“One of the most “interesting” food related news in Vancouver is that of rumours/hearsay/almost certain that Vancouver City Hall will be allowing street food vendors to expand their menu by allowing other dishes (aside from the current chestnut and hot dogs menu). So far, pretty much every body sounds excited about this… Probably except me. See, Toronto tried it some time ago and, as somebody mentioned, it was doomed to failure. While I haven’t read the full details yet whether restrictions that plagued Toronto will happen also in Vancouver, some entrepreneurs are almost ready to go ahead. So, why I am not as optimistic as them?
Those who know me personally can vouch for what I going to say: At times, I could need a disclaimer simliar to the one you see at the beginning of South Park. Haven’t watched South Park? It goes something like this:
All characters and events in this show—even those based on real people—are entirely fictional. All celebrity voices are impersonated…..poorly. The following program contains coarse language and due to its content it should not be viewed by anyone.
Yes, a lot of times, I don’t hold back and profanity/vulgarity is used every other word if necessary. Furthermore, I can be *really* sarcastic. While I won’t match Salam (of Le Charcuterie), I can piss a lot of people off if I want to (even at times, I do it un-intentionally!). Anyway, the reason I mention this is because this post is a tongue-in-cheek one I wrote some time ago but chose not to publish it. However, for some reason, I though “why not?”. That is despite I know it might… No, it WILL offend some people (even alienating some of my own readers, not to mention some food bloggers). As a result, proceed at your risk! (If you have a thick skin or sick sense of humour, of course, go ahead!).
So, what it is about? This is a twits of a couple of articles I read long time ago about the seven levels of artists and surfers. In this case, my twist is that of food bloggers (though, it can easily be extended into “social media”… Darn, I hate that term!). Without further ado…
Level 7: The equivalent of heaven. Those who are in this level have achieved the perfection… They are paid to eat/talk/write about food and people enjoy that. Their might be a detractor or two but it is mainly because of their jealousy and the fact they will never be able to achieve this level. Anthony Bourdain is among the few who have achieved this.
In the last year or so, a new type of “restaurants” have hit Vancouver silently. How secret? Well, how about it not necessarily registered as a “restaurant” at all? Yes, I am talking about underground restaurants, where cooks (sometime professionals, other times, regular John Doe who are skilled cooks) open their kitchen and, for a “donation”, they will cook a meal for you. It has been feature in local printed media like The Vancouver Sun and The Globe and Mail. While fellow food bloggers have visited and written about it, I have told them I wasn’t that interested in visiting them (more in a moment). However, in a “you can’t comment about it before you have done it” line of thought, I decided to tag along on an outing organized by Jonathan of Food and Tell. The chosen “underground” restaurant? Swallow Tail Super Club.
This is the last part of my series on what I have learned all these years taking pictures. As mentioned, in my previous three post, these are the planned topics:
This final part is about post-processing. In a way, for most people, they would have stopped in the previous step, i.e., after taking the picture, they would use the JPEG file and that would be end of the story. However, there are times that, well, those pictures didn’t necessarily turn out the way you want it. For example, if a setting was wrong, white balance was incorrect or so on. True, while you can see it in the preview, the in camera preview is that big and can only show that much. Here is for the remaining cases – which, unfortunately for me, that would be >80% of the time. Yes, I am making a confession here: I am not a big shot photographer as people believe. I have still a lot to learn and need some help to produce those results you see here…
It is possible I am looking at things with a bit of a tunnel vision. If you believe so, I apologize for that… However, what is the deal these days with almost everybody attacking food bloggers? No, I am not referring to personal verbal attacks – I am too thick skinned for those (if you browse some posts, you will notice I do get attacked once in a while). Instead, I am referring to the concept itself of food blogging and (damn I hate this term at times) social media… While it hasn’t broken down into a holy war, in the same sense of Windows vs. Mac vs. Unix, vi vs emacs, C vs. C++ vs. Java vs. C# or some other ideological war, it is starting to get somewhat annoying…
This is a bit of a “bonus” post. Today’s regular post is below.
To those not “old” enough might not get the joke behind the title of this post. It is one of the most memorable quotes from Crocodile Dundee. Or, just to refresh your memory, check this clip:
So, what this has to do with food? You will understand once you click on read more below. But, before that, a special thanks to jlomein, Jettie, Jose, fellow blogger timetochow who have been commenting in my Delicias de Alicia and Guantanamera Restaurant and Bar posts. So, without further ado…
This is the third part of my series on what I have learned all these years taking pictures. As mentioned, in my previous two post, these are the planned topics:
Once again, this is about what I have learned by taking pictures in the last couple of years and, by no mean, is a replacement for formal education from a professional. This is very important in this post because it brings the one issue with photography that makes or break a picture: composition. Yes, no matter how proficient you are with some apps *cough*Photoshop*cough*, you need that initial picture to begin with.
Why Street Food Will Fail in Vancouver
by KimHo on June 27, 2010 · 18 comments under: British Columbia,Comments,Random
“One of the most “interesting” food related news in Vancouver is that of rumours/hearsay/almost certain that Vancouver City Hall will be allowing street food vendors to expand their menu by allowing other dishes (aside from the current chestnut and hot dogs menu). So far, pretty much every body sounds excited about this… Probably except me. See, Toronto tried it some time ago and, as somebody mentioned, it was doomed to failure. While I haven’t read the full details yet whether restrictions that plagued Toronto will happen also in Vancouver, some entrepreneurs are almost ready to go ahead. So, why I am not as optimistic as them?
Read more…!
Tagged as: Random