Local Food Blogs

[Kentan]

Just found this - on Urbanspoon they have the Vancouver Blog Leaderboard. Get this - as of this writing there are no fewer than 152 Vancouver food blogs! My god there are a lot of people out there taking photos of their food.

Top 15 this week:

1.......Sherman's Food Adventures

2.......Chow Times

3.......I'm Only Here for the Food!

4.......Vancouver Slop

5.......Ho Yummy

6.......Noshwell

7.......Follow Me Foodie

8.......Hummingbird604.com

9.......Victoria's Food Secrets

10......f o o d o s o p h y

11......Timing and Delivery

12......The Bon Vivant Blog

13......My Secret Eden

14......Deeeelish

15......Ethnic Eats

I'd like to get into a discussion of everyone's favourites at some point - once I've digested a few more of these webpages.

I'd like to find a blog that gives both the good and the bad. E.g. - "If you don't like Cactus Club you won't like this place." Or "If friendly service isn't a big issue for you, then this place is great since the food is amazing." Many reviews seem to be coloured by the reviewers' reaction to service.

Fmed, nondual1, barolo, scargo, DylanK - do you have a favourite or two? I do like Chow Times but I find he's not very critical of most restaurants unless they're really appalling. I go there to source out places to eat and then also check out what other reviewers have said. And there must be some good Vancouver food blogs out there in other languages - Urbanspoon seems to be exclusively English blogs, though I haven't gone through all 152...

[fmed]

I do like Chowtimes for its approachability. I don't think Ben is attempting to be a critic. He's merely providing narrative about their experiences eating about town.

I don't know of any non-English blogs, but Dylan posted about this one...http://www.wretch.cc/blog/blackrumba/

Regarding that Urbanspoon list...it is interesting to note that 8 perhaps 9 of the top 10 blogs are run by Asian bloggers. I think that these bloggers are filling a void that is largely being ignored by traditional-media food writers (most of whom just don't understand the Asian palate and way of dining).

[barolo]

Thanks for posting that list Kentan. I haven't been following any blogs lately but the list inspires me to do some reading and see if there's a couple that I might want to bookmark.

[barolo]

Regarding that Urbanspoon list...it is interesting to note that 8 perhaps 9 of the top 10 blogs are run by Asian bloggers. I think that these bloggers are filling a void that is largely being ignored by traditional-media food writers (most of whom just don't understand the Asian palate and way of dining).

I agree about bloggers filling the void with regard to Asian cuisine. I'm not Asian and really don't have a clue, but blogs and folks like Canucklehead, you, Kentan and others have helped me learn much more than any traditional media source.

[DylanK]

I'd love to be proven wrong, but good Vancouver-centric Chinese-language food blogs seem to be rare. Fmed linked to one that has some decent reviews on it, and some dope food photography. If you root through Chinese-language web forums, like Westca 北美中文网, for example, you can find some okay stuff, but a lot of it is people posting pictures of meals at Cactus Club--this is revenge for all of the Canadians that go to China and post about hotel Chinese food on their blogs ("Hey, guys, you gotta check out the Xi'an Sofitel for authentic and delicious cumin lamb!")-- and stuff like food court meals get treated pretty rudely (ie. a chorus of people saying, "Steer clear of food courts! I ate some noodles there once and got sick!"-- rich Mainland kids). So, nobody is writing about street-level Vancouver Chinese food in a serious way, in English or Chinese, as far as I can see.

In general, when it comes to food blogs, I'm sorta sick of food reviews. I think a lot of food blogs are glorified Yelp reviews, these days. There are some bright spots out there, but it's generally pretty formulaic and boring: This is what I ate; it tasted good/it tasted bad; service was good/bad. Then a big glossy picture of the thing. But, like, no attempt to communicate beyond that.

There are two options, I think. 1) Give me some emotion, some personality, some feeeeeling. Tell me about the experience, how it made you feel, what it reminded you of. Shoot, tell me who you are, even. This is why I dig Chowtimes. It has a face. Don't be a food review robot. Or, 2) if you can, give me some information: what's the history of the place? What's the history of the food? Who's cooking it? What does that mean?

I read lots of local blogs. There's lots of good stuff. But those are the things that tend to bug me.

I'll single out foodosophy, which I think is the most consistently satisfying local food blog, whether it's gastronomydomine talking about Chinatown favorites or doing a scientific banh mi comparison, or shokotsu on Korean and Japanese places.

Edited April 13, 2010 by DylanK (log)

[barolo]

Thanks for your insightful comments and recommendations DylanK. It is tough to blog well for a long period of time it seems. I didn't realize how few local food blogs I was still reading until Kentan asked for recommendations.

[grayelf]

Dylan is going to be way too humble to mention it but he has just started a food blog that looks mighty promising. I'll leave it to him to post the link if he feels so inclined.

[DylanK]

Haha, well... if you can stand food blogs with no pictures and lots of rambling personal anecdotes: http://jiaoqu.blogspot.com/

[Kentan]

Haha, well... if you can stand food blogs with no pictures and lots of rambling personal anecdotes: http://jiaoqu.blogspot.com/

Dylan I'm impressed that you didn't just complain about the state of blogging in Vancouver. You went out and created your own blog that very same day!

And a very enjoyable read it is! Your writing style is very engaging - you definitely tell a bit of a story which makes it more than just a food review. The historical context is really valuable as well. And I like that you've got both the Chinese characters as well as the pronunciation and the English translation. That's helpful.

Those braised pork buns (肉夹馍 Ròujiāmó) look insanely good. I've got to hit Xi'an Xiaochi the next time I'm in Richmond. Looking forward to more of your recommendations....