About the blog

When we go out to a restaurant, I expect to be able to try a little piece of whatever you order. This habit used to irritate my father when I was a kid, but I think he’s finally accepted that it’s not me trying to be rude or suffering from buyer’s remorse – I just think that part of the fun of eating out is trying different things. I love new restaurants and new cities, and my recent move to Phoenix allows me to explore both.

I am a food lover, not a food critic. I’m also not a food snob – not only would that be unrealistic on a college student’s budget, but I also don’t think that food has to be fancy or expensive to be delicious. Nor does it have to be complicated. My favorite dish in the world has but 5 ingredients and costs less than $5 to make.

I think trying a new recipe at home is just as exciting as going out to eat. I am very lucky to live with a superb chef, so hopefully J will contribute posts about dishes he makes. We’ve gotten into a pattern of using our paychecks in the first week to go out to eat, cook great meals, and generally live like kings…then we survive on ramen and tuna helper for the last few days before payday. It’s not exactly a responsible pattern, but you only get to be young once.

My purpose in writing this blog is twofold: first, I hope that readers will enjoy the anecdotes about adventures in trying new meals and places. I’m sure parts of my life will interject itself into the stories for your shock and amusement. Second, for my friends (or people who stumble across the blog) who live in the Phoenix area, I hope you will be inspired to try some of places I write about. I find websites like yelp or urbanspoon to be incredibly unhelpful ways to find new restaurants for 3 reasons:

1) They don’t really cater to people with dietary restrictions. J and I are pescetarians (we eat some seafood but are otherwise vegetarian), so finding a well-reviewed restaurant and then realizing that everyone went there for the delicious steak is not terribly helpful and is often misleading.

2) I don’t trust the opinions of strangers when it comes to food. They are often overcritical, snotty, and give poor reviews for silly reasons (based on things like perceived slights from busy servers). Or, they seem far too easy to please. Many of them are not my peers, and are rating based on factors like kid-friendliness. Additionally, most of the reviews aren’t very descriptive – at least not when it comes to the things I’m interested in knowing.

3) I don’t like the sorting system.

So, if you love food enough to read about it I hope you will enjoy my blog. I welcome your comments and thank you for your time J

Enjoy!

-K

P.S. In case you’re wondering about the title of the blog…J loves puns and refused to contribute to the site unless he could name it. The name is a reference to the prickly pear cactus, and he and I are the prickly pair…har har.