Community sites are starting to realise the power of the iPhone, and to an extent the Google Android platform. Lately, I’ve been test driving three free apps which can help you find something to eat in the City and their usefulness when on the move, so this might be helpful if you’re an iFoodie too.

1. Qype Radar

Let’s get this going with the one from the boys at Qype. This community giant started out in Hamburg and how now grown to become a pretty massive user review site. My understanding is that users can pretty much review anything they like in the city/community, so it’s not just limited to food. In a sense, it makes Qype Radar rather powerful as you get direct access to quite a huge information base there.

As you can see, the interface is quite simple, no fancy pictures, just an easy to read list, I noted the apps’ quickness. So let’s try hunting for some curry in Harrow:

So I’m interested in ‘Five Hot Chillies’, rated 4/5 stars by Qype users, GPS (for iPhone 3G only?) tells me how far the location is and it also tells me how many Qype users have reviewed it. The simple interface is great on the move – it loads quick, gets me the information that I need, quickly, I would have loved to see a phone number displayed though. Overall it loads fast and its got a big database.

2. OpenTable

Let’s move on to OpenTable app now. The OpenTable concept is simple, it allows diners to make reservations without having to physically calling the restaurant. You would have to sign up with the Opentable website and the iPhone app is basically a natural extension of that idea.

The interface is alittle snazzier than the Qype radar, but it still loads relatively quickly. This one helps locate a free restaurant table for you in a selected region, or perhaps even a near your current location. Once you punch in the time, date – it will tell you what restaurants in the vicinity have free tables and at what time.

Its as zippy as the Qype radar, and you can instantly make reservations. Extra step involves you signing up with an OpenTable account in order to make reservations though, and there is an option to view the restaurant menu, if indeed the restaurant has posted one. You gain speed in booking a restaurant and gauge instant availability of several places in the area all at once, but you do lose out on user opinions.

3. Urbanspoon

This is the most graphic intensive, and unsurprisingly the slowest app of the lot. Urbanspoon primarily is a community restaurant review site which draws together reviews from critics, bloggers and also users get to vote on whether they like a place or not. The best thing about Urbanspoon is this voting aspect, which gets fed into a popularity top-list showing you an approximate ‘trend’ of what everyone is eating in the city. It’s in lots of cities and unsurprisingly, London is included in it.

It’s also the most gimmick heavy in which the main screen is a ‘jackpot shaker’. Put in where/what you want to eat and shake away. This will throw up some suggestions in the area you chose, though ONE BY ONE.

I’ve pulled up The Harverster for this one (Still want to try the salad bar there).

The interface looks great and the ‘lottery’ aspect of is kinda fun – but on the move, where speed is key – it becomes a real pain. I mean, I have to keep shaking it to get individual recommendations, instead of just an easy to use list. On the other hand, the individual review page is excellent. It has the urbanspoon ‘score’ which tells you how popular it is, it has links to read user reviews and it’s got a phone number, mighty helpful. I have tried using this on the go while looking for restaurants and the search function is usable. My only gripe is that its slow and its the sole really I dont use it more often.

Best of the best of the best

So, which should you download? Well, honestly, just download all three, its free afterall. Each have their own strengths and each do slightly different things.

I guess the best thing about these apps are that each can be further improved in future version. Personally, the apps I use the most are always the ones which load quick and run fast because when you’re on the move, every second counts. I’m sure cocoa developers out there are aware of this fact and are working hard to streamline their apps for a more elegant experience.

I have yet to try the snazzy new SpoonFed Radar which requires the latest 2.2.1 iPhone update (I’m still on 2.0.1, I think) and I am still waiting for TimeOut to do their app. Metrotwin should not be far behind and maybe we’ll see a trustedplaces , toptable one or even a tipped one in the near future.

OK. So what are your thoughts on iPhone ‘Going out’ Apps, do you use them, like me, and if you do, what are your favourites, and what kind of App would you like to see in the near future?

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So it’s six seven am on Monday. I’ve just opened my favourite excel spreadsheet and sipping down on the hard filter brew Vanessa makes for the bunch of us every morning. No it’s not. It’s Saturday afternoon as I write this. Well, it sort of came early a couple of weekends ago, the sun I mean, and I took every opportunity to exploit it before it gave way to the rain clouds again. It was still abit breezy, but was a nice little preview of picnic in the park. So it was me, grass, my 50mm and a little bit of wholefoods and now, you too.

Picnic mix.

I think the serpentine/kensington palace is my favourite bit of Hyde Park. Girls sunbathing with their girly mates, and the boys occasional letting their balls (totally intended) accidentally roll toward the unsuspecting beauties. Yes. Spring is back. I picked all the nibbly ones from the rich wholefoods selection in High Street Ken. Cold by the time I broke out all the boxes, including the crunchy jerusalem artichokes.

Depth of food

Shutterbugs love (the lack of) depth of field. It’s the easiest way to give your photos an ‘artistic look’ without much effort. Take these yummy buttermilk fried chicken drumsticks for example. Notice how there’s only one drumstick in total focus in the picture and the other sticks are thrown out of focus. Yeah, you can do this too by keeping your camera aperture at it’s widest. Try it, different model, different capabilities of course, if it permits, set your camera to ‘Aperture Mode’, and set the ‘f/’ number to it’s lowest possible number and then go as close as you can, and focus on what you want to keep in focus, and then let the camera do the rest.

It’ll create some lovingly tasty shots. The fried chicken carried a faint creamy edge to it, oh yummy stuff. Could do with abit more temperature, but I ain’t complaining.

Time for wine

One of the coolest things happened to my inbox last night. Gary Vay.Ner.Chuck. sent me an email. I flipped out. Come on winos, you know him, the Thunder show? It’s only the internetz most watched wine review show, ever. I’ve been a vayniac for almost two years now, I subscribe to his video podcast and he is absolutely the most awesome wine critic around. One day Vaynerchuck will displace Bob Parker as the voice of wine, and I said it first.

So who knew that Wholefoods had impressive wines on their racks. An Australian Hunter valley semillon which showed the trademark clean, lively and crisp characteristics the hunter whites are famous for. Eight quid, not bad at all. Man I miss Sydney. Hunter valley is about a 3 hour drive from Sydney. My mate drove. We hit the information centre to get a map of the entire valley first and then we marked out the vineyards we wanted to visit.

We started at midday and since he was driving, he was only suppose to have about five glasses every three hours. As we got to each vineyards, we were greeted by the winemakers and these guys were the most passionate people I’ve ever met, best of all – they let us sample everything they made, including their premium stuff. We hit four vineyards before three pm, and then stopped at one of the many restaurants dotted around the valley. Food was amazing, needless to say, but the best memory from drinking on location was how every single sip was so alive. Everything tasted like freshly pressed grape juice and I had never quite had wine like that before.

It is true wine doesnt travel well, but great wine doesn’t come to you, you go to great wine. I’m still planning my trip to burgundy – it’s £899 for like five days staying with a winemaker I think. If anybody is up for it, email me.

So this is kind of what it feels like to picnic with me

The potato cake was pretty solid by the way, but I was ready to dig into the grilled sardines, they really look appetising. It’s a little under seasoned, needs just a dash of sea salt, but I don’t want to complain, the whole occasion and the rays of light are just so relaxing, I wish the afternoon sun would never leave. I was looking into my lightroom library the other day and it showed that I had taken something like 4,000 food photographs in the past six months. That’s a mad stat just thinking about it. Yes, I have more digital food pics than I do mp3s.

It gave me a little brainbolt about contracting myself as a food photographer for magazines, restaurants, pr companies… or just anybody who likes looking at pictures of food. That would be a nice little freelance job to have on the side, I mean, what are they going to do with the food after the fact right?

I mean, I’d eat it . Commitment to the job. 100% committed, passionate and environmentally friendly too. I can’t think of a better reason to do food photography other than that I want to eat what I shoot. Hey, that’s a great blog motto: ‘Eating everything I shoot’ , might use that for twitter or something.

Eating antipasti, last.

Im unconventional. I’m one of these problogger readers who swear by Darren’s secrets to success and am a student of copywritingblogging. But almost all of my pillar posts cross the four digit mark. Oh well, guess you need to break the rules to make new ones.

Join me for a real picnic, when the real Spring really arrives.

For now, the weather is still a little breezy, my hayfever hasn’t started yet, so spring is not really here yet. When it does roll around, I’m sure I’ll be back for a full on picnic.

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I’ve been off for two weeks and the sky is still falling down on London, seriously when is it all going to stop? Did anybody miss me while I was away? I did manage a couple of reviews on my break but my first London restaurant visits will have to wait till Friday. As I said yesterday, I bought a new camera and this will be it’s virgin usage for a very sinful post.

This sushi train is located somewhere south of the South China Sea (I forget the name of the place) and the rate is 50 pence per plate. This isn’t really a review, but more like food glorification, though the technically accurate term is foodporno. If you’re anything like me, you’ll appreciate great sushi trains for peanuts – it’s just a shame we don’t have more of them in London ( Yo! is alright, but seriously overpriced). On this visit, the count is about 20 plates (my record is 37 in Sydney, I think) and that’s a grand total of £10. A tenner barely gets me like 2.5 plates at Yo!

Yo.

Cheap sushi bingeing – as far as I know – only exists in Asia; ok so welcome back to another edition of London eater, the name is Kang and I will be at your service for the rest of this post.

Number one, the salmon

Some places call it the shake, or the sake nigiri and this is perhaps the most common sushi dish found amongst faux-sushi bars outside of Japan. Contrarily, thickness does not equate value – a good piece of shake should be filleted at a very artful angle to attain a smooth and consistent texture that will melt in the eater’s mouth.  I just love a robustly silky salmon nigiri with a dabble of soya sauce. Yummy.

Number two, steamed egg tofu

Not everything in sushi bars is raw. Case in point: A creamy and gentle slow steamed egg infused tofu is oriental comfort food central. This particular one was almost like a smooth vanilla custard, mild, eggy and milky – it was a pretty interesting contrast to the salmon.

Trinity, octopus

I’d like to think of this as an inside out nigiri with a boiled octupus’s body (sounds abit yucky doesn’t it?) sliced down the middle, stuffed with sushi rice and smothered with teriyaki sauce. As an avid fan of the rubbery creature of the deep, this was thankfully chewable, believe me, if you overcook it you may as well use it as a doorstopper and in parts of Asia, its a delicacy.

Hmm, ok I’m sure it’s a baby octopus and not a squid (squids have tentacles in the front bit I think) , can anybody confirm?

Fourmage, California roll with roe sauce on top

My tastebuds didn’t quite agree with the bitter and strong flavoured roe sauce that seems as though it’s been made with mayo and soya base. Perhaps it’s the bitterness from the roe itself but I just didn’t quite get this. Having said that, the golden hued topping looked so good (it was a special) that I scoffed a piece even before I took a picture. Wrong move.

At five… Unagi on rice.

Remember this one time Ross told his Friends that he had a black belt in Karate and he picked up an acute sense of awareness known as Grilled teriyaki eel? I loved that episode and I also love unagi. It is ex-pen-sive in London (last I checked, prices hovered the £2 per piece mark, on average) and I usually have a couple more plates of this whenever I am stopping in a cheap sushi bar in Asia. I’ve never really had unagi that was bad before, how wrong can it go right? It’s grilled, with teriyaki sauce and slapped on rice.

You can get frozen pre-grilled unagi fillets for six quid at Japan Centre which tastes like the real thing, so if you are craving unagi and you live in London, that might be a cheap alternative for ya.

Six is a white fish.

Ok I must confess, I am not that good with fish names. My best guess is that this is the flesh of a sea bass who’s family still swims in the south china sea. But I’m not too sure. White fish sushis are plain at best, at worst they emit a decaying, fishy odour. Here’s a tip for your virgin sushi-nos, if you find yourself needing to dip the raw stuff in lots of soya and wasabi to mask the flavour – then it’s a high probability that it’s gone off. The whole philosophy of sushi is to eat ultra fresh fish and ultra fresh fish should smell and taste fresh – not dead.

Seven scallops and a tree full of money

It’s the little touches you know, abit of teriyaki on the scallop just brings out the sweet and creamy scallopion fragrance. Nothing like fresh spanking dollops of scallop on rice, yes it’s pretty good at sushi hiro and sake no hana but no where in London are you going to find this for 50p, and as for the little touches? Wake up, London sushi trains, do it like the way they do it on the other side of the globe and be generous with those funky sauces.

Eight abalone, mayo and colourful chips

Good abalone is a delicacy in Asia, but over here in the UK, it’s nearly unavailable. I was pretty surprised to find a ‘delicacy’ available for 50p to be quite honest and the simply boiled slices – while edible like slices of chicken fillets that taste like prawns – wasn’t the wallet busting double boiled stuff you’d find in pricy Hong Kong restaurants. This one was whimsically decorated with chocolate chips. Will the wonders never cease?

Nine – crabs, mayo on rice

The same way we have crabs on toast, sushi bars have crabs on rice. Japanese mayo is more intense than European mayo. It’s saltier, edgier and I think more umami rich – goes criminally well with strands of crab….

Ten, lightly seared salmon with abit of skin.

Finally, this is not so much seared than torched. The sushi chef comes to the salmon with a mini blow torch to pink the flesh. The direct flame from the torch means that the fish maintains it’s creamy texture but now carries a cool charcoaled smokiness when it hits your mouth. With abit of oil (not melted) and abit of a temperature, it’s more decadently soft too.

Little touches, just little touches. I love sushi, I wish I was still on holiday and that was a tenner well spent.

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I’ve always had this idea to use the tube map as an eating guide for anyone wanting to sample highlights of London via the underground – I just didnt really know how ( or more like when ) I could figure it onto this blog. When I was approached by Hillary who edits both Recipe4living and the chewonthatblog , she wanted a kind of snapshot of London and I thought wow – what a coincidence we’re on the same brainwave. So I mined the archives and put together an ‘underground eating list on the underground’. I included stuff such as Borough market and sampling some very British crabs on toast at 32 GQS. I also included a recommendation to my personal favourite: Cambio de Tercio.

You can download and print this map if you want, just click on the image for a bigger version.

Anyway, I thought it’d make for a great guest post and one that can be useful for anyone who’s about to visit London and are looking for a few places to munch up. As with my last few guest posts, I am giving away my best stuff and treating these guest posts as if they were to be published here on LE. To that end, I’m giving away the same quality of pictures too and I do try and make sure they are decent enough. Hope you guys find my stuff both useful and entertaining – oh and if you feel hungry after reading then I’ve done my job! 

(Yup, that’s one of my personal missions now: to make people feel hungry) 

Snapshots from London : Do check it out over at the Chew on That Blog.

1. Make a valentine proposal and win £1000 worth of wine 

This one comes from a relatively new wine website and their video competition is pretty quirky. You can be all serious and propose to your honey, or you can be cheeky and propose anyway, and she might find it funny and fall madly in love with you? Check it out here.

2. Buy a limited edition bottle of wine from an artisan food seller

If you’re going to give wine and chocolates, then do make sure it’s something special at least. Flavours of Spain are doing this box set which includes a bottle of Pedralonga Barrica – limited production of biodynamic white wine only 1800 bottled - accompanied by a gift box of two chocolates (Yuzu and Mascletà) created by Spain’s leading chocolatier Oriol Balaguer, former pastry chef of Michelin starred El Bulli, all presented in an elegant wooden case. Thirty quid from their website here, or perhaps it’s better to pay them a visit at their Borough Market stand..

3. Go hang out at Borough Market

What couldn’t be better than a day trip to one of London’s better known food markets. Instead of switching off the lights and going in for the kill – maybe a whole days worth of sampling great food and feeling the buzz of food market – coupled with a visit to monmouth for great coffee or even a nice tapas lunch – could help strengthen the love and make the lights off bit last longer, yeah. (PS: I’m told asparagus are good for lights off action.)

Who knows, you might even bump into your valentine in the market… I’m still searching for this lovely lass whom I bumped into and accidentally photographed the last time I was in Borough market. My write-ups here.

4. Take a boat ride around the Thames

No need to do book anything fancy, just jump on the ferries outside Greenwich park (um, four quid I think) and they go all the way around the O2 and then back to Waterloo. It’ll be cold, she’ll be curling in your arms – the world will be perfect. You better check for boat times with TfL.co.uk just in case though.

5. Share spaghetti ice cream

Well it’s more like ice cream made to look like spaghetti than the other way round, so nothing too out there. One of my favourite cafes, Ciao in Soho is delightfully Italian and what could be sweeter than treating your sweetie to a low-key late night ice cream snack.  All the details here.

6. Go to a gallery

Or a museum, it’s all free really. I like the Saatchi and Saatchi, National Portrait is always cool and I especially love the Reading room which sits in the middle of the British Museum, really grand room and huge, just huge. More here.

7. Open air Music at Covent Garden on Friday night

I can’t say for certain that the Italian crooner with the acoustic guitar will definitely be there this Friday (the 13th, yikes!) but if he is, he’s amazing, usually has an army of groupies who come out to scream and shout at him and it’ll make for a pretty romantic off the cuff date, stay out till midnight and into Valentines. Love is in the air and it’s all free too. 

Ok so that’s seven more ideas to my initial seven eating ideas, good luck with whatever you’re planning this weekend and I hope you have a great Valentines. Just keep in mind, it’s about spending time with her and the thought that counts.

Do let me know if the suggestions turn out to be a smashing success (or an epic failure)!

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It would be injustice if I – as a food blogger – apparently independent and a rebel against the establishment did not blog about these two food gems floating about the internet at the moment.

Show your veggie love

First up is that banned superbowl PETA advertising campaign which had super hot and healthy supermodels parading around and looking like they are having too much fun with vegetables.

I think the idea is  copywriting genius and what better way to make vegetables sexy than to pair them up with sexy beings. I fully concur with Jay the gastronaut about the way US media is treating this: 

Unhealthy fast food is okay, but vegetables aren’t? What a country! Not surprising, though, given the Janet Jackson fiasco five years ago, which made us the laughing-stock of the world for our Victorian attitudes related to sex. And vegetables, these days, in a way.

Come on, show your veggie love – Now go see the video at the PETA website.

The best complaint letter, ever.

Mr Branson must have spat his tea all over his missus upon reading this complaint letter about the horrendous service aboard a Virgin Atlantic flight. He addresses the letter to Richard Branson and starts off by saying he loves virgin and then references the first picture with the following commentary:

Look at this Richard. Just look at it: [see image 1, above].

I imagine the same questions are racing through your brilliant mind as were racing through mine on that fateful day. What is this? Why have I been given it? What have I done to deserve this? And, which one is the starter, which one is the desert?  

Seriously the letter just gets better and better as you read it. The Telegraph has a full reproduction of it here and I implore you to read the whole thing, because it’s really funny. If anybody knows this person – or the author is reading this, please get in touch with me, I will glady offer you a guest blog over at mine – or better yet, I will help you launch a blog because mate, whoever you are, you have a talent to complaint.

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I’d like to think that London has an atmosphere for love, lots of intimate hidden away places where two people can duck away from the loud lights of the urban jungle and gaze into each other’s starry eyes until the candles wither away. It’s little over three weeks to V and I’ve compiled a short list of a few valentine restaurant / going out ideas if you are still scratching your heads.

1. Dine at home

While Gordon Ramsay and Michelin are indulgent names, I think it’s abit Bruce Wayne and boring to just go out to a busy fine dining restaurant for V, why not surprise your better half with a dinner at home? I’m sure everybody loves surprises and you could easily turn your boudoir into a lovenest with a few simple ideas.

Pick up these items for mood:
a. Tea candles (for swaying moody lights)
b. Rose petals (for dramatic effect on the bed)
c. Adorn the walls with red linen, satin or silk.
d. Get a good Jazz CD , I’d go with Ella Fitzgerald.
e. Lots of flowers.

Make sure you pick up good cutlery/china ( now would be a good time to use the stuff in the wardrobes) and lay out your usual dinner table with a perfectly white table cloth and stick a rose and a fat candle in the middle of the table. Get olives too.

If you know how to cook – then all the better, if not, you might be interested in this do-it-at-home four course hamper from Villandry. Basically, it’s a precooked meal from the Villandry foodstore & restaurant delivered to your place of choice and all you got to do is serve it. The mains include lobster & tarragon mayonnaise and roasted garlic potatoes and puds cover a Dark chocolate truffle cake with compote of cherries and kirsch. £37.50 for 3 courses. There are more choices and all the details here.

Laying out a table is not difficult, but if you require assistance here is more info. Otherwise, remember you need a small plate for bread, a spoon for soup, small knife & fork for entréeand the big ones for main and a tea spoon for puds. Roll the napkin in a funky way on the bread plate, pull the chair for the lady as she ‘arrives’ for dinner, light the candle with an old school match , put the cd on and gaze deeply into the woman’s eyes.

2. Cambio de Tercio

If you must eat out, then go to my all time favourite restaurant, it serves modern Spanish food, everything tastes amazing, the low lights, dark walls and white table cloths are really moody. It’s not too pricy (£50pp I’d say) , staff are friendly, I could go on and on… I visit at least once every quarter and the last time (twice) I did a Valentine’s here, the night ended really well. Full review here.

3. Dans le Noir?

What could be more sensual and exciting than dining in complete and total darkness? You can let your imagination run wild about the stuff you can do above the table with no one watching… and I’d like to keep this site PG-13 so I won’t go into anymore detail. Do note that there are UV cameras monitoring the room. For sheer novelty factor, there really is no better place to dine than at Dans le noir to be quite honest, you might have to check to see if they have availability, if not, the next day, but whatever it is – you must go at least once – not for food, but for everything else. Full review here.

4. Ronnie Scotts

I did call and they only have standing seats left, £30 pp . This legendary jazz lounge will remind you of those Noir movies with voiceovers (Casablanca) , the band is really really good and Natalie Williams is playing on that night. Conveniently located a few steps from Barrafina and Arbutus. Official Site here.

5. Sushi Hiro

It’s out of the way, its tiny, its dingy it’ll just be the two of you chatting away about heaven and everything in between. You drop your tuna belly into the soya sauce and some of it gets on your shirt, you look up, she calls you an idiot and the two of you laugh the night away with sake. I think this still trumps any superstarred restaurant for romance on any day. Which reads better in a novel: meeting in a sushi bar which nobody knows about, or worrying whether your dress is more expensive than the woman a few tables down from yours? Your choice. Full review here.

6. Da Aldo

I’ve been waiting for weeks to reproduce this recommendation here.

The food is passable edible but you don’t come to Da Aldo’s for food. You come for romance. Let me set the scene. It is a cold Febraury evening, the clouds are threatening to make you wet. A busy and bustling soho crowd knocks your gloves to the ground but then a tall, dark and lean gentlemen picks it up for you muttering the words in a much too posh standard R.P. accent…

” I believe these are yours? ”

Both of you just happen to be standing outside the quaint tratorria the insides so small, neighbouring diners are literally rubbing shoulders, and your sexy sir in shining armour continues…

“Hungry?”

You peek inside and you see the burgundy walls, aged wooden booths, 70s style table cloths, those dim low lights and Robert De Niro look-alikes waiting on the diners. What do you say? Full Review here.

7. Da Mario

This was Lady Diana’s favourite Italian restaurant before she passed. The restaurant is small, has lots of low hanging plants and pictures of the owner through the years. Legend has it, Mario created the first pizzeria in London several years ago and he was also responsible for pizza express’s dough. They do the Diana special on weekends, you must go, cheap, cheerful and full of soul. Official Site.

That’s it, those are my seven recommendations for something romantic to do when V day arrives. Make sure you book early to get in front of the queue. I hope this little list inspired some great ideas for you and whatever you do, as long as you show you care, that’s all that matters.

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*Post Update 23/01/2009* I should have mentioned Lantana’s Scrambling Eggs blog. 

You’ve just had the meal of your life at Cambio de Tercio, it’s a fine Spanish restaurant. On their business card, they leave you a link to read the Cambio Blog. Upon opening firefox, you see that the blog is written by a number of staff, each of them giving a certain perspective from within the food industry. The younger chefs could have just returned from a gastro trip to Italy and learnt fresh new recipes to which he has published them on the blog. Another series of posts could be the chef’s ’open diary’ which allows you to follow the train of thought of how a dish was created. There could even be ‘biased’ guest posts from diners and plenty of shots of the food, ingredients. Better yet, a dedicated ‘fan blogger’ reporting about the restaurant from behind the stove.

Would you read that?

The rise of the corporate blog

Let’s face it, there’s a blog for everything these days and these kind of official diaries -the corporate blog- are growing in popularity. Heck, even the White House has a blog now. ( oh yes, read it here )

This idea ain’t really that strange since more and more businesses are now embracing Web 2.0 , and most restaurants have already snazzy jazzed their websites and some even send out email newsletters informing their clientele of monthly specials or any other news. I receive Hibiscus‘s newsletter personally and the latest one reported Claude being re-awarded his second star.

Of course if you are a restaurant owner, your question would most likely be ‘is it worth it?’. I think the short answer is ‘Yes, if done right’. Same can be said of all things to be honest.

What is a food blog?

Before we get any further, lets just think about what a blog does – it helps promote a message and a brand. Successful blogs are read by millions because we find the content worthwhile. The best way to judge what works and what doesn’t is to look at what’s already out there: Food Blogs. Broadly categorizing them, we have three major types: 

1. Recipes, eating in
2. Eating out
3. Commentary 

Of course that’s just a sweeping statement – no two blogs are really ever the same, but the ones that make the big time are all because the author has genuine passion for their topic, and thus would have alot to say about it. I read and discover lots of food blogs all the time, but I rarely come across one which is written from the other side of the stove. Would it make for a great read? I think it would, I’d certainly read it. In fact, let’s brain storm a few flagship post ideas which would be easy to put up:

1. What it’s like to wait on a busy weekend
2. Sommelier musing of the week: Why I think pinot rocks
3. The real kitchen equipment the pros use
4. What I cook when I’m not a chef
5. The myth of buying in bulk
6. Meet my meat man

The ideas are endless and take almost no time to write up to be quite honest. It would just be a kind of reflection on doing the job and for restaurant fans (like myself) , stuff like that would just be interesting. It needn’t be maintained by one person, everybody can chip in and get involved, not only does it help market the professionalism of the restaurant staff, it helps build a personal connection too because I’d know who’s cooking my food on tuesdays (let’s say). The truth of the matter is people love to gossip, it’s the same reason why fly-on-the-wall docummentaries have made a power mad perfectionist swearing chef  from Glasgow one of the country’s biggest celebrities. The blog is just an extension of that idea.

Success stories

Brewdog- A scotch beer business – made the big time shifting their products with the help of bloggers propping their ‘internet street cred’ as it were in this Times Online article:

Watt ( Co-founder of Brewdog ) found the most popular bloggers in each country and sent free samples to them. Having built a following, they convinced local importers to sell their beer and international orders took off. Today exports account for 80% of sales.

They have a blog too, not quite updated on consistent enough basis to be brimming with content – but you can see the potential. Vinoteca , a bar & wine shop in London also maintain a blog. We all know how important word of mouth is and the reputation of a restaurant is quite an essential aspect to it’s success.

Though as both a food lover and an internet user ( as weird as that sounds ) , reading compelling blog posts and coming away learning new stuff is an added plus. 

How will it work?

Is a blog difficult to maintain? – well, as I just pointed out: no; provided everybody chips in. Is a blog expensive to maintain? Well no. Most restaurants already have websites, just slap on cms software, get a camera to take pictures and blog. Even better yet – get a blogger.com or wordpress.com hosted blog and try it for free. 

Will people instantly find it amazing? If the content is worthwhile, compelling and a damn good read – then why yes of course. And when people find it amazing, they’ll read more about the restaurant and they’ll want to eat the food and tell all their friends about the restaurant. Now that’s better, cheaper and more effective than any advertising campaign or relying ( and paying ) on royal mail to ensure your fliers are delivered before the August bank holiday weekend.  

That’s just my two pennies of a new wave of food content I’d like to read. What about you, do you think this would make a smashing blog idea? Would you want to follow your favourite restaurant’s new offerings?

Discuss. 

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In London, it’s no real secret that restaurants go for the jugular when it comes to liquid offerings. As if the food is not expensive enough, ( the typical 3 course meal in London was the most expensive in the world 2 years ago ) it would appear that restaurants are always hunting for ways to rack up your bill (plus, plus) . I haven’t got any restaurant bills on hand, but I have definitely been forking out between £3.50 and £5.00 for a bottle. Let’s just do a quick crunch, I’ve reviewed 31 places so far, let’s say I paid £3.50 per visit per bottle (which I have) , that’s equal to £108.50 … or roughly two and a half dinners. Ouch.

Uttering the words ‘tap’ is near blasphemy in some establishments and one cannot help but feel bullied into making a choice. Even the question itself suggests tap water is not an option, and indeed some restaurants actually do refuse tap to customers (Believe me, I’ve been refused a couple of times). On the other hand, I actually quite enjoy drinking mineral water. However, a two litre bottle of Evian is only 70p at the local Sainsbury, I doubt a Speyside or a Perrier costs much more than Evian, especially if the restaurant is buying in bulk.

Ok let’s get on the discussion of choice –since we are obliged to make one- what would one choose? I used to always go still, I think the majority of Brits go still as well (well, we’ll put that to a vote) . In continental Europe, it’s a totally different story. Only sparkling, anything else is just weird. Having been brainwashed by a German ex for a year, I too, now go sparkling, however I can still do still if I have to. S.Pellegrino if I really have a choice.

Having said that, some restaurants do offer filtered water (complimentary I might add) to guests, Strada springs to mind. They even put it in a nice glass bottle on the table on to which the label tells you that it’s filtered, I think it is a pretty nice gesture. In fact, I might even add that the elitist viewpoint of not serving tap is beginning to change, what with the Evening Standard’s ‘Water on Tap’ campaign to rid restaurants of the still or sparkling culture; There is a harmonious dream of a future where all restaurants only serve free flowing (and free) tepid tap to all diners. There’s even a list of the restaurants who’ve signed up to this campaign so far.

With the recent sad news of Aaya’s passing into the history books (I hadn’t even had a chance yet), restaurants can do no wrong cutting back on the plus plus’ and replace them with ‘nice gestures’ to keep people coming back in hard times. Here’s a suggestion Mr restaurant owner reading this, you could be breaking new ground by offering a ‘complimentary’ glass (or two) of a choice of still or sparkling, better yet complimentary filtered water on the table (in a nice jug for dramatic effect) would be quite a nice gesture.

It’d save me the cost of two and a half dinners at the very least.

What about you? Are you still, sparkling, tap, perhaps you only drink liquidise courage? Votes and comments are welcomed.
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So far, the favourite cuisine (s) are tied with Italian and Japanese both with 8 votes each. The next favourites are Spanish, Chinese, Indian & mediterranean each with 4 votes. French & Brit (Yeah!) food get 3 votes , Thai with 2 and German, Korean & Vietnamese all with 1 vote. 3 of you said ‘none’ and I suspect it has alot to do with the ommission of Mexican from the list ……….

………so that’s why I’ve decided to add Mexican to the polls!

It is very refreshing to see that no one chose fast food as their favourite, the allegations of a modern society in love with nasty foods – according to my completely unofficial poll- is so far unfounded.

As I’ve said, I’m keeping the polls open indefinitely ( so please vote ! ) and it’ll be interesting to see if a new favourite cuisine emerges. For now , there is a 34% chance that you are craving either Italian or Japanese food.

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