Hello everyone! I am incredibly excited to meet you all. My name is Alex. I like to eat.
As someone who has been reading The Impulsive Buy for years and has spent much time in grocery store aisles using the reviews to decide if I should buy the newest Pop-Tarts flavor, I take my responsibility to you all seriously. I will do my best to never steer you wrong. As my training in my first retail job at 18 taught me, the way to build trust is to share knowledge. Kind of an intense business lesson to throw at a teen folding shirts, but anyways, here’s some things to know about me:
I grew up just outside of Boston, raised by a family of food lovers to have a healthy respect and equal appreciation for both Michelin-starred fine dining and gas station tuna sandwiches. I will eat anything and want to try everything. At the cafeteria table in elementary school, there was never a need for a dare or bribery to get me to try concoctions like leftover mashed potatoes and orange soda my friend mixed on their tray with a spork.
Now that I live in Southern California, I am particularly aware of and value the foods of my youth that I was surprised to learn don’t exist here: Fluff, split-top hot dog buns, “kiddie” servings of ice cream that would fill the Stanley Cup (now that I think about it, watching hockey doesn’t really exist here either). That awareness not only strengthened my resolve to try the weirdest, most interesting, or most culturally unique items on menus or in stores but made me more passionate about the foods that one can get in every state, foods we all eat across the country.
I hope to share this love and curiosity for food with you all and will always welcome your thoughts and insight in the comment section. I will also definitely welcome any pairing recommendations for any food I review; I am from the land of innovation, where someone figured out marshmallow and peanut butter belong together, after all.
Welcome Alex!
Thank you! Happy to be here 🙂
Welcome, welcome, welcome! Looking forward to year of reviews from you. And thanks for today’s review warning against Sprite’s new holiday cranberry diet offering–
I appreciate that, thanks Mike!
Howdy Alex, glad to see you join the team! I currently live outside the Boston area, and have been happy, over the years, to see the growth and availability of more ethnic and exotic food alternatives. Still got a way to go, but we’re getting there! Glad to hear of your willingness to try new and bizarre food fusions. In a world where everyone is trying to come up with the latest food craze or trend, there are many opportunities for unusual new foods.
Hi Kihm, thanks! I’ve also been happy to see Boston-area food offerings becoming more diverse whenever I go back, though I’ll admit my trips home are often spent satisfying cravings for very local dishes (so much Greek pizza), and I haven’t had a chance to sample many of the new restaurants. I love hearing about all the new-to-them dishes my parents have gotten to try, though!
A big welcome to our latest new reviewer here! I think you’ll really enjoy this community (it sounds like you already have been, but now you also get to enjoy it as a hot-shot reviewer. 😉 )
Thank you, Tamme! I’ll be sure to add “hot-shot reviewer” to my resume. ? (Though after a lifetime of self-deprecation I want to say I’m luke-warm at best.)
See, I hyphenated lukewarm by mistake and my emoji turned into a question mark; lukewarm-shot!