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| Prize Ingredients: (top left, then clockwise) dried Xoconostle (similar to prickly pear), Mermelada de Tejocote (Mexican hawthorn jam or fruit butter), Ate de Durazno (a densely concentrated jelly-like paste made from peaches) and Piloncillo en Polvo (fine-grained Mexican brown sugar). For a much better photo of these treasures, check out the August 20, 2010 entry of Mija Chronicles, by Lesley Tellez. |
For most of the spring and summer of 2010, I toyed with the idea of starting a food blog accessible to the general (Internet) public. "Pro" arguments came to mind very quickly: Writing and cooking are two of my favorite activities. I have been writing privately about food, ingredient procurement, cooking, eating and food culture since I was in high school a gazillion years ago. Food blogging would be a natural for me.
The list of "cons" was much longer and much more intimidating. Besides a general lack of time (I have one part-time job teaching, one full-time job as an administrative assistant, and occasional Saturday gigs as a test room supervisor), I also suffer from a moderate but sometimes paralyzing fear of "performing" in public.
It was while I was doing research on other food blogs, looking at who was already writing about food online, that I stumbled onto one of my favorite blogsites, The Mija Chronicles. As writer Lesley Tellez describes herself, she is a third-generation Mexican American who moved from Texas to Mexico City. Reading about Lesley's on-going expatriate experience (in the land of the food she is writing about) as the backdrop to a blog about one of my own favorite world cuisines is pure "win."
A few weeks after I started reading The Mija Chronicles, its creator held a contest. The "sweet" prize package included all of the items in the photo above. I have never "won" anything like this before, but on August 23rd, intrigued by the contest's writing prompt, I entered the contest by answering the question, What is your favorite Mexican food memory, and why?
[This babble continues...]
