Verbaliza on Food

Okay this was originally posted on my old blog savour the flavour, but I just had to put it up here. Read it for a glimpse into my food history. It explains a lot about my adventurous tastes now.

Three small words. Food and Drink. I love you.

Some people eat to live. Some people live to eat. I am the latter served on a platter.

But who am I? Some call me Eliza. Others call me for the late night booty calls.

KIDDING! Mmm…kids are tasty. Okay, don’t get the wrong idea. I’m talking about goat meat!

WARNING: The next few paragraphs contain animal eating references. This is recommended for omnivorous and carnivorous audiences only. My first experience with this meat path not so trodden was on a family holiday in Vietnam. At the Da Lat gardens we were offered goat skewers. Boy were they tasty! It was on this trip after my bravado in trying goat, rabbit, snails and frogs legs that I decided I wanted to try every animal on the planet. This trip marked my second overseas odyssey, and the first big holiday where I let my tastebuds do the walking.

My adoration for all foods great and small may sound both normal and abnormal, but what makes my adventurous culinary pursuits more excting is that it hasn’t always been this way. Like most babies I began receiving my food courtesy of my mother’s hands. ‘Here comes the aeroplane’ she would coo and the aeroplane spoon would land filling my mouth with it’s nutritious cargo. However, when the time came for me to fly my own aeroplane into the hangar there were some technical difficulties. I disliked the texture of fruit and vegetables when I handled them. So what should have been one small step for a baby, became a giant leap everytime I ate where my parents would desperately attempt to hide, force, trick me into eating fruit and vegetables.

My previous and first venture overseas was to America, where I hopped around from New York, to San Fransisco, Yosemite National Park, Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Diego, Las Vegas, The Grand Canyon and Hawaii. Traveling through these places I drank in diverse landscapes of breathtaking nature and heartstopping cities. Whilst, zipping here and there I also drank in the local culture especially engaging with the national cuisine. But after a diet of coloured corn chips, giant turkey legs, ice-creams that weigh your arm down, and plates of food as big as your head I returned to Australia quite overindulged. With the hindsight of my walk down obesity lane, I decided to haul myself out of my diet rut and embrace all things natural and healthy. It was time to get fruity!

The transformation of my food intake over the next year was like the story of the very, hungry caterpillar. Once upon a time, I had survived on an exciting menu of nuggets, macaroni cheese, baked beans, bangers & mash, and boiled eggs and soldiers. In the safety of that cuisine cocoon I was comfortable and unchallenged by unfamiliar flavours, spices and textures. Gradually my lunches changed from stock standard peanut butter, ham or cheese fillings to a rainbow of grilled vegetables including eggplant, zucchini, sweet potato, red capsicum, spinach. My morning tea changed from packets of tiny teddies & shapes to dried fruit and nut mixes and peels of bananas, apples and oranges. Food began to colour my world rather than define my weaknesses. I came out of my narrow food rut and became a beautiful butterfly, swooping down upon menus and meals to relish the wonders of our natural and man-made dishes.

Now at the keen age of nineteen I have dined upon a zoo of kangaroo, camel, buffalo, emu, snails, frogs legs, rabbit and goat. Not to gloat.

There are so many ways to express the practice of interacting with these life sustaining and enhancing everyday necessities. Consume, devour, eat, feast upon, bite, chew, digest, feed, gorge, graze, inhale, slurp, shovel, sip, guzzle, sip, chomp, munch, bolt, dine, nibble, peck, scoff, snack, sup, swallow, wolf, savour. Each word to match a moment and a morsel. They complement the food in the way they sound and feel in your mouth. Some roll off your tongue. Some make you pout out. Some slide down your throat. Some are gone before you know it. Some echo on in your mouth.

On this food and drink blog I wish to share with you all of these experiences. I will of course be reviewing restaurants and cafes, but why stop there? On this blog I want to offer my 5 cents on everything from espresso coffee, to store bought iced coffee, hot chips, to packet chips. All food experiences should be remembered and able to be recalled for your present and future eating happiness. Every bite you take, every sip you make. Every single day, every time you graze I’ll review it for you. Welcome, to my food life! You only get one shot at life, so if you’re on to a good thing make it last! Savour the Flavour.