Food is a love language, and I mean that literally

Why I care this much about food

I've worked retail, I've been a cannabis salesperson, I've cut meat for a living, I've worked a fish counter, and I owned and ran a gluten-free vegan bakery that specialized in allergy-friendly food. That's not a resume flex, it's context. I have stood on basically every side of the food industry there is. Every one of those jobs taught me the same thing: feeding someone well is an act of care that most people underrate. People underrate it because it only becomes visible when it's missing. A correctly built hotdog isn't a small thing to me. It's the same instinct that made me spend years making sure someone with a severe allergy could still have a birthday cake. Food either says "I thought about what you need" or it doesn't. I've spent a career and a personality noticing the difference.

It also lines up with how my brain works. I'm autistic and ADHD, and both of those show up at the table. There are specific textures and combinations that work for me and ones that really don't. I hyperfocus on getting a dish exactly right, not approximately right. And I have absolutely gone down a research rabbit hole about fiber intake or fermentation or knife technique the same way I'd go down one about a new Python library. Food is a special interest with the fortunate side effect of also being dinner.

The unreasonably specific part, expanded

The full field guide, hotdog construction and pizza opinions included, lives on the Love page's "Feed me" section. I'm not duplicating it here. Short version for anyone who hasn't read it: the hotdog is mayo, relish, hot sauce, onions, and some ketchup, non-negotiable; pizza can have pineapple but nothing else from the fruit aisle; the comfort tier is alfredo, tacos, and a good steak; the green stuff (Brussels sprouts, asparagus, green smoothies) is sincerely loved and never eaten as penance; and Monster runs my afternoons in an order I will defend to anyone who asks: Ultra White, then Gold, then OG Sugar Free.

What doesn't fit on that page is the sheer volume of it. I don't taste something good and think "that was nice." I think about it for days. I photograph it. I tell people about it unprompted, and apparently, based on the gallery below, I document an enormous amount of what I eat. That's not me trying to be a food influencer. It's the same completionist, catalog-everything instinct that built a 90-artist music showcase and a strain-by-strain cannabis log elsewhere on this site. I don't do "a little bit interested" in anything, and I never have. Food just happens to be one of the categories that gets the hyperfocus treatment.

Eleven years of Google Local Guide receipts

This part is real, not exaggerated for the page. I've been a Google Local Guide for eleven years, mostly reviewing and photographing food and the places that serve it. These numbers come straight off my own profile. I did not round anything up for effect.

Eight million views on my contributions isn't a typo! Apparently a decade of "actually, here's what the portion size really looks like" photos adds up.

The gallery

Every one of these is something I ate, made, or photographed because it earned the photo. No staged food-blog lighting. Just an honest record of what's been on my plate.