Ever since this term “foodie” entered my vocabulary, I’d wondered about it.  I saw the people who loved to go out and eat at nice places, with small portions and beautiful presentation styles and weird ingredients.  You know, those who get dubbed experts in this and that and usually end up becoming food critics, whether professionally or as a hobby.  There were food shows abound, from the traditional cooking shows to the reality/competition shows.  I’d watch as they consumed all manner of things that I was not interested in trying, and wonder if that’s what made a foodie.  You’d eat just about anything so you wouldn’t miss out on the amazing variety available.  Oh, and of course everyone was a sucker for a wine or cheese tasting.

Then “foodie” things on the internet caught my attention, like Yelp and Foodspotting.  So then I thought, “Ok, maybe being a foodie means you try all kinds of places and review them and/or post up pictures (preferably artistic) of the food you ate.”  Maybe foodies were a middle-class food critic of sorts.  Sometimes hitting the high-end places, but usually going to accessible restaurants and reflecting on the taste of the dishes ordered and the level of service provided.  Or maybe it’s the people who almost seem to enjoy turning an image of the food into artwork more than eating the food itself.  Oh!  OR, could it be that it was those people who would find that one gem in the strangest of places, that has the best [fill in food type] in the area.

Yeah, I was pretty confused by this so-called identity of being a foodie, since I love food, eat a lot of it, and have a pretty diverse palette.  But I just didn’t connect with what it seemed “being a foodie” entailed.  My friends would probably consider me to be a foodie, but what does it really mean?  I never really cared for being like those other people – the ones who paired wines with their meals and got dishes barely big enough for one bite.  I also didn’t feel like the type to sit around over-analyzing the food or turn it into a creative thing.  Was a a different class of foodie?  Was I even in the category of foodie?

So, I decided it was time to look it up.  Unfortunately, much like the term “hipster,” I’m still struggling to really grasp what people mean by the term.  On Wikipedia, I found a helpful blurb to let me know that the fancy schmancy people I was thinking of are considered “gourmets.”  At least I can rule out my first impression of what foodie could mean.

“…foodies differ from gourmets in that gourmets are epicures of refined taste, whereas foodies are amateurs who simply love food for consumption, study, preparation, and news…”  ~Wikipedia

I am an amateur and I love food for consumption.  However, I don’t really study it or prepare it, or study the preparation of it.  Apparently foodies can really get into restaurant openings, cooking classes, and (surprise) wine tastings or beer samplings.  I’m not really into those things, though I would consider trying them at some point.  You know what, I’ve figured it out.  I’m just a plain old food lover.  I don’t get crazy about the details of food; I basically like to enjoy tastes.  Still, I like sites like Yelp and Foodspotting, since they allow me to discover great places to eat at, so maybe there’s a little foodie in me.