Are you a foodie? Or if that word makes you cringe… are you a food enthusiast, a gourmand, or perhaps a good old-fashioned glutton?
Usually you know a foodie [or insert alternative term here] when you see one, but in today’s day and age, perhaps the single best litmus test for being one is if you love to incessantly photograph your food and share it online. Or if you spend hours up late at night flipping through images of food on your iPad, that counts too…
The image above is courtsey of @chiestylee and has been liked 4769 times.
Ever seen any these terms thrown around?
If so, you’ve come to the right place. If not, feel free to keep reading to learn a little bit about the ecosystem where food meets photography meets #tech meets #social. At the very least, you’ll enjoy some mind-blowing #foodporn!
Before I continue, rest assured I am aware there exist legions of people who love food and love to eat but who wouldn’t even dream of photographing their food, because they’re just not that into photography, not tech-savvy enough, or maybe because they’re purists and believe the experience of eating should be enjoyed in and of itself, rather than consumed by the act of capturing it in real-time.
In fact, one could argue there’s a culture clash between the younger, hipper, tech-savvier folks who seem to be constantly whipping out their iPhone’s to snap a picture of every dish (even in settings where it may be frowned upon), and those who tend to be older and well, have manners.
Which one are you? I pride myself on being neither/both so I can simultaneously relate to this video and laugh at it at the same time:
OK. After that not-so-short moving image diversion, let’s get back to the business of still images and food photography…
While people have taken pictures of food since the early days of the camera, and we have had publications such as Food & Wine magazine for quite some time, it was really the birth of the digital camera that empowered the average person to snap pictures of food, as opposed to people and places, with reckless abandon.
Once the cost of film disappeared, the bar was lowered tremendously. I remember the early days of Flickr, one of the pioneers of online photo sharing, before they were acquired by Yahoo. There was really a gold rush of consumer photography that is beautifully described in a passage about the Brooklyn Mermaid Festival by Clay Shirky in his wonderful book Here Comes Everybody.
Even a mermaid’s gotta eat, right? Nathan’s Franks are oh so good.
With the advent of the smartphone, we are now living through a Cambrian explosion of #foodporn and #foodspotting, a term popularized by a startup with the same namesake: Foodspotting
Now almost everyone fancy themselves a (food) photographer, but that’s not a bad thing. Our very own @kimtaro helps build @foodspotting but is also a prolific foodspotter in his free time. He has spotted over 600 dishes, including this one, taken only a few short days ago in Tokyo:
And for those of you out there who not only love to eat, but who love to cook, check out @piarieu’s inspirational photos, displaying craftsmanship across three fronts: chef, food stylist and photographer.
Aubergine farci for dinner.
Poulet basquaise façon @pomverte.
Technology is not only revolutionizing how we take pictures of what we eat and/or cook, but it is empowering people who love to cook by lowering the barriers to entry in numerous ways. In a future blog post we will explore how the social web and mobile technologies are now enabling #foodpreneurs to pursue their culinary dreams in new ways, for the fraction of the cost.
I hope this post has temporarily satiated your hunger for foodporn, but I have a feeling some of you are just getting started and will find yourself surfing the social food web for a few hours yet.
Click on the image (courtesy of Pinterest) below for a good place to start!
Source: whatkatieate.blogspot.com via Foodspotting on Pinterest
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I just returned from a wonderful trip to Tokyo. It was my first trip back there since the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
Last year I arrived a couple days after the disaster, so even though Tokyo was largely spared, the mood was naturally quite somber, not to mention minor issues with power and transport. While I treasured that trip - believing in my own small way I was displaying a form of solidarity with the people of Nippon - many people had fled to the South or left the country altogether and there was a tangible feeling of fear in the air.
So you can imagine how happy I was to see life back to normal in Tokyo, especially during the beautiful Sakura and Hanami season!
This year’s trip was centered around my girlfriend who recently graduated from Bunka Fashion College and was preparing to move to Seoul. She’s been in Japan for almost four years, so she was sad to say goodbye, but also itching to jump back into the working world. Here she is literally jumping!
I was also able to catch up with my friends and former colleagues at Cerego (of iKnow! acclaim). The day after I arrived, we all got together for Hanami at Yoyogi Park. It was a pretty cold day, but that didn’t stop us from celebrating in style. Here’s Birkir, Kim and Simon keeping themselves warm with some beer:
Overall, my trip could probably be characterized as a journey of excessive eating and drinking. I actually attended four separate Hanami celebrations, all on different days and at different parks.
Here’s a picture of the Flutterscape/MONOCO team at Shinjuku Gyoen:
I used to work with Homer (on the far right). Too bad Hiro (CEO of Flutterscape/MONOCO) was too “busy” to join us…
And you see that box in the picture above? Inside was some delicious and colorful home-made cake that Ari’s wife made:
All play and no work makes Kirk a dull boy, so I made some time for work too. In the age of Skype, Dropbox and Google Docs, Santiago and I were able to get some things done from afar. And my good friend and Epicurely co-founder @Kimtaro happens to live in Tokyo, so we squeezed in a couple product and coding “power sessions” too!
Increasingly the line between business and pleasure is being blurred, as this photograph of Kim and my work-lunch demonstrates:
And we followed up a take-out lunch with a take-out dinner, picking up food from two different Taiwanese restaurants (below), as well as beer and umeshu. We had the privilege of being joined by the Plummer, who helped out with his HTML/CSS and javascript skills… and later Miwa, who helped out with eating, drinking and questions about my “life plan”.
I was lucky enough to eat many different kinds of delicious food, including lots of Japanese, of course, as well as Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Thai, Vietnamese and even some Texas-style barbeque and Chicago-style deep dish pizza. I dined at restaurants, izakayas and ate home-cooked food at parks and in people’s homes.
Perhaps the culinary highlight of the trip was eating at a traditional Japanese restaurant an hour or so outside of Tokyo, where Mimi and I visited an old family friend of hers. We had what seemed like an endless meal, including an epic presentation of huge clams, which were brought to our tables live and squirming and then cooked on individual burners right before our eyes. I wish I had a video but here are a couple pictures for you:
Every opportunity I had I conducted “market research” for Epicurely. I probed my friends, former colleagues, waiters, strangers and whoever would listen to see what they thought about the concept of social dining, dinner parties, in-home and pop-up restaurants, supper clubs, and the variety of ways in which food and people can be combined in new and creative ways.
As is usually the case, everyone had their own spin on things. Most were enthusiastic, some were skeptical, and yet my over-arching take away was that people who love to cook, and people who love to eat, have a desire to break bread with each other and share their culture through food and drink.
And before you go, allow me to tease you with images of one of my favorite Korean BBQ dishes, samgyeopsal:
Is your mouth watering yet?
Spring is finally here. No more Indian summers, no more teaser warm days and (hopefully) no more rain for a while! This time it should be for real. At least it feels that way in London today.
I love springtime because I get to spend more time outdoors. Spring is that time of the year when we store away our winter clothes and return to doing our favorite outdoors activities, even if just to enjoy some fresh air and sunshine. Growing up in tropical Colombia and Miami I didn’t really appreciate the wonders that spring can have on your mood and energy levels after a bitter, cold and wet winter. When I moved to the American North East, I learnt how to take advantage of those precious weeks in the year!
New York is beautiful in the spring. I used to enjoy getting friends together for a picnic at the park. If you’ve been to Central Park’s Sheep Meadow during this time of the year, you’ll know what I mean… every weekend, the green is literally packed with groups of friends enjoying the good weather and having fun outdoors. Many of them are sunbathing trying to get a little color on, others are playing cards or classic games like Twister, there’re always a group or two throwing frisbees or kicking a football around, and of course, many are just sharing a few snacks and perhaps sipping some chilled rosé.
Picnics are a wonderful way to enjoy the company of your friends and loved ones. It’s not surprising that cultures around the world have their own versions of these gatherings. In Japan, for instance, an important part of the ritual is about appreciating the cherry blossoms, which flourish in specific days at the end of March or early April every year. These hanami (花見) gatherings can run well into the night and are typically accompanied by delicious Japanese snacks and maybe a few drinks. If you’re curious to learn about the hanami tradition in Japan, Kirk wrote a great post about that last week.
The weather in London is probably not ideal for picnics most of the year, but that also explains why Londoners are especially eager to head outdoors as soon a bit of spring sunshine breaks through. I went out for a run in Hyde Park last week and there were dozens of groups gathering in the green just south of Speakers Corner having picnics. I wasn’t surprised at all, given the weather was close to perfect that day - sunny and only slightly cool - but I was curious to peek around and see what sort of snacks people were sharing. I saw plenty of the usual fruit salads, charcuterie, sandwiches, and chips, but I also noticed a couple of groups having Middle Eastern mezze (e.g. hummus and other spreads, kibbeh, falafel) as well as a Japanese couple with onigiri and Shōchū!
That’s one of the things I love about London: it’s such a melting pot of cultures! A sample of Hyde Park picnics was the perfect proof of that. And… I’ll close by noting to other football (soccer!) fans out there, that I was pleased to see more footballs than I would have expected in frisbee-dominated Central Park!
For those of you who don’t already know, all three of us (co-founders) at @Epicurely have a special connection to the Land of the Rising Sun. @Kimtaro currently lives in Tokyo and both @SirTeno and I (@mcmurrak) have lived there in the past.
And guess who will be visiting Japan in less than two weeks? Yours truly.
I’ll be arriving just in time to celebrate hanami, which is the traditional Japanese custom of enjoying the beauty of the “sakura” or cherry blossoms. Festivals are held all over Japan and typically they include lots of delicious food, free flowing drinks and at night beautiful lanterns.
It is very common for groups of friends to gather together for an outdoor picnic. Everyone brings various food and drink and there’s usually a mix of delicious home-made treats, food prepared on-site or at nearby vendor, as well as snacks purchased en route from the “konbini” (convenience store). There’s also lots of “biiru” (beer), “chuhai” (Japanese alcoholic soft drink) and “sake” to wash it all down.
Here’s a great photo of a full spread courtesy of @durf:
Click on the image to go to Flickr to see the detailed annotations identifying the various food and drink in the image.
I can’t wait to celebrate the cherry blossoms with all my friends in Japan while feasting on tsukune (Japanese chicken meatball on a stick), gyoza (dumplings) and edamame… and sipping on a creamy “nama biiru” (draught beer) as the sun slowly sets and the lanterns begin to glow.
In the spirit of embracing the traditions of my new home, and of treating my body to a calm Sunday afternoon after a great St Patrick’s Day celebration last night, I’m enjoying a refreshing peppermint tea at one of my favorite tea rooms in London, Camellia’s Tea House in Soho.
The British celebrate Mother’s Day, or “Mothering Sunday”, today, on the 4th Sunday of Lent. I heard it’s customary in some parts of the UK to treat mothers on this special day to an afternoon tea and, of course, with the tea comes the cake! So, it’s a particularly good day to visit a traditional English teahouse. I’d like to think that some of the smiling ladies sipping tea and sharing scones, muffins and cake around me are mothers with their loved ones.
Apparently it’s also tradition in the UK for mothers to bake a cake on Mother’s Day. The custom was born because fasting rules for Lent were relaxed on this day in honor to the “Feeding of the Five Thousand”, a story from the Christian Bible. The cake especially associated with this day is called a Simnel cake, a fruit cake with two layers of almond paste, one on the top and one in the center. It looks good!
Below are a couple of recipes for Simnel cake for those of you who are interested:
Traditional British Mothering Sunday Simnel Cake – Food.com
Simple Simnel Cake – BBC.com Saturday Kitchen
Hopefully this time next year we’ll see a few events on Epicurely celebrating mother’s day with traditional English cakes and tea! That would be fun.
If you’re not from the U.S. or didn’t go to college here you may not be familiar with the term March Madness. It refers to the final stretch of the college basketball season, when teams from all over the nation compete for the opportunity to participate in a single-elimination NCAA basketball tournament.
During this time of year, students, alumni and college basketball fans go crazy filling out their “brackets” in an attempt to pick the winners, losers and upsets en route to an eventual national champion.
This is something that happens across college campuses and throughout office betting pools all over the country. But what does it have to do with Epicurely, beyond the fact that I’m a big-time Georgetown Hoyas fan?
Or that our mascot Jack the Bulldog (above) is so adorable?
Well… throughout the month of March, people across the country are hosting literally thousands of viewing parties serving up all kinds of home-cooked food and drinks.
Sure, there’s a lot of Bud Light being drunk and Domino’s pizza being delivered, but that doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of what mouth-watering goodies and delectable drinks they’re concocting out of their very own homes. You’d truly be surprised to see how much creativity goes into the home-cooked food served up at these get-together’s!
I happened across one blog post about a viewing party that had food ranging from the traditional (Buffalo wings):
…to the exotic (Stuffed Fritos):
For now, our friends at the Daily Meal have some tips for what you should consider if you’re looking to score big at your own March Madness party.
But soon you’ll be able to use Epicurely to organize your party. You will be able to collaborate and coordinate with your guests, asking them to bring specific dishes or drinks, or to throw in a little cash. Or you could throw a mystery potluck and ask them to surprise you with their own ideas.
You’ll be able to reach out to fellow alumni and fans in your area and invite them to watch the game at your house, where you can surprise their taste buds with original recipes, such as Swedish meatballs (courtesy of Babble.com), perfect for the basketball theme.
To bring things full circle, I’ll leave you with the only decent picture I could find of the infamous “Chicken Madness” sandwich served up at Georgetown’s very own Wisemiller’s Deli on campus in Washington, DC.
How’s that for some March (Chicken) Madness? Hoya Saxa!
Note: The “Burger Madness” is pretty tasty too…
In addition to London, New York will be a strategic market for Epicurely from the start. We believe that new yorkers will be very receptive to our product. The diversity of cultures and interests found in the city as well as the willingness of new yorkers to embrace new concepts and technologies make it an ideal setting for a novel dinner party platform like Epicurely to thrive in. For these reasons, but also because we love New York, maintaining a strong presence there is going to be key.
Our experience at the World to NYC program 2012
With this in mind, earlier this month we participated in a 3-day program hosted by the city of New York (i.e. NYCEDC) to inform foreign tech entrepreneurs looking to establish a presence in the city. The “World to NYC” program hosted ~50 delegates from 36 startups and over 10 different countries including the United Kingdom, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, France, Germany and others. The agenda was packed with networking events, panels, lectures and meetings with local business leaders like David Tisch (TechStars), Kevin Ryan (Gilt Groupe), and David Rose (Rose Tech Ventures).
The program was very well planned and managed throughout. The breadth of topics covered – from venture financing, to immigration; from expat stories from foreign entrepreneurs like Alex Torrenegra, to meetings with local leaders from companies such as Gilt Groupe and The Ladders – exceeded our expectations. On the last day, we were all invited to attend the NY Tech Meetup and it’s official afterparty, which one of the #WORLD2NYC delegates, Uber Life, sponsored. Networking events like that one and the cocktail party at the Glass House (see photos), were perfect opportunities to meet fellow delegates and learn more about each other’s projects.
Perhaps the most valuable part of the experience for us was the awesome group of entrepreneurs that we had the pleasure of interacting with during the 3 days. We met innovators working on exciting new ventures in fields such as online travel (e.g. Inbed.me, BookingMarkets), medical image analysis (e.g. Image Analysis), location based social networking (e.g. Uber Life), digital education (e.g. Panarea Digital), e-commerce (e.g. NotOnTheHighStreet) and advertising and analytics (e.g. AdInsight). Most exciting of all: we made some really cool new friends and received incredibly valuable feedback for Epicurely!
Overall, our experience with the program was great. It showed us that the political leadership in New York is focused on embracing technological innovation and wants to help open doors for foreign entrepreneurs interested in contributing to New York’s blossoming tech sector.
If you participated in the program, we’d love to learn about your experience in the comments section below!
Check out more photos of the program and related events here.
Over the past couple of months our team has been working diligently to bring Epicurely to life. Between the three of us, we have traveled thousands of miles working across multiple time zones (New York to London to Tokyo to Bogota to San Francisco), but thanks to the glories of the Interwebs and innovations like Gmail, Skype, Dropbox and Basecamp, we’ve made steady progress on what we expect to be a kick-ass product.
While we’re not quite ready to open Epicurely up to the world, we are excited to be able to share some screen shots of the latest designs with you.
The first screen provides you with a glimpse in to how users will discover nearby “feasts” in their area. Users will be able to see when the feast is, the type of feast it is, who’s hosting, who’s invited/attending, etc.
The second screen is for a specific feast. Here you can dig in to the details, see who’s going and what they’re contributing (food, drinks or cash), RSVP to the event, as well as post comments and pictures.
Pretty cool, huh?
We’ve had the good fortune of working closely with a talented and passionate user experience & design agency in San Francisco. Our friends at Momentum Design Labs worked closely with us to evolve initial mockups, wireframes and rough designs into a cohesive and elegant user interface. We threw lots of ideas at the wall, saw what stuck, and worked iteratively to achieve a design we are all proud of.
We’re pretty excited and we hope you are too…