Tuesday, January 3, 2012

FOODSPOTTING.COM

FOODSPOTTING FUN

Kay Harte and yours truly talking
 to Foodspotting in The Farmgate
(Pic by Chris Connolly)
A visual guide to good food
and where to find it.

Just recently, I’ve joined the ranks of Foodspotting.com.

What is Foodspotting.com? In their own words: “Foodspotting is the easiest way to find and share the foods you love: instead of reviewing restaurants, you can recommend your favourite dishes and see what others have recommended wherever you go.” Much more here.

The big point about Foodspotting is that it puts you in touch with your favourite dish, not necessarily in your favourite restaurant. And, say, if you want to compare the Rome version of chicken cacciatore with the Cork version or indeed the New York version, it makes it easy.

Again, when you arrive somewhere new, you may wish to try what is local and seasonal. You’ve just arrived in Cork, for instance. You know it is the game season and you’d like to try pheasant. Just click into the app on your Smartphone, search for pheasant and you’ll see that Blair’s Inn have the very dish you want. And, in addition, you have a map alongside and also the contact numbers. Easy.

The site came to my attention when I was asked to meet two of the key Foodspotting players at The Farmgate Cafe in Cork recently: Amy Cao (above right) from New York and Chris Connolly (above left) from San Francisco. It turned out to be a long lunch as you may read in this account.


The duo, on a packed visit sponsored by Failte Ireland, fascinated both myself and the Farmgate’s Kay Harte with their high tech site while Kay had the visitors spellbound with her knowledge of and passion for Irish food.

The two also visited food places in Galway, Waterford and Dublin and by the end of their stay were happy to proclaim that there was much more to Irish food than bacon and cabbage. This is their summary of the flying visit.

I am enjoying contributing to Foodspotting and obviously hope to benefit from it when I travel both within and outside Ireland. You too can join in the food fun and build up the data base of enjoyable dishes in Irish restaurants.

Just head over to http://www.foodspotting.com and have your camera ready! You don’t need to do any reviews, though a line on the dish is welcome. Just put up the food and picture you like and spread the good food word!
You may see my initial contributions here

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