The Paragons Of Food

The Paragons Of Food - Published July 2007


If you are one who considers themselves somewhat computer-phobic and shies away from the Internet, chances are that you may not know what a blog is. A blog, or weblog, is an online journal of sorts. A much more user friendly and personalised website if you prefer.
Blogs can be about anything and everything imaginable and therein lies the beauty of it all. You can find blogs about art, music, education, architecture, humour, politics, and even just general day to day goings on of people you've never met in your life.
The blogosphere is a mammoth phenomenon that is changing the lives of millions of people on a daily basis.
Technorati, an online search engine for blogs, has stated that it tracks approximately 71 million blogs worldwide as of May 2007.


Another term that can still be considered relatively new to the ever expanding lexicon of slang-gone-proper is the term "foodie". A foodie is usually a self-proclaimed lover of all things food related. An eating enthusiast, someone who understands the hows and whys of cuisine. A fan who is figuratively and literally hungry for good meals and new dining experiences. It should go without saying that there are a huge number of excellent food blogs currently online right now.


I will happily admit to being an addict when it comes to viewing food blogs online. There have been times when I've spent up to 9 hours trawling through sites filled with great recipes, local or international restaurant recommendations, places to avoid like the plague, and of course some great cuisine shots. A good, smooth flow of writing is usually key but an added bonus is also some of the best online photography I've seen in a long time. Great pictures of meals that look absolutely divine? It doesn't get better than that.


Food is something that brings about strong emotions. Passion and cuisine tend to go hand in hand very often. Just ask the next chef you meet and they'll confirm it. Eating satisfies the most basic sensation of being hungry and needing sustenance. But eating is also a source of much pleasure. Think of the best meal you've ever had in your life. Chances are you'll be smiling as you recall as much as you can. The smells, sights, sounds, texture and presentation. Or in my case, how the flavours blended together perfectly into a steaming hot bowl of bliss.




I contacted three of my favourite foodie bloggers to ask them about the hows and whys. Clearly a case of a novice trying to learn from the masters.


A DAILY OBSESSION
I'd only just found out about this Sabahan foodie blogger two months ago, but Terri is so warm and friendly that I feel like I've known her for years. A mother of three, Terri blogs about recipes, dining outings, food recommendations and restaurant reviews. 'A Daily Obsession' offers a very honest and refreshing take on the eating scene and touches on anything even remotely food related. And to say that the lady is handy with a camera would be a serious understatement.

States Terri, "Three years ago I found out my daughter had a blog, so what better way to check out on what she was up to over in Melbourne.  It got so bad I started checking her friends' blogs too but when Yi found out, she deleted all her links. Anyway, as you know, I'm a full-time mom and it gets pretty boring.  There's only so many ladies' teas you can attend.

I had always wanted to write, but my father thought journalism wasn't professional enough so I ended up with an applied science (majoring in Plants and Botany) degree from Canada, which isn't any better if you asked me. I worked in a bank instead, had a great career as a loans and finance manager.  But the financial crisis came and the boys weren't doing well in school so I quit.

I started blogging the night that I ate a lousy meal at a new cafe in town.  My son Ming is a whiz with the computer, and helped me. In February and March I only managed 2 posts because he was busy and I depended on him to upload photographs. 
Then on Easter Day, I sat down and posted a blog all by myself.  Felt so clever, I sat up most nights till 2 or 3 am. But really, I married the Best man in the world. He'd complain a little, but I know deep inside he's relieved I've found an outlet. He's so supportive he allowed me to take time off for two weeks when my son Wey was having his exams (a no-no travel time) to go Hong Kong and China."


Why do I blog?

 1. I love cooking as all my friends will tell you.  And eating. They used to say I have worms (who doesn't is my standard reply) because I'd eat a whole cow and not put on weight.  And I'm not the type who'd keep their recipes secret. You'd be surprised how many people do that.  In fact, sometimes I feel ashamed when I practically forced people to write my recipes down, even on toilet paper.

2. Blogging has improved me. Before February, I could only use the e-mail.  Now I can take some decent photos and upload them too. 

3. I get to record recipes and travels for posterity.

4.  I get to make new friends, like you.

5.  My kids and their friends think I'm cool. I say, rise up, old ladies (no, not you - you're a baby), and blog. So many of my friends couldn't even log onto the computer before, but now they do as they actually print out my recipes.

6.  I am opinionated and I get to say what I want, rate the good and bad eateries and so on.

7.  The only other food blogger I know is Jo The Drooler.  That sneaky girl claimed to follow my blog daily and I've been telling her to blog, and she never told me she started one in May until I found out in June. I've been plonking her on the head ever since.  Don't worry, we've been best friends since primary school.

8.  It's fun, really. The whole family has a common hobby, and even my husband who doesn't blog helps with taking the pictures or trouble-shooting the computer glitches.  It keeps us together.


Say hello to Terri at www.hungerhunger.blogspot.com

RASA MALAYSIA
Bee is a Penangite who has been working and living in California for the past 12 years. A  gastro-force to be reckoned with, Rasa Malaysia was nominated for Best Food Blog in the Bloggers Choice Awards and her camera and cooking skills could easily rival those of professionals.


About Bee
I am from Penang. When I was little, I would always play masak-masak in the front-yard of the house. I would steal ingredients from the kitchen while everyone was taking an afternoon nap.  It was always so much fun, but of course, the "dishes" I cooked were basically not edible. Masak-masak was my favorite childhood game.  I learn all my cooking from my late mother-in-law (who was a Nyonya), my mother, and my aunt, and by playing masak-masak.

Earliest happy food memory :

When my mother, late grandmother, or my aunt let me helped them out with their cooking - cutting the vegetables, helping with the stir-fries, or Nyonya kuih.  I was happy because I was able to participate in the cooking process.


What motivated you to start a food blog :

I wanted to raise awareness of Malaysian food outside of Malaysia.  I have lived in the United States for over 12 years but not many people know about this exciting cuisine, nor have they heard about Malaysia. Also, I wanted to document all my favorite family recipes.


Current food idols and/or sources of inspiration :

Patricia Yeo, a Malaysian chef based in New York City.  I recently saw her on Iron Chef America and she was just amazing.  I would be very interested to see her publish a Malaysian cookbook or open a Malaysian restaurant.  http://www.patriciayeo.com/


Most difficult recipe you've ever tried :

Nyonya perut ikan.  It's my absolute favorite. I finally learned how to make it from my aunt during my last trip home to Malaysia in February 2007. 


Books for aspiring foodies to check out :

I wish to publish my own cookbook one day, hopefully.  But for now, I would recommend "Famous Street Food of Penang: A Guide & Cook Book" published by The Star. It features all my favorite hawker foods in Penang, complete with recipes and mouth-watering photographs.  It's not hard to cook Malaysian dishes at home, but it's not easy to prepare Penang hawker food. 

Downsides to having a food blog :
The obligation to maintain it. Sometimes it's hard especially when work and fun get in the way, plus I am quite lazy by nature (laughs out loud).


Best things about having a food blog :
My readers.  I love interacting with my readers. Some of them I have become friends with and it's wonderful. Their comments and emails always cheer me up.  They keep me going and motivate me to be better.  Eating better is just an extra perk!

Head over to Bee's blog at www.rasamalaysia.com







EATING ASIA

Robyn and Dave are the dual powerhouses behind Eating Asia, a blog which has been featured both in the local and international media. This husband-and-wife team travel anywhere and everywhere in search of great local food. They currently contribute regularly to KLue magazine and are based in Kuala Lumpur. Robyn writes, Dave photographs and together they introduce their readers to some very unusual and authentic food jaunts all around Asia and beyond.



Background information 
Robyn : I grew up in Michigan (US midwest) and have lived on the US east coast but Dave and I spent the majority of our Stateside married lives in the San Francisco Bay area. I consider myself more of a northern Californian than a Michigander - I identify with the relatively laid-back lifestyle and the approach to food in the US northwest. That said, we've lived in Asia - Hong Kong, Shanghai, Bangkok, and Saigon, before KL -  with a couple of breaks in the States, for more than 11 years now. So Asia - South East Asia - really feels like home. And, of course, we love the food here!

I grew up in a very food-focused household (this is not a given, in the United States). My mom is a fabulous cook. I grew up eating oddities like veal scaloppini and enchiladas and avocados and artichokes and lamb. This might not seem strange to you, but this was in Michigan back in the early 70s. Most of my friends had never seen these foods before, let along eaten them. 'An avocado? What's that? Ewwwww!' In fact I think Dave had never eaten lamb (or met a girl who made her own curry and chutney) until he met me (he's from Michigan too). But my mom grew up in Arizona and southern California, so she cooked what she knew and loved from her youth. And though she had a solid grip on the classics - pot roast, pork chops, spaghetti and meatballs, that sort of thing - she was also a very adventurous and curious cook for her time and I think I inherited that spirit of adventure and curiosity, not to mention a love of cooking, from her.

Dave : I grew up in the US Midwest, which in culinary terms is 'meat and potato' country. Fortunately, we lived close to a large university so there was some diversity in terms of food.


Earliest happy food memory :
R : Earliest? When I was about 8 my dad got a raise, and from then on we had steak once a week. I loved Steak Fridays.

But my most vivid happy food memory is mapo dofu. After university, in 1984, I went to Chengdu, Sichuan province in China, to teach English and study Chinese. The first time I had mapo dofu I just couldn't believe it - the incredible spiciness and the numbing sensation from the Sichuan peppercorn. It was like nothing I'd ever tasted in my life. Certainly like nothing I'd ever tasted in Michigan! It was astounding. And wonderful. I fell in love with Sichuan food and to this day I love it most of all the regional Chinese cuisines. I'm very picky about my Sichuan food too - it has to taste like it did back then in Chengdu, or I don't like it.


D : One of my happiest food memories was one of the first dates with my
now wife, Robyn. I picked her up after an exam and we headed to what was
then my favorite Chinese restaurant. They served dumplings with vinegar
and chili oil, hot and sour soup and a few other 'non-traditional'
Chinese items (again this was the Midwest so this sort of thing at the
time was really 'out there'). As opposed to other dates that I had had
where the woman picks at the food, Robyn dove in and held her own. A few
weeks later, she invited me over to her house and made chicken curry and
chutney. Until that point I was under the impression that chutney came
from a jar and that people couldn't make this stuff. I got to thinking
that maybe I would keep this all to myself so that no one would get in
on the action.


What motivated you to start a food blog :
R : I wanted to develop my skills as a writer and try out different 'voices'. Practice makes perfect, but I knew I wouldn't sit down in front of my computer on a regular basis and bang out essays just for my own self to read. Having an 'audience' (of, like, 5 people back then!) forced me both to produce on a regular basis and to pay attention to the final product. Frankly I'm embarassed by some early posts but I resist the urge to delete them.


D : We could either start a blog or burn money in the back yard. Since I
would naturally be compelled to photograph the money being burnt, we choose the blog.


Current food idols and/or sources of inspiration :
R : I've been inspired for years and years by an American food magazine called Saveur. Their approach to food is real and true - food all over the world as it's really eaten and prepared and, most important to me, as it really looks when it's served. Food in its context, food and culture and how culinary traditions and cultures are evolving. Food both highbrow and lowbrow. Street food and upscale restaurant food. Wine and root beer. Most of the writing is very soulful, passionate, and down-to-earth and it's something I aspire to.

Dave and I both have also been inspired, for years and years, by two American photographer/writers, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. They've done a series of incredible books on different regional Asian cuisines, such as Hot Sour Salty Sweet (the Mekong region) and Mangoes and Curry Leaves (the Indian subcontinent), that combine first-person food/travel essays, moving photographs, and recipes. Their location photos are stunning (the styled photographs in their books are done by another photographer), and they're both truly talented writers who come across as the sort of people you'd like to travel and eat with, or just hang out and have a beer with. You'd *definately* want to have them cook for you! And, as someone who has grappled with recipe writing (I HATE it!), I have to say I really admire their ability to reproduce dishes from their travels and write good recipes. I haven't made a single recipe from one of their books that hasn't been totally delicious.

Lately, as a result to several trips we've made to the Philippines this year, I'm really inspired by Filipino food writers like the late Doreen Fernandez and Micky Fenix, who writes a column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer (available online). They're chroniclers of Philippine culinary culture and I can spend hours reading that sort of thing.


D : I like the work of Jeffery Alford and Naomi Duguid. We've been looking at and eating from their books for years. The photography in particular really appeals to me. I am also really enjoying the latest incarnation of Saveur magazine. Of course, as with most things, I just
look at the pictures.



Books for aspiring foodies to check out :
R : Depends on what kind of foodie you are. Two sort of 'surprising' books are 'Memories of Philippine Kitchens' by Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan, because Philippine food is generally (wrongfully) maligned and the recipes in this book will get your mouth watering; and 'The South American Table' by Maria Baez Kijac, because South American food is not generally known and this book's recipes sound delicious enough to get anyone into the kitchen. (I bought both books in KL, by the way).

An old favorite - for fans of Italian food - is Lynn Rosetto Kasper's 'The Italian Country Table'. My bugaboo is how Italian food is often misrepresented in restaurants in Asia. Her recipes for simple trattoria-style dishes are foolproof and authentic. I've used my copy so much that it is is oil and sauce-stained and the binding is on its last legs.


D : I'll leave this one to Robyn. I'm sure you've already figured out that she is the brains of the operation.

Downsides to having a food blog :
R :It's the ultimate procrastination tool!! 'Real' writing jobs, housework, exercise, cleaning off my desk and filing, walking the dogs, general errands, shopping for and cooking food, and even eating ... they've all, at one time or another, been put off because I've told myself that "I should post today." I really need to get a grip on that.


D : The down side is that rarely go to the same place more than twice. Oh
yeah,and some Mondays I'm not sure if I'll be able to fit in the car seat...


Best things about having a food blog :
R:Too many things to list!

Professionally, it's given me 'clips', when I otherwise had none, to show editors when I'm pitching an idea for an article, and that's led to (somewhat) paying writing jobs. Personally, having the blog has led Dave and I to know Malaysia in a way that we never would have if we hadn't been compelled to get out there and get 'material' for the blog. And to travel in SE Asia in a way that we never did before. No more beach vacations for us! When we travel it's all about hunting down food and anything related to food, always exhausting but really exhilerating.

I've also met lots of great people through the blog. And I just really enjoy posting, both the process of putting together a post and the feeling of accomplishment I have after it's up.


D : One of the best things about the blog is getting emails (usually from Malaysians) living half way around the world and missing food from their homelands.
You can almost hear the chewing at the other end of the line.


Read all about Robyn and Dave's experiences at www.eatingasia.typepad.com

I had always assumed that having a blog devoted entirely to food takes some serious love. I am happy to note that these fine individuals proved me right. And now I'm hungry.