We’re very pleased to introduce Emily Patrick as the new food writer for Mountain Xpress. You may have seen her byline on last week’s cover story, where she looked at the reasons why our community still doesn’t have an Ethiopian restaurant, despite its expressed desire for one.
Patrick earned her degree from the University of Georgia, and has written for both a daily newspaper (The Morgan County Citizen) and an alt-weekly (Flagpole). But that’s not why we’re so excited to have her. So far, she’s brought energy, skill and best of all, new and bright ideas. Our food section is a vital part of the paper each week, and she’s already both broken stories and wrestled big issues.
What has she learned in the position so far? “I have found that the city will work with me as I explore far-flung ideas,” Patrick says. “Even my most stubborn contacts have opened up eventually. There's an unstated rule, it seems, in Asheville, that community dialogue is always worth exploring. That feeling is very rewarding for a journalist, although it means my curiosity only expands the more I research.”
We asked her, too, to share some of her culinary favorites. Her list was too long to print here, but you can read more online.
“I like all foods, and I will eat most anything, but I am not particularly fond of scallops or filberts, although I usually like hazelnuts. … I like anything fermented, pickled or similarly preserved. Sometimes I eat wasabi peas for breakfast. I have no pets, but I do have two cast iron skillets, which grow if you feed them. One of my favorite smells comes from a tomato vine at the moment the tomato detaches. My neighbors have a fine collection of fennel plants that I like to shake as I walk past because there's nothing like that smell, either.”
You can reach Emily at 251-1333 x. 107, or at epatrick@mountainx.com. As always, send food news to food@mountainx.com.
Congratulations to Emily on the new position. There seems to be a lack of culinary background mentioned however? The comment regarding not liking filberts but liking hazelnuts is suspicious. While although filbert can refer to a species of hazel, that species is what we commonly know as a hazelnut. In fact if you journey into one store to buy hazelnuts it is typically the same product you’ll find in a store across town marketed as filberts. The term is widely used interchangeably for the same nut.
Is Emily on Twitter? Always fun to follow local writers that way.
Is Emily on Twitter? Always fun to follow local writers that way.