Losing individualism.

The more I eat, the more I feel lost.

See, I just have a problem with the terminology foodie. WTF is a foodie?! Today being a foodie is just synonymous to anyone who flashes their camera at the food or just go to ‘places’ - hyped up ones.

I’m a victim, we all are. Part of me wished that all of this never reached the social media world. Rating meals is one of the most ridiculous things I have seen (hello food bloggers J).  I understand that this has been around for a long time (and acclaimed critics rightly deserve their place) but how can anyone take their experience of a meal and critique it so much that someone else reading ‘the texture of the beetroot was melt in the mouth bla bla bla’ (sorry, I’m not very good at describing stuff) would just feel like they have had the meal themselves. Through YOU. Maybe it’s something that other people appreciate.  It feels like blogs are a way for generalising – generalising our palates, taste buds, way of thinking and feeling about food. Ain’t this new generation about not producing clones? Am I missing something?

So many times now I have gone somewhere and then compared it to reviews and these are meant to be the restaurants that happen to be praised over and over again (not only talking about starred places here) and I’m shocked at how people can love these. And it’s nearly as if you have to feel embarrassed to say you didn’t like the food at the best Number X restaurant in the world. You need to fit in to be part of the whole food circus. Ditch that, I’m checking out.  Or taking a dive and drowning with it.

Whenever there is this really exciting place that I want to go to, even just seeing one of the pictures accidentally makes me cringe. I want to save it all to make it MY experience. My palate is selfish like that.  Don’t get me wrong, I usually like asking for advice but in the end, the decision should be yours. But then you could also look at the pictures and go based on someone else’s judgement and hate it and end up broke. Bigger CRINGE.

I usually try not to give my opinion outright about a meal because kitchens run every single day (pretty much!) but then menus and consistency tends not to. Sometimes, if it’s really good or really bad (that’s when I feel like a bank note slapped me in the face #moneymatters), then I do say it. When people ask me for restaurant advice, I always struggle. Not because I don’t know what I like but I understand the fact that what I think is amazing would not necessarily conform to the more generalised foodie world’s likes.

Back to the start.. The more I eat, the more I want to know what is really on my plate - not only focus on the eating part but the process before the realisation of the dish. Sure, takes some cooking action but not what I’m after. #chasingsomeotherkindofaction

I need to learn. Somehow.