Almost 5 years into the blogging caper and I am finally getting around to adding an "about me" page. If you've been reading Foodycat for a while, you probably know just about as much about me as you want to but just in case anyone has unsated curiosity, here are some more fun facts. If they are a bit familiar it is because I based them on a Q&A that Susan kicked off a while ago.
How did you get interested in food?
I think I was just born with it. Certainly nearly all my earliest memories are about food - I can really vividly remember the taste of the egg mayonnaise at Cranks in Guildford and I must have only been about 3 at the time. And the taste of Roses lime marmalade. My mother also tells a very embarrassing story about me, a sponge cake and a couple of dozen eggs and that must have been before I turned 4.
Why did you start a blog?
I think it was my husband's idea. He is much more internet savvy than me and thought it was a good idea. I think he may have thought it would stop me from talking about food so much, but if that was his aim he has sadly failed. I've always enjoyed writing and for a couple of years in Sydney I wrote restaurant reviews for a local magazine, and reviewed food books for Good Reading magazine, but after I moved over here I didn't really have an outlet for writing. Blogging filled that gap.
Why Foodycat?
Not sure actually - and the name is something I regret a bit. When I started blogging I didn't actually expect anyone else to read it! With hindsight I think it sounds a bit infantile and makes me sound like a crazy cat lady. I only have one cat, and I didn't have her when I started, so I don't think I qualify! It turns out that Foodekaat is the Kölsch (dialect of Cologne) word for menu, which is nice, so I will keep the name.
Who is your foody inspiration?
I couldn't possibly narrow it down! My mother, other bloggers, cooking shows, magazines, restaurants where I eat, books that I read, ingredients that I come across. They all inspire me to cook and eat and cooking and eating inspire me to write.
Your greasiest, batter-splattered food/drink book is?
Australian Women's Weekly Italian Cooking Class Cookbook. The page that has both spinach with spirali and pasta puttanesca on it. Plus I am onto my second copy of Elizabeth David's French Provincial; I read the first copy to rags, although I don't really cook from it. Elizabeth David is about the spirit of food, not the practicality.
You seem to eat a pretty varied diet!
I see it as one of the advantages of being a bit of a mongrel. I'm Australian of English and Swiss heritage, my husband is South African of Afrikaans and Dutch heritage and we live in England - neither of us has particularly deep food roots, so we're able to dip in and out of other cultures and take all the things that we find most interesting from them. I also get easily distracted, so I'll be totally fascinated by Mexican food one week, then be absorbed in Japanese or Vietnamese, or just pursue whatever path an ingredient takes me down.
Tell us all about the best thing you have ever eaten in another country, where was it, what was it?
There's good food everywhere! How can I choose? Chilli crab in Singapore, garlic soup in Switzerland, chawan mushi in Hong Kong. But having spent most of my life in Australia it has to be something there, but I couldn't say exactly what! It's always going to be a combination of the food, the ambiance and the company though.
Who taught you how to cook?
My mother. She's an extremely good cook and a reader about food, so I grew up thinking that sitting in bed with a cookbook was a totally normal thing to do.
I'm coming to you for dinner, what's your signature dish?
I don't have one. When I have people over I try to cook something that fits with what I know of their tastes. But dessert will probably be something cold and creamy, like a pannacotta or a fruit fool, and if artichokes are in season there will definitely be artichoke fritters with cava to begin.
What is your guilty food pleasure?
I don't feel guilt about food. I think it is unhealthy to attach those sorts of judgements.
What don't you like to eat?
Kidney (how can the aroma of urine be a positive?), cooked avocado, slimy floral-scented fruits (lychee, pawpaw), raw cookie dough.
Are you open to PR approaches?
Sometimes! But if it isn't a product I would ever consider buying myself, I won't accept. And I certainly won't accept if I am asked *not* to reveal that I was provided with the product, comped the meal or paid for the post.
