A few of you may know me from my work as a music journalist, as I am a contributor to Okayplayer and Music For America. I've been a journalist for 22 years, and have had much more success on the internet compared to writing for countless fanzines and magazines. If you know me as a writer, welcome.
Some may know me from my work as an artist/producer. I create music under the name Crut, which I have done since 1992. We music people love the battle between "possible success" and "bordering on homelessness", and of course that goes into the music. My style of music is electronic, although I may go down an experimental route at any given time. Or I may play congas and do a percussion album. If you are familiar with my music and wanted to read about my journey into foodie-dom, welcome.
Maybe some of you may actually know me, either personally or in a blog somewhere in the distance. I sometimes bring up food-related topics, so if you know me in that sense, welcome.
I'm originally from Hawai'i, so I was surrounded by a wide range of foods. During any given weekend, my household may have served up some meat loaf, Hawaiian-style curry, Spam chop suey, chicken katsu, ox tail, or we went out to eat saimin, gau gee min, or find a box of manapua, or round up some huli-huli chicken. If there was a luau or party somewhere, there would be poi, kalua pig (pork), lau lau, lomi salmon, shoyu and/or teriyaki chicken. Plus, we had Spam recipes down pat, along with canned Vienna sausage, corned beef, and corned beef hash. Some of these foods are terribly unhealthy, but everyone loves comfort food, and a few of these dishes have become staples of modern-day Hawai'i. I would learn years later that that love of canned foods (especially the salty ones) came from having to stock up during World War II. What became a necessity became the food of the common folk, and while times have changed, people still love those dishes we grew up with.
Even with all of that, I was picky. If I liked something, I'd want more. If I didn't like it, I'd avoid it, would never touch it again. It was possible to try out foods of various cultures, everyone was willing to share, everyone was willing to try and sample. To step out of ones comfort zone in order to try something new, it was a mix of fear and a mean adrenalin rush. But again, I was picky.
My family moved to the mainland, and all of us held to our traditions. I wanted to try new things, listen to new music, meet new friends, and perhaps find a few cool places to eat. That would all happen, some more than others.
When I turned 30 in 2000, I started to think about what I had done throughout my 20's, which lead to "what did I not do in my 20's, and why didn't I do them?" In my 30th year, I became more aware of a few things in life, my actions and reactions and felt that I needed to make some changes. I also had a lot of personal troubles and struggles, which lead to a lot of thoughts about what to do next. Two years ago, I was on my way home in my car when as I was crossing an intersection on a green light, someone decides to go through a red light, thus hitting me on the driver's side. I remember the moment all too vividly, but afterwards I compared the impact to being hit by two Samoans. *POOM*, how you like me now, pruddah? When I got home, I knew I had to make some serious changes in my life, everything from pushing myself to lose weight (I've been walking almost every day for over two years) to doing things in life that I hesitated to do for no good reason than to stay behind a wall and not do anything.
One of those things included a need to try out foods that I had never tried before. To be honest, I had been doing this for awhile, but I would make it something I felt I had to do. Yeah, that sounds silly too but I figured did I really have a good reason for not wanting to try out certain foods? No.
On top of that, I wanted to go out of my way to find variations of some of the things I do enjoy, such as BBQ and hot sauce. Plus, one can live in an area and literally survive (or kill yourself, depending on perspective) on nothing but junk and fast food. I wanted to change that.
If there has to be a real good reason for starting this, it has to do with me enjoying food, wanting to find new places to eat, and to be able to document it so people can try them out and perhaps find something to enjoy and experience as I did. I hope you'll come along for the ride. Maybe Celebrity Chef's are silly, but many of them have pushed people to break out of their comfort zones and to try out something new. I hope to be able to do that with this blog.
In closing, why Book's Foodie? Well, that's what they had left. Not original, but I think it will catch on.
Welcome.
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