Food for the Body, Wisdom for the Soul

Recently, a commenter on an earlier blog post wondered why I drew attention to the fact that the noodle dish called ‘Singapore Fried Noodles’ actually doesn’t exist in Singapore. “I find food snobs amusing,” the commenter added.

Hmmmmm. Does this mean I’m a food snob? I mean, I’m really, really, passionate about food and cooking, but does this make me a snob? And what is a ‘food snob’, anyway? I’m not sure, but I’m going to assume it refers to someone who’s really fussy about their food and demands nothing but the best.

And my mind naturally conjures up the kind of snob who looks down on non-Michelin starred establishments as inferior, and insists on cooking only with expensive gourmet ingredients like black truffle oil. These are the people who frown if you bake with cooking chocolate instead of the best couverture made from single-origin cacao beans, and think home-cooked meals aren’t any good unless the recipe came from some celebrity chef’s cookbook. Personally, I think these people aren’t amusing, they’re pretentious.

Good food and cooking should be fun, and we shouldn’t be overly concerned about whether our cooking compares to the gourmet creations features on Masterchef or whether we’re dining at the latest ‘it’ restaurant all the food critics are raving about.

However, I believe that if you care about the food you cook and eat, then you will naturally want it to be as real and authentic as possible. To me, this means that besides tasting great, food should be prepared with the freshest ingredients available, and in the case of ethnic food, be authentic and true to its origins.

So yes, I do find it a bit annoying that nearly every Chinese restaurant in the West features a bland, uninteresting noodle dish on their menus, calling it ‘Singapore Fried Noodles’. That’s like tossing kimchi together with spaghetti, calling it ‘Korean Pasta Salad’, and passing it off as an authentic Korean dish.

And if insisting on authenticity makes me a food snob, well then – I’ll own up to being one. Now, where can I get some black truffle oil?

Sometimes I feel like a terrible blogger. I post sporadically at best, and at other times I struggle with writer’s block.

So when Darren Rowse announced on his Twitter stream that he was organising #PBevent (ProBlogger Event), a bloggers’ training day/conference to be held here in Melbourne, I jumped at the opportunity to grab a ticket.

Now, the speakers had not been announced when the event was launched, and I normally don’t sign up for conferences without knowing who the speakers are. But I bought a ticket anyway because a) the event outline/sales page was appealing; and b) my intuition told me to go.

So I showed up at the event on a rainy Friday morning two weeks ago, and it was definitely well worth the time and expense. There was a good mix of keynotes, workshops and panel discussions available, and I think there was something for everyone.

Personally, I found the sessions on the ‘business’ of blogging to be most useful. In particular, Phoebe Montague of Lady Melbourne presented an incredibly useful talk on working with advertisers and sponsors. I have to admit I had no idea what a media kit was until Phoebe’s talk, but I now know how to prepare one when the time comes.

However, the highlight of the day definitely has be meeting blogger/author Tim Ferriss in person (albeit very briefly).

I nearly fell out of my chair when I found myself sitting two seats away from Tim Ferriss during the last session for the day. I did not recognise him at first until he took off the beanie he was wearing, so I gathered he either wanted to keep a low profile or was there as a surprise guest (which turned out to be the latter).

Now, I wanted to take the opportunity to say hi and introduce myself, but how was I to do this without attracting too much attention and coming across like a rabid fan? Finally I leaned over and whispered, “Excuse me, are you who I think you are?”

“Yes,” Tim whispered back.
“Great, I just wanted to say hi- I’m Gilbert.”

We shook hands and went back to listening to the talk that was going on. Not long afterwards Tim was introduced as a surprise guest and gave did a live interview with Darren on what had worked for him as a blogger. Once again he emphasised the importance of writing ‘evergreen’ content, which remains relevant even years after it is created. It’s definitely an approach I’ll be adopting as much as possible for Kitchen Dojo.

Another lesson I learnt on the day was the importance of networking. Many of the other bloggers I met during the networking breaks had come prepared with business cards, and were actively seeking out the high-profile bloggers they followed and wanted to meet. I realised I definitely need to value the networking opportunities at conferences more.

In all, I left the conference with renewed inspiration and fresh ideas for Kitchen Dojo, and I’m looking forward to finally putting them to work.