ReviewerCard: Douchiest Blog Trend Ever?

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Sometimes I’m embarrassed to tell people I am a food blogger.

Weird, right? I mean, clearly there’s no inherent shame in it. I love to write, I love social media, and I absolutely love cooking, developing recipes, and going out to eat. It’s natural that these interests would drive me to share my culinary experiences on the Internet. I’ve been lucky to be incorporated into Endless Simmer—the writers here are personable, hilarious, and truthful (to the point of offending people with our various opinionated stances and language, which I think is funny). What we are not is unethical, entitled or pretentious. I will just as happily proclaim my love for Taco Bell as I will for rare farmers market produce. We’re not too cool for anything here and we love to make fun of ourselves.

If I receive a product to review, I mention in my post that I received it to review. If I go to a new restaurant I plan on writing about, I do NOT heavy-handedly announce to my server that “I’M A FOOD BLOGGER” and make a big deal of setting up my laptop and camera while whining about wanting perfect service and free dessert and better lighting so I can take a million artsy photos of my glass of wine. I pay for everything and I don’t try to namedrop my blog to every staff member within earshot. Let’s keep it real: writing about novelty hot dogs on the internet should not be cause for restaurants to grovel at my feet.

Not everyone shares my sentiment, though. While there are plenty of wonderful food writers and reviewers on the internet, as you know there’s also a disturbing amount of self-important buffoons. These days, every hack with a free Yelp account thinks they’re the next Ruth Reichl, when in truth they are anything but. Which is why I hate, hate, HATE the idea of this ridiculous ReviewerCard.

Here’s the backstory behind the creator of this completely superfluous new “membership card and community”:

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Camera Etiquette for Food Bloggers

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We’ve all done it at some point. A dinner plate comes our way and we’re so excited about what has come before us that we whip out the camera and snap a picture. Sometimes we might even take a picture because the food looks terrible. I’m sure many of you foodies have done that too.

For those of us who blog about food it’s a pretty safe bet that we carry around a camera or other mobile device to record a dish that we’ve eaten, either to show it off to friends or for a story.

I’ve been looking for a particular shot of an appetizer for a recent post and I recalled Ulah Bistro on U St serving some tasty apps, including their chicken wings, which was exactly what I was looking for. I was seated at the bar, myself and my other half were the only ones there so I got out my camera and started taking a couple of snaps…Within seconds the bartender shouted across the bar to me: “Why are you taking pictures, is there something wrong with the food?” in a tone that was borderline aggressive.

My response was somewhat mute as I was stunned, I did reply with a “No, the food is good” as it was, but I still felt like I had been reprimanded by my mother. And living in DC we’re all too familiar with photographer rights.

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The Top 10 Top 10 Food Lists

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You know we love our Top 10 lists here at Endless Simmer. So today we’re spreading the love around the web and shouting out the funniest food stories we’ve ever seen presented in list format: the very meta Top 10 Top 10 Food Lists:

10. Top 10 Songs With Sexually Suggestive Food Metaphors: From Tom Waits’ strawberry sundae surprise to MC Lyte’s hot peas and butter, the Frisky brings us the dirrrrtiest food songs of all time. Wait, I seriously thought that “peaches” song was just about peaches.

9. Top 10 Creepiest Fast Food Mascots: Remember that nasty Quizno’s rat/hamster thing? Seriously, what marketing exec OK’d that? And did you know Ronald McDonald used to be even weirder than he is now? Fanpop’s list will keep you up at night.

8. Top 10 Food and Drink Hacks: Lifehacker gets all Macgyver on your kitchen cabinet, with tips on how to build a fire from chocolate and Coke, freeze perfectly clear ice cubes, and open a beer bottle with one sheet of paper (seriously!)

7. Top 10 Sightings of Religious Figures in Food: That Virgin Mary is one hungry broad! Girl be showing up everywhere from grilled cheese to Cadbury’s. This list has her and her boy tracked.

6. Top 10 Uniquely ’80s Foods: Oh, hit me up with some Capri-Sun and California Raisins! Serious Eats has this nosh-talgic list, although I don’t know how they forgot Ecto Cooler.

Next: 1-5 of the Top 10 Food Lists