Baltimore's own Tapas Teatro has been selected for Cornell University's CROSS COUNTRY GOURMET SERIES with the "grand opening" November 15th. See dining.cornell.edu for more information.

If you can create an entire foodie menu in your head, doesn't that make you a closet foodie?

Foodie jobs: dentist, journalist, ambassador, plumber

Non-foodie jobs: lumberjack, reporter, motorcycle mechanic, Motel 8 desk clerk

That does it, Bucky. I'm not getting out the good coffee mug (the one with kittens on it) when you come to visit.

No prosciutto for you!

(Can I have a piece of your chicken fried steak?)

OK, Bucky. You had me until the table designs.

I know many "Foodies" with impressive Fiestaware collections.

\And my sister got grandmother's china & silverware.

For an important dinner (and, aren't they all important?), I use my Mikasa Black Opus. They are black (but you figured that) with a lovely calla lily design in pale lavender and white.

Unfortunately, the pattern was discontinued several years ago.

Hey, Pat Karzai? Don't give a damn and because you've been such a blatant shill, I'll be shunning Tapas Teatro.

As a democratic foodie (note the lower-case “d” in this context, though in my case the capital “D” word also applies), I have to say that Bucky’s chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy and peach cobbler sound darn good, too! (provided, of course, that the potatoes are real and hand mashed – I’m a total snob on the mashed potato question and have been since I was a very small child and refused to touch the boxed potatoes my mom tried to pass off as homemade on busy nights)

To my mind, being a foodie means being able to appreciate many kinds of foods for what they are. Maybe one difference is that a foodie appreciates the difference between something done well and something done less well, even when it’s not a “fancy” food, and a non-foodie doesn’t. Like when my dad praises how good a restaurant is by telling how large the servings are, not the quality of the food.

That and a broader palate, I think. My mom, who is a great cook and thinks she loves food but won’t eat game, or pate, or stinky cheeses, or certain (many) ethnic foods, among other things, has a tick against her on the foodie question.

Now, let the debate rage!

Baltimore's own Tapas Teatro has been selected for Cornell University's CROSS COUNTRY GOURMET SERIES with the "grand opening" November 15th. See dining.cornell.edu for more information.

That's pathetic. That has absolutely nothing to do with the topic and is suspiciously first, almost as if someone was watching for a new post and a prime place to put their free ad.

That's blog adverterrorism. Now the adverterrorists have won.

Bladverterrorism.

Hey Pat, do you think that you get Hamid to get me one of those cool hats he wears? Hey PETA-vegans, you know that hat that Hamid Karzai wears is made from aborted lamb fetus fur.

I thought tablescapes were made famous by Sandra Lee, a food network star that is normally looked down upon on this blog as being a "non foodie"

What the hell is that in the photo next to the chicken fried steak? I recognize the cornbread (which should be a biscuit) but that is definitely not mashed potatoes, corn, or fried okra (another acceptable vegetable for CFS).

A couple of things Buckingham ... what the hell is "branch". I hear it all the time, but what is it really supposed to be? No respectably pretensious foodie would order just a Manhattan, it would have to be something like a Maker's Mark Manhattan and even that was so three days ago. I think your foodie choices aren't foodie enough and your lumpen choices not lumpy enough. There's no Bud Light anywhere. In our fine polis you would never see a regular Joe order boubon and branch (water). The choices are Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller Lite or something similar for a man. For a woman it would be white zin, a lite beer or for a rocking night away from the double wide ... a white Russian.

Foodie: Demitasse of espresso

Unfair. There's no other way to serve it. Anyone ordering it that way would also ask for wine in a glass.

I used to play a game with a bartender (yo, Sparky!) where we would guess (okay many bartenders) what someone sitting in the restaurant would order for drinks even before they sat down. A little snobby psychological profiling.

Foodie: Vanilla bean cheesecake with orange sauce

I don't know Roebuck, your foodie selections are a little ordinary sometimes. Cheesecake is a little too substantial and plain orange sauce? Maybe blood orange sauce with Madagascar cardamom.

Port Reduction on Sea-Bass - NOT a foodie....

I hate to say this but your food and drink selections both foodie and non are a bit provincial, as in not East Coast, and a little dated. Some of your foodie selections wouldn't cut it here. Sea bass, port wine? Black cod would get a foodie's attention. Heirloom tomato gazpacho? Kind of plain. Where's the mango?

I thought Bucky was tweaking us by picking ridiculous stuff for the foodie food.

I agree that good chicken fried steak with real mashed potatoes, cornbread and okra would make this food snob very, very happy.

Beyond the vegetable medley thing on the plate, would someone please explain the small pitcher of what appears to be maple syrup? Is that double wide fancy (wouldn't use that big word gourmet) way to eat chicken fried steak?

What is Bucky's connection to Baltimore?

jonathan gilbert -- if I recall correctly, Bucky started coming to The Sun's website to read the Reality Check blog on reality TV shows. One day, he somehow stumbled off that blog and into the Sandbox, and the rest is -- umm, history?

Anonymous, I think it may be maple syrup. I remember visiting friends in Alabama years ago and they had a small pitcher of maple syrup at every meal. I'm really not sure what they put it on.

I think it's too late in the year for heirloom tomato gazpacho but the thought of it sure has me salivating! And I think Vanilla bean cheesecake with orange sauce sounds totally yummy! These are the types of things I would order in a restaurant, chicken fried steak, not so much. Not because I don't like it, just because it's like meatloaf - how often does one order that out?

If you're not bored of ratings, here's Chowhound founder Jim Leff's guide to rating restaurants.

Rosebud wrote: For an important dinner (and, aren't they all important?)...

...and captured the essence of a foodie in just nine words. Way to go, Rosie.

OMG asked: what the hell is "branch"...

Branch water. Differs from "water" in that it has no taste of its own, so it shouldn't be mineralized at all. (BG will probably explain this to you, but in the truest sense, it is the water that is used to make the bourbon you are drinking, so it has exactly the same taste found in the bourbon. But most often it just means very pure water.)

Rev Ed wrote: I hate to say this but your food and drink selections both foodie and non are a bit provincial...

As Rosebud captured the essence of "foodie," Rev Ed has captured the essence of "Bucky."

To everyone who questioned sea bass and port reduction, I think the port reduction went with the shiitakes. Not sure, to be honest. I (obviously) had to enlist help with the foodie menu. The chicken fried steak and peach cobbler I came up with on my own.

KristinB wrote: ...and a broader palate... That, in the end, is my definition of a foodie. I never take a culinary risk, so I'm not a foodie. But I don't think that foodies are necessarily pretentious, nor do I think non-foodies are "rubes," to borrow a term I saw over there on You Don't Say. (KristinB and I think alike about other things, too...The road goes on forever and the party never ends...)

Finally, I'm very regretful that Lissa is going to make me drink from a paper cup, whatever it is she was going to brew for me. Probably mead?

A foodie is someone who would criticize and change someone else's fake foodie menu.

A foodie is someone who would recoil in horror at the term "foodie" as being utterly unsophicated and without nuance.

I spent nearly two months thinking about what to contribute to Bourbon Girl's Thanksgiving. I created elaborate imaginary dishes in my head and made notes on scraps of paper. Since it's Thanksgiving and not Top Chef Thanksgiving all such ideas were discouraged. I think I'm relegated to mashing potatoes. Although I think I've been fired from that post since I said I've never made mashed potatoes and suggested various ways to improve them including roasted garlic. Maybe I'll post my imaginary recipes here. .

A foodie is someone who would plan a Thanksgiving dinner that purposefully avoided or perverted anything traditional.

Okay, now that I have my name back I have another question (the maple syrup is still a mystery.) Chicken fried steak: why? The breading can't add much and the steak has to be gray. Now I admit any steak beyond medium rare to too well done for me, but what can deep frying do that's good (taste wise?)

What is Bucky's connection to Baltimore?

We love him. That's his connection.

Ah, Bucky. You taunt me with the Robert Earl Keen reference. I didn't make it to his show in Annapolis last night. Alas!

Owl, how about something sort of non-traditional but not completely? Like pumpkin mousse? People usually veto changes to their TG staples (like mashed potatoes) but something additional and different is usually welcomed.

Bucky, I don't have any paper cups. They are not environmentally sound, ya know? You'll just get one of the non-favourite coffee mugs. I have a whole mess of them, from gluewine mugs to that horrible mug my mother made me with a picture of my dog on it.

What would I serve you? What would you like?

Don't you think this is a little harsh?

Rosebud wrote: For an important dinner (and, aren't they all important?)...

...and captured the essence of a foodie in just nine words. Way to go, Rosie.

Why, thank you, Buckster!

RtSO, a true chicken-fried steak is made from cheap, tough meat that has to have the heck pounded out of it to tenderize it. Like cube steak.

The breading and frying makes it look prettier and taste better (almost anything tastes better fried). The breading also serves as a medium for seasonings.

Rosebud, like any other group, foodies have members who take things way too far. Originally, a foodie was someone who paid attention to food and enjoyed it all, from hot fudge sundaes at the local custard joint to artisinal cheeses at the local farmer's market.

Now we have folks who can't eat out without taking pictures of every dish, blogging every bite and yelping the bejeezus out of every food stall and yuppie grazing place in the world.

KristinB's definition of a foodie is just perfect. Way to go, girl!

Thanks, Dottie!

I've been waiting for someone like the foodies in Rosebud's essay link to write in say that I'm clearly a simpleton with no taste.

Along the lines of the foodie/non-foodie debate,
here is something to read about. I daresay that this is NOT something that a foodie would be interested in purchasing. Hmm, maybe not a non-foodie either, come to think of it.

I DON'T LIKE SPAM!!!!

I DON'T LIKE SPAM!!!!

You could have eggs, eggs, eggs, spam, and eggs. That doesn't have much spam in it.