Food-tography Obsession

Masago = yum

Random Observation/Comment #259: I have been filling my void of writing here with status updates, tweets, buzzes, foodspotting food pic descriptions, yelp reviews, ted comments, and check-ins.  I guess the micro-blogging world has made me need the long streams of consciousness a bit less necessary. Of course, the daily dairy still lives on, yet there’s less of this (whatever this is) going on.  It seems less important when I usually talk about these subjects to the people I see and converse with in real life (woah… what’s that?).  I guess there are only so many people I can speak with, and only so many people that can tolerate me rambling on… fine, you convinced me. I’ll write more.

The sense of taste is such a beautiful thing.  When I was growing up, I would scarf it all down without a thought of the intricacies, but now it’s a little bit different.  After my mom trained me with her specialty home-cooked meals, I have tried my best to break down every taste into its ingredients and cooking style.  I try to recreate the masterpiece meals and I brainstorm about the secret technique or ingredient that brings it all together.  It helps with cooking, as well as, getting to know my meal better.

Every dish is art – in its preparation and its complex combinations.  When I watched Ratatouille, I related to the visual fireworks of tastes with every bite and chew.  Sweet, spicy, bitter, tangy, salty, and fruity only start the categories.  Once you pay attention to eating enough, every vegetable and every cooking style of dishes becomes its own taste.  We can then start to build our web of similar dishes in our mind and create our personal palette.   The consistency and the emotional rollercoaster of every meal is an adventure for me.  There’s just so much I haven’t tried yet that I feel like I must expand my palette and share what I’ve learned.

So what’s up with this food-tography obsession? I think it’s just the logical progression of 8MP cameras on smart phones, being stereotypically Asian with photography, and living in NYC – the best place to review restaurants.  NYC is home of all the Mom and Pop shops with every cuisine you could think of around every block.  I am immersed in culinary genius and I plan to take advantage of it.

The beauty of it all is that anyone can take pictures of food.  It’s so easy when you have smart phone cameras on macro mode with dual LED flashes, and an app to easily upload your food pictures to Foodspotting.  I guess the only thing you’ll have to get over is the ridicule of being a total geek.  After you’ve shed the sense of humility (or embraced the awesomeness), it’s actually quite fun and addictive.  You also start to become part of a global community of foodies.

I’ve been trying my whole life to slow down the world and remember everything in more detail – why not start with what I eat?  I think we’ve added that flare of art in every aspect of our lives enough to not just eat to live, but live to eat.  It doesn’t just apply to food…

~See Lemons Hungry