I got a fever! And the only prescription.. is more foodblogs!

February 25, 2006 10:08 AM

What are your favorite food blogs?

I already read Too Many Chefs, Gluten-Free Girl, Lex Culinaria, and Chocolate & Zucchini on a regular (daily) basis. I check in on 101 Coobooks and Ideas in Food occasionally, but generally find them a little too...impractical? obtuse? for my taste and kitchen equipment.

I'm personally looking for blogs on the lines of the top set mentioned above, practical recipes with a dash of personal writing to liven things up. I'm omnivorous in terms of cuisines with an especial love for Indian, Thai, etc. I have no real food restrictions (not a vegetarian or celiac; I like Gluten-Free Girl because many of the recipes are pretty close to paleo, not because they're gluten-free, and because I love her writing style), but I cook more than bake, and don't eat many sweets or desserts. But I'm interested in anything and everything, so don't let those preferences limit your answers. I've looked through the links off the sites I've mentioned, but there are so many I'd like to narrow it down a bit.

What do you recommend, and why?

posted by fuzzbean to Food & Drink (39 answers total)

Chubby Hubby for mouth-watering photography and for "Cheeseburger cheeseburger cheeseburger":

If I were told that I had one last meal before I died and then I was given the choice between a super chic 15 course degustation meal cooked by Thomas Keller, Tetsuya Wakuda, Ferran Adria and Joel Robuchon and a perfect cheeseburger, the choice would be easy. I'd pick the burger without a moment's hesitation. [...]

posted by mbrubeck at 10:38 AM on February 25, 2006

I like Slashfood, which is very general. They do some fun stuff, like "Cook with Slashfood" where they have a recipe and go through it step by step, a lot of how-tos, food news, and much more. They tend to be pretty down-to-earth. I also enjoy Amateur Gourmet, for his writing and discussion of how he cooks, with lots of pictures. The restaurant reviews aren't of much use to me, but they are usually entertaining reads.
posted by synecdoche at 10:40 AM on February 25, 2006

The Amateur Gourmet can be fun to read when he cooks, but when he reviews upscale restaurants (a somewhat regular occurrence) I suspect him of being a bit of showoff.
posted by jenovus at 10:45 AM on February 25, 2006

Heh, at least we have a similar opinion, synecdoche.
posted by jenovus at 10:46 AM on February 25, 2006

I read a bunch of food blogs, including the ones you mention, and my absolute favorite is Orangette. I like her best because her writing is really good. I find that many food blogs are just a photo of whatever the blogger had for dinner and a dull commentary, but Molly at Orangette really seems to craft her posts.

My other favorite might not suit your requirements, but I think the photography and baking skills (though she includes cooking, too) over at Nordljus are a mix of inspiring and intimidating. Everything she posts is exquisite.

Like synecdoche, I also recommend Slashfood.
posted by katie at 11:10 AM on February 25, 2006

Besides Slashfood, I also enjoy The Gurgling Cod (lots of food posts but not food-exclusive--hip-hop and Boston, among other things, are competing obsessions) and I Heart Bacon (bacon- and Seattle-centric).
posted by box at 11:22 AM on February 25, 2006

I love The Joy of Soup, because soup rules all. Soup is like, the greatest thing ever, and the recipes there are amazing. There are occasional non-soup recipes too, and good links to other foodie blogs.

There's a mefite who has a great food blog, but I'm drawing a blank right now.
posted by iconomy at 11:24 AM on February 25, 2006

Oh, fuzzbean...the mefite with the foodblog that I was thinking of is you! How funny.

And I almost forgot to mention that we MetaChatters have a foodblog too, and welcome submissions of yummy recipes!

"I got a fever! And the only prescription.. is more foodblogs!" - nice.
posted by iconomy at 11:30 AM on February 25, 2006

Opinionated About Dining
Tasting Menu Blog
A La Cuisine
Chez Pim.
A large food blogs list at Kiplog
posted by growabrain at 11:55 AM on February 25, 2006

Here's one more I think is very well done: The Traveler's Lunchbox.
posted by katie at 12:02 PM on February 25, 2006

Shiok-Chef's Notes (rarely updates any more, but really great)
posted by evariste at 12:02 PM on February 25, 2006

Sautewednesday does tend to go on and on about really boring "sustainable farming" crap, but his "currently reading" links on the right side of the page are fantastic. I check that one a couple times a week.

Chaxiubao and HK Foodie are my source for HK Chinese food.

A lot of the time when I'm bored I'll just go to Foodpornwatch and click on whatever's been recently updated... that's a good way to see new stuff.

eGullet is more than a blog, but every week they pick one member and have that person write a mini-blog, which is often very good. It gives people a chance to foodblog even if they only have a few days' worth of material. Also, this ever-growing thread is like a "community foodblog."

My most favorite recent discovery: the huge quantity of Indian foodblogs out there. I like My Dhaba as it has a lot of recipes for stuff I wouldn't know how to make otherwise, or have never heard of in the first place. Desi food is the most inscrutable for me, and I'm happy any time I can get good instructions on it.
posted by rxrfrx at 12:12 PM on February 25, 2006

I have a food blog, which I don't especially like, and I don't especially like other food blogs.

I do like Slashfood a while bunch, though.
posted by solid-one-love at 12:15 PM on February 25, 2006

a whole bunch
posted by solid-one-love at 12:17 PM on February 25, 2006

The Accidental Hedonist
posted by phrits at 12:32 PM on February 25, 2006

I like Bloghungry for practical recipes, and I love how he always puts up a silly picture of himself with the food. Haverchuk is another favorite of mine -- always great writing.
posted by runtina at 12:40 PM on February 25, 2006

I like Cooking for engineers. The recipes are easy to follow, with systematic descriptions and many photos - like you could expect from a computer engineer.
posted by iviken at 12:57 PM on February 25, 2006

A fellow Montanan runs Something So Clever; I'm not much into food blogging, but she does indeed post some tasty-looking dishes.
posted by davidmsc at 1:27 PM on February 25, 2006

Tigers & Strawberries: she does some Indian dishes, I've seen Thai on there, and a good deal of personal talk about the different recipes. She goes into a *lot* of detail.

I also read Accidental Hedonist and Cooking for Engineers.
posted by Melinika at 1:41 PM on February 25, 2006

I really like Arthur Hungry. Shots of many great dishes from restaurants all over the world with a slightly Asian bent. No recipes that I know of, unfortunately, but plenty of pictures of yummy yummy toro.

In fact, I think he's a member here. I'm pretty sure I got his blog off his user page.
posted by ontic at 1:45 PM on February 25, 2006

Words to Eat By
posted by Kololo at 1:54 PM on February 25, 2006

I enjoy esurientes very much.
posted by JackarypQQ at 2:44 PM on February 25, 2006

Not a foodblog per se, but foodish, Waiter Rant is always good for some homespun waitron wisdom spiced with loathing. Good writer, provocative.
posted by Scram at 2:51 PM on February 25, 2006

Too Many Chefs. Several chefs of different backgrounds and habits contribute, keeping the entries, interests, and menus fresh.
posted by Elsa at 3:28 PM on February 25, 2006

a la carte
I'm mad and I eat
Butterpig
Beyond Salmon
Savouring the whole hog
Also here's a list of Australian foodies sites
posted by johnny7 at 6:11 PM on February 25, 2006

Here's your Indian
posted by johnny7 at 6:14 PM on February 25, 2006

Thanks to everyone for the great answers so far! I'll definitely be checking these out over the next few days.

iconomy, thanks! I'm so glad you enjoy it! (Would you mind sending me an email? Mine's in my profile--I'd love to know how to go about submitting recipes to the metachat site.)
posted by fuzzbean at 6:14 PM on February 25, 2006

iconomy--scratch that, didn't see that yours was in your profile too :P
posted by fuzzbean at 6:16 PM on February 25, 2006

Wow, now you've all given me way too many distractions than I need if I want to finish my thesis.

Special thanks to Elsa, because Too Many Chefs is a gem-- it is like Cook's Illustrated but hipper and free. :)
posted by synecdoche at 6:56 PM on February 25, 2006

And I just noticed that fuzzbean mentioned Too Many Chefs as well, so to be fair, thanks very much to both. :)
posted by synecdoche at 9:52 PM on February 25, 2006

Shiok-Chef's Notes (rarely updates any more, but really great)
posted by evariste at 1:32 AM IST


Thank you. :)

I will write more some day, I promise. Life's a bit too hectic right now.
posted by madman at 10:17 PM on February 25, 2006

Route 79 gets my double-thumbs up! Great Indian food recipes, with multiple pictures along the way.
posted by digitalis at 12:48 AM on February 26, 2006

(Oopsie.)
posted by Elsa at 5:28 AM on February 26, 2006

I feel kind of pathetic. I read over 20 foodblogs, and honestly there's not that many I feel comfortable recommending to someone else. Here are the ones I really do like that haven't been mentioned yet.
Vegan Lunch Box is awesome-every school day, a very devoted vegan mom makes adorable, delicous looking lunches for her son. I'm not vegan, but I'm addicted to seeing what he's going to have in his lunch every day. This lady is also about the only lady I trust to feed a child a healthy vegan diet-she puts tons of time into making sure he has healthy, well-balanced meals that still taste good. That said, I never use any of the recipes, and you probably won't either. But you will go YAY everytime you see it's updated.
Cakewhore is a LJ user and frequent Picturing Food contributer who makes gorgeous cakes-no recipes, usually, just pictures of amazing cakes made by a real person, not some robobakery.
I'm surprised no one mentioned Picturing Food. It's a LJ community where people post pictures of food. That's it. It's popular, but not too much so. The users are from all over.
posted by Juliet Banana at 6:43 AM on February 26, 2006

LJ Picturing Food is controlled by a religious fundamentalist who routinely bans users for really inoccuous things. I wouldn't recommend anyone participate. Some communities that were created in response: foodpics, foodplay.
posted by rxrfrx at 6:51 AM on February 26, 2006

Juliet Banana, Vegan Lunch Box looks amazing! What a treat this thread is!

I'm giving this another shot.

The Hungry Tiger, though infrequently updated, presents inventive daily vegetarian fare, and is charmingly written. Redfox uses a lot of flavors and techniques from Indian cuisine, which might make it especially suitable for your tastes.
posted by Elsa at 6:55 AM on February 26, 2006

Thank you. :)

I will write more some day, I promise. Life's a bit too hectic right now.
posted by madman at 10:17 PM PST on February 25 [!]

Ha! I love this place.
posted by evariste at 9:57 PM on February 26, 2006

NYCnosh. I believe he/they are AskMeFi-ites too.
posted by LGCNo6 at 12:56 AM on February 28, 2006

If you're hankering for Indian food, I have an awesome blogroll on my Naughty Curry blog. Really. They are my pretty little pets.
posted by courtney-clove at 12:45 PM on March 12, 2006