"It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like 'What about lunch?'" ~~Winnie ther Pooh
The worlds of food writing and food reading has been turned upside down by the blogosphere.
The blogs are where the action is these days; everybody gets to be a critic, everyone gets to shout out; give a tip, a description, or thumbs-down on any restaurant they want no matter who they are.
Every food niche gets to be ransacked, as they should be; every review immune to the space and the editorial and institutional limitations incumbent to print.
Even though restaurant criticism in the papers and magazines grew into something glorified, and sometimes more than a little pretentious, credentials for in the new media aren't really that different than they always were in the old.
Being the restaurant critic traditionally never took any particular experience or talent; restaurant criticism was merely a beat reporters had to endure like sports or the obits on their way up to the hallowed pinnacles of writing of real news.
The new critics in the new media, don't have credentialing either, but then, they don't pretend to.
(what in the hell would be the credentials for a restaurant critic, anyway? Is it a 200 level class in j-school? A 400 level class in culinary school? Or does it mean you just eat out a lot and love it? If that's it, how do you quantify that for an employer? a weigh-in?)
We've collected a few blogs devoted to doing lunch one way or another in Seattle, a niche which is surprisingly vast.
MSG150
Their
mission: "... Over the next year or so we will eat lunch at every
restaurant in Seattle's International District (aka Chinatown) and (a)
collect interesting data, (b) write funny and useful reviews, and (c)
make a million dollars."
This clot of adventurous, downtown work-heads get what the blogosphere is about, and are giving this complicated food neighborhood the kind of anal exam as many before them have only dreamed.
They started this last November; the reviews are by consensus and there's plenty of photos (which make the site annoyingly sticky). But they've laid out the geography,; they're intrepid; and they have rules:
1. We will eat at all establishments who's primary source of income is food. This excludes coffee shops, total dive bars, and scary marts, but everything else is on the list.
2. We will order typical lunch fare for each restaurant. We will try and eat the same sorts of things their regular lunch patrons appear to be eating.
3. If we go to a restaurant twice, we will only write a review once (but reserve the right to re-review).
4. We will eat at restaurants in a predetermined order. However, if the next restaurant cannot accommodate us when we show up, we will skip it for that day and come back to it on the next outing.
5. All bribes must be divisible three ways.
6. No jokes about being hungry again at 3 pm, unless you are offering to buy snacks.
7. We make the rules so we can change the rules
The range of food quality in Chinatown/ID is as diverse as the ethnicities represented.This is a mighty task they've literally bitten off and the site is well-organized. The MSG150's report on such things as time from ordering to service, chopstix quality, and where the chef is from. There's no political correctness in making their evaluations which are measured in chopsticks.
* 1 chopstick: dog food! - I'd rather eat my arm.
* 2 chopsticks: not so good - Not likely to go back.
* 3 chopsticks: average - Sure, if everyone's going I'll go along.
* 4 chopsticks: good - These guys are on to something. I'll be back.
* 5 chopsticks: great - Wow! A top 10 lunch spot.
Can't really tell you if these guys and their friends are right or wrong about what they write, but you usually get at least three or four opinions on each joint. Some of them might be full of shit, but it's doubtful all of them are. We for two will be using MS150 as a guide in our treks to the CT/ID.
~
The Dalai Lama visited the White House and told the President that he could teach him to find a higher state of consciousness. Then after talking to Bush for a few minutes, he said, "You know what? Let's just grab lunch. ~~Bill Maher
Mouthfuls: Pike Place Market Lunch Crawl
Mouthfuls is a spin-off by community members of eGullet, and has a
lively Seattle community who delve into local food in the vibrant
comment threads.
Rocky, a local eager eater, and and three of his friends, all hungry, discerning women have decided jump into the Pike Place Market luncheries including the places you've never had the patience to get in line for; the crannies you haven't dared, and the big gnarly joints you ate in back in the '90's but haven't been back. Their credo:
"Some people make great self-improving new year resolutions. Some people pledge to eat more. I like the second camp personally. Lauren, Wendy, Jan, and I have decided to give ourselves a project, we're going to go to every place in Pike Place Market that serves lunch over the course of the year. Some places will be better than others, some will be great, some will flat out suck, but they'll all be in the Market. Which brings to mind a great quote by that eminent philosopher Pépé Le Pew, 'Sometimes I ask myself, "Pépé is it worth it?" Then I answer myself, 'It is! It is!"
The site has great pics of the market and the food, and of course a running thread by other commenters. Whether it's Cassoulet nouveau - Rabbit confit, wild boar cheeks, and Uli's Saucisson at Place Pigalle or a bowl of medium hot Texas chili over mac & cheese with a beer at World Class Chili, you'll get more than the lay of the land about this downtown Seattle lunch bounty.
~
I haven't trusted polls since I read that 62% of women had affairs during their lunch hour. I've never met a woman in my life who would give up lunch for sex. ~~Erma Bombeck
Noonhat: connections
Wanna connect (or perhaps sleep) with people outside your normal
social, work, and hobby circles? Brian Dorsey, a software developer at
Vulcan has built Noonhat, which makes that easy, and maybe not too
risky so it can all come together, so to speak, over lunch.
Just plug in your e-mail address, what day you'd like to have lunch and what general area, then the computer pulls names out of a virtual hat (Noonhat, get it?) thereby matching you with one to three random humans similarly inclined and available for lunch.
How do you know you won't get a creepy weirdo or an ax-murderer? Good question: the computer tries to make groups of 3-4 people as much as possible, and gives no indication of age or gender, therefore lowering the creep-factor.
~Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch. ~~ Orson Welles
Light rail, lite lunch Ride the Bus Lunch
(We fantasize grabbing Dori Monson (KIRO m-f, 12-3p), tying him up with a sock stuffed in his mouth,and dragging his sorry ass onto this bus, then force-feeding him sushi and having him pelted with pork buns by little old Chinese ladies as the bus takes him to every light rail construction site in our city).
"Sound Transit Link light rail would like to invite you to tour the
entire initial segment construction. The Community Outreach Division
will be hosting the Lunch Bus tour twice this month, on Friday, April
18th
and Saturday, April 26th. The tour is part of Link light rail’s on-going effort to mitigate construction
impacts
on local businesses. This is a guided bus tour that will take you to
and along the current construction sites. At any time during the tour,
please feel free to ask questions. The tour is then followed by lunch
at a local eating establishment. You are responsible for buying your
own lunch. Tours depart and return at the southwest corner of 5th
Avenue & South King Street. A Sound Transit bus marked “SPECIAL”
will be waiting. Tours depart at 11:30a and return by 3p.
Cost of lunch is $10 (cash only) which includes a meal, drink, and tax."
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