“Do you like chocolate?” I asked the young woman sitting beside me, flying the not-so-friendly skies of United. My husband rolled his eyes. I could almost hear him saying under his breath, “You’ll talk to anyone.” “Who doesn’t?” she smiled. I offered her one of my Santa Barbara chocolate finds. Her eyes lit up when she noticed hazelnuts bursting through layers of darker-than-night chocolate. I found Renaud’s Patisserie & Bistro in a similar conversation, with a total stranger, as my husband and I waited to board our plane to California. It started out with a simple question about shoes and turned into a discussion of foodie finds in Santa Barbara. I call this the foodie pheromone concept. She hadn’t lived in Santa Barbara very long…
Tag Archives | foodie finds
Foodie Pheromones (California Dreamin’)
Beer & Chocolate
We’re a strange pair, my husband and I. I travel the country in search of exotic chocolates. He travels far and wide in search of good beer. I ask, “Are the beans from Ecuador? Is it single source, small batch, bean to bar?” My husband talks hops, vintage, IPA, and stout. Lucky for us, the proprietors of these wonderful little foodie finds know their neighborhood and are eager to share their favorite haunts. After spending at least an hour stocking up on enough chocolate to keep me happy for a very long time, Byron, owner of the Chocolate Library (greatest idea since sliced bread), picked up the telephone and rang up the proprietor of Good Beer to let him know we were on our way….
Culinary Terms of Endearment
Savor Moments as Much as You Savor Flavor A few weeks ago I experienced one of those surreal transitions that you refrain from pondering too closely, for fear you’ll be consumed by a grief too large to contain. It was time to move my dad into an assisted living facility. Now there’s one thing you need to know about my dad. He loves food. Every meal was a “party” and his idea of a perfect Saturday afternoon was traveling from market to bakery to butcher to pick up all the trappings for a sumptuous meal. You can imagine the thoughts swirling through my head when I first set eyes on the “twice-cooked” creamed chip beef on toast that they served him for breakfast. I decided…
Sue Ann Gleason
Sue Ann Gleason is a culinary nutritionist, radiant life expert, and writer living in the Washington, DC area with her husband John. When not working with clients, she can be found sampling exotic chocolates or building broccoli forests in her mashed potatoes.
