I’ll tell you a story. Believe it or not, until a few days ago I had never even heard of blogs. Well, that’s not entirely true – I’m sure I nodded and smiled when people brought them up in conversation, but I couldn’t have actually told you what they were. One lazy afternoon, however, while chasing some food-related topic through the bowels of the internet, I stumbled upon what I can only describe as a hidden universe – food blogs. Considering that scarcely an hour of my day passes that doesn’t involve thinking about, reading about, cooking or ingesting food, I was astonished. How could something so important have passed me by? Well, conscious of the fact that I had a lot of lost time to make up for, and letting my normal responsibilities tumble forgotten by the wayside, I started reading…and reading…and reading. And I discovered that these little personal web journals are probably the biggest thing to hit the food scene since sliced bread. Amazing! They’re spontaneous and honest (not to mention appetite-whetting) and they bring people together who love food and allow us to share our thoughts, opinions and even our dinners in a way previously only highly-paid food writers could. But you know all that.

So… now that the paint is drying on my shiny new blog, let me tell you a bit about why I’ve jumped on the bandwagon, and what I hope to make of these pages. Basically, I want to create a digital space where I can organise and explore all of the various strands of food-related thought that occupy my head at any given time. I have spent years stockpiling recipes, techniques, impressions and images of food as I have traveled and lived in different countries. I don’t know how useful any of this will be to the wider world, but I’ve realized that if I don’t start to get some of it down in written form I will just simply forget most of it. I don’t think I’ll have the patience to keep a daily journal of what I ate, I don’t think I’ll be linking to all the latest food-related articles in the press, and you won’t find many bite-by-bite accounts of restaurant meals (at least, until I can afford them); instead I want to write about general themes of food, taste, enjoyment and how this varies from place to place. Human beings seem to have an infinite capacity for invention when it comes to foods, and the fusion of edible materials is conceptualized in completely different ways depending on the history, the climate and the society of the people who cook them. In many ways I feel that the best way to understand a culture is to understand its food. I find this one of the most fascinating things in the world, and I hope to share some of this fascination with you through this site. Likewise, I hope you’ll take the time to share some of your own experiences, observations, and opinions with me!