A Day in the Life: Diary of a Foodie

Living Abroad - A Foodie Day in Mainz

 Living in Germany has really given me the opportunity to embrace food in a way I haven't before. And it allows for some great Saturday adventures. The Farmer's Market here in Mainz is unbelievable. It runs Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday, year-long. I usually go shopping on Tuesday or Friday, because Saturday is like a whole different beast. Throngs of people crowd stands piled with fresh local and imported produce. Delicious smells waft over the crowd, lending to more of a carnival atmosphere than a mere farmer's market.

Saturday is my favorite.

Not for shopping, but just for the experience. In fact, forget shopping at the Mainz Farmer's Market on Saturday; you're lucky if you can get yourself through the crowd, let alone yourself weighed down with bags and baskets of plump delicate strawberries, and a cup of freshly pressed juice. You'd be lucky to get out of there alive, let alone clean and unblemished. I love it.

Social Dangers of Being a Foodie

Being a foodie can be dangerous.

We are by nature inquisitive and analytical, and we're always looking for an idea or recipe to take and make our own. We look at food in restaurants and think "How can I re-create this at home?" We consider what we would change, how we can make things better.

This can be hard to shut off when you are, say, invited to a friend's home for dinner. Dining at someone's home is very different from dining in a restaurant. In a restaurant, you are allowed to be critical, maybe not openly to the chef, but you can go online, and pick the dish apart on your next post, without any real fear of retribution. By putting out a dish, and making you pay for it, the chef thereby opens their dish up to criticism, and interpretation.