This is a blog about consumption.
Consumption, trivialized and degraded in our culture's recent history, deserves a little more respect. After all, didn't life define itself the first time one thing intentionally consumed another? It's our first satisfaction, and although our taste for the things we consume is the product of craving what's best for us to live, it's also far more than functional or just the satisfaction of a need. Beer, wine and tea (things we now relegate to luxuries) all owe their invention to the necessity of purifying water, yet they've become much much more than that. Over thousands of years we've pushed the experience of consumption to the limits of our senses and now live in a very privileged age. The march of technology has shrunk our world to make Chuao cocoa beans and Szechuan peppercorns as accessible as a local tomato, and not just available, but reasonably affordable - we can all experience the great pleasures of being alive no matter our income.
Well that's enough philosophizing, after all, eating and drinking at it's best is a simple satisfying pleasure and not a religion. This blog is devoted to those pleasures whether they be cooking, wine, booze, tea, beer, or dining. Articles and reviews might have a bit of a Portland bias, but that's purely a consequence of where I happen to live.
I dedicate this blog to my family - a small tribe of dedicated hedonists without which I may have never developed a taste for the simple pleasures of life - to my mother and uncle who fed me tofu and sushi with modest means - and with special affection to my grandfather, our late patriarch, who lived outside of his means to always provide the finest t-bones, figs, and Dom Perignon. I raise a spirited glass of endless gratitude to the three of you.
Tim Don (an alias and alter ego based on my middle name and homage to my grandfather)
