“And thus Caesar’s salad was struck down by 23 daggers, all laced with the foulest of poisons – Ketchup.”

— Me (just now)

About The Site

An enjoyment of food has been at the forefront of my life for as long as I can remember. Almost as important to me is having a catalog of meals to look back upon in later life. The hope is that the pictures and experiences documented within can serve as a touchstone to remember my youth and to observe how I have changed as I’ve aged.

These posts originally would mostly be short notes shared amongst my friends, but I often wondered if I could start sharing with a wider audience. This blog aims to be my answer to that.

Each post in this blog documents an individual experience surrounding a meal that I have had, be it a frozen TV dinner, a homemade breakfast burrito, a tasting menu at a Michelin star restaurant, or anything in between. The post will contain a brief review of the meal, a rating following the guide below, and a more lengthy discussion of the meal’s circumstances.

The Rating Guide

The ratings on this blog are mostly nonsensical, as I like food too much to be objective on any particular dish (if a sense of objectivity is even humanly possible). With this in mind let me unveil the world’s greatest rating schema!

General Format

Each and every rating will appear in the format [score] [emoji] [+/-]. See below for the breakdown of each part.

[score]

ScoreMeaning
DeathI should not have eaten this. I think I might die.
BadIt certainly is edible.
OkIt was fine but not something I would crave.
GoodIt was something I enjoyed eating.
GreatIt was superb, and I wish I could have more.
PeakDoes there exist anything better in the cosmos?

[emoji]

The accompanying emoji to each rating will convey – as is the point of emojis – my principal emotion during this meal. Use your best judgement when decoding the riddles within.

[+/-]

Ratings need to be context aware. You can’t say that a 15 course meal from a fancy restaurant on your birthday is somehow better or worse than a home cooked stew your parents make you when you are sick.

Well you could, I suppose, but you would also be wrong.

With this in mind, each of the ratings will be appended by a + or a -. This will answer the question of

“Given the context, was this meal something that was ‘worth it’?”

for whatever definition of ‘worth it’ makes sense.

Examples

Example Rating
Possible Scenario
Death 🙏 +I found some berries on the side of a mountain while starving. They saved me from malnourishment but they tasted like poison.
Great 💸 -The meal was fantastic, but it cost way too much money
Ok 😑 +The average meal. It was fine and I would eat it again