My first encounter with: FOOD BLOGS!

 

As I’m more of a book-type and prefer to work with something old-fashioned called “cookbooks”, I’ve never read any food blogs at all. Whenever I cook (which is not something unusual for me – I love cooking and especially baking cakes) I use one of my Mom’s grand collection of cookbooks, cook magazines or hand-written recipe collection (yes, also my Mom is fanatic about cooking..). I love browsing through the books and magazines and looking at the pictures and admiring all those mouth-watering photos of the perfectly prepared meals. When I come across something that looks extraordinarily yummy I either try to cook it myself, or if it’s something more advanced, I ask my Mom if she could try to cook it for me on one of her free days. 

Well, back to food blogs! Once I started to search the Internet for food blogs, I couldn’t stop! I think that food blogs offer a lot more advantages than ordinary cookbooks. First, food blogs are a lot more personal (or “friendlier”, as someone had already mentioned in class). You can always add your own story behind the recipe, how you created it, for whom you cook it, why you like it so much and so on. In a cookbook, this wouldn’t be possible, as it’s mostly about the recipe – not about the writer! The food blogger can also mention suggestions how you can vary the ingredients in order to improve the dish. Also the fact that you can exchange your own experiences with others is a great benefit. Especially when you’re vegetarian, vegan or have any kind of intolerance it might be helpful to talk to others who go without the same aliments as you do. 

Another big advantage of food blogs is that they are for free. Sure, you might think now, of course they are free, that’s nothing new. But think of it, for example you want to cook a special Asian dish you ate last time at a Chinese restaurant. You either buy a whole book with Asian recipes just for that one recipe– or you look for it on the Internet where you can find at least 9305 variations of that certain dish you liked so much. Isn’t that convenient? ;)

This is one of the blogs that fascinated me most: http://eatlikeagirl.com/

The author is an Irishwoman, currently living in London, who travels a lot and reports about her food experiences in the world. She also writes about her own recipes and she even offers cooking lessons.

While reading this blog, I started to think of which “typical” dishes from other countries I’ve already tried and I came up with this list: 

• Berlin: German Currywurst with "Pommes rot-weiß" ... quite heavy, but definitely worth a try!

• Munich: Bavarian veal sausage ... horrible! I only ate the bretzel, I wasn't able to swallow tha sausage.. 

• London: Fish and Chips ... wouldn't like to eat it every day, but every now and then it's fine

• London: Marmite ... Marmite is a vegetarian, spicy spread made of yeast extract. I tried Marmite while staying at a host family near London. My host sister was crazy about Marmite and ate it like 3 times a day. The slogan of Marmite is "Love it or hate it" - and I can cleary say that I don't love it!

• Paris: crisp baguette with brie cheese ... so simple, but still a delicacy unfortunately I was too young to trink a glass of wine ;)

•  Barcelona: I dare to say that I've tried almost everything that the Spanish cousine offers as I go there every year to visit a friend, whose father is a cook/waiter in a really posh restaurant. My favourites are definitely flan (caramel pudding) and empanadas, filled with red pepper and tuna.

• New York: Cheese Burger ... The first thing I ate in the USA was a really biiig cheese burger in a diner near 5th avenue... I guess I was the only one of my family who really liked the food there... ;)

• Rome: Pizza, Pasta, Gelato! ... I guess, everyone knows what I'm talking about..

• Taichung (Taiwan): Sun cakes and pineapple cakes ... I wasn't in Taiwan myself, but I know a Taiwanese girl who gave me original Taiwanese cakes as a present.. quite different to our cakes, a bit drier I would say.. but still yummy!

•  Quebec: maple sirup ... During my holidays in Canada, I also visited a maple plantation where we had a very delicious dinner. I don't remember exactely the dishes, but everything contained maple sirup, even the gravy! After the last course, the waiter poured maple sirup on ice. It thickened and we rolled it up with little sticks and ate it that way.. Definitely one of the best things I've ever tried!

  And now to the "most exotic" thing I've ever tried:

• Somewhere in the middle of Scotland: Haggis. Haggis is a savoury pudding containing sheep's heart, liver and lungs, which are usually simmered in the animal's stomach.
  I actually thought it would be a lot worse, but due to the onions and different herbs, I didn't taste any meat at all. I only tried a spoon-full of it as it was offered for free in our hotel at the breakfast buffett. But speaking honestly, I wouldn't order it in a restaurant or even cook it myself!