last one in is a rotten…
dang!
It looks like Manisha and Kitt have beaten me to it. That is what happens when food bloggers get together and eat food. They shoot the food, shoot each other shooting the food, then post about: the food and shooting the food and shooting each other shooting the food. I’ve learned to become quite comfortable taking pictures of my meals in restaurants, but I must admit it was rather entertaining when all three of us did so after the plates arrived. My peripheral vision is quite good – we got plenty of stares from other patrons. I wanted to quip, “We’re not mentally unstable, we’re just food bloggers.”
manisha in action
kitt frames up dessert
I met up with these two fine ladies for a NaBloWriMo canvas handoff-turned-lunch in Boulder at Teh Kitchen (note to my mom: that isn’t a typo) today. We confirmed about one another what all bloggers know: that there is so much more to the person behind the blog. Readers may feel they know a blogger very well – it is after all a predominantly one-sided relationship. The truth is that most of my blogging buds are somewhat guarded. While there are wonderful readers and fellow bloggers, there are also wackjobs, trolls, stalkers, and plain old wankers.
on my way to lunch: the driver of this volvo is a complete asshole
Some things you can only learn about an individual through personal interaction. The dynamics and spontaneity of a one-hour conversation cannot be had by email or blog comments. The cadence of speech, the way one smiles while talking, the laughter – it solidifies the image of that person in my mind.
kitt gave each of us a present
Lunch itself was almost as delightful as the company. We had a wonderful time discussing blogs, food, gardening, crazy people, bloggers we love… Nice to finally match the faces to the blogs. It’s a shame that our lunch was just over an hour, but I had medical appointments and an ass ton of errands to run.
my favorite meal of the day
one small spoonful of the sticky toffee pudding and i was on a sugar high all afternoon
My favorite nugget from the conversation was Manisha telling us that Indian food prepared properly does not photograph well. She didn’t say it quite like that… She cracks me up. Well, my brain isn’t functioning anymore. Actually, it stopped functioning two hours ago, but look at what I managed to squeeze out of it! I’ll leave you with a colorful sunset from yesterday. Nice and balmy weather we’re having. Damn it. Where the hell is my snow?
to the west
October 17th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
meeting with bloggers is fun, but i get so nervous. there are so many weirdos out there. you just never know… I like near Elise from Simply Recipes and I’d love to meet up with her sometime, and Heidi from 101cookbooks would be fun too… If you are ever in Northern California again, let me know! I’m dying to try out some of the local Dim Sum places in Sacramento.
October 17th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Yay, blogger lunches! I’m on a high since LA and I need more of these, heh :) Out of curiosity, have you met any of these wankers in person? KIdding! Don’t answer that!!!
October 18th, 2008 at 12:16 am
I made sure the only weapon I carried was my camera! And I was right! Your pictures are fabulous! I need to fix the RAW support on my computer soon! (I need to find punctuation other than the exclamation point! Argh, I did it again.) But that won’t work any wonders for my trembling hand!
I can’t wait to see what you do with the canvas!
Hugs!
October 18th, 2008 at 2:06 am
Meeting other bloggers is always great! It’s quite fun when we all shoot pictures at the same time… We tend to look like total mad men/women with our cameras ;-P!
Cheers,
Rosa
October 18th, 2008 at 6:08 am
I have never met any fellow bloggers since I guess I am new to all this. Hopefully someday I will. It would be nice since we all have food in common!! I absolutely cracked up when I saw the sentence about the Volvo driver!!!! Too much!!! I KNOW EXACTLY how you feel. Sometimes I don’t know how these people passed their driving tests! Beautiful picture of the sunset……
October 18th, 2008 at 6:49 am
I guess I need to get over the awkwardness of shooting at restaurants. When the food that’s brought out is so beautiful, it begs to be photographed, but I’m too lazy to do it.
October 18th, 2008 at 7:23 am
It gotta be fun having lunch with fellow food bloggers who you can clique with! The spread sure looks great! But nothing beats great company!
October 18th, 2008 at 7:42 am
That looks like such a great lunch! My husband still won’t let me take pictures in restaurants because of all the weird looks I get…but sometimes I just do it anyway!
October 18th, 2008 at 8:07 am
That dessert looks amazing! Sounds like a fun time all around!
October 18th, 2008 at 11:22 am
I still haven’t gotten comfortable lugging my camera out at a restaurant yet, but I’m inspired by you! What a wonderful lunch with friends!
October 18th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Great to meet you and Manisha! What a nice lunch that was. Good for you I left my axe at home.
I noticed our neighbors looking askance, too. I’ve seen it before from some less-enlightened dining companions. “Kitt has a blog” is the murmured explanation in the same tone you might say, “Kitt has Tourette’s.”
October 18th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
What was in the present? Did I miss that? LOL I know I’m nosy.
Love the dessert…you were good for only having one bite. I would have been bad.
October 18th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Mmm, sticky toffee pudding.
October 18th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Are my ears burning for a reason? lol. Just joking. I think.?. Naaa, surely I only dream about being talked about. ;)
…but I do understand. Although I don’t have a food blog I have been blogging through a website for almost four years. I recall the first time I met an online friend. I was a wreck. But so was she. We kept circling each other in the airport and it wasn’t until I sat down to work a crossword puzzle that we each found a bit of peace. I guess pulling the puzzle from my purse and settling in gave her a bit of comfort. We laugh about this now.
Seriously, can I have some of that pudding? Well, okay. Can I at least ask for the recipe? Oh, I see…I will do that. I’ll contact them. I’ll see if they’ll share. I’ll tell them to look here to see how wonderfully it photographed. :)
Cheers to your new found peeps, Jen, and thanks for sharing your world with us. We live vicariously.
:)
October 18th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
I love it when food bloggers come together! It’s such an in-joke when all of us whip out our cameras!
October 19th, 2008 at 9:17 am
I LOVE LOVE LOVE that last picture. Breathtaking!
October 19th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
You got to meet Kitt and Manisha!! What a gathering of some of my favorite people! And they got to meet you guys, Jen and Jeremy! Wow, what a great day it looks like. BUT we feel really lucky cause we got to spend 5 hours with you guys! Hah! We feel really lucky….
Aww, sorry Jen, no snow yet? Maybe it’s all our wildfires out here that’s putting a damper on your ski spirit. Because we love you guys so much, we’re gonna do a snow dance with the pups tonight so that you can have some snow. Remember, we have to be KIND to the ones that are gonna teach us how to ski- you!!!
October 20th, 2008 at 7:45 am
What an awesome bunch of ladies getting together! Love it!
October 20th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Amanda – well, I don’t meet with just any bloggers :) They usually have to be vetted (established correspondence or sharing of each other’s blogs for a little while). And they also can’t annoy the hell out of me online or else I know I’ll want to pour salt in my eyes when I’m with them in person. The problem with the bay area is that when I’m there, I am there with Grandma, so I don’t usually have time to spend with anyone else. It’s family time :)
Mark – No, I haven’t met any wankers (from the blog) in person! Although I’ve met TONS of wankers in general ;) ha ha ha.
Manisha – I thought your pictures were quite nice, dear. xxoo
Rosa – yay!!!
Debbie – yeah, that driver was a total dick. He passed me IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD in a 25 mph zone – he passed me going at least 50 mph! WTF? There are KIDS in my town – it’s a small town! He pissed me off (so I tailed him the whole way down the canyon… I shouldn’t have, but he drives like a ninny on curvy mountain roads).
Bridget – ha ha, I don’t think about it anymore. I see people shooting one another in restaurants. What’s the difference if I point the camera at the food instead of the people? :)
Mrs. E – thanks :) It was good fun.
Cate – good for you!
GSG – it was a tad sweet for me, but we really had a great time :)
Shari – ease into it, you’ll become a pro in no time.
Kitt – we’ll bring our axes next time ;) Nothing wrong with having a blog or Tourette’s, tee hee.
Dawn – oh, it was a cute little pumpkin candle. You can see a pic of it on Manisha’s blog.
Peabody – sticky indeed!
Margie – I don’t think I would meet with anyone in person that I was unsure of. We were all very friendly from the get go. I think the recipe is actually on the kitchen’s website (thekitchencafe.com)
Nate – absolutely! :)
Kathy – thank you.
WoRC – well, they got to meet me, but not Jeremy :( I think he might have felt left out as he doesn’t have “sudden shutter release syndrome” in restaurants. I think it *might* snow this weekend?! Fingers crossed!
Tartelette – :)
October 21st, 2008 at 9:41 am
That sticky toffee pudding is giving me flashbacks from my wonderful recent trip to boulder. We managed to visit the kitchen twice on our trip, for dinner and breakfast and had a really great time there.
Cool pics and looks like a fun time was had by all.
I’ve not been brave enough to meet any other bloggers yet, I’m too shy to meet regular people most of the time so its just too scary for me, not to mention I’m just dabbling in it compared to the fantastic job you always do.
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Jennywenny – I quite love the Kitchen! I used to be apprehensive about meeting other bloggers. I mean, I still am. I won’t go and meet just anybody, it has to be someone I’ve developed a rapport with and know that I won’t mind getting to know them in person. Someone who bugs me over the internet will surely make me batshit in person ;) Whether you blog often or casually, I’m sure you can meet some really quality people online. Food bloggers are much nicer than say… gun collectors – ha ha!