinary is going to last? But it does not matter, really. All of this is good news for the food enthusiast and cooking amateur like me, who can now find formerly inaccessible ingredients affordable and available at the grocery store just round the block (anyone for truffle-flavored olive oil or saffron at Trader Joe's? Or how about kimchee at Shaw's supermarket, located next to the fresh mung bean sprouts?). And the proliferation of culinary themed magazines and websites mean there are more luscious photos of food to savour and fun recipes for exploring.

My entries are not always chronological (as I am sometimes digging through archives of recipes and food-related ideas I've collected) but they are always personal and genuine, and are about things that I have tried. Thanks for reading and please feel free to share your thoughts by adding a comment or two :)