After reading the Los Angeles Times take on how hardcore foodies and bloggers are the new paparazzi, I decided to do an analysis of my daily habits in search of my true “foodiness:”
However, time spent eating doesn’t accurately reflect time spent preparing to eat — reading food blogs and pondering my next culinary adventure. The general bucket of “Doing stuff” takes up way too much space. Perhaps a graph indicating how much time I devote to thinking about things would more accurately reflect my true “foodiness:”
As the second graph illuminates, at 34%, I spend a lot of time eating, snacking, noshing and thinking about my next meal… usually mid-bite. Since we all have to eat, why settle for something mediocre, right?
The LA Times describes how the food paparazzi’s incessant flash photography and tape recording of daily specials (though I’ve never seen this anywhere) can annoy other patrons and slow down customer turnover, but these potential influencers have real marketing value for restaurant owners and chefs, particularly during a down economy. People are viewing their night out dining as their theater/dining entertainment. When Andrew Knowlton, the restaurant editor for Bon Appetit magazine decries “what happened to the enjoyment of just eating the food,” that’s exactly what we are doing. Now that we’re all
excited, Bon Appetit’s guy doesn’t appear happy that we’re no longer reliant on “professional” food writers alone to guide our culinary adventures (though I’d willingly follow Anthony Bourdain anywhere). For me, food bloggers enhance my experience dining out (or in). Restaurants are no longer solely dependent on be-wigged professional critics to inform readers on where and what they should eat: there are many educated food bloggers that can spread the word. It’s up to the reader to filter which reviewer’s taste they trust. Restauranteurs should celebrate bloggers’ transparency.
I was pondering all of this while eating leftover “special lobster” from Newport Seafood in Alhambra, while my wife sits across from me enjoying a bag of Hungry Girl approved “House Foods Tofu Shirataki” which, she advised me, “had only 40 calories total.” While I’ve never tape recorded a waiter’s recital of the daily specials, I have been known to take a quick iPhone photo of a dish (if I eat something delicious and no one is around to document it — did it really happen?) like this one from Saturday night. I could eat that succulent blend of lobster, garlic and onions all night… and I did, with leftovers the next day too!
Since I’m extolling the virtues of food bloggers, I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to my new favorite, my last bite… My friend Jimbo and I have always talked about eating our way through all 300 dishes of Jitlada (and creating an iPhone app for our comments), but one day a friend emailed me mylastbite.com. Jo was eating her way through the entire Jitlada menu and was much further along than Jimbo and I! Jo eats, Jo blogs, Jo tweets — about food, restaurants and life. Whether writing about “training” for Jitlada’s Dynamite Challenge by eating a habanero chili every day or coming of age in Okinawa, there’s soul (and sweat) in every word. Is that you lurking, Mr. Knowlton?
The pie charts literally made me laugh out loud. But what about cross-over activities — when you watch sports, eat, think about next meal, while on the Macbook Pro all at once?
That lobster dish looks amazing.
Cross-over? Wouldn’t I get that garlic sauce all over my keyboard? One thing at a time, baby.
And, yes… that lobster dish was amazing… and so was the fried chicken, clams, beef, shrimp, minced squab and lettuce cups, black cod and pork. There was also some green vegetable (possibly broccoli), but I showed some restraint on that and passed (why take up valuable real estate?). We then walked 2 blocks and had giant mixed fruit shaved ice’s with coconut/tapioca milk. I think it only had 5,000 calories. Hopefully, there was a defibrillator near by (just in case).
Did you know that 82% of statistics are made up?
“Doing stuff” is great. Because really, what do we do that’s not “stuff”?
I love how the Internet allows us to find out what’s great so we can plan culinary adventures. What did we ever do before menus were online?
@Julie: If 82% of statistics are made up and if I only think about “Doing stuff” 4% of the time, does that mean there’s a plus/minus swing of 78%? Hmmm… I wonder if I can devote more time to thinking about food…
Hi Lloyd, I just wanted to say thank you for the kind words. VERY much appreciated!
See you at Jitlada soon!
Jo
My pleasure Jo… now where’s that habanero…
love it, so funny…..pie chart and all……..wonder how much of that chart is ‘sit down/reclining ‘ time versus up and walking…….
@Anne: Do you mean time spent sitting down/reclining time vs. walking — or time spent thinking about sitting/down reclining?
So, here I am, hanging out in the blogosphere (lloydering, as I like to call it)…and wow, it’s not as weird as I thought!…although it seems to make me really hungry. Props, my brutha…only 270 dishes to go!
@Jimbo: it’s a big job, but someone’s gotta do it. Might as well be us.
The pie charts literally made me laugh out loud. But what about cross-over activities — when you watch sports, eat, think about next meal, while on the Macbook Pro all at once?
That lobster dish looks amazing.
@Bruce. Cross-over activities… might that be too much of a good thing? Besides, I might get garlic Lobster sauce all over my MacBook Pro!