You know you're a foodie when you are more than willing (in fact will go out of your way) to try something new and different. About 25 years ago there was a restaurant in Milwaukee called the Public Natatorium. Yes, they took an shuttered public indoor swimming pool and converted it into a restaurant, complete with dolphins frolicking in the pool. The menu featured such exotic fare as lion, hippopotamus and the like. The lion wasn't bad.

You know you are a foodie when:

You plan your vacation around which restaurants you will eat at each day instead of which sites you will see.

You know you are a foodie and you are dating a foodie when:

You not only spend hours of your date discussing different recipes, how to make them better, and where to buy certain ingredients... but you go and buy the ingredients and cook the meal. *wink*

When I lived in Germany (many years ago) there was a restaurant outside Frankfurt where they specialized in game. Said they could get lion, elephant, etc., with a few days notice. One night we were there the special was crocodile - suppe or braten. One person who had the soup said it tasted like turtle soup.

That was also the night I saw next week's dinner come in the front door - a 15 foot long python, carried by five or six busboys! They were fattening him up out back, he was going to be on the menu next week, so make your reservations now!

One Sunday about ten of us drove to France for lunch at a restaurant that had one star in the Michelin Guide. Does that qualify me as a 'Foodie?'

So the lions, snakes, and hippos were farm raised local produce? Or came from a zoo? Were any of the entrees poached? Imagine a shoot your own elephant offering; would you get a 600 oz. or 1000 oz steak? Would the diner be awarded both ears and the tail, or just the tusks? Gator tail is good.
This recipe just in from Marlin Perkins' new Wild Tex-Mex cookbook:

Lion Green Chili
Ingredients:
1 pound ground lion
3 4oz cans of diced green chiles
1 6oz can diced tomatoes
1 6oz can jalapeno
dash creole seasoning
1 diced onion
1 clove garlic, crushed
tortillas

Brown meat in skillet with some EVOO
Add other ingredients and simmer
Eat with tortillas

You know its time to turn in whatever pretense you had to being a foodie when the thought of lion, elephant or other bush meats makes you seriously consider becoming a vegetarian. (Who by my reckoning can't be a foodie [apologise to Ms. Misha.])

You know you're a foodie if you spend lunch talking about where you'll have dinner?

But really...you're probably a foodie if you spend your afternoon commenting on a food blog.

I guess I should face the fact that non-foodies don't keep cookbooks in the bathroom, for a little light reading...

You know you're a foodie when you and your best foodie friend can be anywhere at all and discuss a dish in such graphic detail that you can "taste it in your mind" as we say.

Joyce W: I am ROFLMAO here. At first I was going to reply "eeww" until I remembered what a wise woman once told me: "Don't 'eeww' someone's 'ahhs'."

Robert the Single One... a vegetarian can't be a foodie? I'm confused. When did vegetables stop being food? After all vegetables are what (almost) everything else "up" the food chain eats.

I just figure there is a far more limited range for veg, unless you try to make them be fake food (can you spell tofurkey?) So what's to dream of?

[Thanks for jumping on the bait. Just trying liven things up, a bit.]

Hey, PianoRob - don't blame you! It is kind of ewww, but so symptomatic of Foodie illness!

No, Joyce, not Foodie illness, just a higher state of being...

Well Robert... yes I did take the bait. Personally I'm not totally vegetarian. But to offer this for veggie foodies to dream of:

roasted root vegetables nicely caramelized and accented with rosemary and thyme.
garlicky spinach.
grilled portabella mushrooms with creamy bleu cheese.

None of these are fake foods. I don't prescribe to that and find it rather repulsive. But vegetables are a delight whether they sit next to a finely roasted chicken or take center stage.

Misha the Veg, I will happily agree that a large plate of fresh asparagus and a silky smooth Hollandaise is hard to beat. It goes well with imperial crab stuffed rock, rack of lamb or prime rib.

Easter dinner at Jeannier's several years ago, a friend and I ordered 3 asparagus with Hollandaise to accompany the rack of lamb. After we cleared the not insignificant platter Chef had put our 3 orders on, we seriously considered ordering a fourth. Then the promise of the dessert tray convinced us moderation was the best course. (We were good and only ordered 2 desserts. No, not each.)

You know you are a foodie when: you plan a cross country trip (reverse course of the one you are on) around stops pertaining to food:
Bourbon, KY: Bourbon/pulled pork
Memphis, TN: Ribs
OK City, OK: Steak
Santa Fe: Tex Mex
Grand Canyon: Hot Dog over a fire
Flagstaff: Take out chinese (Hey, its a road trip!)
Vegas: Buffet, Baby!
L.A. Pizza on Venice beach boardwalk

Rob and Mather August, 2002

Robert... now tell me, isn't your mouth just watering for more asparagus?

Ms. Veg: I just wish I knew who was offering asparagus and Hollandaise. A lot of cooks in the kitchens, but few chefs.

I just made asparagus and Hollandaise yesterday since you certainly had my mouth watering.

Oh, my! I had forgotten just how good it was. Not quite as good as I remember Jeannier's to be, but lovely nonetheless. Thanks for the reminder!

Oh, and also, you know you're a foodie when you can linger for several moments over food porn like the picture above.

When you have a little book with information on restaurants you want to visit if you are in a given city. Name, address, phone number, best reviewed dishes. And you always have the book with you. My motto, be prepared.(are we still not using exclamation points?.....lol)