Confession: Before Saturday, I’d never been to a food truck.
Predicted reaction: WHAT?! OH MY GOD!? YOU’RE A FOOD WRITER AND YOU’VE NEVER BEEN TO A FOOD TRUCK OH MY GOD I’M TOTALLY NOT GOING TO READ YOU ANYMORE AND I’M BURNING MY COMPUTER RIGHT NOW TO RID IT OF YOUR EMBARRASSING HUMILIATING ATTEMPT AT BEING A DECENT HUMAN BEING.
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You may recall that a few weeks ago, I befriended Zhenya, The Feral Gardener, while buying a Dr. Brown’s black cherry soda at Katz’s Deli.
On May 1st, Zhenya wrote me an e-mail: “I just picked a ton of very young stinging nettles and would be happy to give you at least half a ton…. Let me know if you’re interested.” Stinging nettles? Interested? I would have to seriously think about this.
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As a Jew who grew up pretty Jewy (a Bar Mitzvah, Passover seders, an original last name of Rothenberg (changed by my grandparents)), I never got very excited about matzoh. Sure, come April, the inevitable boxes would show up at the store and my mom would by some and we’d spread it with butter (a memory I hadn’t remembered until I wrote this sentence, but now that I remember it, it is a nice taste memory). For those who’ve never experienced matzoh, imagine if cardboard and bread had a baby–that’s matzoh. It’s stiff, it’s crackery, it’s often pretty flavorless. Who gets excited about matzoh?
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[Last week, Christopher Kimball of Cook’s Illustrated wrote a rather nasty Op-Ed in the NYT, linking the closing of Gourmet Magazine to the proliferation of food blogs. Obviously, this hit a nerve with me, so I penned my own Op-Ed in response. I share it with you below, but recommend you read his first (click here), so you get the context.]
A few years ago, as my relatively new food blog began to gain in popularity, I turned to a mentor, John Kessler of The Atlanta Journal Constitution and asked him how I might break into mainstream food media. “Should I pitch stories to the Times? To Gourmet? Where do I start?”
Mr. Kessler’s response was surprising. “Adam,” he said, “What you’re already doing is what every newspaper and magazine is desperately trying to do, unsuccessfully. So just keep doing it and you’ll be ok.”
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* The kind people at Children of Bellevue have awarded our 2nd place winner, Stephanie Krasinski, two $150 passes to the charity event for her scavenger hunt efforts. (Rachel, the 1st place winner, gets two $450 tickets. I don’t really understand the difference.) Now everyone’s happy!
* Bonnie Slotnick points out, in the comments, that the dog in the pictures is not hers: “He belongs to my friend Mike, and I was babysitting while Mike was away. Rollins LOVED hearing about all the food!”
* Finally, Ruth Reichl commented on Twitter: “No guys participated? I’m fairly stunned. What does that mean, I wonder. Any ideas?” Well, male readers, what say you? Why did you disappoint the editor-in-chief of Gourmet Magazine?!?
While I was in Austin, my camera battery overheated so I’m headed into the city today to get my camera fixed. Expect an Austin post tomorrow!
