Memories of a young foodie

I come from a family of foodies. All family gatherings revolve around food whether it's a holiday, birthday or just a quick stop at my grandmother's house. "Can I get you a sandwich? Something to drink?" "No Grandma, I'm fine." "No, really, I can fry you an egg!" You laugh, but I've had this actual conversation! From Grandma we get yummy, comfort food - she makes the most amazing mancotti with homemade crepes! My mom went to to culinary school and owns her own cafe/bakery/coffee shop. My mom can be adventurous with her meals, she serves a lot of vegan and ethnic food. She makes wonderful soups, homemade bao, delicious sushi and sweet potato quesadillas! Yum, now I'm really hungry!

Today a friend of mine posted about grocery shopping and exploring new food with her sons in her blog (<-- check it out!). It made me think of all the wonderful times I had with my mom and grandma visiting Dekalb Farmer's Market in Atlanta. You could get ANYTHING there! We would look through the grocery section and then move on to the produce there was things none of us had ever heard of and anytime we found something new my mom would always buy one or two for us to try. Purple Peruvian Potatoes are quite good! Then we would meander through the bread and bakery section. I would always get some fresh bagels and sometimes they had knishes. We would stop in the Seafood section and stare at the big tanks of live fish available. Mom usually picked up squid and tuna - huge favorites among my siblings and I! The many types of cheeses and meats fascinated me and grossed me out when I found out what Rocky Mountain oysters were! We usually ended in the freezer section were my lactose intolerant brother would get to pick out a soy ice cream of his choice. We would spend hours there browsing. It was always our main stop and we would pack the coolers full in the van before heading the almost 3 hours back to our little town. Then we would eat like kings for a week or two as we went through all the goodies we got. I can't wait until my children are old enough to be able to take the trip!