Hi, my name is Erin, and I'm a foodie.

"Although the two terms were sometimes used interchangeably, foodies used to differ from gourmets in that gourmets were epicures of refined taste, whereas foodies were amateurs who simply loved food for consumption, study, preparation, and news.^[1] Gourmets simply want to eat the best food, whereas foodies want to learn everything about food, both the best and the ordinary, and about the science, industry, and personalities surrounding food.^[2] After some time of differentiating between the two, the term Foodie is now considered the term for food exploration and enjoyment, whether gourmet or not, thus superseding the term Gourmet."--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foodie

I should be coding my monster Excel project for work, and instead I am scheduling our next trip to New York City. Partly because I feel like crap (BPPV again), my eyes hurt, and the thought of staring at code for three hours is migraine-inducing. Because of the vertigo.

Oh hell, call it was it is: let's just say Manhattan because we won't go north of Central Park, or further west than the Brooklyn end of the Brooklyn Bridge. 

We were at Sinigual, this really wonderful Mexican restaurant in Midtown with Kent's cohort from CAPE, and one of them said "So, are you guys foodies?" We'd been raving about Colicchio & Sons, and that place in Pittsburgh with the amazing beef, and I said "nah, I dunno, seems like it has such negative connotations." Snobby. Then I started thinking. Hm. I think everyone who knows us would probably call us foodies. 150 (estimated) cookbooks, and three of them are Michael Ruhlman and one is Thomas Keller. We pine for Top Chef when it's on hiatus. We attempt unique and interesting cooking adventures at home. I spend quality time with Roberta's food dictionary whenever we visit her home. We go out of our way to find the right knife, not necessarily the best knife, and the right pot, not necessarily the best pot - although Le Cruset is pretty much the be-all-end-all for enameled cast-iron cookware. And who needs more than two? We use them all the time. LOVE. We make our own stock. Why? Well, for one I have a yeast sensitivity and it is almost impossible to find stock that doesn't contain yeast for flavoring. But when we finally finessed the crap out of our stock, we discovered that it is a) the easiest thing in the world to make and requires almost no attention and b) tastes amazing without adding anything else to it. It's stock with attitude. See note about Michael Ruhlman, our hero for pulling back the veil of CIA mystique and bringing beautiful food to the home. 

Yeah, I'm gushing. Which also makes me a foodie, I guess. Kent, too. The nicely balanced (no kidding) habanero slaw at Luna Maya. The juicy drippy crispy grinder at Zero's. Fellini's perfect french fries. Meatloaf at No Frill Bar & Grill. Actually, just about everything at No Frill is outstanding, but their portions are enormous and it's a bit of a turn-off. Cucumber panicotta at Colicchio & Sons. I just love the Tortilla Soup at Max & Erma's and the Southwestern Omelet at Charlie's. I will swear by  Ivar's Fish & Chips, and their clam chowder, as the best until the day I die. Bryant Park Cafe's french fries on Sunday - the oil gets old fast and it's freshest on Sunday. Go figure. Kent has a thing for the perfect french fry. I have a thing for great fish and chips. We both have a thing for yummy food, wherever it might be. 

(And while I was wandering off picking up the Michael Ruhlman link, I stumbled across one of his posts about the from-scratch BLT using his Big Green Egg. Oh. My. Goodness. Want. Someone please buy my baby grand so I can buy a Big Green Egg!)

Granted, most of this I can't even eat anymore because of the dairy and yeast thing, When I do decide to risk it, I want it to taste really, really good.

9/17 Update: Last night we caught up on Top Chef Masters - he waited for me to return from CW Seminars. Gooooooooo, Lorena! Woo!