What I've Been Up To

Welp, if you noticed last week, I did not enter a single review. Why? I've been in Miami with my girlfriend eating at the Japanese restaurant her parents own. It's alright to be jealous. As a result of my time there, I have undergone the dreaded shift of taste any person goes through when they spend too much time with good food, and, thereafter, must acclimate to the food they have left behind. This has a couple of results.

1. I ate way too much food in Miami. Granted, most of it was pretty healthy since it fell under the Japanese umbrella as opposed to, say, the Southern Comfort Food Umbrella. As a result, I'm likely not going to eat quite as much when I go out until I'm back on the track I was on. This will likely result in me not being able to give full reviews of restaurants as I probably won't be trying as much stuff. You can expect multiple reviews of the same restaurants as a result.

2. I'm likely going to have to kill my standards. For the restaurants I will be reviewing over these immediate couple of weeks, prepare for some pretty hardass reviews. I'm probably not even going to have sushi again until I can forget about watching a chef literally cut a piece of sashimi off a fish to give to me. For the reader, well, it's probably best to be aware that my reviews might be erring on the side of Jon Lovitz's Critic character with regards to the dishes I try (It stinks!)

3. Expect more recipe blogs. I'm trying to incorporate leafy green veggies into normal dishes with mixed success. I tend to like cooking mostly healthy food as it tends to be more satisfying to eat than the French Toast sandwich I made a few weeks ago. If you're into seeing my thought process behind creating dishes, you'll probably find that interesting. If you're just interested in the reviews, I'll still have those, so don't be too worried.

4. Fall semester has begun. Sigh. I actually really like summer Gainesville. There's usually no wait to do anything. I can get in and out of Publix with very little trouble. I don't have to worry about gameday traffic preventing me from going anywhere. I can go to the store without being decked by an undergrad attempting to gear up for their dorm room with things that sparkle or whatever. This will probably make it more difficult to go to popular restaurants unfortunately. I already know that the Indian Grocery/Restaurant I go to will start seeing a steady increase in patronage. As someone who takes a zen approach to gathering ingredients, I'm always wary of these first couple of weeks.

You should be too.

5. All the same, to the new people in Gainesville, Welcome! I hope that I will provide you with an unbiased and in depth review of local restaurants to help you know which ones to avoid and which one deserve your patronage.

Speaking of restaurants that deserve patronage, Liquid Ginger's groupon has resulted in a definite visit from me in the not too distant future, which I am quite excited about (though I'll try and reign that in to remain unbiased.)

Also, look forward to my review of where to gather food products, especially if you're interesting in getting local/organic products. I will brave downtown and the hippies to scope out the farmer's market when it gets a little cooler.

If you have any requests for reviews, just shoot me an email, and I'll be sure to consider it.

--Charles