NewbE

Taking the time to post a new topic in which one declares one or another term to be "tired" is the equivalent of screaming "I'm hip! I'm hip! Look at me! Look at me!" Ironic, yes; interesting, no.

NeoPatrick

Lucie, I think you have it all wrong. Most self proclaimed "foodies" use the term the same as somebody posting here and say "I have a Fodor's addiction". If anything it is the opposite of suggesting anyone who isn't a foodie is a slop. Most "foodies" are borderline obsessed with food. They get the shakes if a new hot place opens and they haven't had a chance to try it. They can't sleep if there is a new food item they haven't gotten their hands on. Tasting a wonderful new dish by a great chef could be as good or even better than sex.

Obviously from what you say that you don't "get" anything more than wanting a good restaurant, you are not only NOT a foodie, but you really have no idea what the term means. Sorry.

By the way, I don't regard myself as a foodie. Like you I enjoy good food. But I have quite a few friends are definitely "foodies". I can't think of a nother term to use to define their passion for food.

cigalechanta

Bardo, I felt the same as you and expressed it on a forum that most there disagreed with me. So I accept their view for THEM but not for me. I find the word ineloquent for a meal of freshness, creativity or not, and taste.

cigalechanta

go travel, I've been posting on EGullet for years. There is a higher rank that you pay for but I'm just an ordinary poster=free.

lcuy

I'll have to agree with Patrick...The foodies I know don't think they're better than others, just that they are obsessed with food.

I find the title useful...if someone says they are a foodie, and wants ideas for activities in ABC city, I'm not going to spend a lot of time giving them hints on museums and shopping spots, and I'm not going to recommend Cheesecake factory for a good lunch, even if its the only spot in town. Sort of like someone saying they have a "thing for shoes" and asking where to shop in NYC. We aren't going to give them directions to Payless Shoes.

Now, if someone tells me they are a gourmand, then I'll feel they're putting on airs.... (justified or not)

NewbE

Now, see, that's funny to me, because I have always understood "gourmand" to mean a person who would eat anything and everything--not discerning, the opposite of a gourmet.

I agree with Patrick's def. of a foodie, which is neither gourmet nor gourmand.

LucieV

NeoP, not to blow your conjecture/conclusiion, but um, yes, I do know what the term means. I not only live in the SF Bay Area, I've spent the majority of my life here. Enough said...though I'll say more!

This place started "suddenly" crawling with foodies the last few years. I.e., suddenly a lot of people were using the term. Do you honestly think that before "foodies" arrived (and I use that verb somewhat kiddingly), there were no people here (or anywhere else where good food is part and parcel of one's life) who were "obsessed" with good food?

One thing you're right about. I would never call myself a foodie. In fact, were someone to refer to me as a foodie, I'd have to politely shove some Humboldt Fog into his/her mouth.

NeoPatrick

Well, Lucy, I'm not going to argue that you don't know or do know what foodie means, but your post above mine clearly made it look like you didn't since you said:
"I guess I give people more credit than they deserve or something, but I assume that people who are seeking a good restaurant appreciate good food & good restaurants & everything that implies. It's not rocket science! I just find the label "foodie" a bit self-serving, as in "I'm a foodie; you're a slob."

My point was the people who call themselves foodies certainly is not the same as indicating they're "above" other people or would consider non-foodies as slobs. And you seem by your comments about just finding a good restaurant that you don't know why that would make someone call them a foodie -- it doesn't and it has little to nothing to do with being a foodie either.

Sorry your post just confused me then.

bardo1

From Merriam Webster:

GASTRONOME mean one who takes pleasure in eating and drinking. EPICURE implies fastidiousness and voluptuousness of taste. GOURMET implies being a connoisseur in food and drink and the discriminating enjoyment of them. GOURMAND implies a hearty appetite for good food and drink, not without discernment, but with less than a gourmet's. GASTRONOME implies that one has studied extensively the history and rituals of haute cuisine.

So, GOURMET applies to the whole range of food - not just the upper end. If one is obsessed with finding the truck that sells the perfect goat meat taco or the storefrone with the best Vietnemese soup (as well the best French huate cuisine), then that person is a GOURMET. How is that food obsessed "gourmet" different than a "foodie"?

NeoPatrick

I think there may be little difference, however the term gourmet had developed a lot of negative connotations -- more like that "look at me, I'm a gourmet, I have fine taste" impression. I think that's why the term "foodie" was started -- a lighter approach to the idea that didn't sound nearly so raised eyebrow. I think it's kind of funny however, that some people are now attaching that same "snootiness" to foodie that they did to gourmet.

Wednesday

Whenever I see a gourmet food word that begins with "gastro" it makes me think of heartburn.

NeoPatrick

LOL. Wednesday, I'm with you. When they first started that term in London -- "Gastro Pub", I thought "that doesn't sound like a place I'd want to eat!"

LucieV

NeoP, I can't speak for others, but for me, it's not "snootiness" that I attach to the term "foodie." It's more like...amusement.

NeoPatrick

Interesting. I took this statement:

"I just find the label "foodie" a bit self-serving, as in "I'm a foodie; you're a slob."

as being more about "snootiness" than amusement.

Sorry, I just really have trouble sometimes figuring out what you mean. I hope you see why I have so much trouble interpreting your remarks? How was I to know that statement wasn't about snootiness?

LucieV

NeoP, don't worry about it. If you misunderstand me, I can live with it. I don't pretend to understand you -- or anybody else -- all the time either! Some people we naturally communicate with more effectively than others. It's okay. My will is eminently clearly written, as is my recipe for Mexican chocolate ice cream.

sistahlou

I'm a foodie and good with it. I have the creditcard statements, the truffle oil, the herbs and love handles to prove it.

Foodie, foodie foodie......blah blah blah......

Leely

Foodie doesn't bother me. I saw this thread and thought, "Big deal; it's in Webster's and has been around since the 80s (when I was still a schoolgirl!)." Language is organic. Words and phrases fall in and out of use. Dig in your heels and rail against it as you wish. Who knows, perhaps someday it will become an obsolete term. You may get lucky.

I too have lived most of my life in the SF area, and currently live in the city; I'm pretty sure that doesn't give me any more credibility than anyone else, though. There are/were certain changes in this city that bother me--for example the working poor finding it an increasingly impossible place to live--but use of the term foodie is way, way, way low on the list.

That is all.

LucieV

Leely, good point. Excellent point. The word foodie isn't even worth wincing over...except on Fodors.

Leely

So...what's for lunch?

LucieV

A boring-as-dirt bowl of oatmeal, followed by a few squares of ... Santander bittersweet espresso chocolate. Don't tell Mom.