Reflecting on how things are evolving

Ever since I started this blog back in June of 2010, the face and focus has appeared to change a number of times. I like to think that the blog can be a good reflector of my own personality. I’m all over the place, guys. If you sit down and try to have a conversation with me, we can start in one place and wind up somewhere else really quick.

I gotta say, back in June of 2010, I never thought the focus would shift so heavily toward food. Since basically leaving the food industry to pursue a career in science, I really stopped thinking about food for a good portion of time. I was eating out a lot; not the good eating out that you guys have been reading about. Things like Subway, Chinese takeout, and buffalo wings every day became the norm. I was eating to save money, and it really took a toll on my health.

When I started my local food reviews (derryX Dines), it came from the realization that my background in food really had a perfect application and would be a great outlet for me to direct some of my energy. Couple that with the fact that, in ten years living in the Capital District, I did a sad amount of exploration, and it became a project that I really wanted to start pursuing.

Having only facebook, twitter, and the occasional Google+ to promote my writing, I am indebted to the local media outlets, like the Albany Times Union and All Over Albany, who have noticed the value in what I have to say and have helped to spread my words way farther than I would have been able to on my own. From facebook, I could be sure that stuff was getting to my family, and it’s great that they’re reading and seeing all that I have to say, but, without the media and gathering a following of other food enthusiasts and local people who contribute to the conversations, keeping the blog going would feel like a very robotic and mundane thing to do.

The past several months have been a real trip. As I’ve started dining out less and cooking for myself more, the scope of the food posts expanded, and I’m now writing about my own food adventures. Sure, I could write up posts about how to make chicken parmigianna or baked ziti or other things that I learned how to make in bulk in my family’s store, but, again, that would be boring for all of us. I think the fact that I’m digging deep with my own chops in the kitchen makes for a much more enlightening experience for everyone. I’ve cooked rice balls thousands of times in the store, but I never got to use my own risotto to do it. It’s also one thing to cook, and another thing altogether to document it in a coherent way to write it up.

I’ve also been doing a great deal of reading and research on food. Mind you, this is all supplemental to my real life, where I make a livingas an analytical chemist working in pharmaceuticals. I am a big believer in education, and you need to educate yourself on what’s out there. Last year, if you wanted to take me to a farmers market, I would have thought you were nuts. Now, I’m starting to come around on the value of local sourcing, and it’s really all because of having this little blog that I do and the pursuit of knowledge.

So anyway, when it seems like my posts may be focused heavily on food, that’s because that’s what I’m focused on. I’d like the people reading this to think of it as a sentient thing. I mean, where else can you read about thermodynamics, dining at a gastropub, cooking fettucini carbonara, and Jersey Shore in the same week?

Nowhere!