The Snob Foodie Part-1

A wise man once said, "There is no sincerer love than the love of food." And I have found no reason to suggest otherwise.

Shall I introduce myself? Well, I am an ordinary college going guy, and I am ordinary in every sense of the word. Neither do I have a dazzling personality nor any significant quality that would make me stand apart from the crowd. Nevertheless, I have some passions with which I strongly identify myself. The "About me" section of all my social media accounts look pretty much the same, which says, "Theatre artist and crazy food lover. Acting is my passion and food? Well, food is my life."

I know this isn't much poetic or creative, unlike the millions of social media accounts which poetically and often elusively ponder on the meaning of life. But it never bothers me to sound mystic or poetic and thus I never take the trouble of Googling deep, philosophical quotes to update my "About me" section.

I don't have any extravagant bucket-list that includes paragliding or world tour, but I want to taste the cuisine of every country, I want to experience fine dining and exotic food, I want to enjoy the finer things of life which are like the sweety, tangy, bitter and sour flavours of the regional food or the cosmopolitan mix of modern food. Maybe, this is my bucket-list. But coming from a middle class background, all my pocket has ever allowed me is street food and a few visit to KFC and other food joints. Though my meager allowance doesn't allow me to indulge in exotic dining experience but internet never fails to satiate my eyes. I am specially indebted to that artistic app "Instagram" where the numerous food bloggers regale me with the photos of most exquisite and exotic dishes. It seems that every food blogger have their own specialty, some of them regale us with mouth-watering photos of street food while others give us the glimpse of fine dining restaurants. When it comes to good food, I never discriminate and follow numerous food bloggers specializing in different varieties of food pictures. Though I never discriminate between them and like all their posts, but I do have a favourite and I admit being a little partial towards my favourite food blogger.

So, the Instagram handle of my favourite food blogger is "the_snob_foodie." Apparently, the blogger is a woman named Alice Leroy and she is half-Indian and half-French. Presently she is posted in India and her blog specializes in photos of exotic dishes and fine dining experience. She also gives her review on various posh restaurants and dining experiences of five star hotels. Since she has a formidable 2 million followers, her reviews can either make or break even the most established and reputed restaurants. She is undoubtedly the food connoisseur and I absolutely adore her. I cannot really justify my adoration for her because there are thousands of similar food bloggers on Instagram with double followers than her. Maybe I am drawn to her half-Indian and half-exotic upbringing, her faraway culture and the aura of mystery that surrounds her for she never posts her own pictures. Whatever the reason might be, I always find myself stalking her account and scrolling through her posts over and over again. But the most fascinating feature of her account that I am particularly drawn to is a contest that she conducts for her followers twice a month. For participating in the contest the interested follower has to answer a few questions posted by her and she chooses the winner through a lucky draw process. The winner gets to enjoy a fine dining experience with the food connoisseur herself in one of the finest restaurant, but the condition is that the winner has to pay for both of them. Therefore, I never participated in the contest for I was fully aware that I cannot afford the fine dining experience. Once again dreams bowed down to reality.

Other than food, I am also passionate about acting. And as my social media accounts indicate, I happen to be a theatre artist though not an illustrious one. Though I don't have many achievements to boast off but that never deters me from participating in various acting competitions. As it happened to be, it was the time of our annual college fest and I participated in the drama contest. Unexpectedly, I got selected in the college drama team and competed against various colleges in the final round. I was really impressed with our team's performance and was expecting first prize. But I was not granted my wish and did not win the first prize which was 40,000 bucks. I was utterly disappointed because we have put our heart to our performance and still we were not acknowledged and also because the prize money was lucrative enough. As I was wallowing in self-pity, I did not follow the later announcements and thus I did not realize that we had won the second prize. It was after my team mates dragged me to their celebratory dance that I realized we had won the second prize of 24,000 bucks which was to be divided among the three team members. And that night neither our celebration stopped nor the smile on my face.

Two days later while scrolling through Instagram I saw the post that made my already elated heart beat faster with excitement. It was posted by "the_snob_foodie" asking a few questions related to fine dining and exotic food and wine, answering them correctly can give the lucky winner the chance to enjoy a fine dining experience with the food connoisseur herself. I quickly Googled the answers, thankfully they were easily available and I didn't have to open numerous sites to find the answer. Without wasting any time I answered all the questions in the comment section. The contest which was denied to me for so long due to my empty pocket was finally open to me and I fervently prayed to God to make me the winner. Though I had promised myself that I won't touch my prize money until I win this contest but I was racked with nervousness. "What if I never get the chance to meet her?", such annoying thoughts frequently buzzed around my mind, and sometimes they refused to go. Winning this contest will be a dream come true for me as it would bring a sort of validation to my hitherto insignificant existence. And also because I wanted to meet her.

 Thus, with bated breath, I waited for the result to be announced.

  

                                                                                                                          .....To be continued