Introductions

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have a handful of food blog favorites that I don't read every day, but save to enjoy like a late season summer peach, lingering over the words, the images and the emotions they evoke. Tea and Cookies is one of those blogs. Whether she's sharing the diary of a mad food blogger, reflecting on the quiet tranquil beauty of the winter market, or deliberating over what to take and what to leave behind, Tea's observations of the "intersection between food and life" are best savored thoughtfully over with a glass of wine and a hunk of artisan cheese, or a cup of tea and cookies.

A few weeks ago she offered us a collection of beginnings... reminding us how some of the more famous and infamous among her blogging friends got their start in cyberspace. I found myself revisiting her post and the blogs she featured again and again, fascinated by the promise reflected in their first words.

Since Tea missed a few of my favorites -- and plagiarism really *is* a sincere form of flattery, I offer the first words of ten of my favorite food bloggers. Feel free to play along, guess at the authors in the comments... and I'll be back in the next couple of days with the "answers".

Number 1: a professional writer, amateur foodie, avid traveler and all-around bon vivant.

Number 2: There are a lot of traditions associated with the coming of the new year, whether it’s the Western New Year that we ring in on January 1, the Chinese New Year (this will be the year of the Cock) which lands some time in February, or even Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, in September or October. I’m American, and ring in the new year at midnight on December 31 with lots of champagne, hugs and kisses all around, and pretty much all kinds of other decadent debauchery.

Number 3: In a busy kitchen a sharp knife is your most important tool. With continual use, it dulls, but much like watching yourself slowly age you don't realize it's gotten quite as dull as it has until you find yourself using massive force to cut an onion. It's time to sharpen.

Number 4: Bienvenue a Welcome to! This simple title is enough to sum up my destiny...

Number 5: Let me start off by saying that I can not spell and my grammar is horrible (thank you public school…I can say that since I taught school for 9 years…public school).

That being confessed to the six people who will read this, I shall proceed. My goal here with my blog is undetermined at this time. I will mostly write about food, share recipes, restaurant reviews as well as cookbook reviews…. but I admit from time to time that the subject of ice hockey just might sneak in.

Number 6: There are some moments when I almost believe that the New York Times Dining & Wine section reads my mind.

Number 7: While running this morning, I passed a long hedge and noticed a violent disturbance in the leaves. Then I heard fluttering overhead. To the west, an ominous shadow of a flying bird on the pavement followed mine. I ran and ran and it cawed and cawed, and the bird shadow stayed exactly five feet behind my fleeing shadow. My eyes widened as I anticipated that horrible moment when the shadow would gradually grow bigger and bigger until it finally merged with mine, and I’d see nothing but crimson clouds from a bloody eye-pecking orgy that would put a damper on running ever again, not to mention staining my shirt so thoroughly that I’d have to resort to presoaking with Tide detergent on laundry day.

At the very least, I anticipated that the bird might crap on my head out of spite and/or entertainment and/or target practice. It didn’t, but now that I’m out of danger, the thought of a tiny poo shadow falling from the bird shadow and landing on the head of my running shadow makes me giggle uncontrollably. Hee hee. But nothing happened. The bird left, perhaps assured that I wasn’t trying to eat its chicks or its food, and my head and shoulders remained poop free. That’s when I noticed squashed black splotches on the ground under the trees.

Mulberry season has begun.

Number 8: I swear to God, I'm gonna' get fired and I won't have anyone to blame but the coalition of S.F. food bloggers. They have gotten me adddicted to their damn food blogs. I read them all day. They're like my coke, but without the 80's music in the background.

Number 9: Shortly after I graduated from university I moved to a small town perched high in the mountains of central Japan. The name of the town literally means high or highest mountain and it is surrounded by breathtaking peaks, many of them capped in snow year round. I arrived in October, just in time to witness the flaming autumn foliage. Soon, however, the leaves had fallen off the trees, the days turned bitterly cold, and winter was upon us.

Number 10: sometimes things aren't always what they seem - often...they're much, much more.

Thanks Tea! This was great fun!