Foody food

[aorangecrush]

Setting: Present day

Searched: Yahoo/google for food critics/critiques, read "How to be a Foodie" on slashfood.com,currently reading through the dining&wine section of the NYTimes.

My character is really into food, you could call her a foodie.

I do not know th difference between virgin and extra virgin olive oil let let alone between high/low grade

Comments

[sugardlightning]

For general research, I would recommend watching Food Network - online episodes, if you don't have it on cable. Besides getting more info for your story, you might improve your cooking too, always a bonus. :) Good Eats is one show which provides a lot of scientific and trivial information in addition to the normal procedural guide. (The one cooking show I haven't gotten bored by).

Extra virgin olive oil is supposed to have a better flavor than virgin olive oil, fruitier, I'd say. It's less acidic than virgin olive oil, in terms of actual content. Looking it up, http://www.oliveoilsource.com/definitions.htm says that extra virgin has less than 0.8% acidity, while virgin is only less than 2%.

To generalize, higher-quality would have a more complex taste, be fresher, etc. Kraft Cheddar would be a big no. I'm not sure what grocery stores in NY carry, but I would expect most general grocery stores might have a small selection of higher-quality products in addition to their normal. An organic grocery store would probably have better selection. I'd expect they'd have a number of "specialist" grocery stores, that offer a selection tailored to a particular ethnicity or to health food. I'm in the midwest, and we have 'Whole Foods' around here. Their selection is very different from what one would see at a Hy-Vee or Price Chopper. For example, they seasonally have exotic fruits - dragonfruit, carambola (starfruit), lychee - that I rarely to never see at most grocery stores. Farmers markets are good sources for some things, but I don't know how prevalent they are in NY.

Saffron... I'm not quite sure how to describe it. A little flowery, being as it is part of a flower, but it's more than that.

Depending on what type of food item it is, where it's from may also be important, or what variety. A lot of produce is impacted by where it's grown, both the influence of the soil and weather, and what varieties grow well there. You know how it is important what region wine is from? That impacts a lot of other food too. Vidalia onions, for example, are so sweet largely because of the lack of sulphur in the soil where they are grown. Among beverages, both coffee and tea are affected.

One suggestion: if your character also has a little bit of a green thumb, and if her living quarters accommodate it, she might keep a window-box to grow herbs in. Fresh herbs can make a big difference over dried herbs, depending on the application. Tossing a little bit of oregano on a salad livens it up considerably, and if you have fresh basil you can make pesto which is so much better when it's not out of a jar. Indoors, herbs can be kept year round, although they won't grow as much in winter. I don't know if having one of the natural daylight lamps to artificially increase the amount of light would make a difference.

This site might help in regards to some of your questions about taste and what to look for. I haven't used it before, just Googled it, but a skim of it looks like it could be useful.