The Author
So you may be wondering a little bit about who the author of this blog is. Well, here’s the short version. My name’s Edmund Mokhtarian, and I’m an Armenian-American college student who was born in Glendale, CA, the largest community of Armenians in the nation. I’m currently studying at Georgetown University, but I’m getting ready to attend Harvard Law next year to study international business law.
So how does an aspiring corporate lawyer end up writing about food? Well, there’s a couple reasons I’d say. First would be my cultural upbringing. As an Armenian, I grew up in one of those cultures where food is sacred. No matter what may be going on throughout the day, no matter how busy you may be, you always make time for a good meal with your family. Meals don’t just entail food, but rather people, as you’re expected to come together every day with your family around the kitchen table to have at least one or two meals together and talk about life. And if your grandma offers you an extra plate of food, you better accept it, because if you don’t, you’ll probably offend her. So, like it or not, you’re constantly eating!
Second, last year I had somewhat of an eye-opening experience as I toured the world during three separate study-abroad experiences in Germany, Spain, and Argentina. Living in Los Angeles almost my whole life, I’d never really had the chance to live in another culture—to truly get a sense of how others around the world lived. And one aspect that really stuck with me was the diversity of food, and how even a simple meal like breakfast could be radically different from one country to another (try going to the supermarket and not being able to find any peanut butter or jelly!).
That was also my first chance to really dabble in the gourmet. In France, I discovered baked goods the likes of which I’d never eaten, with bakeries on nearly every other corner. In Belgium, I became a chocolate lover, experimenting with some of the most world-renowned chocolatiers. In Argentina, I discovered wine and finer dining, as everything was so cheap that I could eat at the best restaurants in the country for the same price as a normal meal in Los Angeles.
The list goes on and on, but the gist is that I gained something from every city and every country I saw, and I wanted to remember it somehow. A photo may be worth a thousand words, but that’s not really enough in my opinion. And so I came up with The Food Buster, or rather the notes that would later become the blog.
Caro pesquisador Edmundo:
Parabéns pelo brilhante trabalho na (pesquisa de alimentos). Vamos ajudar acabar com a fome de muitas pessoas no mundo.
Sou Brasileiro de pai descendente Portugues (Teixeira) e mãe imigrante Italiana (Rotili).
Sou natural do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul-Brasil (gaucho brasileiro, terra do melhor chrrasco tchê …-barbecue-), idealista, escritor. Tenho mais informações para intercambio, só preciso teu email.
Um abraço gaucho, Luiz R. T
Dear Edmund,
I just read your review of my store and product, and I feel that you did not get it. Your expectation and observation where off and for that reason your experience was off.
I appriciate that your review and criticism is sincere and not just to trash my place, and that’s why I write this note.
Testing frozen product is a challenge, while your opinion as a taster is sacred, there is a terminology and characteristics that are material and factual to form an opinion.
At Pitango we are trying very hard to create an honest product that has nothing to do with hype.
If you would be interested in learning more about gelato; the concept the process and the culture behind it, please don’t be shy and drop me a note I’ll be more than happy to show you around.
Sincerely
Noah
Here are a few icewines you may want to try:
Riesling Icewine, 2007, Ziraldo
Riesling Icewine, 2007, Reif
Riesling icewine, 2008, Stratus
Riesling icewine, 2008, Vineland Estate
Icewine is the Canadian spelling.
If interested I can sen you a few article about food, wine, beer, spirits, and liqueurs.
How many people read your site/
I am Armenian, but do not speak the langauage.
Let me know.
Regards
Hrayr