Saturday, November 01, 2008

How an Edible Book is Similar to a Food Blogger aka Socal Food Bloggers Unite!

There's a certain similarity between an edible book (in this case one made of cookie and frosting) and a food blogger. It's a surreal duet of food and art.

In the case of the edible book, it's creating literal art out of food where someone had to put some thought into it beforehand with the end result being something one can physically touch, smell and taste.

In the case of food blogging, it's creating written art describing an initial sensory experience with food with the end result being something that someone can vicariously touch, smell, taste, hear and see (at least at first). There's certainly nothing stopping the reader from indulging in their own tasty reality once they step away from their computer.

In the end, both the edible book and the food blogger's words could eventually feed the body, but what makes the food blogger stand out between the two is that their prose first feeds the mind, and if after partaking of the heady descriptions of that boldly flavored duck and fig appetizer or the delicate sweet hotness of the ancho chile flan, one becomes inspired to seek that food, than it's easy to see that there really is an art to being a food blogger.

So why am I waxing so poetically about food bloggers? Well, why not? It's my blog after all and what better use for a photo of an edible book than somehow using it as a comparison to food bloggers.

However, my reasons may be slightly more selfish than that. For the past year, I've been privileged to meet quite a few food bloggers through a variety of means and how refreshing it is to not be the only one taking out my camera to take photos of my meal. In fact, at one recent Foodbuzz dinner, it was almost surreal to see 15 to 18 cameras come out to take photos of one course after another. For once, I actually left my camera inside my purse just so that I could watch the show. It's been a pleasure and a honor meeting these wordsmith artists in person and it just hit me that I don't want to wait for outside forces to necessarily get us together. Why not take destiny in our own hands?

On that note, having run my own dining club, Pleasure Palate, for the past 5 years, I definitely am comfortable organizing a group, so instead of tricks on Halloween, I decided to create, what I hope will be a treat, for my fellow Southern California Food Bloggers in the form of a Meetup Group simply called Socal Food Bloggers. My hope is that through Socal Food Bloggers, it'll give many of us a chance to meet face to face through dining out together as well as offer opportunities for us to network, exchange info and for more experienced bloggers to help mentor newer food bloggers.

So if you're a Food Blogger and my definition of a Food Blogger is someone who has a stand alone blog with at least of 70-75% of the content towards food and/or beverages, I'd love for you to join the group. To join the group, which is free and only requires a Meetup membership, which is also free, click here or for more information, please feel free to drop me a line at abby@pleasurepalate.com.

2 comments:

mattatouille said...

Hey Abby, nice post. Great writing. Loved it since the Yelp days. Anyways, I'd love to join SoCal food bloggers. Sorry I couldn't meet you at the fooddigger events. I was invited but couldn't make it those days. There's another one coming up at Ford's Filling Station, so that should be interesting.

pleasurepalate said...

Hey Matt! I'm so glad you enjoy my writing. :) I'd love to have you join Socal Food Bloggers, so be sure to join at:

http://www.meetup.com/socalfoodbloggers/