A bit about moi

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Hello, my name is Jessie.

I’m an average food lover writing and taking pictures for the average food lover.

I wasn’t always into food. In fact, my idea of going out to eat up until college was going to TGIFridays or Ruby Tuesdays. But then I attended NYU and realized all that I was missing out on.

Savory-bites is a compilation of my adventures in the kitchen, in the dining room, and food photographs from my travels.

If I’m making you hungry, then I’ve achieved my objective.

Food became a sort of therapy and one of my favorite forms of socializing. After all, you can only go bowling or watch a movie so many times, but you can go out to eat (or cook!) everyday. And so that’s how this blog started. After a full year at NYU, I accumulated 80 restaurants on my restaurant spreadsheet, even with a mealplan, and decided to make everything- my reviews and photos- accessible with the click of a button.

I don’t consider myself well versed in the food world; I started cooking about a year ago and have had many baking disasters (probably due to my 25 year old oven). I’m pretty bad at baking, but I do try. I never considered baking from scratch until a couple of years ago. For years, Amy and I have baked, and whenever I baked with her the success rate was always higher. This was our attempt at Magnolia Cupcakes. It went well, except for maybe the frosting.

I wish I could call myself a food critic, but I lack the writing skills that captivate tastebuds. You’ll find that my early posts are devoid of any details helpful to anyone seeking a critical restaurant review. I’ve improved in my recent posts as well as added more and better pictures, but I still have a long way to go before I become even remotely close to a food critic.

I love to eat almost everything, so let’s talk about what I don’t like to eat. Well to start, I generally stay away from shell fish (although at times I’ll take a little nibble here and there) but the one absolute thing that I refuse to eat is soup! I don’t understand why I’m the only one freaked out by the concept of drinking something that’s meant to be eaten. Oh, and I love Ketchup. I can go through gallons of that each year.

Where did London and Sydney come from??

You’ll find that I’ve dedicated a good part of this blog to three cities very near and dear to my heart- New York City, London, and Sydney. I studied abroad in London and Sydney for a semester each and took the time to scout the restaurants there. Unfortunately, since I’ve returned, you won’t find many updates in those sections.

London was great because it enabled me to travel all around. It also introduced me to the experience of coffee. The first time I entered into Costa and watched the baristas make coffee was invigorating. That led me to seek similar experiences in Australia and New York City. Traveling around France, Italy, Belgium, and the UK wasn’t too bad either!

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But I have to admit, I loved Australia way more. Their coffee is actually comparable to the Italians, so I jumped on any chance to grab a cupa there. My experience there wasn’t really defined by food- it was more of the adventures and traveling. Living 7 minutes away from the beach was an additional plus. There’s nothing like waking up and going for a run along the shore. It makes you really appreciate natural beauty.The food definitely complemented the journey though.

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After coming back home, I started really exploring the food around me. If it’s possible, I actually developed a really huge liking to pizza. You can’t go wrong with melted cheese. Around this time, I also started expanding the blog outside of Manhattan and into Brooklyn and New Jersey. I still have many places to chronicle from those locations.

I have to take this time to thank some of my friends. Sabrina, in particular, for her persevering stomach but as she’s trekked out into the real world, I’d like to thank everyone who’s been in my pictures as well as these guys below…