Food Blogs

I love reading food blogs. Tastespotting is my go-to place for finding great food ideas. All the stuff I'd love to eat, would never eat, can't believe people eat. A thousand funky new veggies and ways to serve them, as if I ever would.

I don't -cook- you see. Well, on very rare occasions. But I've really got no intention (time, desire, willpower) to actually find ingredients and follow instructions and figure out what it is I'm doing wrong. After all, what I make never looks like it does in those luscious food photos.

Still, I like to browse, check the newest postings as if it's a huge menu I place imaginary orders from. I'll take the flan please, and those cookies are great, and those meat skewers from Malaysia... The salads and veggies and soups and whole wheat/oatmeal/seed bread never make it onto my ideal plate. Except when I see blt salads in bacon cups. Those, I'd make an exception for!

When I read these blogs, I tell myself that one day I'll find that one recipe that makes eggplant appealing, or a way to eat zucchini that doesn't involve disguising it in chocolate cake. I know I need to add a LOT more veggies to my diet. The five or six I eat get very boring.

Salad. Carrots. Broccoli. Cauliflower. Asparagus. Corn. Tomatoes. Cucumber. When I try to convince myself that olives should count too, or that mushrooms have a lot of nutritional value, then I know I'm just lying to myself.

I have been trying. I have decided that even deep frying cannot make a yam palatable for me - though yam fries are everywhere I go these days in Calgary. I went out for Ethiopian - and that was too much shock for my westernized taste buds. I'll eat bok choy at a Chinese place - but it's only a few shades removed from broccoli.

But really, I'm struggling. I'm tired of the veggies I do eat, the rest either I don't like or I'm unwilling to believe I would like. I love the voyeurism in reading these blogs. I get to imagine being at a dinner where they're serving espresso panna cotta, or ordering an extra large poutine or munching fresh baked cookies.

At the same time, I look at the healthy stuff and think, "Hey, someone out there obviously enjoys Brussel sprouts. And beans. And squash. So maybe, if I keep reading, that perfect recipe will come along and somehow I'll enjoy these things too."