I was born in the mid-eighties, and have had a pretty typical life thus far, I'd estimate. I grew up in San Jose, California, a rather populous city with a reputation for being unpopular for anyone interested in culture. Many people who live here cultivate a life of simple suburbia, but I vouch there are, in fact, some interesting things going on under the surface, too. If you grew up in the area I did, your fellow teenagers might be found trespassing on public and private property to do things like ride blocks of ice down grassy hills. The good underground bands would always played at all-ages venues (a shocker for a lot of folks who grew up elsewhere), and people leave school or work early to drive half an hour to go surfing. Although those lines make it sound like countless other suburban teenager hell pits, it is possible it is a unique place after all.
By far the best thing about making your home in the Silicon Valley? The access to pockets of culture, both North (think San Francisco, the East Bay) and South (try Santa Cruz). For me, the most influential ideas have to do with eating, and in case you aren't aware, there's a lot of opinions about eating in the Bay Area. The East Bay touts foodie-favorites like Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, and Raj Patel; San Francisco has its own formidable history of restaurateurs and one of the most popular farmers' markets on the west coast; and Santa Cruz County, and many others in the Northern California area, have a huge focus on respecting their agricultural roots and understanding the food-farm connection. Then there's Santa Clara County.
We're a bit late to the game, despite the fact that it's widely known we were once "The Valley of the Heart's Delight", christened such for our orchards of stone fruit, figs, grapes, nuts, etc. We've got some great urban farms cropping up, indeed, and possibly the most ethical coffee you can find in a 200-mile radius, but I don't often find people bringing their homemade brown bag lunches to work. Instead, there are high-tech business parks that contract companies to cater their cafeterias who pay the typical respects to the trends of 'the good food movement': local produce (organic so long as it's not a pain to be), seasonal dishes, and courses that reflect the ethnic and dietary diversity of the area. Truly, what a treat-- to find the Mexican, North Indian, Korean, Japanese, or Vietnamese (to name but a few) entrees popular in the various neighborhoods of the South Bay represented at your workplace dining hall.
This is all good and well, but what happens when they come home from work at the end of the day? Some folks take home leftovers from their cafeterias, and many of them purchase prepared food for dinner as well. But I'd like to think that some of them, even if it's only a few, come home and cook real food from real ingredients. Food that doesn't come in a box. I want to make sure I'm one of those people.
If you're skeptical of my interest and 'credentials' to do such a thing, let me attempt to be at least somewhat transparent by revealing my food heritage need-to-know information:
- My father's family immigrated from Mexico in a prior generation. Lots of menudo and lingua was offered to me as a kid, but I never got into it. My mom's family I can only describe as being relatively white, and I can't think of any foods I especially associate with them.
- I received a bachelor's degree in linguistics, but I took lots of general education courses with relevance to food and agriculture, which led me to being involved in these issues professionally.
- Hobbies: I am an active gardener. I was one of those people who tore up my front lawn to put in corn, and never looked back. You'd think this would help me be an avid chef, but it hasn't. Instead you'll find me watching a marathon of The Wire on DVD. Maybe riding my bike-- I'm not trendy enough for it to be a fixie, but I'll admit it's a road bike.
- Despite my being aware of food and health issues, and being around real food all the time for work (I was even a farmers' market manager full time for while), I still continue to consume my share of junk food. I have an incorrigible sweet tooth, desire cheese on almost everything, and rely on restaurants to tell me what flavors go well together.
Considering that, I think it would be a mistake to classify me as some sort of foodie elitist. I do however, have a few basic values that inform my choices. In short, I don't believe in the time is money mantra, and I do believe that spending good money on good food is worth it. Lastly, I'd rather learn to do something myself than to constantly rely on others to do it for me. It's really that last one that got me to kick my butt into gear with this project.
I hope if you are reading this you will hold me accountable to my goals, outlined in the tab entitled "The Concept". Feel free to really get on me about that.
