Food Diary: New Jersey and Philadelphia

I don't know who coined the word, "foodie," but whoever did was genius. The first time I heard that term used in a sentence, I was intrigued. I wondered, am I a foodie?

I remembered when I was about 8 or 9 years old and my Pop's and Elaine had us look at the humongous Sears catalog and circle the toys or clothes we wanted for Christmas. And I always, always circled the Easy Bake Oven and I never got one. Come to think of it, I don't think any of us ever got anything we circled from that damn catalog. Was I a foodie then? I remember I would dream of getting that Easy Bake Oven and make the chocolate cake that the girl made in the commercial (if you're as old as me, you know what I'm talking about). Of course, my second pick from the catalog was the Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine. And I never got that one either!

Fast forward to the late 90's when I moved to Boston and that is when I heard the word, foodie. Someone mentioned it to me because I was describing how incredible the sweet potatoes fries at Bartley's Burger Cottage were. Then I went on to describe the steak salad at the now defunct Grafton Street Cafe on Mass Ave. Perhaps, yes, I think I was, and am, a foodie. But I realized that I really was one when my friends from college and I formed a cooking club, and the rest, as they say, is history.

So why am I telling you this? Just last week I traveled over 3000 miles to be with my husband (in New Jersey, no less!) and what did we do? We found remote wineries in New Jersey...YES, New Jersey, and bought more wine than we needed; we drove to Hershey, PA to get our chocolate fix, then moseyed on over to Philadelphia just to have a Philly steak cheese at Pat's, the Kind of Steaks; and we found probably one of the best Italian restaurants in Freehold, NJ...the town The Boss is from. So, yes, I totally I am a foodie (and so is my husband), and I think many of us are in one way or another, although not many are as crazy as us and drive to Philly just to eat and authentic cheese steak wit cheese whiz...but then again, if you're reading this, you probably are. Happy eating!