A Foodie is Born

One basic, yet very important thing about me: I LOVE food.  My close friends make fun of me for having both a personal trainer and an insatiable appetite for good eats. Don't get me wrong, I do it all in moderation. I got back from my dining excursion to Las Vegas a little over 24 hours ago. On the plane ride back, I reminisced about the wonderful food I had the opportunity to experience and reflected upon my journey to becoming an amateur foodie. 

An early history of my romance with food...the good times and the bad: 

I remember not liking foods that were not junk food as a child.  I was born in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in the mid 1980s and there was not a wide variety of food where and when I grew up.  I vividly recollect dreading meal times because I correlated them with (a) stopping whatever mischievous activity I was plotting or carrying out (b) getting scolded by my parents for not having a better appetite when there are hungry children in Laos (c) suffering through the yuckiness that existed in the form of vegetables and (d) having to endure what seemed like an eternity of adult conversation and having to sit still through it all. 

I also remember going to "commy-first grade." Vietnam was and still is one of five communist countries that exists today. Under this regime, school children had to live under the strict rules of teachers who made mean Catholic nuns seem like Mary Poppins. We had to finish all our food at lunch...or else! The "or else" was usually a few slaps with a ruler on the hands followed by a humiliating bout of crying your eyes out in public because it hurts so darn much. You know, the uncontrollable crying with the gasping and snotting all over the place that made other kids looked on with wide eyes that read something like, "Damn! Sucks for you. At least it wasn't me!" One day, I couldn't finish my food and a dazzling light bulb went on over my little head. I figured I don't have to eat the food, I just have to get rid of it somehow. But how? But where?! Quick! Quick! Before they catch you! I threw the food under the table little by little...methodically and with precise calculation. Once the teacher saw that I had "obediently finished my food", as evident by my empty bowl, I was free! Free to go play! Unfortunately, like the invention of the atomic bomb, my bright idea had devastating consequences.  

The food I tossed under the table landed right under this poor boy's seat. A little tattle-tale ran to the teacher and told her about how the boy was throwing away his food. He was confronted and punished. As he was pleading his innocence, I looked on in silence like the coward that I was and thought to myself, "Damn! Sucks for you. At least it wasn't me!" I feel guilty about that incident, even to this day.  I wish I could apologize to him.  I wish I could take back what I did. I felt like one of those hated sleazy characters in the books I read as a child.  

Fast forward a few years later. My family and I moved to America when I was seven years old.  They told me America was the land of opportunity, but they didn't mention the food opportunity! I soon discovered French fries, other kinds of soda that was not Coca-Cola (purple ones, clear ones, red ones, orange ones, green ones...and they all gave your mouth that tingly zing!), burgers, cheese, milkshakes, pizza, tatter tots, ketchup, fried chicken...carbohydrates that have had their flavors enhanced by fats! These were of course all junk food, but they made eating enjoyable. I learned to explore different flavor combinations (picture that part in the movie Ratatouille when Remy first combined cheese and fruit).  I no longer dreaded meal times.  Food in America was wonderful! I love America! 

My palate has definitely changed over the years. I like to think my palate is more sophisticated these days.  I have come a long way from that little schemer girl who desperately tried to avoid food to someone who appreciates it whole heartedly. To me, food does more than nourish my body. Food for me means adventure, culture and comfort among many other things. 

What were your first memories of food? How has your palate changed over the years? What does food mean to you? 

I love food so much, I play with it! I'm just another classy girl.
*Crawfish finger puppet at Commander's Palace, New Orleans*

Tomorrow: My Michelin Star Mission and pictures from my "meal of a lifetime" in Vegas.