Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Bring It!

I just got back from my one month long honeymoon from Europe!

During my time there, I attempted to taste all of Europe so that I could report back to my amazing-incredible (not just amazing, and not just incredible, but "amazing-incredible"--with the hyphen) readers with all of my findings. Well, I also ate like a beast for myself too. But mostly for you. Really!

But I have some really disappointing news that actually took me a few days to digest. When we returned home, we were in the process of uploading all of our pictures onto the computer, when a serious mistake of astronomical proportions occurred, resulting in the permanent deletion of 90% of our honeymoon pictures. It has to do with moving files through the command prompt using an Apple.

Trust me, it took me a full week before I could talk about this like an adult. For the first couple of days, the only thing I could say was repeated expletives. Yea, those dirty words shot out of my surly mouth like a AK-47.

Unfortunately, after countless visits with the tech support at Fry's and hundreds of dollars spent of freakin' useless "recovery software" purchased online, we discovered that we pretty much lost those photos for good. And the pictures included our multiple visits to Berthillion in Paris, France (the best ice cream in the world), Nico in Venice, Italy (the best gelato in that region of Italy). Oh yes, and pictures of us, the honeymooning couple. (For a food blogger, you know I was just a tad more devastated by the loss of those food pictures though. Shh, don't tell the beau!)

However, the limitations of modern technology will not get this food blogger down! No!

This is my new goal. To blog my attempt to try and recreate my most memorable meals and snacks in Europe with recipes. Yes, the pictures were deleted, irretrieveably. But the memories? Still in my head. And I can still use this to my advantage. I don't want to just say, "I had the best paella ever in Barcelona," or "I loved the pizza and pasta in Florence and Rome," but I want to say something like, "Paris was the start of my love affair with excellent coq au vin."

So I am turning this horrific nightmare into something good. Just to give you a roadmap: for the future, I will be blogging about my experiences with (1) Swiss, (2) Italian, (3) Spanish, (4) French, and (5) English cuisine. I know, that is a lot of places, but it was a one month honeymoon, and we exhausted our life savings for that trip. (Oh, and as a side note, upon our return to the U.S., we discovered that the remainder of our life savings in our 401(K) had also been "exhausted," or apparently eliminated.) But thankfully, since I backed up the pictures from Zurich, there will be a few more Zurich posts.

Welcome back to Passionate Eater folks, you will be seeing me more often now!

12 comments:

  1. Welcome back PE! Oh my, that is a food blogger/honeymooners' nightmare with the uploading. But you sound like you've turned it around and will soon be delivering amazing-fantastic European limonata out of those lemons life has thrown at you (or would apples be more of an appropriate symbol?). Anywho, I can't wait to read your descriptions, photos or not!

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  2. Oh no! That's awful. I'd be pretty devastated to have all those photos gone too. You've got the right spirit. And welcome back!

    My verification word is "moodip." How apropos!

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  3. Oh no!! That's terrible. My hard drive crashed year and I was also crazed and upset for a few weeks.. but I can't wait to see your new recipes, photos, food.

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  4. I am so sorry! What a rotten thing to happen. Poof!...then gone. Yes, I would have had a few choice words to say, too! But what can you do?
    I have to go to London (for a work conference) this Friday, can I re-snap any favourite places for you? Can do, if you like.
    I am still upset I didn't get to meet you and your husband. I only was feeling better the day I had to go back to work on the Tuesday. I am such a good employee, I was mostly ill during my days off!
    But at least we talked to each other, and I enjoyed that.
    I think recreating the experience through your blog is a very good idea.
    I will have to send you a jar of Marmite! Cheers!

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  5. ACK! EEK! You are a much better person than I for turning something so horrendous into something so positive! Welcome back to the States and to Cali ~ so jealous that you and your husband honeymooned in Europe for a month!!! How ROMANTIC! :) Can't wait to hear more about your European adventures!

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  6. Oh no...... that's terrible! I'm glad you're back safe and sound, but all those lovely photos. As always PE, you manage to turn such a thing into a positive and move forward. It's one of those traits I admire about you.

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  7. How absolutely devastating.
    I'm saying a few choice words for you in my head :)

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  8. awww that really sucks the big one PE. There must be a dark pall in the world, I have been having lots of negatives thrown in my path as well! But I admire the way you weave straw into gold and look forward to you recreating those dishes.

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  9. Thank you all for being so supportive! I greatly appreciate your kind words Chef Ben, Wandering Chopsticks, Joan H, BoLA, Kirk K, Rachel, and Food Hoe. I promise to post what I can, and get to cooking for all of you!

    And Melinda, you truly are a gift from heaven! I loved talking to you, and will have to visit London again (just for you, not the pictures)!

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  10. welcome back PE! Am totally sorry to hear the bummer news about photos ~ that is very good of you to post about it in words. I agree with you; perhaps my vocab would not be very *nice* upon discovering what happened/yikes! yet also agree with you about taking the high road with your food lover's taste memories.....all is possible! I think that will be a great way to post and am so looking forward to it. welcome back + best to you both ;-)

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  11. Gosh it's been too long! Congratulations and welcome back! That really sucks about those photos :( but you'll always have the memories. :)

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  12. Haha, thanks for your fun and encouraging words Taste Memory and Amy! I am glad to be back!

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