A new blog

This blog is not my only one; I have been blogging for a few years. But it is my first attempt at a blog that is not a political one, and because I don't want my political blog posts to influence people's opinions on what I post here, I'm trying very hard to keep my blogs separate, and I don't link to one from the other. You are invited to comment on my posts here, but comments need to be relevant; if you post a comment that appears to be spam (in the Internet sense! A post about SPAM, the meat product, would actually be relevant here!) it will be deleted.

I call this blog "The Individualistic Gourmet" because I am sort of a gourmet in that I have strong likes and dislikes in food, but my tastes differ from what other self-proclaimed gourmets have decided are received dogma.

Beef, for example, is supposed to be served rare; I insist on it being well-done, and I remember a trip I made to France (and other countries) many years ago when I had to argue with a French chef that the meat had to be cooked more. I do not believe I should eat blood.

I also prefer sweeter wines than gourmets are supposed to prefer; of course, this means I would rather drink the German whites (which tend to be both sweeter and lower in alcohol than other European countries' wines) than most others.

And there are a few things I despise: For example, mustard (so don't give me even a supposedly "gourmet" mustard like "Grey Poupon.")

As this blog continues, my other likes and dislikes will become obvious. If you have specific questions, you can pose them as comments to this posting or to others where they might be relevant.