Category: Musings

Food trends reshaping travel is not new

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The BBC recently featured an article entitled: Why travellers keep queueing for viral food and the short answer is because a lot of people are lemmings and social media has made even more people into lemmings than were lemmings before.

But that’s too short for a blog post so…

Speaking as someone who loves food and travel, I can honestly say I am not waiting an hour to get anything described as a ‘viral food.’

Which was my exact position in 2016 when Grub Street published an article entitled: “The Ridiculous Rise of Viral Food and the Great Line Apocalypse” about people waiting for 2 hours for “freakshakes” and rainbow bagels.

Remember freakshakes? I did my best to forget these monstrosities

So none of this is new – not the lines, not the weird trends, not my attitude towards the same.

And this isn’t because I am contrary (though some will say I am) but because the reason these things go viral almost never has anything to do with how they taste and more to do with wanting to be ‘in on’ the latest thing and the shock value of what has been done to these poor foods.

The subtitle of the BBC piece is: “Experts explain how FOMO, social proof and performance culture have turned ordinary snacks into global must-queue experiences” and it features psychologists pointing out that “these lines aren’t really about the food at all; they reveal how social media, status and performance are reshaping modern travel” So, the docs and I are on the same page – none of this is actually about the food. The food is a prop.

The article also says that “[Social media] gives tourists a stage on which to perform their vacation,”

Not unlike the days gone by when people used to bore their friends senseless with slides of their travels during cocktails. Which I like to think I wouldn’t have done either.

Look, I’m not someone who suffers much from FOMO – I’ll pass GLADLY on freakshakes, gold flecked burgers, and hybrid pastries that look like they ate Rhode Island.

I don’t really film stuff, much less myself and I am definitely not filming myself eating. Besides, I am a static photo sort of gal. And we’re off to Lanzarote tomorrow so there will be photos of food, cats, landscape and the like. But unlike slideshows of yore in days gone by when you were trapped on the sofa with the sound of the slide projector humming in your ear, you can scroll past

And I don’t really have anyone I need to offer’ social proof’ to. I mean, sure, I could tell you guys that I had an amazing burger or had my mind blown by a doughnut. And I probably would. But not to PROVE I had it. But to share the joy of an amazing burger and mind-blowing doughnut. But I would only do so IT IS WAS ACTUALLY an amazing burger or a mind-blowing doughnut. Not because I finally had some weird Fraken-burger or doughnut spiked with pretzels that all the ‘influencers’ have been saying is amazing or mind-blowing.

Bite-Size Trip Down Memory Lane

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I was digging through some old pieces I’d written a lifetime ago and I came across this bit from 2009 – which I think I still rather like:

“Street food is more than just a tasty morsel eaten on the run. It’s great food plus the thrill of the hunt. It’s the absolute bliss of realizing you’ve reached the corner of Broadway and 17th just as the Wafels & Dinges truck has pulled up. If you think ‘bliss’ is laying it on a bit thick, this is because you have not had a dessert waffle from Wafels & Dinges.”

Musing on Great American Pies Month

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February is, apparently, Great American Pies Month. It may or may not surprise you to know that it appears to have been the brainchild of Crisco brand shortening.

But ignoring the brand behind the idea, the idea of a Great American Pie got me thinking. A ‘great’ pie would be a well-made, delicious pie no matter what the cultural origins. So what makes a pie an American Pie (movie notwithstanding).

Continue reading “Musing on Great American Pies Month” →

On The Cookbooks We Create

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Jay Rayner has been doing a weekly column on notable cookbooks – notable to him, to cooking, to cultural moments. I happen to love Rayner’s writing style and always read him anyway but these columns, every Sunday for the last few months, I have especially enjoyed. This week is the last one and it touches on the ‘cookbooks’ we create for ourselves, often not books at all but folders full of clippings, binders full of notes, etc.

It reminded me of my mother’s ‘cookbook’ which encompassed both folders full of clippings, spirals full of her absurdly neat handwriting. No, seriously you have no idea – she may drive me nuts but there is NO DENYING the woman has the best handwriting on earth. Don’t even start me on her colour-coded note taking. But I digress… Continue reading “On The Cookbooks We Create” →

When We Say ‘Barbecue’, Do We All Mean the Same Thing?

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As we just had lovely weather this weekend (and it looks like we might have more happening more frequently over the next couple of weeks, grill covers are being removed and Brits are starting to talk of BBQ.

Here’s the thing though. When they say BBQ – they mean grilling. They don’t mean BBQ in the sense that many Americans means BBQ (the cooking of meat for long periods of time at low temperatures with smoke from a wood fire).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of grilling. But it isn’t BBQ just because you use the grill. BBQ is a multi-faceted, often-debated, regionally varied thing in the States.  Of course, it will necessarily follow that laying out my views on what each style is and means, others will have differing views and won’t hesitate to share them.

That’s fine. It’s a big broad, barbecue-y world – and I did mention ‘often-debated.’ Continue reading “When We Say ‘Barbecue’, Do We All Mean the Same Thing?” →