And so it begins

Hello, all.
Thanks to Clotilde Dussoulier of Chocolate and Zucchini, I'm starting a food blog!
I've been thinking about it for a while, actually. It started in right before freshman year, but food.
When I was younger, I was the world's pickiest eater-- only ate cheese tortellini, McDonalds, and fried rice. Then my eating habits took a dramatic turn in highschool, and food started to (literally) consume my thoughts in a way that I found pretty obsessive.
It began as a health food/ vegetarian regime, but it's evolved into so much more than that. Becoming a vegetarian forced me to put vegetables I otherwise wouldn't have eaten (i.e. eggplant, zucchini, raw tomatoes, mushrooms, you get idea) front and center on the plate. Now there isn't a single vegetable I dislike. Eventually I added seafood to my diet (Never really ate fish before either). If I decide to eat meat again, I really will have conquered my pickiness.
Okay, sorry about the boring background info. You probably don't really care.
But maybe you want to know why I love food? You probably feel the same way.... what actually fascinates me the most is ethnic food-- obviously ingredients and produce vary in different areas, but still, in all countries there are foods we have in common-- and yet we evolved such different culinary traditions. Cheese, raw or cooked meat and fish, eating fruits in savory dishes or vice-versa... It's these combinations that I find the coolest, and what give way to fusion cuisine and more recent molecular gastronomy. People aren't sticking to traditions anymore-- It's not about the cuisine of one country (unless you feel like it), but can also just be about what tastes good to you, regardless of how unorthodox the combination is. For example, I have a friend who makes a sandwich with both crunchy and creamy peanut butter, cinnamon sugar, honey, and... lettuce. But who says that can't be good?
Okay, let's call this an "intro post." I've been in Paris for the past month on an academic program called Oxbridge, and just arrived in China. I kept a food journal and took lots of photos while I was there, so I'm going to condense my best food experiences into one long entry.
A bien tot,
Lida