The past few weeks something has begun to crystallize in my mind, that I simply love books. How does this relate to food? Quite easily. I still believe that the greatest transfer of information about food lies not in blogs or the dreaded Food Network or not even the high-quality shows in public television on the weekends such as Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie or America's Test Kitchen. Nay, the world of food revolves around the printed word and printed photo.
Evidence lies in the burgeoning food sections of bookstores and libraries. Actually I stand corrected in the second brick-and-mortar avenue. Many libraries have barely adequate food sections and I make it a point to visit that part in each public library I visit.
In less than two weeks time, my swank office on the 6th floor of one of the largest office buildings in Beverly Hills will be moving to the 25th floor of City National Plaza in Downtown Los Angeles, where we will be sitting directly across from the largest public library west of the Mississippi River. That would be the Los Angeles Central Library, which stands majestically over Flower St behind a small shaded park of about one quarter of an acre. I've ventured into the food section of the Central Library and it is positively massive. I'm talking tens of thousands of cook books and food books to keep me well informed for probably the next eighteen decades of my life.
I certainly won't live that long, but I'm delighted to have access to such an amazing collection of food books. Why is this relevant? Because so much of the food world is based on information. Food is one of the most critical and representative establishments of human culture and often times the most discussed and controversial. Food is also part of identity. The recording of such culture for posterity through the printed volume is essential.
Which brings me back to libraries and books. Ever since I was a child growing up in Cerritos, I relished in books and libraries. As a toddler I spent my long summer days drowning in children's books at the local library, much to the chagrin and dismay of my poor tired mother who'd have to lug me around. While I feel like an absolute loser saying this, I used to go to our school library in high school during our lunch break and read. Novels.
In college my favorite place was discovering all of the libraries on my campus at USC. Doheny Library is definitely the favorite but the Philosophy Library is unparalleled in its detail.
So why does this matter to a food blog, you might say. Well, I haven't been writing much because I haven't found very much that's interesting to write about! I'd like to focus my writing more on thoughts and memoirs rather than restaurant reviews and the like. This blog is about the love of food and how food affects our culture. The previous incarnation of this blog revolved around the spiritual connection that we have food. That sounds ridiculous but nearly every single religion in the world has something to say about food. We truly are what we eat.
That said, I'd like for nothing else than to rummage through the writings of generations, the hundreds of volumes about food in the library, and garner both wisdom and knowledge of this great subject that we love. I remember back at USC that there was this old librarian at the Philosophy Library whose office is as 1940's as you could get. He had this thick concave glasses that made his eyes really beady. He was a typical Jewish New York transplant who could tell you exactly the kind of book you were looking for - just name the subject. Kant? Greek Metaphysics? Existentialism? No problem, he'd ring up a dozen books of each genre, without looking at the card catalog. I'd like to be that guy in forty years. Hopefully with better eyes though.
On another note, I'll be going to Animal tonight, the celebrated shoe-box-like restaurant on Fairfax next to Canter's that's receiving a ton of blogosphere attention. I'm sure it'll hit the mainstream soon, if it hasn't already. Let's see what these bacon obsessed former Food Network guys are all about.
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