Wednesday, July 8, 2015

We are weird.


Picture of people taking pictures of food at food blogger event at Melissas Produce.We were attending a food blogger cookbook event at Melissa's Produce and Svetlana leaned over to me and whispered "We are weird." 
We were listening to Ernest's (Ernest Miller, fermentation specialist from Rancho La Merced Provisions) response to a question about dehydrating yogurt. The lively yogurt conversation had taken many interesting twists, leading up to the dehydrated yogurt subject and all the attendees were listening quite intently as Ernest explained the procedure. 
At first I thought Svetlana meant the idea of dehydrating yogurt was weird. But then I remembered her saying this same thing, "We are weird", when we were discussing Halal butchers in the South Bay. I then fully realized what she was saying - We must appear weird to those who don't have an obsession with food.  And I nodded in agreement, not wanting to respond verbally and interrupt Ernest's detailed description.
Svetlana is right, we are weird, certainly not normal, we are obsessed! In fact all the people who were in the room at that moment are obsessed with food and cooking, and cultural history and unique produce and food photography and food writing and recipes too! I was thrilled to be there, listening, learning and finding inspiration. I felt as if I had found my food tribe.
The quality of food discussion among the attendees at the Melissa's events has been amazing. The thoughtful and talented cookbook writers (Cheryl Sternman Rule and Amy Riolo) as well as Robert from Melissa's Produce kept the conversation moving around the globe, touching on history and cultures, natural resources, as well as centuries old techniques still being used today. How stimulating it is to be able to 'geek out' as much as we want and see where the questions and answers take us.  
Picture of Amy Riolo signing a cookbook.Finding your tribe allows you to share your passion with like minded individuals while at the same time being stimulated by the passions of these same people. 
It's interesting to think that when I'm my most alert and mentally energetic, I probably appear weird to most people.  
So, I'm weird, that's fine by me.