I'm Never Full

That’s my moniker. I’ve been known to eat fried chicken at five restaurants and then go to a churrascaria for an AYCE-red-meat-on-a-stick dinner on the same day. I have plenty of witnesses if you don’t believe me.

My perfect date would start by having apps at one restaurant, entrees at another, and dessert/coffee at a third. To some, this kind of night might sound excruciating, but not to me. I have several reasons why: to prolong the dining experience - I love dining out and the initial excitement of walking into a restaurant is a kind of foreplay; to eat in different settings - every dining room has a different personality, vibe, and mood; and to eat with the right person can be an intimate, bonding experience leading into great conversation. If I don’t enjoy eating with someone, the relationship is doomed to fail before it ever really gets started.

Fact: I’m either a really cheap date or a really expensive one.

My food philosophy is the best meals in a city are found in the priciest/upscale digs and cheapest/modest hole-in-the-walls. High-end restos are usually sourcing local, artisanal, and seasonal ingredients from the best suppliers available and the tiny mom-and-pop’s are often hand-picking their groceries from the neighborhood Fiesta grocery or farmers market. I find the people behind these stoves are the most passionate. On one end, you find the classically-trained or professionally schooled chefs; and on the other, you find moms or pops fulfilling a lifelong dream of cooking the food they grew up eating and owning their own business. Mid-range restaurants – especially the highly detestable chains – use processed food from big food distribution companies, seem to be more concerned with volume and the bottom line than the art of cooking or the product itself, and are always the least interesting to visit and write about.

No worries. I’ll save the chi chi restaurant reviews for my blog or for write-ups I’m actually getting paid for. Here on Free Press Cuizine, I intend to share all my underground, off-the-beaten path discoveries and keep you clued into exciting foodie news and events. I’ve been promised that I can “blow off steam” and be brutally honest here. I can even cuss if I really want to for a glimpse into the really Jenny Wang. Let’s just see what happens.

I look forward to beginning this dialogue. Feel free to email me at imneverfull@gmail.com if you have questions, suggestions, restaurant news, or food-related events you’d like to share. And if you think I suck and want to diss my writing or my palate, send me hate mail! i’m a stress-eater!

In the meantime, between posts, follow me on Twitter and keep up with what I’m eating in real time. It’s fun. I promise.

Peas out…

-- Jenny Wang of imneverfull.com