By Sloane Burwell
Passionate food fans and restaurateurs alike can thank the internet for bringing them together in new and exciting ways. Before Google was a verb, looking for a particular dish, following a favorite local chef or connecting with patrons was tricky at best. The active, always open online community has emerged as a major player in quickly connecting food and foodies. Blogs, forums, e-mail newsletters and recipe search sites are all part of this nascent culinary and gastronomic movement.
The emergence of the blog has helped to redesign Arizona’s culinary landscape. Blogs (shorthand for web logs) are a free-form type of online journal. They are a big part of the rapidly expanding online community of committed local food fans and are the fastest-growing online phenomenon. Current estimates guess that 70,000 to 200,000 new blogs are created each day, and a large number of these blogs are specific to food. Local food critic Howard Seftel of the Arizona Republic has a blog, as does the food critic for the New Times, Michele Laudig aka Chow Bella. Other local foodies have developed impressive blogs that describe, often with pictures, their food finds and favorites. These include Feasting in Phoenix, Chow Down Phoenix! and Jack’s Brain. Usually unedited, each blog retains the unique character of the person blogging.
Food-centric forums are another outlet for connecting to local food fans and purveyors alike. For Arizona, the Big Three are Chowhound, eGullet (with the Southwest forum edited by Edible Phoenix contributor Eliot Wexler) and Yelp. Each board has its own personality—Chowhound is a larger forum and is sponsored by CNET, eGullet has less on-site advertising and corporate sponsorship, and Yelp has less discussion and more ratings, as well as shopping and other information.
For these forums, a quick registration is needed to create a user account, then you just search to find the Southwest forum/section and that’s all there is. A word to the wise on all of these forums: It’s prudent to exercise discretion when registering. Thanks to Google.com and its internet archive efforts, your posts on forums will live on and be searchable for years to come. Most people prefer not to use their real names.
Since the boards’ content and discussion is generated by user name, which isn’t always the user’s real name, members gain credibility based on their contributions and longevity on the forums. Conversely, drive-by postings are not uncommon. This is when a person disparages a particular establishment, or praises another and then disappears. Another thing to watch out for is a sockpuppet. This is when someone creates an account that acts like a neutral party in posting, but in reality is a shill for a particular establishment. The veracity of their claims can be checked by examining their posting history. If the person only discusses a particular establishment, and always in glowing terms, chances are they are a sockpuppet. In the virtual world as well as the real world, it’s always a good idea to research, and then develop an informed opinion.
Restaurateurs who wish to engage with their patrons have developed e-mail updates. In this way, information about seasonal specials, Chef Table dinners, or special wine pairings can be delivered to anyone who requests it. It’s also more “green,” since there aren’t any printing, mailing or paper byproducts involved. Café Zuzu, Voltaire and Tapino are just a few of the many restaurants that currently send e-mail updates to their customers. For oenophiles, Matt Rinn from Mosaic and Peter Kasperski from Kaz Bar communicate with fans via erratic but always entertaining e-mail. The Downtown Phoenix Farmers’ Market also has an e-mail update, outlining what fresh, seasonal produce is available from local growers each week. Local cooking schools such as Andyfood send out monthly e-newsletters with the latest news on upcoming classes. Most Valley publications have an e-newsletter as well as postings of past restaurant reviews. Edible Phoenix, too, has an informational e-mail.
Don’t worry about trying out a new newsletter. Most e-mail updates include an “unsubscribe” component so that ongoing participation isn’t mandatory.
Local food events can be found on the Edible Phoenix calendar; for wine event information we recommend Local Wine Events, a national service with listings for local communities.
For home cooks, finding a particular recipe without the right cookbook can be a challenge. Online recipe search engines are a big help. The largest local recipe site is from 3TV, which includes recipes from local chefs ranging from Chef Omar of Fenix to local author Barbara Fenzl. Recipes are searchable based on type (appetizer, salad, dessert), as well as ingredient (salmon, beet, etc.). The largest recipe site online, AllRecipes, has a section that contains recipes from Phoenix cooks. This site rates recipes and includes user comments. This is useful, since they include tweaks (needs more salt) that can impact the recipe’s preparation.
Phoenix-area favorites, whether they are recipes, dishes or even chefs, are just a click away. Whether they can be found on a forum or a blog, an e-mail or a recipe search engine, the World Wide Web brings those passionate about the Valley’s local food community together.
Sloane Burwell has been online since 1993. You’ll find her at the Downtown Public Market every Saturday, clutching coffee from Lux, a recyclable shopping bag and wonderful local produce.
-reprinted with permission from Edible Phoenix
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