A day of food on Twitter

Twitter blues

I had been on Twitter 2 weeks and it wasn't making sense.

I'mneverfull signed me up -- before she told me she was going to do it. Then she came to my office to train me. She also gave me a list of foodies to follow on Twitter.

I tried hard to understand Twitter, but didn't. Messages are barely in English. They fly onto the screen without context. Plus Twitter doesn't give you enough space in a message to develop an idea with any depth.

I kept wondering, "Who are these people talking to?" "What are they saying?" "What are these abbreviations?"

Twitter was no fun.

Finally, a good day of Twittering

By noon today, I finished my work and thought I might Twitter just one more time - to see if anything useful might come of it.

11:50 cleverleysWolfgang Puck on Cleverley at Noon. CNN650 Radio News. Houston. Stream: http://www.CNN650.com

I like Cleverly. I like Puck. So I listened online. I learned about Puck's Dallas restaurant and why foie gras is cruel.

12:00 FoodPrincess Stopped @RainDrop Chocolate, watching them make truffles.

12:02 FoodPrincessRainDrop Chocolate closing on April 26.

1:15 tastybitz Best gelateria in Houston is closing. Frack.

I hadn't heard of Rain Drop Chocolate, but was sad to hear they are closing. So after Cleverly finished with Puck, I decided to drop by.

The chocolate truffles are remarkable. I tried the chipoltle chocolate flavor and saved the other two -- a malt and a dark chocolate -- for the family.

1:15 pinksnapper TWO UGLY BUT TASTY TWINS: whole monkfish & skate(ray) FYI mudbugs are como que rico y gordos! come see me at Airline Sfd.

Skate -- I love its crab-like flavor and sharklike texture. I had wanted to cook it. So I headed over to Airline Road, forgetting that Airline Seafood, despite its name, is on Richmond. More driving.

As it turns out, "pinksnapper" is Mark Musatto, the proprietor at Airline Seafood. Mark took me to the back to show me the ray and the big ugly monkfish -- a prehistoric fish that even has little feet. I didn't know that.

I bought some skate wings. And as I looked over Mark's list of fresh fish, I wondered why I had been buying seafood anywhere else.

2:15 WholeFoodsHOU Robb Walsh is now at our Kirby store. Come meet the man behind Houston Press food blog!!!

2:30 imneverfull http://twitpic.com/2ts9f - @robbwalsh is shucking oysters

4:00 imneverfull @robbwalsh's silly beard is left over from a jesus christ costume

I rushed over to Whole Foods, fought tooth and nail for a parking space, and ran in to see Robb.

There he was, standing behind some raw oysters, in his Jesus beard, thick glasses, and hat. Robb looked much sillier than Jesus.

Whenever I meet people I have idolized for years, I can't think of anything smart to say. I told him that I had a blog and that I'm a huge fan. He said he reads my blog.

Unlike me, Robb wasn't at a loss for words:

Then Robb Walsh, my favorite food writer in the U.S., shucked an oyster for me!

3:15 she_eats I'm in Baytown. And frightened. It's very dirty here.

3:20 she_eats This must be what the end of the world looks like.

I wasn't going to Baytown to confirm this. But I remembered how much I miss she_eats' hour-by-hour chronicles of her weekends on her blog. Perhaps I should try an hour-by-hour blog post, in her honor. Maybe tonight.

So I finally, I put down my twiterberry and cooked broiled skate wings with a red wine reduction on mashed potatoes.

In just 4 hours, I had tried some of the best chocolate in Houston, met Robb Walsh, examined a monkfish up close, watched a guy filet a skate in the backroom of a fish market, and chatted with friends in a strange new language.

None of this would have happened without Twitter.