Feeling Venturous

It seems that creativity is often inspired by exhaustion, and late the other night, I was struck by an idea that seemed like a particularly good one. It was after writing the rough draft of the cover story for the Spring Restaurant Guide edition of Where Y'at magazine (which, I'd like to point out with a grumpy face on, I was given a total of TWO DAYS to organize, compose, and submit ... not long at all for a feature story, even less for a cover piece, and a shorter time frame still for someone who still holds a day job and writes in the precious hours between dinner and passing out) that I came up with this, partly thanks to The Boy. As he was urging me to "hurry up" so we could get the burrito I promised him for cleaning the house, I was trying somewhat unsuccessfully to rush through edits.

Editing down my own work is always such a struggle. I tend to be kind of longwinded when I write, as I'm sure you noticed, with many asides and dips into the adjective pool to find just the right way to describe a feeling, a taste, a flavor, or anything at all, for that matter. 1500 words is just not a whole lot when you spend two hours with somebody extremely interesting, and I felt that to cut too much of what we discussed would be an injustice to Tommy Cvitanovitch, that imposing and authoritative managing owner of Drago's here in New Orleans. I didn't want to leave out anything, and was already forced to cut down on my introduction and unable to find the room to describe the utter deliciousness of their famous charbroiled oysters.

I thought, 'well, what if I had total creative control over an outlet and were given the license to fluff and butter as I pleased?'

Fine; I thought it a little less eloquently, but you get the idea.

Thus was TheVicariousFoodWhore.com born.

Basically, the premise of this site is to allow me to "wax poetic and rhapsodize about the food I crave, the dishes I dream of, and the snacks I obsess over, in drool-worthy detail." I mean, I do that on this blog, but to have one unified theme in a central location? Brillz!

So here we go: on this new web site, I discuss the taste, texture, feel, similarities, comparisons, details, nutrition, recipes, and preferences of whatever food item or dish I feel like (including restaurant recommendations), and do it so graphically that the reader is essentially eating vicariously through my description of the finer points of the experience. I plan to write about high end food and comfort food; exotic gourmet and common stock; supermarket brand products and specialty items, and everything in between. High-quality images, including regular photos I take of "Gratuitous Sexiness," which is particularly delicious looking food, further illustrate my points and activate your salivary glands, and I tackle the types of questions that I often research for my own personal edification. For example, future topics include the differences between the cheapo turkey roll cold cuts and oven-roasted twice-the-price meat; the naked steak versus the sauce-enrobed version; and advantage of using lump crabmeat instead of claw, and exactly where it comes from.

The style? Informational, fun, and above all, sensory. The purpose? To inform, share, and reawaken excitement and passion for food and eating, with topics in a spectrum as wide as my experience, which continues to expand.

I hope you subscribe, pass it on, become an official "follower," or just plain like it. Enjoy eating vicariously.

- www.TheVicariousFoodWhore.com