Why I Love Food

When I started this food blog, I knew I wanted to write about the experience that made me start loving food and the act of eating.  I knew I wasn't always into food as a passion.  I can remember going out to a nice restaurant with my sister and mom and very brattily ordering a cheeseburger because "I don't like fancy food."  I sat down and tried to remember the meal that turned the tide; that made me start to get so much joy from a simple meal.  I asked my husband because I knew it happened with him and without hesitation he answered, "It wasn't a meal, it was Anthony Bourdain."

My husband and I started watching Anthony Bourdain's shows when we were living in Chico finishing up his Master's and my Bachelor's.  We weren't really active, didn't have a ton of hobbies, and were still very in that post-college phase with our first real full time jobs; living with hand-me-down furniture and trying to figure out what we were going to do with our lives.  I had watched Top Chef for years and loved seeing the professional chefs do what they loved, but it wasn't until watching Bourdain that I realized what it was to watch someone gain pure joy from the simple act of eating.  Here was this surly, potty mouthed, everyman traveling the world and becoming overjoyed with food.  Just food.  And all kinds of food; it wasn't all 5 star restaurants.  A food cart on the street in Vietnam could bring that lazy, drunk off happiness smile to his face in a second.  Mike and I became inspired to be like Bourdain and start eating more for pleasure and to order more unique things.

I remember the first time we attempted to "Bourdain" it.  We were at a hole in the wall Thai restaurant in downtown Chico called Chada Thai Cuisine.  It was exactly the kind of place that melts my heart - eclectic, not try-hard, and a little weird (just like me I'd like to think).  You had to walk down some rickety stairs to get to the place and our table was smooshed in a corner filled with haphazard decorations and Asian relics.  It was like eating in a Thai woman's rarely cleaned living room.  I loved it.  We poured over our menus determined to order something Bourdain would approve of; no chicken chow mein for us!  I wish I could remember exactly what I ordered.  I'm sure it was something entirely unexciting, but for me then, it was daring. It was some kind of mixed sea food dish. It was spicy and authentic and tasted of the sea and I loved it.  I loved it not just for the tastes, but for the fact that it was fun to eat; it was bold and different and it gave me an experience.

Soon after, I ate with my dad and sister at John Ash & Co and I ordered one of Bourdain's all time favorites - bone marrow.  This was by far the most exciting thing I had ever ordered to the point where I had to, in pure small town bumpkin fashion, ask the waiter how I was supposed to eat it.  But when I did, it blew my mind.  It was so rich and different and decadent.  Eating that bone marrow was a moment.  Not just a moment, but a MOMENT.  This was what gave Bourdain that look on his face. This was enjoying food.  This was different.  This was passion.

And Mike and I were hooked.  After that we found joy in eating all over.  It didn't have to be bone marrow or a fancy meal, it could be a simple pasta dish from California Pasta Production or Peking duck from Rice Bowl.  As long as it was cooked well, made with love and care, and given to us with good service, we were blissful.  Going out to eat became an event for us anywhere we went.  We would look across the table at each other and smile those huge goofy "holy shit do you see how good this looks" smiles and know that right at that moment, we were both happy.  I didn't know that eating a piece of food could ever make me truly happy before, but we have had some moments eating that I know I will never forget.

On our honeymoon, we sat at Moti Mahal and looked down at the beautiful spread before us, the crisply dressed wait staff wishing past us, the cloudy London streets outside the window, and I felt tears come to my eyes.  I was doing something I loved with someone I loved and I knew right then that this was true happiness and it was a moment I would never forget.  And we'll always have that, Mike and I.  Whether it's the perfectly cooked piece of local beef he served me for dinner last night or a 12 course tasting menu at Komi for our anniversary, I know that I can take a bite, make a happy little moan, look over at him and he'll be feeling the exact same way as me and will smile at me and I'll know that this is joy.