My current food hero.

My current food hero.

picture from here

That's Pim Techamuanvivit, a food blogger turned author with her new-ish book The Foodie Handbook. I'd been tempted to pick up the book each time I chanced upon it in stores, but I never quite got around to doing it until I popped by the library last Sunday. What that says about my cheapo streak I shall not ponder, but it is quite the amazing read!

Don't get me started on Sudi Piggott's How To Be A Better Foodie, which had me throwing my hands up in defeat after chapter 3 (I got too tired of having to google her many exotic terms). Pim's book is personable and relatable, with enough elaborations to spare my fingers from Google exhaustion. And I admit that the fact that she's an Asian holding her own in the Western world of food talk has got me rooting for her. 

Her paragraphs on dining in French restaurants remind me of my food-centric Parisian summer and while I go "oh I've tried that!" at parts, I am most often filled with admiration at her ability to confidently stroll into a snooty establishment and charm the sommelier.

I once said that I was never as aware of my own ethnicity as I was in France, where I stood out like a sore thumb just for being Asian. Perhaps it was my youth, coupled with a student budget and a lack of fluency in the language, but I never quite felt comfortable dining in the city's many classy restaurants, even when I had a Frenchman by my side. It is really quite difficult to fully appreciate a meal when you feel like a zebra in a room of gazelles.

To be fair to myself, I was just beginning to discover my foodie side at that time and hardly well-versed in the art of food like Pim is. And I was poor. Well, apart from creating an itch to bake a perfect fruit tart, her book has kindled in me a spark of hope that I would one day be able to walk confidently into a high and mighty Parisian restaurant and feel like I've got every right to be there. Not too sure about charming the sommelier though.

Check back here in three years for my progress. And perhaps I would have gotten around to giving Sudi Piggott another try sometime between then and now.