FOODIES LIKE YOU & ME – ASHLEY BABIN AND ALEX SEXTON, TRAVEL WRITERS

In your opinion, what do all ‘foodies’ have in common?

Curiosity, a primal curiosity with a craving for knowledge about a culture’s cuisine. We want to know how a culture survives, how a culture used its natural resources to feed themselves.  A foodie, is not someone who eats only fine dining, it is a person that is hungry, hungry for everything. We want to learn, to experience the cornucopia of unique dishes in this world.

Name 5 essential ingredients in your kitchen that you can’t live without.

The Holy Trinity: Olive Oil, Tomato, Garlic.

Other saints: rosemary for an Italian twist and cumin for Mexican.

What is your all-time favorite food?

That is a tough one as Ash and I love so many different types of food. If you are going to make us choose though we would have to say a classic In-N-Out cheeseburger. In-N-Out is our home it is what defines us as Californians. This specific cheeseburger is the first thing we eat when we fly back to California and it is the last thing we eat when we leave California.

 All ‘foodies’ have guilty secrets, what food that you absolutely cannot live without makes you feel guilty?

For Ashley, french fries slathered with an obscene amount ketchup.

For me, fast food.  I love fast food, I know it is bad for me but I can’t help myself when it comes to fast food and everytime I eat it I feel so guilty.

Describe the most amazing culinary experience that you’ve ever had.

This is a really tough one for Ash and I to answer. It feels like every new cuisine we explore we have amazing culinary experiences. I am going to pick out a more recent experience though. When we were in Barcelona we went over to our friends house in Poble Sec to have a traditional meal cooked for us. She had prepared Bacallá amb Muselina d’All over a bed of spinach, pine nuts, and raisins.  The night was so memorable because we were able to hang out with our friends and have a traditional Catalan dish  made by a  someone who is.  It was amazing to see first hand how integral cuisine is to the Catalan people.

Have you ever eaten at a top-ranked restaurant? Which one?

Both, Ashley and I have eaten at a few different top rated restaurants. Ashley was able to enjoy Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. I have been able to enjoy Per Se in New York and Le Cinq in Paris.

You did the Wine Lover Tour with us, what was the most memorable thing about it?