I am going to lead a session on food blogs at the Berkman Thursday blog group when I get back from Europe on June 30. I am interested in suggestions on this. I will summarize some stuff I have learned about food blogs and hope you can add to it. I write a lot about food on the weekends but do not considered myself an expert. I also interviewed two food related bloggers for our book.
One was the restaurant, Horsefeathers, in North Conway, New Hampshire. Ben Williams writes an innovative blog, “Horsefeathers Restaurant: It all about the food folks” that attempts to start conversations that customers will want to finish in his place. Ben goes beyond the traditional restaurant site content of menus and schedules and adds regional information to give customers something to talk about and to promote more regional visitors. He wants people to go to his site to find out what is going on in the area.
The other is VanEats by Barb Wong and Roland Tanglao. Thye started it in 2000. In addition, to reviews of local Vancouver places, VanEats contains book reviews, several hundred recipes, kitchen tips, and a food related internet directory so it has stuff for people outside the Vancouver area. Barb and Roland have several favorite food blogs. They include:
The Radical Chef – “A Filipino woman redefines Philippine cuisine.”
The Julie/Julia Project – “Nobody here but us servantless American cooks.” It was about a project by Julie who wanted to cook all of Julia Child’s recipes. It ended in 2003 but is still accessible. Julie added a tribute to Julia Child in August 2004 after Julia died.
The Tasting Menu – focused on food. It has recipes and restaurant reviews. There are some great photos of dishes at many restaurants around the world.
The Wednesday January 12, 2005 issue of the Boston Globe has an article, “Food bloggers chronicle their delicious obsessions,” by Ethan Gilsdorf. Among others, it covers, Pim Techamuanvivit, who runs the popular blog Chez Pim. She is quoted''That's what we do really -- we talk about the stuff we cook, or the things we ate." Pim began her blog because she was tired of writing 30 identical e-mails to update everyone on what she was doing. The article continues, “Techamuanvivit found that the more she wrote on food, the more readers were seduced by her descriptions of pig fests in London and sublime couscous in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. She now gets between 3,000 and 4,000 hits a day.”
The Globe article mentions the first annual ''Food Blog Awards" were launched by Kate Hopkins, who runs Accidental Hedonist from Seattle. It quotes Kate, ''Yes, a half-dozen or so food blogs have been recognized by some of the mainstream media, but there are well over 100 food blogs out there, and plenty of good writing."
Chez Pim won for best restaurant reviews. I guess they did not see the reviews on this blog. Best Overall Blog was Chocolate & Zucchini by Clotilde Dusoulier. The Globe adds, “The site gets about 4,500 visits a day and recounts, in English, Dusoulier's daily Parisian food adventures, such as a 900-word ode to and instructions for a tarte tatin with salted butter caramel. In 15 months, the blog has turned Dusoulier, a computer engineer, into a professional food writer, cooking instructor, restaurant consultant, and conference speaker.”
There are also BBQ blogs including:
White Trash BBQ – from NYC
The New England Barbeque Society
There are a lot of BBQ sites but I am looking for more blogs, especially southern ones. I wrote a number of posts on the subject including, Barbeque of the Carolinas: East and West, North and South.
This is getting long. I will continue tomorrow on the topic of restaurant picks.
Hi Bill
Exploring the Culture of Connectivity and Immediacy
The web seems poised to blossom with stand-alone news sites
http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=3881 Dotcom Bloom
The Culture of Connectivity and Immediacy
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002259118_search01.html
How "search" is redefining the Web — and our lives
Major social culture changes are occurring as the impact of ubiquitous computing and connectivity become so everyday, so normal, as to be perceived as commonplace, standard, old hat
http://mediacenter.blogs.com/morph/2005/05/the_culture_of_.html
History Repeats Itself (just a little faster each time)
Posted by: Jozef Imrich | June 21, 2005 at 09:22 AM
we talk about the stuff we cook, or the things we ate." Pim began her blog because she was tired of writing 30 identical e-mails to update everyone on what she was doing. The article continues, “Techamuanvivit found that the more she wrote on food, the more readers tickets were seduced by her descriptions of pig fests in London and sublime couscous in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. She now gets between 3,000 and 4,000 hits a day.
Posted by: Ticketwood | July 07, 2006 at 08:13 AM