Passionate Eater lives …

… and She Invited Me to Brunch

This post isn’t so much about food as it is about the people behind the food.

When I first started this blog more than three years ago, one of the early people commenting on my posts was someone called Passionate Eater (I’m going to call her P.E. for short). She also penned her own blog of the same name, which I started to read regularly for the huge photos she’d post and the hilarious adventures in eating she would write about.

But if you’re a regular reader of P.E. as well, you’ll know that she hasn’t posted in nine months, and her last post is the self-flagellating one entitled “Bad Passionate Eater! Bad!” Like that post starts off, you might have wondered “Where in Satan’s name has she been?”

It happens to the best of us. I read several food blogs, and a few of them I follow pretty regularly. Then one day they stop posting and I wonder what happened? Did they get food poisoning? Did they get hacked? Did they move on?

In P.E.’s case, it was a simple case of life catching up with her. A new job, a longer commute, and a new home all added up to zero posts. But I’m here to tell you that she’s alive and doing well.

Recently she sent me an e-mail letting me know about a free food offer at a San Francisco restaurant. (She’s still trying to keep me in the loop.) And we got to talking and she invited me over to her new home in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood for Sunday brunch.

Joining us was our fellow food blogger friend Foodhoe. Rounding out the group was Foodhoe and P.E.’s husbands, and P.E.’s cousin Grace and her friend Arthur. It was a beautiful Sunday morning, and P.E.’s new home was a lovely setting for the gathering.

P.E. busted out her fancy waffle maker and her husband made up two stacks of whole wheat waffles and blueberry ones. Foodhoe, who had made some brown-sugar-coated bacon crisps, couldn’t resist making a waffle with her secret ingredient inside.

We munched on Prather Ranch sausages (my contribution) and yogurt with granola (from Grace), along with nibbles of cheese (thanks Foodhoe!) and a huge platter of fresh fruits. But as everyone ate around the table, I mostly laughed from listening to P.E.’s stories.

Even though she hasn’t written about food recently, you could tell she was still passionate about it. She would quiz us about our food adventures, living vicariously through our little food events or experiences dining out. We’d laugh about outrageous things we saw on the Web or new food trends we decided we’re going to start ourselves. (Grace, I still think you should start that vegetable-separating/squatting exercise class!)

Afterwards we just spent some time enjoying the amazing view from their home and walking around their lovely garden. It was great seeing P.E. and her husband happy and doing well, and it just reminded me that there are real people behind the food blogs you read. And at times, these real people might power down their laptops and return to their day-to-day demands.

No food blog is larger than life. And simply blogging isn’t the only thing a life makes. So if there’s a time that I may not be posting as often, or—God forbid!—at all, it’s not because I’ve given up on you, my readers, or on food. It’s just because I’m taking time to smell the coffee and enjoy, well, life.

Previous meals with the Passionate Eater:
When Bloggers Brunch