I write myself emails, and notes on little pads of paper from countless hotel rooms. I update social networking sites with little snippets about great meals I have had, and vent my frustrations when I am stuck in some podunk town struggling to find something decently healthy and vaguely appetizing and completely vegetarian. It's always felt so scattered and incomplete and unfulfilling. I needed a blog.
Now, I have tried to blog before. That alone is funny to the me of 2009, because I remember hearing that word years ago and thinking it was just soo stupid. I'm not what you would call an early adopter. I pay attention to trends, but don't dive right in. I just unplugged my VCR last month. I haven't even been able to fully commit to getting rid of it yet because that means I won't have all those great movies any longer... that I haven't watched in years.
Back to the story. Blogging got more popular, and the word began to sound a little less ridiculous. I got a job that involved traveling 60-75% of the year. I would share stories about this crazy life I had fallen into with friends and coworkers. Most of my friends thought I was insane for doing this voluntarily, but my coworkers could relate. I spent a ton of time on the web seeking out recommendations for hotels, restaurants, brewpubs, etc. There was so much crap to sort through! When you see that 84 people have given KFC an average of 4.5 stars you start to doubt the taste level of strangers. I realized my opinions and stories worth sharing, beyond my circle of friends. There were people just like me out there trying just as hard to get good information, and offering up advice of their own. After thinking about all this for some time, I signed up for a Blogger account. I had been traveling on business for about a year and wanted to document it. I had all these great ideas tumbling around in my head and was super excited about it all. But, I got lazy, and busy. I also realized that a good blog does need some focus. My first attempt at blogging fell apart before it had even really begun.
In 2008, I began a process that I had put off for the better part of a decade. I got braces. Long story, but I have some complicated oral surgery in my future. This was a major thing I was dealing with and, in case you needed reminding, pretty atypical for someone in their mid 20s. I sure didn't know anyone my age with braces, and hearing vague recollections from childhood orthodontic experiences wasn't very helpful. I've had braces before. Like I said, it's a long story. So, I turned to the internet. I found some great blogs, and followed them regularly. It helped me get over feeling like a total freak, and helped ease some of my fears. I laughed with these people and sympathized with the rougher parts of what they were going through. I wanted to give back in the same way, and connect with people instead of just quietly and passively reading. I have a good sense of humor, am no stranger to sarcasm, and I'm honest. I felt I had something to contribute. So, I started my second blog.
Travel stories and restaurant reviews and the like don't really fit in with a blog about having braces at age 27. It's that whole focus thing again. Food has become something I think a great deal about, and I enjoy writing about it. I knew it was time for yet another blog, one that I would (hopefully) truly commit myself to. Food and I had a rather inauspicious beginning, as I mentioned in my first post. I never learned how to cook from my parents, or anyone really. I was known for my pancakes and baked goods. To this day, I remember cooking fettuccine Alfredo from scratch with chicken, broccoli, and mushrooms for a boyfriend in high school, because it was so far out of my comfort zone at the time.
Once I decided I was going in for round 3, it was time to come up with a name and get started. If you have never created a blog or website or didn't want to simply use your name to brand yourself on the Internet, let me just tell you how hard it is to come up with a good blog name! I already knew this but it still took forever for me to make a decision. Many were already taken, though several of those were defunct. It needed to be specific, but not too specific. I wanted it to be personal, and clearly related to food. I don't eat meat but I'm not 100% vegetarian and am not sure what I will eat in the future, so I didn't want anything that would make me sound like a hypocrite. I travel regularly now, but that might not always be the case, so that was another consideration. I eat at restaurants frequently, but my goal is to cook at home more, so I needed something that could allow for both of those.
"Chels Eats" popped into my head in a hotel room. I felt so clever! I made a TOTAL rookie mistake and snagged the Twitter username first and started using it. Then I realized that blog name was already in use. One was another Chelsea who likes to eat, and the other was someone writing about eating in Chelsea in NYC. Sigh. I talked to a few friends and another foodie blogger. We came up with several different options, some serious and some that were just pure silliness, but none that were great. ChelsEatsAndCritiques was suggested. A little long, but nice ring to it. Then I found Coco Eats and Critiques. One friend was a huge proponent of "noms" being in there somewhere. I finally realized that there is this famous foodie blogger out there, some of you may be familiar with her work, Kath Eats. Man, I am bad at this. Sorry Kath.
While on painkillers (stupid braces) and in serious need of sleep, but hell bent on just picking A name and starting my blog, I settled on Chels Eats Around. A friend said she "almost" liked it, but that it sounds like Chels "SLEEPS" Around, and was "that the joke?" Yes, friend. That's the joke. Despite the Chels Eats/Kath Eats faux pas, it works for me. Some people will get the joke, maybe some of them will think its funny. Maybe not. But it subtly says to me that I travel, and dine out. It's pretty clearly a foodie blog. Its flexible yet specific enough for my needs.
Okay, I'm all done with these introductory, page-long posts. It's my understanding that people don't like reading novels in the blogosphere...
Cheers!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Chels eats... gosh, what DO I eat?
I'm Chelsea, and... I eat around. Truth be told, I drink around too.
Let me take a step back.
I was a picky, picky eater as a kid. School lunches were always a struggle because I wouldn't eat sandwiches. My poor mother. I hated tomatoes. Red sauce on pasta was not an option. There was a period of time that I didn't even eat pizza. I mean, what kid doesn't like pizza?! This one didn't. On the other hand, I had fairly... refined taste when it came to the things I did enjoy. When visiting a family member at age 9, when asked what I ate, I casually responded, "Lobster, mostly."
As I got older, I began making conscious choices to try to expand my palate and revisit some of those foods I had sworn off years before. I was tired of being embarrassed when it came to meal times, and realized there was a lot I had to be missing out on. It was a slow process, but I kept at it. I even tried to convince myself that spaghetti would be more delicious with tomato sauce than with butter and salt. No dice. Tomatoes aside, I was getting more adventurous, and food became more exciting. For dinner tonight, I made fresh tomato sauce (no canned sauce for me) and poured it all over some pasta. Then I went back for a little more. And yes, I regained my sanity and pizza is again one of my favorite foods.
In 2005 I moved from the east coast to Denver, CO. Since I had already made some pretty big changes in my life, I figured why stop. As an experiment, I set a goal to give up meat for a month. I wasn't sure I'd make it. Technically I didn't. A couple weeks in, I went to Boston for the weekend. After a long day of baseball, shopping, eating good food, and drinking good wine and cheap beer, I absentmindedly ate a buffalo chicken wing. Whoops.
The month started over. And when it was up, I just kept going. It's not like I rarely ate meat to begin with, so this was no small thing. I had claimed that I could never be vegetarian on more than one occasion. I loved me some bacon and a nice filet mignon. Chicken was a staple. But it just wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Turns out, I can in fact live without bacon! Who knew? The more I thought about meat - where it comes from, how it gets to us, and the impact on the planet, workers, animals, and our bodies along the way - the easier it was to continue not eating it. When I think about it now, I haven't "given up" meat, I have cut it out of my diet. I eat things that I never would have imagined I would try, let alone crave.
There's a but. Having grown up along the coast eating fresh seafood, and having discovered sushi in college, I made a personal concession and didn't count fish as meat. Today I am an ovo-lacto-pescatarian, though my diet is primarily vegetarian. This blog will revisit this often I'm sure, as I try to work out what I am okay with eating. Current plan is to cut out seafood in 2010...
Now that that's covered, why the blog?
I travel for fun and for a living, though a little too little of the former and a little too much of the latter. I never know quite what I will find to eat when on the road. Some weeks I am in fabulous food cities with an abundance of veg options. On other trips, not even the salads are vegetarian. I am constantly on the search for a balance of healthy, tasty, and vegetarian. I'm also a bit of a beer nerd, so finding local craft brews has always been one of my favorite perks of business travel. Back home, it's hard to keep a well stocked fridge with a schedule like mine, and when cooking for one. I dine out pretty frequently, but would like to start putting all those cookbooks in my kitchen to better use, and doing more than just bookmarking great recipes I find online.
I've gotten to the point where posting my thoughts, raves, and rants to a social networking site with a 140 character limit or sending emails to a select few friends about my travel and foodie adventures (and misadventures) just isn't cutting it. I want to join the community of foodie bloggers. That sounds a little weird, and a little cheesy, but for a 20something who works out of her home or a hotel room, I have to find community where I can get it.
So, here goes.
Let me take a step back.
I was a picky, picky eater as a kid. School lunches were always a struggle because I wouldn't eat sandwiches. My poor mother. I hated tomatoes. Red sauce on pasta was not an option. There was a period of time that I didn't even eat pizza. I mean, what kid doesn't like pizza?! This one didn't. On the other hand, I had fairly... refined taste when it came to the things I did enjoy. When visiting a family member at age 9, when asked what I ate, I casually responded, "Lobster, mostly."
As I got older, I began making conscious choices to try to expand my palate and revisit some of those foods I had sworn off years before. I was tired of being embarrassed when it came to meal times, and realized there was a lot I had to be missing out on. It was a slow process, but I kept at it. I even tried to convince myself that spaghetti would be more delicious with tomato sauce than with butter and salt. No dice. Tomatoes aside, I was getting more adventurous, and food became more exciting. For dinner tonight, I made fresh tomato sauce (no canned sauce for me) and poured it all over some pasta. Then I went back for a little more. And yes, I regained my sanity and pizza is again one of my favorite foods.
In 2005 I moved from the east coast to Denver, CO. Since I had already made some pretty big changes in my life, I figured why stop. As an experiment, I set a goal to give up meat for a month. I wasn't sure I'd make it. Technically I didn't. A couple weeks in, I went to Boston for the weekend. After a long day of baseball, shopping, eating good food, and drinking good wine and cheap beer, I absentmindedly ate a buffalo chicken wing. Whoops.
The month started over. And when it was up, I just kept going. It's not like I rarely ate meat to begin with, so this was no small thing. I had claimed that I could never be vegetarian on more than one occasion. I loved me some bacon and a nice filet mignon. Chicken was a staple. But it just wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Turns out, I can in fact live without bacon! Who knew? The more I thought about meat - where it comes from, how it gets to us, and the impact on the planet, workers, animals, and our bodies along the way - the easier it was to continue not eating it. When I think about it now, I haven't "given up" meat, I have cut it out of my diet. I eat things that I never would have imagined I would try, let alone crave.
There's a but. Having grown up along the coast eating fresh seafood, and having discovered sushi in college, I made a personal concession and didn't count fish as meat. Today I am an ovo-lacto-pescatarian, though my diet is primarily vegetarian. This blog will revisit this often I'm sure, as I try to work out what I am okay with eating. Current plan is to cut out seafood in 2010...
Now that that's covered, why the blog?
I travel for fun and for a living, though a little too little of the former and a little too much of the latter. I never know quite what I will find to eat when on the road. Some weeks I am in fabulous food cities with an abundance of veg options. On other trips, not even the salads are vegetarian. I am constantly on the search for a balance of healthy, tasty, and vegetarian. I'm also a bit of a beer nerd, so finding local craft brews has always been one of my favorite perks of business travel. Back home, it's hard to keep a well stocked fridge with a schedule like mine, and when cooking for one. I dine out pretty frequently, but would like to start putting all those cookbooks in my kitchen to better use, and doing more than just bookmarking great recipes I find online.
I've gotten to the point where posting my thoughts, raves, and rants to a social networking site with a 140 character limit or sending emails to a select few friends about my travel and foodie adventures (and misadventures) just isn't cutting it. I want to join the community of foodie bloggers. That sounds a little weird, and a little cheesy, but for a 20something who works out of her home or a hotel room, I have to find community where I can get it.
So, here goes.
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