TL;DR - The Foodscape is a running diary of my culinary experiences and my learnings of how food impacts culture. I'm excited to kick off this journey, and I hope you'll join me on it.
A Brief Introduction Food is one of our universal languages, and it's one that I've been speaking as far back as I can recall. I grew up experiencing food as a means to communicate the gamut of human expression - for example, giving sweets to show gratitude for a gracious host, eating dried fruits and nuts as symbolism for the blessings provided by a higher power, and creating traditions by eating specific foods for specific occasions - for all of the most formative years of my life. But as with most things we grow up with, I took the essential role food plays in our lives for granted for a long time. It wasn't until late in college, when I finally had to provide for myself, that I started to rediscover the beauty in food not just as a source of nutrition, but also as a source of expression. It started with watching a handful of YouTube videos to learn basic recipes for me to sustain myself. Then, one evening, when the three of us were hanging out, I found myself cooking for me, my roommate, and my partner. To this day, I recall the feeling of pride as they bit into the food, knowing that something I'd created was providing nourishment to those around me. In retrospect, my appreciation for the significance of that feeling didn't come until much later. But still, I found myself consuming cooking content around the clock, learning more and more about how to expand my culinary creativity. That pursuit of a creative outlet is something I'm much more aware of now, and I am lucky to live in a time when I don't need formal training or expensive cookbooks to learn something as simple as how to roast veggies or make a stock. Today, when I turn a creative thought into a real dish, and when I feel pride seeing friends or family biting into it, I am acutely aware of how lucky I am to feel that way. Over time, the appreciation for food that I had as a kid resurfaced. I started putting more effort into learning the foods I grew up eating in order to reconnect with my cultural identity. I started eating more vegetables (unheard of!). In retrospect, it's pretty obvious how this maturation naturally led me to an appreciation of others' cooking, as well. After college, when I moved to Houston, I was finally able to experience a culinary diversity that I'd been lacking during my years in school. I was able to experience Mexican and Tex-Mex food in a way that I'd never experienced before, and I grew an incredible respect for the link between the food I was fortunate enough to eat and the cultural significance it held for those around me. I started visiting taco trucks, Asian joints, cafés, and incredible concept restaurants every week. In between, I started experimenting in my own kitchen by preparing food for friends and trying new hobbies like cheesemaking and chocolate making. These experiences not only helped me fathom the diversity of our world, but they also humbled me and made me realize that when I eat something, I'm just taking part in a tradition that is much greater than I am. The Foodscape is my way of sharing my perspectives on our culinary landscape with a focus on the impact food has on our selves as well as on our shared culture. I'll share my experiences at a wide range of culinary establishments (across a wide range of price points) with a dominant focus on how those experiences have impacted me. I'll also share some thoughts and musings I have based on those experiences. Over the next few weeks, I'll post some more writing that I've got in the vault. I'm really excited to start this part of my culinary journey - I hope you'll join me on the way. - Rohan
