That Food Tastes..um.. Good!

As long as I can remember, I have always thought being a food critic must be the coolest job on the planet. Perhaps it is a function of spending 7 years in NYC with an endless list of restaurants at my fingertips, or just that I lack the instinct and motivation to cook, but eating out is one of my favorite activities. There is just something about the mystique of a new restaurant, looking at a menu for the first time wondering which of the delectable entries will tickle your taste buds in just the right way. What dishes will surprise with their unique combinations of flavors or dazzle you with the artistry of the presentation on the plate?

The funny thing is, I think I enjoy talking about what I eat as much as I like the experience of eating out. So when I saw the course title From Plate to Pen: Writing About Food in the Boston Center for Adult Education catalogue, I knew the class was for me. One of the positive aspects of being unemployed is that for once I have the time to explore, and can direct all the energy that would have previously been devoted to my job to new endeavors. So inspired by the uptick in my mood from the thought of this new path, I jumped onto their website and registered.

On Wednesday night I went to my first class. As I climbed the stairs in the pristine, new building (BCAE just moved to a new location in back bay) I wondered what the class would be like. Small discussion? Giant lecture? Would we have homework? or god forbid, tests? I walked into the airy, white room where our class took place and got my answers. There are six of us, which offers a very intimate feel. We started off talking about our interests in food writing, which was, as one would probably expect, all over the map. We read a selection from a memoir of one woman's experience eating noodles and living in Chengdu and discussed the passage with a particular focus on the writing devices she used. We talked about her use of vivid imagery when setting the scene, the explanations of how the food she delighted in complemented the region's history and culture, and her use of dialogue and powerful word choices. Then we took a stab at doing some writing of our own and completed an exercise where we each wrote about what we had for breakfast. It was challenging to turn my breakfast of two fried eggs, toast and cheese into prose-- but it felt good to flex my writing muscles in this new way. Strange that while I have been writing almost daily for the past week, sharing personal experiences and moments with the wider world, I still felt anxious reading my 300+ words to my 5 classmates and teacher.

Our first assignment is to write 700 words on a meal that we miss. Anyone want to join me? I'll let you know how my piece turns out (and maybe I'll post it too).