My name is Anthony Donovan.  That’s not my real name but Queen Latifah was already taken.   What I am is a comedian, writer, singer, graphic artist, pop culture nerd, podcast host, television producer, actor and lover of music, film, fellas and food.

What I am not is a cook.

I’m fortunate to know many great cooks.  One of the best of which is my roommate/partner in crime/BFF for nearly 2 decades, Aimee.   She cooks so I don’t have to.  Don’t get me wrong, I can follow directions on a box.  I can mac n’ cheeze with the best of ‘em.  I purposely spelled it that way lest you confuse that statement to mean I can assemble 4 different types of fromage and whip together a fabulous home-style comfort food dish.  Nope.  I’m talking strictly blue box here, folks.

While I can’t cook, I do love eating.   Anyone who has seen how much fabric it takes to cover my body can confirm this fact.  I also have the good fortune to live in one of the premiere cities for food, San Diego, California.   I have no statistics to back this up but you pretty much can’t tune to a single episode of any destination cooking show on the Food Network or Cooking Channel  without seeing my home on it.  By “home” I mean “City”.  Constantly seeing my actual house on the food network would be weird.

I have a hefty list of favorite places to eat in San Diego but there’s still a ton of places I haven’t tried.  I thought a great way to remedy this would be if I spent all of 2014 going to a new restaurant every week and sharing my experiences with you on this here blog.  I’m feeling pretty proud of myself for being the 1^st person in history to start a food blog but I don’t like to brag so I will instead humbly accept all the teary praise for my genius I imagine you’re shouting at your monitor right now.

My closest group of friends (affectionately referred to herein as “The Usual Suspects”) also love food and many have offered to join me in my quest to eat more of San Diego.  So I will also detail their experiences with the cuisine we try.  There is no order, rhyme or reason to how I eat at new places.  I’ll just decide at the top of each month which places look best and put out an offer for anyone in my circle who wants to come with.   The results should be fun.  And hopefully very tasty.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention (because, y’know, you’re timing me or some shit…)  I do have a reputation for being a bit of a picky eater.  I would like you to know, gentle reader, here and now that this is absolutely true.  I’ve been a pain in the ass ever since my Mom tried to get me to eat canned cranberry sauce which led to the hours-long stand-off now known as Cranberry gate ‘83.  I hate beans.  Not all beans.  Just anything that’s not green.   You’re likely shaking your head in disbelief having now realized that I just admitted to hating beans while living a stone’s throw from Mexico –the very PLACE where Mexican food was invented!  Yeah, I get that a lot.  I’m also not a fan of eggs.  I like scrambled eggs and quiche but eggs prepared any other way make me barf.  I’m also picky with seafood (btw, I grew up in New England, where seafood was invented).  I like lobster, shrimp and crab.  No scallops, clams, mussels, squid, uni, octopus, etc.  Basically if it’s been used as a monster in a Japanese movie from the 60’s, I have no interest in eating it.

But I love lots of other things and we’ll cover that as we get further into this blog.  For now, enjoy the ride!

-You got the check, right?…

Anthony