In the interest of resuscitating my thus far trifling attempt at food blogging, I think it’s time I redefine the scope of this blog.  I still hope it will encourage me to cook more and document my evolution as a cook.  But there are times when I don’t: feel like cooking / have time / think what I’m cooking is blogworthy / feel like tweaking my sub-par attempts at food photography.  Sadly, such sentiments have long thwarted my efforts at resuming this blog.  After a while, I realized: 1) I missed writing, and 2) none of the aforementioned negatives abated my desire to write.

The solution, while obvious, did not occur to me until now: I can still write about food regardless of whether or not I happened to have cooked it.  *facepalm*

Ahem.  Thus, I will continue writing about food, one of my life’s foremost passions.  And, as we all know, food includes alcohol, so I’ll be writing about that too.  Now the entire universe of food (and alcohol) is an admittedly broad topic.  But, as my prose has no doubt already amply illustrated, I tend towards intellectual self-indulgence, which means I will at times shamelessly defy good blog practice to draw from this mammoth topic as it strikes my fancy.  I will, however, strive in Herculean and sometimes Sisyphean fashion to adhere to a somewhat narrower focus.

To wit, aside from chronicling my actual cooking experiences, I want to write about food artisans and their excellent foodstuffs.  I have found that, at its heart, my interest in food is really a reverence of technique coupled with a fascination for the ingredients themselves.  Of course, chefs and their craft fit snugly in this framework.  But I am more inspired by the craftsmanship that goes into producing a meal’s individual components than by the skill of weaving such superlative ingredients into something cohesive and delicious.  Butchers, bakers, affineurs, vintners, brewers, farmers… to me, these people play a far more important role in determining the quality of a region’s cuisine than the chefs who rely on them to deliver the best ingredients.  When I can, I intend to relate this discussion back to Pittsburgh, my hometown and current home.

And so I blog again.  This time, I think I’ll have more to say.