I confess: I'm a foodie

I never realized. I'm a growing into a foodie. All the ingredients have been there all along: my grandparents owned a hotel/restaurant, my mum is one of the best cooks around and I love hanging around when she cooks (and help out whenever she lets me), and I spend a disproportionately large amount of money on food and books about food (and travel) and an equally large amount of time on cooking. I'm a budding foodie! Here's my personal journey of small steps to adult-foodie-dom.

Today I went foodie-shopping (definition: to shop for food AND food-related items) in central London. Here's what ended up in my shopping bag:

* A copy of Olive, a magazine published by the BBC, featuring recipes, restaurants and travel. I bought this issue partially because of the Food Lovers' Paris article (written by Clothilde of Chocolate and Zucchini fame), since I'll be going to Paris next month.

* a bamboo steamer. I've always wanted one, and found one for 3 pounds today at the Loon Fung supermarket in Chinatown. And whilst I was there I picked up some Thai rice noodles. Never cooked with these, so that's a nice challenge to come up with a recipe that these would fit nicely in to.

* Udon noodles. I *love* udon noodles, they make for great comfort food. There's a Japanese Supermarket in Brewer Street, called Arigato (this is where my new copy of 'Food Lover's London' comes in handy, the store itself has no name advertised anywhere as far as I recollect)

* A copy of 'Paris in a Basket. Markets -- The food and the people' at the Borders bookstore for 7.99 pounds (only to find out that Amazon has a better deal ;-). I'm going to Paris next month, so this is homework!

* A copy of 'Food Lovers' London'. I've wanted to buy a copy for a while now, but always hesitated. I took the plunge today.

* A brownie from Fresh and Wild. I went to the one on Brewer Street, conveniently located opposite the japanese supermarket (see above). I've been in there a couple times but never bought anything, but I was hungry today and the brownie looked soooooo good. And it was reasonably good. Moist in the middle, and very chocolat-y, a little dry on the edges.