Food can be an art…in an artist’s hands.
Andrea Aliseda is an artist.
Andrea Aliseda, an SWC alumna, is on a quest to find great vegan food
Southwestern College alumna Aliseda said food can rise to the level of art or literature, even in the challenging niche of vegan cooking
Aliseda’s interest in culinary arts grew from her experience in the restaurant industry, she said, but it was her blog that stirred her passion.
Like a culinary Don Quixote, she is on a never-ending quest to find the perfect meal. She explores gastronomic mysteries with her Instagram blog Food Hound (@food_hound) as Jacques Cousteau explored the oceans or Carl Sagan explored the heavens.
“The blog really gave my passing interest new meaning,” she said. “It became a way to learn more about food, cooking techniques, flavors, culinary styles and different dishes. So I started to carve that path for myself by starting small and I taught myself to write about food.”
Aliseda also credits chef and author Anthony Bourdain and his unique punk rock ethos as one of her main influences.
“I always felt inspired after watching one of his shows,” she said. “He did it his way. He was unapologetically himself and he made it on his own terms, in his own style. He made genuine connections with people and their culture. Seeing that inspired me to continue going against the grain and keep searching for what makes me happy, to fight for it and work hard for it.”
Like Bourdain, Aliseda has become a wandering culinary traveling to different cultures through their cuisine. From the streets of her hometowns of San Diego and Tijuana to the restaurants of San Francisco, New Orleans and New York City, Aliseda has experienced some wild adventures for the sake of a good meal.
She said the Big Easy has been by far the most satisfying.
“The people of New Orleans have a cuisine and culture all their own,” she said. “It’s so rich, complex and full of life. There’s nothing in the world like it. It’s a medley that emerged out of African, French and Spanish cooking with warmth, spice, tons of green bell pepper and centuries of history before getting to your plate. That place is really special and I’m itching to go back.”
As far as the weirdest thing she has ever eaten, that distinction goes to hormigas chicatanas, giant winged ants native to Oaxaca, Mexico. Sometimes satisfying one’s curiosity is more important than sticking to a diet.
“I tried them last time I was at a Oaxacan open-air market and was feeling particularly brave,” she said. “The booth vendors egged me on and had me try all their insect offerings. The ants in particular had a really terrible flavor I don’t care to remember. But I ate them!”
Managing a blog can be even worse than eating dyspeptic ants, she confessed. Aliseda said she has had some sour moments trying to keep Food Hound up and running.
Immense stress and pressure to deliver entertaining content regularly are taught to manage, she said. Her main concern, though, is how her blog life seems to tower over her personal one and the difficulty finding the balance between sharing and over-sharing.
“There’s always this big decision of when to blog or not to blog,” she said. “We eat two, three or more times a day and it’s a really special event. You’re nourishing your body and performing a culturally significant ritual. You might be spending it alone, with a loved one, or friends but when you blog you are making a choice to deliberately ignore all that the moment you are sharing your meal, to snap a photo and post it on your social media. It takes a lot away from the authenticity of the experience, which is why I don’t post everything I eat.”
Fruit bowls are essential to the vegan diet, but canine friends are not.
Yet Aliseda said she is committed to serving a large portion of her time and energy to Food Hound and trying to make the best content she can.
“The blog is always on my mind,” she said. “Even when I’m not posting or actively engaging social media, I’m thinking about Food Hound. How can I make it better? What’s my goal? How can I organize myself more? What things should I do different? What works? What doesn’t?
‘Shit! I forgot my camera!’ Or, ‘Hold on guys, let me get a good shot!’ Should I change up my hash tags? It’s a full-time gig.”
Longtime friend Paula Johnson was there at the inception of Food Hound and has fond recollections of watching Aliseda working tirelessly in a Starbucks, writing for hours on end and fine-tuning the early stages of the blog.
“Andrea worked her ass off,” Johnson said. “The key to what makes Food Hound so special and different from other food blogs can’t be narrowed down to one thing. Andrea has taken on a huge challenge. She’s found her niche. This coupled with her talent for writing is a winning ‘recipe’ for Food Blog success. I am eager to see Food Hound grow and the places it will take one of my lifelong friends.”
Even the iconic spaghetti and meatballs can be transmogrified into a version sans animal-based products.
Food Hound has grown. Aliseda has worked to branch out into different platforms and recently created her own website called Eat Well or Dine Trying (www.eatwellordinetrying.com).
She said that she has started branding, organized photo shoots and has even started a YouTube channel (Food Hound) that comes with a whole new set of challenges.
“Filming is a beast all it’s own,” Aliseda said. “Being yourself in front of the camera in the public’s eye can be intimidating. Things like filming yourself inside of a restaurant, at a farmer’s market, going ‘live’ on Instagram, or even figuring out how to act on camera and how you want to present yourself and your style –these are all new challenges I’m facing right now. But it’s something I really want to hone and embrace. A big goal for me this year is tackling the YouTube world.”
Aliseda had relocated New York City and said she hopes to enroll in The Natural Gourmet Institute, a plant-based culinary school that emphasizes a health supportive culinary education. So far high tuition costs and other factors have prevented her from attending.
Despite this setback, Aliseda is more determined than ever to follow her dreams and is taking matters into her own hands by creating her own culinary curriculum and teaching herself the fundamentals of gastronomy.
“When I learned I couldn’t attend the Institute I felt sad,” she said. “But sometimes life has other plans, and you can’t allow yourself to wallow and sink. You have to pick yourself up and keep going forward. The journey may look different but different is sometimes better, it’s okay to allow life to surprise you, otherwise where’s the fun in it?”
One of the greatest challenges is translating other foods to the vegan language, such as this vegan Reuben sandwich that looks just like the real deal.
