Saveur 100 - My Favorite of All

The Saveur 100 for 2010 is quite possibly my favorite issue of Saveur ever. Back in July I read of the upcoming issue and the call for submissions from readers, something Saveur had not done when compiling past issues of the 100. I was immediately interested and thought I might send something in to them, but the realization of what exactly my 'favorite person, place or thing in the world of food' was halted me.

I've eaten foods that are pure bliss; been to restaurants I think everyone on the planet should visit at least once; shopped at article-worthy farmer's markets and shared ovens with some of the finest cooks and chefs ... and yet, the one thing that is my very favorite is Saveur itself.

Trite as it sounds (and no, I'm not kissing any literary tush here) Saveur is the one 'food world' thing I can't live without. As sad as I was at the passing of Gourmet (and I still am), if Saveur were to close its doors, I can gurantee there would be tears - and quite possibly gnashing of teeth and tearing of clothing.

Saveur takes me on culinary journeys that I can scarce afford. They sneak me off to obscure hole-in-the-wall spots for delights I'd never otherwise know of. They share the world of food with me in a way that deepens and cultivates my already unfathomable love for it.

This 100 issue, their 12th, is like no other. They have collected, from around the globe, others' food loves and compiled them into one bounteous and delicious magazine. I started reading - on the very first page, from cover to cover as always - and the dog-eared pages piled up. The double-dog eared pages were almost as bad (you know, when there's something on both sides of a page that you want to be sure and re-visit) and soon the whole magazine had a chunk missing from the corner and I knew I was in deep.

Double dog-eared deep.

While much of the food blogging world is pulling a Julie Powell and cooking up entire tomes of recipes in a year or less, I'm satisfied enough to fit as many 100s into my year or so as I can.

While many of the foods are ones I have already eaten or cooked, and while I will most likely never visit the E. Dehillerin Cookware Shop in Paris, or even the Glass Onion in Charleston, South Carolina, and though I may already have known how to properly crack an egg so as to avoid tiny shards of shell (I love you, Jacques Pépin, but my favorite professor taught me that!), I will be trying as many of the 100 foods, gadgets and tips printed within the pages of this Saveur - and I will share them with you - along with all of my other food aventures - one by glorious one.