10 + 3 Things You Should Know About Food Bloggers

I read this wonderful post on 'Not Quite Nigella' and was compelled to write.
She's a total foodie based out of Sydney.... That's Lorraine Elliott for you... Have been following her blog for a while now. She loves traveling far and wide for an unusual meal and cooking and eating food from different countries all around the world.

I'm gonna put out her article word to word sans the wonderful pictures [and put in my comments in italics along with pictures ]..... cause it so echos my experiences... also adding 3 more characteristic to it....

The species 'Foodus Bloggerus' is a peculiar creature. I know, because I feel distinctly peculiar most times. We march to the beat of our own drum (or more accurately the sound of food sizzling). When most people are enjoying their food, we’re taking close ups of it. So to understand this misunderstood creature, allow me to reveal 10 things you should know about this unusual creature, should you ever encounter us in the wild[or in a restaurant or at the dinner table loaded with lovely food].

1. Be prepared to eat early. Like a reverse Vampire, we love the light as more light means better photos. Eating dinner at 4pm? Sure, no problem, the light will be good then. Similarly, you’ll also find us seated near the window more often than not as the light is better there and we only use Flash in extreme circumstances or in closed blogger-friendly company.

2. We’re shy and hate to be stared at, especially while we are taking photos. However if it’s something exciting, we retreat into a haze and snap away uncaring. That’s called the “Paparazzi Brangelina moment”, when we descend into a frenzy of snapping.

3. Most people react to romantic lighting positively. Not the food blogger. We will utter things such as “crap, not this moody, romantic lighting again. What about my photos!”. Because as you know, it’s all about the photos ;)

4. We love to share food. The equation is straightforward: the more food shared, the more food sampled and the more we can write about.
Hmm, how do I get the piece back in without them noticing?
[A lot of people in office would vouch for being on my food tasting LIST... lol... The post 'You Can Kiss My Fingers' has a list of stuff my official taster's list sampled]

[n my favorite food model Daksayani..... my kid sister... the apple of my eye.....]


5. If invited somewhere, we’ll usually bring something as it gives us an excuse to make something for our blog. However this is not catch free. A cake might have a slice taken out of it for photographic reasons although it may be put back into place. Try not to stare and pretend the piece wasn’t cut. Please. We feel weird enough as it is.
[ Here's the tiramisu I took along to mami's house when we went to their place for dinner.
Sharad, you stole the opportunity from me by canceling the beer tasting session..... ]

6. We love to choose where to eat out. Please let us choose - food is our life and we will painstakingly research places. We may also send through copious links and print out menus. It’s a compulsion. Just take them smiling and back away if you need to. Oh and trust us, the place may look weird/seedy but the food will be good.
[Love the boys in office for letting me choose where we go for dinner... :-) ]

Food-the ultimate gift
7. If you ever want to give a gift, give food. Something unusual, hard to get or exotic is wonderful. Or something fresh from your garden. We are easy to please. I swear I thought I wanted Choos until I got a roast rib of pork as a gift.
[Well I haven't been gifted food but loved jenny when she sent me a lots of implements for cake decoration and even sent her precious book of baking with lots of chocolate recipes in it, Chetan got me silicon cupcake moulds, mamu bought me white platters]

8. Dinner out with us in a restaurant is an experience.[or any meal for that matter] It can either go well and can be an interesting experience or it can go badly. Embarrassing sometimes if you aren’t used to the excessive photo taking. But it’s never boring. Badly is when a chef comes out to yell at us for taking photos or something similar. Good is when you get an extra dessert or when the chef comes out to say hello or explain how they’ve made something.
[The chefs at Mad over Donuts shared with us how they work but not the secret of making donuts... Loved their aprons... They say "I'm MAD and I make Donuts"..... check out Rings of Delight ~ Donuts from 'Mad Over Donuts']

9. If you dine with us, you’ll learn the art of patience. Yes we even want to photograph the bread and butter. Food is better a bit colder right? Or so we’d like to convince you.
[This is something most people complain of when they go out with us..... They're getting familiar with this symptom now... Like they have a choice lol.. ;-) ]

10. It’s hard once you get into the habit, for us to not take photos of the food that we eat. I’ve only eaten out once and not taken a photo. And it hurt. Similarly, when I was watching an episode of Mad Men the other week, I was so engrossed in watching Peggy having dinner with her date and their drinks arrived and I wondered why she didn’t whip out a camera before drinking it and so my hand reached out to get my camera. Yes, it really did.

11. It's great fun to cook with a fellow blogger. Deeba has been my friend and guide. She inspired the food blogger in me.... Lunch at Deeba's was such a wonderful time. Made cake for her kids Zebra Cake for the Rajpals anddecorated Cups of Magic ~ Vanilla Cupcakes @ Deeba's at her place..... Awwww..... the blast we had :-) Deeba's account of the fun we had TRIFLE TALES...OF VISITING BLOGGERS & SWEET THINGS!

12. Birthday's and Anniversary's are made so special....by baking for them and then going crazy clicking :-)
Nikhil N Moms Surprise Birthday Party


Nani's Birthday


Dipali's Anniversary @ The Log Hut



13. Getting kids to cook with you. They are such a delight....






Tell me Dear Reader, do you have any other keen observations, either as a food blogger or an observer of one?