Focus on local food blogger Eat Buford Highway

Dave Jones was raised in Florida and South Carolina, so he grew up knowing more about Southern barbeque than Asian noodles. Jones is a self taught cook who writes an informative and often funny blog, Eat Buford Highway. While it focuses on Asian food, it covers whatever Dave is eating or cooking. I read the blog regularly, so we had dinner to talk about it.

How did you get interested in food? “Initially it was just these individual experiences: a taste of a great Hungarian sausage, stumbling into a good Portuguese restaurant in Boston. But eventually things began to come together. Now when I travel, I’m always on the lookout for food.”

What made you start the blog? “The simple answer is I like food. But I think it’s because food is a social thing, is best shared. When I eat at a restaurant with another person, I seldom write about it. The conversation with that person is the more important. I tend to blog about food I eat and prepare alone.”

How did you come up with the name of the blog? “Unlike Chicago or Boston or New York, we don’t have a China Town or distinct blocks where a single cuisine is found. We have Buford Highway where the cuisines, particularly Asian and Hispanic, are kind of smeared down a single street. But I’m not sure how I came up with the name. It was late night brainstorming.”

What’s your favorite food? “Whatever I’m hungry for. Honestly, if you love food, that’s impossible to answer.”

What do you find most challenging about the blog? “Steve Martin said that ‘talking about music is like dancing about architecture.’ I think there’s an analogy to writing about food. It’s an experience and that’s pretty tough to explain with words.” Explaining one of the best meals he ever ate, “it was this little basement dive in Hong Kong. I ordered roast goose. There were jackhammers fixing the street outside. It was noisy and dust was coming into the restaurant, but as soon as I tasted the goose, none of that mattered. It was so good that everything else stopped for me. But how do you describe that? We try, but we can’t really explain taste.”

What’s your approach to the blog? “I don’t take myself too seriously. And I like to use recipes that I can be loose with. Unless you’re making pastry, you can usually play with amounts or substitute ingredients for whatever is fresh or available.” It’s clear that Dave thinks it’s important to talk about the small, quality restaurants that serve authentic cuisines. “If no one knows about them, they die.”

Here’s to keeping global cuisine in Atlanta alive!

Make sure to read Eat Buford Highway. For more on our meal together, see Chinese food at Man Chun Hong.