Before I begin, dear friends, a little business must be attended to first. That said, to call it “business” feels churlish and meanspirited, for the business in question was not business, but rather pleasure, and considerable pleasure at that. One of the happiest things about blogging, to me, is the friends that you make in the process, and one of the happiest of friendships I have is the one I have with Julie, the brilliant and creative soul behind A Finger in Every Pie. It was Julie who, knowing that I’ve been something of a slouch on the internets over the past few months (although she was much too nice to use that “slouch” word), called me to say that Shuna was coming to town. If you are not acquainted with Shuna, her extraordinary, peerless mind or her culinary-school’s-worth-of-education-in-a-single-page blog Eggbeater, please do yourself a favor and acquaint yourself. You will be beyond pleased that you did. (If you are contemplating going to culinary school, or becoming a pastry chef, you really need to hear what Shuna has to say before you sign any paperwork or give your two weeks’ notice.) Before leaving for New York, Shuna sounded the clarion call for any New York City-based food bloggers who wanted to meet at Veselka, the 24-hour Ukrainian coffee shop on the Lower East Side that does Ukrainian meatballs, kielbasa, cabbage soup, mushroom barley soup and pierogi like nobody else’s business.
I will confess that I am always nervous when I find myself in the presence of other foodwriters, and I was particularly nervous about meeting Shuna, fearing myself too feckless and dense for such a smart, focused mind. Of course my nerves were misplaced, for Shuna is indeed smart and focused, but she is also warm, ebullient, passionate, funny and very very kind. She also drew a terrific crowd. In addition to my darling Julie, whose company never fails to cheer and delight, I was also lucky enough to see Luisa, who I had not seen in an embarrassingly long time (Luisa, I promise I’m going to work on that), and Ann, who I had met last year at Sam’s great New York food bloggers’ roundup. I was also lucky enough to meet for the first time some superb, whipsmart women who I hope I’ll be seeing again soon, and whose blogs I will be reading religiously, you bet: Jessica at Su Good Eats, whose account of the battering of the Lower Ninth Ward nearly two years after Hurricane Katrina should be required reading for our elected officials, as well as those who hope to be elected; Lisa at Homesick Texan, whose food makes me weak-kneed, and who presented Shuna with a batch of the most gorgeous biscuits I’ve ever seen; A. of Nosheteria, who is every bit as smart and stylish as her blog is, and who listened nicely as a babbled on about the (unwritten) egg book but neglected to ask her a single question about her own work in progress (A., I’m working on that); Radish of Sassy Radish, who has a million-watt smile and a rooftop garden that cheers me up every time I look at the pictures of it; and Deb of Smitten Kitchen, whose willingness to dish with me about cupcakes was one of the high points of the evening. We ate, we drank, we chatted at insane caffeinated speeds, we took pictures, we said goodbye and promised to keep in touch, we continued chatting for another hour, we said goodbye and promised to keep in touch, we continued chatting for ANOTHER hour, und so weiter. It was a brilliant evening, and I’m so thankful to everyone involved for pulling a chair up to the table for me. Thank you all.
Of course, now I’ve set myself up for trouble—or rather, I set myself up for trouble by titling this post “Why This is Not a Food Blog” after spending a few hundred words singing about a night out with some of the best minds in Food Blog Land. (What’s the matter, Jen? Think you’re too good for this crowd or something? Oh, good god, no. I should only be good enough to kiss their collective hemlines.) There’s an answer to that question, and it’s a decent answer, if I do say so myself, but it will have to wait until after I’ve secured myself a little luncheon. Thank you in advance for bearing with me, dear friends. I promise that there will be at least one recipe involved at the end of it.