2003-11-04 - 5:23 p.m. assignment 1: a food history We were asked to bring our "food history" and a first food memory to our first meeting of my food writing class. No parameters, no clear request. Here's what I submitted... -- start -- Horribly enough, one of my first food memories is of eating pastel-colored Kraft mini marshmallows for dessert every night when I was 3 or 4 years of age. My mother could bribe me into whatever standard of behavior by brandishing that plastic bag of sugar in my direction. It took me until mid-high school before I stopped eating them as treats. Food (both its eating and preparation/procurement) appears to have been one of my primary interests at least since age 1. How do I know this? My mother and grandmother have told everyone who would listen that two of my first words, uttered in or around age 1, were "applesauce" and "barbeque." Apparently, both phrases were uttered as commands, requesting immediate production of those items. I suspect the sheer novelty of hearing a small child still crawling around as her primary mode of transportation compelling adults to her bidding by uttering these three-syllable commands is what caused so much familial encouragement into all things reading and writing-related as I grew up. I've been an avid baker of cookies since elementary school, taking over the Christmas cookie production form my mother entirely by the age of 13, enlisting my girlfriends attendance at cookie decorating parties to beautify the stacks of stars and trees and reindeers. I still bake these cookies each year, from the same recipe. And I still have a childhood friend who expects to receive a box of them from me. As an adult, the passion for food, surprisingly never manifested itself in a career in the culinary arts. Instead, I've pursued my passion for food through food-obsessed travel, weekly visits to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, frequent dining out at new restaurants, and cooking and baking for and with friends. In times of stress, I am the one who invites friends over for comfort food, or who shows up at work with homemade biscotti. The food fetish has even found its way into my online journals: I actually created a food survey that helped me learn more about some of my online friends, while giving them some insight into my love for food as well. -- end -- any comments? (0 so far) previous - next recently on almostgoldsf... in defense of an email box I came to do battle with SPAM - 2008-05-17 hello 2006 - 2005-12-31 Happy Thanksgiving - 2005-11-14 bon voyage - 2005-11-05 October already? - 2005-10-09