Dulcet Devotion

Who knew that blogging could be so…exciting! I mean, I love to blog about food, don’t get me wrong, but at the moment, the furthest my quest for blogging perfection takes me is to the markets across town. Mostly my blog focuses on the experience of making and observing and eating and loving food. While it is possible to do this wherever I go, lately, I have been staying close to home.

Travel is a huge part of my life, and is my passion. Even though I have not left the comforts of home for the past few years, I will always consider myself a traveller, a searcher, a voyager. In my mind I cross many miles. In real life it’s up the street to work, down the street to shop.

I have happily lived this life, my temporary break from nomadic existence, without question. It has been my time to stop, stay in one place and get to know myself again, on steady ground. It has been during these past few years that my love of food and baking and cooking have really bubbled up to the surface, and my blog has been the vehicle with which I can really showcase and share that with friends, family, and other food-loving readers.

Sometimes I would question this blind devotion to food and to my blog. Sometimes it felt like maybe I should be going out and socializing more often, rather than staying inside to perfect a new recipe, to reshoot a dish in another light, or to edit a post to within an inch of its life to get it just right. But for some reason, whether it was fear or a creative itch to scratch or something otherworldly that was guiding me, I pushed through. I should clarify–pushing through makes it sound like it was hard. Like it was something I was forced to overcome. In truth it felt like something I had to do. Like the more I baked, and the more I wrote about it, the more I wanted to bake and to write. The more ideas I had and acted upon, the more they came flowing through me like an unstoppable river. There were times that I kept notebooks in each room of my apartment in case I should have an idea at an unexpected moment. Inspiration struck in the shower? Oh no, write it down in the steam of the mirror! A dream in the middle of the night? Send an email to myself! Sometimes the ideas would flow out of me like a tap on high. And if I didn’t get those ideas out of my head and onto paper, I worried I’d lose them forever.

As I continued to use my body as a vehicle for inspiration, something funny happened. I found out about a job with Tourism Richmond. I excitedly applied. Fast forward a few months and by the grace of something bigger than me, I ended up as one of three final candidates for the job of a lifetime–an opportunity to do what I was already doing, immersing myself in food and writing and photography and all things creative–except with the chance to do it as a full time job, not squeezed in around everything else in life. I had to rub my eyes and convince myself I wasn’t dreaming. Could this be?

Yes, in fact, it could, and here I was, in Richmond, BC, for three unforgettable days.

Like a school field trip on steroids, I was whisked away to the other side of the country, sent for video shoots, interviews, and the fastest, most exciting tour through town anyone could imagine. Thank goodness there was food!

Food to comfort, food to excite. Food to unite new friends and colleagues. Food to write home about.

After so much excitement, preparation, support from you! and a healthy dose of nerves, I needed to pause and take it all in. Once again, I rubbed my eyes.

There were mountains where only blue skies had been. There were jewel-toned flowers and green grasses. There were smiling faces and kind, friendly, helpful people. There were bunnies.

But those things will always be near you when you follow your heart. When you do what you love just for the love of it. And when you’re true to yourself.

I have had such an amazing time throughout this entire experience, and can’t wait to hear what will happen next. I promise you’ll be the first to know.

Special thanks to Tourism Richmond, River Rock Casino (and the team at Tramonto), and Nooch Snack and Chill. Big ups to all of the lovely Richmond and Steveston folks who have sent their kind wishes my way, and the countless restaurants and businesses who I hope to visit soon. And to you, for coming back time and again, to share the fun times with me. I’m looking forward to sharing a meal with you someday.