Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Meet & Eat: Julie, A Finger In Every Pie

Posted by Alaina Browne, October 12, 2007 at 12:45 PM

According to some studies, 60-80% of blogs are abandoned in the first month. Blogging since 2004, Julie falls into the "old school food blogger" classification. I've been following Julie's blog since then, but it was only a couple of months ago that we finally met in person. I'm happy to introduce Serious Eaters to Julie in this week's Meet & Eat.

Name: Julie
Location: East Harlem
Occupation: Education consultant
URL: http://fingerineverypie.typepad.com

What prompted you to start your blog, A Finger In Every Pie?
During the summer of 2003, I discovered The Julie/Julia project, and proceeded to read almost all of it, from start to finish, while I was in bed convalescing from a surgery over a period of a few weeks. From there I branched out, began to read other food blogs. Finally, there came a weekend in January 2004 when I didn't travel to Boston as planned because airports were snowed in and flights were canceled, so I stayed home and started a food blog instead.

What's the most surprising thing to come out of your blogging?
The sense of feeling connected to people I've never met. It's even happened that food bloggers from faraway places have come and stayed in our home, or food bloggers whom I don't know very well arrange a dinner for me when I come to stay in their town. And of course, there's indescribable pleasure in the way that the feeling of connection is confirmed by actually meeting these remarkable people.

What do your family and friends think of your food obsessions?
My own family enjoys it, since they tend to benefit from it. I make special goodies for my elderly father to tempt his appetite, and I'm always toting fresh pea soup and sour cherry crostata downtown to my brother and sister-in-law's house. My in-laws, that is, my husband's family—now they tend to think I'm a little crazy, as far as I can tell.

When did you first realize you were a serious eater?
Oooh, tough one. I have a feeling I've been a pretty serious eater since I started on solid food, or shortly thereafter. Food was important in my family, especially high quality homemade food.

Favorite comfort food?
Probably egg noodles or tagliatelle with butter, salt, pepper, and sometimes cream, lemon zest, and Parmigiano reggiano.

Guilty pleasures?
A very juicy, medium-rare burger made from great pastured or organic beef—for breakfast.

Describe your perfect meal.
There are so many perfect meals out there, don't you think? It's all about pacing, for me. I can't eat too many heavy or rich things at once, but I like to taste lots of things. I'd probably start with something like a small serving of homemade pasta or risotto or delicate gnocchi, maybe ricotta gnocchi in butter and sage, unless foie gras was on the menu. Then maybe I'd have an entree of farm-raised roast lamb, rack of lamb or a gorgeous veal chop with wild mushrooms sided with fresh vegetables in season. If it were spring, asparagus or English peas or just a lovely melange of whatever's at its height. A salad of mixed tiny greens lightly dressed in a perfect, lemony vinaigrette, and maybe just a bite or two from someone else's cheese plate. Then I'd want a tasting plate for dessert, something to share with others so I could have just a bite of each—creative, wonderful desserts like pistachio apricot dacquoise and chocolate pyramide with orange creme brulee and hazelnut croquant, and a couple of bites of different fresh fruit tarts and sorbets. And then some petit fours to take home for later. I'd let someone who really knows what they're doing choose wine pairings.

But that's a restaurant meal. A perfect meal made at home would be quite different.

What food won't you eat?
I'm a pretty brave taster. I've eaten guinea pig when I was in Peru, and I've tried various sorts of offal, mostly when I was traveling and couldn't really refuse it. But as far as a strong distaste, I just can't stand banana bread or banana cake. I like bananas, but just not in baked goods. It's too bad, really; so many people love banana baked goods, and some of my favorite food writers publish multiple recipes for the stuff. I don't know what it is, but I even made myself a banana-maple upside-down cake as a blogging experiment, to see if I could possibly like it. Sounds good, doesn't it? No dice.

What's an unexplored food you'd like to try?
Well, I'd have to go to Paris, but I'd really love to go to Pierre Hermé's shop and try some of his gorgeous pastry combinations. Does that count or does it have to be a specific sort of food one has never eaten? I've certainly eaten plenty of pastry in my time, although not PH's specific flavor combinations, so maybe it doesn't count. Maybe some sort of game then—elk or caribou.

Favorite food person?
Another tough question, but I really think I'd have to go with Ruth Reichl. I greatly admire her boldness and sense of humor as well as her ethos, and definitely her food sensibility.

Favorite food sites or blogs?
Let me say up front, without being sycophantic, that I really do love Serious Eats—I'm a big fan of Dorie Greenspan in particular. I like so many of the people you've got writing on the site, Mario Batali and Adam from the Amateur Gourmet, and you and Robyn and Adam Kuban. And I've been reading Ed Levine and tracking down his suggestions since he published the first edition of New York Eats. So having all these folks together in one site is great for me. I read Leite's Culinaria pretty regularly. Blogs I'm fond of include my pal Jen's site, which is called Prepare to Meet Your Bakerina, David Lebovitz, Smitten Kitchen, and lots of others—just check out my blogroll.

1 Comment

Tags: food bloggers, Meet & Eat