Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Meet & Eat: Robyn Lee

Posted by Adam Kuban, March 9, 2007 at 7:20 AM

We've been having a great time getting to know Robyn Lee, our intern here at Serious Eats. We thought you'd get a kick out of meeting her, too, so she's getting the treatment in this week's "Meet & Eat" Q&A.

Apart from helping out with graphics, site design, and whatever crazy stuff we throw at her, Robyn will be blogging for us from Paris in the coming week, as she visits the City of Lights for spring break. Look for her words and photos in the Required Eating section. And so, without further ado, here's Robyn!

Name: Robyn Lee
Location: New York City
Occupation: Student / death trap for baked goods
URL: http://www.roboppy.net/food

Favorite comfort food?
Nothing really jumps out at me as comfort food, but I really, really love glutinous rice-tastic zongzi, in particular those with peanuts, pork, and egg yolk. I think they're supposed to be eaten moist, but I like mine kind of dry and chewy since I grew up nuking them in a microwave as opposed to reheating them in a steamer. My ancestors would probably be disappointed in my microwaving ways.

Guilty pleasures?
I don't really have any. Giant piece of chocolate mousse cake? Fat-oozing chunk of pork? Bucket of ice cream? BRING IT ON! I'll feel guiltier the more expensive the food is, but as for types of food, it's all fair game. Until I get a heart attack.

Describe your perfect meal.
A meal with my best friends. I know that's cliché, but feeling comfortable with who I'm eating with is an important part of the eating experience for me. It doesn't really matter what we're eating.

...Although a sandwich, fries, and ice cream in some form wouldn't hurt. Unless it's a french fry flavored ice cream sandwich, which just sounds wrong.

Food you won't eat?
For now, I'm ruling out bugs and things that aren't sufficiently dead. Maybe I will become more adventurous later, but I doubt it. Unless someone drugs me. (Please don't.)

What food you haven't eaten that you'd like to try?
So. Many. Things. Oh. God.

But to make life easier, I'll just focus on the latest thing I'd like to try. After reading Elyse Sewell's journal, I discovered in the deep recesses of my belly a burning desire for an ice cream sandwich topped with condensed milk for 10 baht in Bangkok. Now all I need is a plane ticket to Bangkok and some pocket change (nope, I'm not going to make an ice cream sammich here; I must get it from the source).

Favorite food person?
Jeffrey Steingarten ranks pretty high or else I would've named my blog something else. Ruth Reichl is also a favorite. I'm a slow reader, but I eagerly read all her books last summer and then felt empty and soulless when I realized there were no more.

When did you realize you were a serious eater?
When I started taking more than one photo of almost everything I ate, around the end of 2005. Truthfully though, I wouldn't say I'm a serious eater as much as gluttonous and overly obsessed with taking photos. Someone asked me if I (or the people I'm eating with) find taking photos distracting, but it's gotten to the point where I feel uncomfortable if I don't take photos. It's twisted, I know.

What do your friends/family think of your food obsessions?
My mom wishes I would stop eating so much due to health and weight issues that I've had ever since I was little. I don't think the rest of my family really cares—or maybe they're all secretly disgusted.

Favorite food sites/blog?
- Twenty a day: A guide to cheap and tasty food in NYC that doesn't even need photographs to keep my attention.
- Waiter Rant: Not that you'd want to be a waiter, but read this blog and you'll really not want to be a waiter. Lots of great stories about a profession that I wouldn't otherwise think much about.
- Famous Fat Dave: I want to eat everything Dave eats, but I hate driving! Oh well.
- A Passion For Food: Kathy is an amazingly sweet food loving girl who can out-eat me. I want her writing skills and her metabolism.
- Pimp That Snack: People (mainly British) make giant versions of hand-held snacks and document the process with photos and humorous commentary. Hilarity and diabetes ensue.
- Ben et Nate do Asia: I haven't been reading this blog for very long (because it hasn't been in existence for very long), but I like the premise—two guys go around Asia and eat lots of stuff, including lots of street eats/night market food! THEY'RE LIVING THE DREAM! (And by "the dream" I mean my dream.)

FURTHER READING
The Girl Who Ate Everything, Robyn's blog; the name plays off of food writer Jeffrey Steingarten's book The Man Who Ate Everything.

Robyn's photos on Flickr, where she has 10,602 pictures archived as of publication date (ZOMG!)—most of them of food and most of those of baked goods.

14 Comments | Tags: foodbloggers, interviews, Meet and Eat, Q and A, Robyn Lee