I Think I'm Featured In Richmond Mag...

The Dine insert to be specific, but I haven't seen it. I'm visiting my folks in Arkansas and I just found out that my fellow food-lova's have gotten their grubby little hands on the local essential eating rag. Richmond magazine's content is so hot that they can't put it online. So, I guess I can't really comment on my newfound infamy stardome, but I can give you some background about the interview and photo shoot.

A month or two ago I was contacted to participate in a Dine feature about "wintertime comfort food." At first, I was stumped. Comfort food has become too familiar all year round, lately, and this was kind of a sore subject. Nonetheless, I shot some ideas over via email. The Richmond Mag writer, Megan Marconyak wanted to meet up and talk until she had some notes to work with in writing her piece.

Megan and I had lunch at the Phoenician, a favorite for both of us and located conveniently between our two offices. Getting into the topic of wintertime comfort food, I talked about my affinity for frugality (despite my occasional splurges and indulgences), sorta as a preface. Then, I talked about winter time staples, like soup, chili, mac'n'cheese, heavy carbs, Indian buffets, frequent small meals, spicy hot cocoa inspired by the movie Chocolat, heat-creating spices of all kinds, freshly baked goods, and the list goes on. By the end of it, I was amazed at myself. As it turns out, I'm a freakin treasure trove of wintertime comfort food tips. But now, I'd forked over all of my bright ideas for use in this Richmond mag piece and I couldn't blog about it for risk of stealing Megan's thunder. If only my blog afforded me a stenographer/consultant who could elicit this much content from me on a regular basis... Oh well. Perhaps, it's time I revisited whichever tid-bits didn't make the cut.

Evidently, I told her that I rarely order dessert out. But during the winter, I like to over do it a bit and have something sweet. A favorite of mine for sweets is Rowland Fine Dining and I got a call from a Richmond Magazine photographer requesting to meet me there, so they could get a picture of me eating the mini-muffins that Virginia Rowland bakes and serves for free to each brunch guest. I responded to Megan before the meeting to make sure she understood, RVA Foodie ain't about "fine dining," unless there's an exception. In this case, Virginia Rowland's baker's touch provides just the incentive to head over the footbridge from Byrd Park to the Fan to get some desserts or some brunch. I was hoping that she would capture the irony. Still crossing my fingers until I read the thing.

At the photo shoot, I was forced to pose with, and bit into, and chew, and swallow, umpteen mini-muffins. It was absolute torture, let me tell you. These light puffs were warm from the oven and fragrant with bananas, hot brown sugar and topped with a dusting of powdered sugar. After a while, I got kinda bored and started mooshing my face into the plate so I would have a whole bunch of white powder on my lips, nose, and beard. The photographer acted tickled and snapped lots of pics, but eventually he asked me to wipe my face clean so he could continue trying in vain to make me look as good as the mini-muffins. Poor guy. I can't wait to see how it turned out.

And that my friends is history now. The issue is on the stands and I'm outed as RVA Foodie in hard copy, for the first time (I'm in loads of pictures on this site). Let me know how you think it turned out and I'll do the same when I get my hands on a copy.

Cheers.