Chicken Skewers served with omelettes and beanshoots in Vietnam
I love to cook. I love to eat. I enthusiastically take badly composed photos. Sometimes I even take notes. Unfortunately, I can only remember to do one or two of these at any one time.
Having recently written about some of the more unusual meals I’ve eaten I thought I’d balance it out with a post showing some of the better meals. Looking back through some food photography I realised there are many reasons I’m not cut out to be a food blogger.
Afternoon tea at the Park Hyatt Beijing - there were some beatifully wrapped wontons, mini crab quiches and spring rolls.
Too relaxed
We were recently invited to go and take afternoon tea by the Park Hyatt Beijing.
The restaurant is on the 63rd floor with a view over the whole of the city below. It has a rare view of the CCTV tower from above.
I was too engrossed with tea and cakes and sandwiches with the crusts cut off to think about taking a photo of the scenery.
It wasn’t until half way through, and having eaten all the hot items that it occurred to me to document the least Chinese experience I’ve had in a few months. This results in photos like this ->
Too busy eating
I’ve got lots of photographs of amazing meals. They all seem to have one thing in common – there’s a bit (or a lot!) missing.
Ten lamb dumplings in Xian
Too excited
DaDong Duck Restaurant in Beijing is more of an experience than a fine dining destination. The duck is prepared and cooked to make the skin crisp and much less fatty. It’s then dipped in sugar and melts in the mouth. This was such a new taste sensation it wasn’t until the pitiful fruit plate arrived at the end it occurred to me that a photo of the duck might have been relevant.
Not the best part of the meal at DaDong Peking Duck
Too busy cooking
I’ve taken time out to learn to cook in some odd places around the world. Sometimes this has been on organised courses, such as in Penang, and other times just by being inquisitive.
Chatting to a hotel owner in India he was only too happy for me to help cook lunch for the staff. The single chef in the two burner kitchen showed me how to make naan bread using the traditional oven, plus we prepared a couple of delicious lentil curries from scratch. I was enjoying it too much to think about taking a photo until the food had left the kitchen.
Too busy learning
In Xishuangbanna, the best restaurant we visited was reached by walking through the kitchen. Not only did I stop and watch the meal being prepared, but we were invited to try the equally complex meal that the chef had created for her family. I’d barely seen any of the ingredients before, from water centipedes to lichen and the still unidentified herbs that imparted such strong flavours to the fish.
Kitchen in XiShuangbanna - this is where the magic happened
Too hungry
Sometimes I’m just hungry. My first visit to Austria I was introduced to all sorts of new snack foods. One of the most welcome was a käsewurst, a combination of two of my favourite foods – cheese and meat. After a long day walking round town I was happy just to sit down and eat.
Two grilled fish and two käsewurst in Vienna
Sometimes I don’t know exactly what I’m eating
This happens a lot in Asia. A street stall with no menu that serves mystery meat in a spicy sauce often tastes good but it’s tricky to identify some of the ingredients until a recognisable head or claw pops out.
Delicious mystery meat in a bowl
Sometimes I don’t want to know exactly what I’m eating
“That looks like a rat.”
“Funny you should say that…”
Oftentimes I don’t feel it’s appropriate
This is the biggest problem I have. Why should everyone else round the table wait for me to mess around taking photos? Living in London and having a job that involved eating some decent meals it was quite common to attend restaurant openings.
It was easy to spot the table of food bloggers. Six people, six DSLRs on the table. No-one gets to eat until everyone has finished taking photos. I enjoy reading their blogs, but I enjoy eating hot, fresh food even more, so something had to give.
Half eaten, no flash, fire the food stylist
Baby squid, presumably cooked by a chef with long dark hair
Any tips for better food photography would be appreciated, beyond trying not to eat it first!
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LOL, this was a humorous post. I completely agree with you on a lot of these points. I enjoy eating too much and I don’t nearly have discerning enough taste buds to really distinguish what’s less than stellar.
I am a lover of cheap food – I know much of it’s terrible quality, but I want to try everything
Haha this post made me laugh! I agree, sometimes more important things just get in the way of taking photos of a delicious meal. If I do take photos of food, the photos always come out better if they’re in natural daylight. Plus, that way you don’t have to mess around for too long getting the lighting right.
But as I’m neither a serious foodie or serious photographer, I don’t take snaps of my meals very often. It’s too much work when I’d rather just EAT!
Good point – Lack of daylight is another reason for a lot of missing photos. I tend to stick to a more discrete camera phone in a restaurant, and my somewhat antiquated phone hasn’t got a flash.
And yes, it’s far more important to get on with the eating!