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Friday, September 22, 2006

Why I Don't Read Your Blog

I know I won't win any friends with this post, but here it goes anyway.

Lately I've been surfing the web looking for other food blogs of interest and what I've been finding, frankly, bores the crap out of me.

Food Porn Watch is a good resource for food blogs, however, there are those that I automatically skip over.

Basically, I skip over any food blog that has:

Food
Cook(s)
Cooking
Recipe
Culinary
Chef
Kitchen or
Eating in the title.

I know this may be wrong on my part (because there are exceptions!) but, in my experience, boring, unoriginal titles usually equals boring and unoriginal writing.

Here are some food blog names (other than the ones I link to on the right hand side) that I spot which immediately piques my interest:

Milk and Cookies
Eggbeater
Oswego Tea
Nordljus
Slice
'Ono Kine Grindz
Haverchuk
I'm Mad and I Eat (ok, I know this breaks my rule)
Mahanandi
Lobstersquad
A Hamburger Today

Long before I began this blog, I wrote, published, and produced various zines. I also cut my writing teeth in the zine culture of the 1990s. To me, a blog is a zine, just updated a bit. And to me, a catchy title says a lot.

If you still have a copy of one of my last zines, Rinky Dink, well...you've found me.

The other thing that makes me immediately click off a page:

Cat blogging.

Look, I have two great cats: Speedball and Argenta. They are cute and sweet and fiesty and I have a bazillion photos of them. In fact, I just took some yesterday. However, I'm not going to show you mine, if you promise not to show me yours.

Because cat blogging is stupid.

Especially on a food blog.

Currently, I'm waiting for someone to start a food blog on unusual foods and ingredients, like, say, horse. I am waiting for this person to name their blog "Tastes Like Chicken".

I would do it myself, but I've already bitten off more than I can chew, especially in the bad pun department.

See you later, alligator.

k.

16 Comments:

Blogger Jen said...

You definitely might be making some enemies here, but I will give you snaps for your honesty.

Also if you want to know a little about horse fat, Pim, of Chez Pim fame did a post about horse fat fries not too long ago. If you haven't already read her article, that is.

3:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I want to eat a placenta but no one will let me.

8:35 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

PS I think I would break every rule in the book for Cookie Crumb. And anyway, doesn't madness cancel out the eating?

8:38 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love it! I too read a lot of different food blogs and when I read your entry about how OTHER blogs were boring, I expected your blog to be exceptional.

Sorry, yours is very boring too. You should clean house before you start putting down other people's blogs.

9:56 AM  
Blogger Amy Sherman said...

I am so glad to be an exception! It's hard not to judge a book by the cover though. The title was supposed to mean "what's cooking" but somehow it ended up sounding more like a cooking show. Which ends up being pretty funny because more than a few times people have told me they have seen my show on TV. Hah! I'd like to see that one.

8:52 AM  
Blogger Anna Haight said...

Today's my lucky day! By happenstance my foodish blog does NOT mention food in the title! (and it didn't start out as a food blog...)

and..

I've eaten horse and well, it tastes like tough beef to be perfectly truthful. Or maybe it's because I tried it at the "Ok Bokujo", a chain all-you-can-grill and eat Japanese place, not exactly haute cuisine.

2:00 PM  
Blogger lobstersquad said...

Hi there. Receive my rather nervous thanks.
And I have to say, totally agree about the cats.
Just found a blog about African food, if you´re interested. I found it quite different.
fieldtofeast.blogspot.com

12:42 AM  
Blogger mzn said...

I agree with everything you say. Kudos for saying it.

One of my culinary regrets is not ordering horse one time at a cafe in Toronto. It was paired with duck confit on a menu and described as the "quack and track" special.

Some people eat placenta. It's really just a matter of finding someone who will give you her placenta. Perhaps an ad in craigslist?

Yours,
mzn (author of Haverchuk)

10:29 AM  
Blogger Guy said...

Ah well, stir the pot man. I say go! See what sticks.

Biggles

3:16 PM  
Blogger Dive said...

Ok, placenta is just gross...unless it's your own and then I'm sure you should feel entitled to it.

I imagine it works well in an egg scramble with homefries and ketchup.

Or perhaps dried like jerky.

xoxo to all of you,

k.

9:03 PM  
Blogger Dive said...

Actually,

I needed to hear that. Sometimes anonymous criticism can be helpful and, frankly, I know things are right in the world when I get a little hostility mixed in with criticism now and then.

A. If I truly am boring, then I want to know so I can better what I do, or just quit altogether.

B. Then again, it may be that I'm doing something right when I "bore" someone. If you've noticed, my posts aren't the most succinct nor easily read by most short-attention-span clickers. I don't apologize for that, I don't feel bad for it, and I won't change my style to accomodate them.

C. I don't really engage in much Food Porn on this blog, and that's a turn-off for a lot of surfers. Besides, the majority of hits (which are many) I get here are from Googlers typing "portuguese blood sausage" or "busty women chocolate" into their search engines. Imagine their disapointment when they land here.

Actually, Dive is my food porn blog...only I wouldn't call it Food Porn per se. More like Food Snuff Porn. I mean, have you seen some of those pork chops or "hashbrowns" on my plate? I think those photos are banned in 5 Southern states and Alaska.

D. I also don't engage in any serious foodie chatter or offer any real expert opinion on anything (although I do speak from personal experience on many topics), which is a turn-off to even more folks.

So, basically kids, if you enjoy coming here and reading about my messed up life and the food finds/adventures that accompany me, then you're probably in a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny minority of people living on this planet.

Did I mention "tiny"?

"Relish" it for what it's worth...(I'm thinking chopped pickles or chutney...hmmm...yes).

k.

12:22 AM  
Blogger Mrs. M. said...

From hereon forth, my blog Yulinka Cooks shall be called Cabbage and Caviar.

That kinda covers the unusual food factor, too, no?

10:47 PM  
Blogger Dive said...

That it does!

Nice post on Devon Avenue. I felt transported....

k.

8:45 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree with you about the cats.

6:30 PM  
Blogger The Tundra PA said...

Hi Kevin--I found your blog by following the sitemeter referrals on my blog. Can't help but wonder how that jump was made! You're great, and definitely not boring. Like you, I tend to write long posts, not for the ADHD types. Have you come across The Blog That Ate Manhattan? Her food posts are yummy; the medicine posts (she's a gynecologist) may be TMI for you.

Stop by a visit me in Alaska sometime; when I write about food it's usually Baked Beaver or Jellied Moose Nose! I'll be back...

11:13 AM  
Blogger Dive said...

Hey Tundra PA,

The link was from my page to your excellent article on Eskimos and Botulism.

http://tundramedicinedreams.blogspot.com/2006/05/eskimo-foods-and-botulism.html

So, very, very, very good of a read. Blogs like yours are always exciting to find! I hope other folks who read my blog had a chance to go visit you.

Keep up the great work and writing!

(and if you're ever in SF....)

k.

2:24 PM  

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