Welcome, Friends!

Welcome to my very first blog.  Oh happy times!

Years ago I was required to write an essay while applying for a scholarship to go to culinary school.   I ended up writing about what was to become my eternal quest....my odyssey.....the search for the perfect meal.  The PERFECT meal.  Beautiful to behold.  The fragrance makes your mouth water.  The taste makes you weep with joy.  What a lovely ghost to chase.  I have spent years visiting wonderful restaurants as well as cooking both professionally and for loved ones and I have come to the conclusion that there is not just one perfect meal.  But if you are very very lucky....a lifetime of gorgeous and joyful meals.

But what if you don't eat meat?  What then?  I constantly meet with the stings and barbs of people's perceptions of vegetarians...i.e. we are weak, pale, angry, questionable hygiene, banging on tamberines at airports, dress our cats in J-Crew twin sets...who knows?  Not true!  We get to enjoy some of the most delicious fare out there and there are new restaurants and cafes cropping up all the time.  Not only that but the culinary offerings that have been coming out of my own kitchen have been plentiful, as well.  Nothing gave me more pleasure than when, at my last Oscars party, a meat-eater friend popped one of my meatless pigs in a blanket into his mouth and insisted that there was a real hot dog inside the fluffy pillow of pastry dough. Oh contraire!

That is what I have set my mind, heart and blog to do.   I will take my entourage of vegetarian boyfriend and friends both veggie and non and we will eat our way through New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.  Along with that delicious endeavor I will also be creating and preparing vegetarian dishes at home.  Then I will report all my findings back to you.   I hope that you will follow my adventures and perhaps get some ideas that you might enjoy as well.

In the immortal words of Julia Child....bon appetit! (Translation by my Russian Jewish grandmother, "Eat something-you are so skinny!")

Love,
Robina