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Sunday, March 09, 2008

You Know You Are Food & Beer Obsessed When:


1. Your holiday destination is chosen by 'regional speciality' and not weather/location/kudos/price. In fact, travel is completely justified by food, rather than experiences or sights.
2. You read blogs like this one. All the time. And by that, I mean 'When you should be working'.
3. You're walking down the street. Two charity-box wielding volunteers corner you outside Borders. One is for 'Rescue the Children/Dogs From An Awful Life (delete as appropriate), and the other represents 'Save our Local Microbrewery'. Your immediate response is 'Mine's a Pint, Barkeep.'
4. Your 'Top Ten Greatest Films in The World Ever' List includes 'Big Night', 'Sideways', 'La Grande Bouffe' and 'Babette's Feast'. Or, if you're female, 'Chocolat.' (The book was better).
5. Speaking of books, your cookbook collection makes up at least 20% of your home library....
6. ...In fact, a trip into Waterstone's 'Cooking' section brings on hyperventilation, insane purchases (ooh, the French Laundry book - put it on the card...', and palms that haven't been sweatier than the time you 'accidentally' ordered a Jenna Jameson flick on the missus's Amazon account.
7. A balmy weekend proposal of 'A pleasant walk in the country' translates as 'A chance to track down an awesome pub/micro that no-one else has found this side of 1975'.
8. Meals are planned. On a calendar. With Beer Matches. And this rota is fitted around re-runs of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. Well, it wasn't going to be Delia, was it?
9. ...You see nothing wrong with this. In fact, everything you cook or drink is there to be tasted, reviewed, and discussed with your foodie chums. Everything.
10. Not only is your kitchen the most used room in the house, its the cleanest, most expensive room in the house (Yeah, we got the sofa at the charity shop but check out my Sabatier Five-Knife set...).

Would anyone else like to share? Let's get our obsession out in the open...together, we can work it out.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've got a beer engine and a polypin full of ale in the front bedroom next to the computer! It's only because I lack a permanent place to put them (for the moment)! On the same piece of worktop I have a demijohn with a sizeable culture of Camerons yeast in, which I'm keeping alive for the next time I brew lager (probably next week). I'm not sure if this qualifies as obsessive or if I'm merely being frugal and appreciative of good yeast!

Leigh said...

nope - i think the key is in the last sentence - 'im appreciative of good yeast' - that's a statement from someone who should be brewing beer!

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure we're particularly obsessed, we merely have a different take on what is important to life. So we enjoy flashy knife sets and good yeast, it could be worse we could be part of the "Fosters and Friends" set hahahahaha

Heather said...

Haha, I actually do read blogs when I should be working. You caught me!

Leigh said...

John - yep, i know which way i would rather be. Much like when my girlfriend asked me what we were doing at the weekend, to which i replied, 'Why, attending the Leeds CAMRA Beer festival, my dear'...sigh...the good days.
Heather - glad to be of a distraction.
Im a firm beleiver that without obsession, the world would be a much more dull place!

Anonymous said...

Will there be a post festival post?

I'll attempt one after the "spring thing" this weekend, although I doubt the weekends "appreciation" will do anything for my ineloquent prose but I'll give it my best shot!

Anonymous said...

so what if i fit all these criterias? huh? don't just me!

well, except for the anthony bourdain thing. i can't stand that guy.

Anonymous said...

I'm guilty of a lot of the above, but a man needs a hobby!

Leigh said...

Paul - guilty? Revel in your guilt! Be proud of your interest.
Michelle - welcome to the club. come right on in and bring that awesome beef sandwich you got on your site.
John - there will be a post festival post - hopefully that afternoon although this obviously depends on my...constitition at that point! you'd better let us know how you get on, i'm really rooting for your wares to be a total success.

Matthew S. Urdan said...

This is an awesome site! Since you're really into great food and great recipes, I think you'd also be interested in FohBoh, (http://www.fohboh.com/?i=28chblcn8r176) the online networking site for the International Restauarnt Industry. It's got great information and interaction with restaurant professionals, executive chefs, videos of culinary techniques and recipe preparation, a vibrant wine community with internationally renowned somelliers and people like you and me just interested in food and drink. The site is worth checking out, and I think you'd find a great deal of value there for both yourself and your blog.

Have an awesome day! Cheers!