we live to eat

Fifine was a frank gourmand; anybody could win her heart through her palate.” — Charlotte Brontë, Villette

We are Eli Weissman and Schatzi Birnbaum, two Portlanders (Portlandites? Portlandinians?) who live to eat. That means we really, really, really like to eat, and we also really, really, really enjoy both cooking in and eating out, and discussing food. So here are our recipes, restaurant and product reviews, commentaries, and musings on food, drink, cooking, and eating.

Gourmand is from French gourmand, greedy.

Usage note: A gourmet is one who has discriminating taste in food and wine. A gourmand is one who enjoys food of fine quality, and also one who enjoys food in great quantities. Glutton signifies one who simply eats to excess, without reference to the quality of the fare consumed.

enjoying his first ever elephant ear

The Professional: Eli was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, moving to the Pacific Northwest toward the end of his high school career. Since then, he has cooked in Seattle, Spokane, and Portland, where he is currently the sous chef at Sanborn’s. Besides cooking and eating, Eli enjoys collecting sneakers, skating, MUDding, the colors lime and tangerine, listening to and making music, and playing with his Blackberry.

devouring kalua pig in Vegas

The Dilletante: Schatzi hails from the island of O’ahu, relocating to Portland in her late teens. She has since done time as a classicist at a tiny liberal arts college in Eastern Iowa and also at U of O, before settling upon a History major at PSU here in PDX. Schatzi has a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad job in Outer SE at the lol-iday inn. She spends entirely too much time reading late nineteenth and early twentieth century children’s literature, Emile Zola, and roman noir, which can distract her from her blog posting duties.

They live together in a cozy bungalow apartment in Mount Scott, together with their cats Kitty Girl and Lou.

“There is no love sincerer than the love of food.” –George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman