The Delivery Guy's Lament

You have to smell it all day, but you can’t eat it...

The Fat Kid's recent Food Jock post got me to thinking around this question "What am I really 'into' as a foodie?" Some people, like the Fat Kid, love seeing competition. For many seeing an art in creation is just as beautiful as the finished product.

While I do enjoy a good food competition now and again, I can't say that I'm part of this demographic. For me food is a full sensory experience, and seeing it on a TV screen just isn't going to get me salivating.

To smell freshly grilled meat just barely pulled off a grill, or a smoker that's been running for a few hours and the fat of the roast inside has just begun to render out. That's what gets me drooling. In fact I think I may run out of paper towels to protect my keyboard with before I finish this article.


Beautiful food is lovely, and while it's a complete psychological fact that we eat with our eyes just as much as our mouths, the actual sensation of eating is something that I always enjoy, be it Taco Bell or a $100 USDA Prime steak. That rush of dopamine that accompanies that first smell, bite, taste, and swallow is a drug I hope I never build a tolerance to.

So where does that leave me in the foodie circle? I ogle food porn as much as any chef does, but nothing will ever come close to the raw experience. I have to say that is exactly the only thing I really love with food, to EXPERIENCE it. Every last part from the inception of its ingredients to the last crumb off the plate has a part to play in your enjoyment of any dish, and I want to explore all of it.

What happens to your mood when you are forced to go relax because the roast still has half an hour left, plus resting time? How does the national origin of produce or spices change its flavor, and why? Why is grass fed beef so much better than corn fed?

These are all questions that dwell in the back of my head every day. And I’m compelled to find out. So I’ll tinker away in my kitchen until I know, and I’ll come tell you. I’m a mad scientist of food, and I’m happy to be one.

“I'm working with some very unstable herbs here!”

-Gnome