Blog Day 2006

Today is Blog Day. Like last year, we are once again celebrating one of Blogophere's quirky charms, our linkiness. Bloggers all over the world are introducing their readers to five new blogs, helping build the ever denser web of connections in our world.

The Blog Day organizers encourage bloggers to reach out to those from cultures other than our own. But I think I'm going to do something a little different. A perpetual wanderer, I seem to have written more about elsewhere than about my own culture, so for this blog day I've decided to go back home to my roots. I'm going to introduce you to five blogs from Southeast Asia.

These five beautiful blogs not only tell great stories, but enrich them with photographs which are woven with their words to form a rich texture that is simply transporting.

Phnomenon
Phil Lees keeps a journal of his daily Phnomenon from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He won me over with his apt comment on "a strange backpacker myth that street food is the best food because it is somehow a more “authentic experience” for the traveler." He added "[e]xpecting that the food that the abject poor eat is going to be better or more “real” than the food that the slightly-less poor eat is insanity." I hear you bro. His post, Why Travelers dislike Khmer Food, displays a nuanced view and a deep understanding of foreign food culture that no amount of thrill-seeking eating will get you. Listen to him, Tony.

Eating Asia
Robyn Eckhart lives with her photographer husband in Malaysia and travels often in the region. She writes wonderfully about not only the food but the people and the culture that create it. The photographs that accompany the texts are deep, dark, rich in color and texture -simply heart-stoppingly beautiful. Robyn's blog is one of those that made me wish I could turn my computer into a well-worn leather-bound book so that I could snuggle in bed with it.

Sticky Rice
Two Australians, Mark Lowerson and Kate Henry, are the wiz kids behind this blog. Based in Hanoi, they document the food scene in that town with the kind of passion and zeal that will make you drool over the description and the photos. The kind of stuff our old Graham used to do before he got all big and famous and picked up and moved to France and all that jazz.

Rambling Spoon
By Karen Coates, an Asia correspondent for Gourmet magazine. She is based in Chiang Mai, in the North of Thailand. I've only discovered her blog recently, thanks to a link from Robyn, but her post, And We Eat the Pig, won me over completely.

Real Thai
Not a small amount of irony in the name of this blog written by a White boy, mind you. But this particular White boy happens to live in Thailand, adore the country and the food –and one girl in particular, or so I heard- and speak the language so well he was quicker to identify a tray of obscure Thai greens than even someone who grew up there –who shall, of course, remain nameless. A photographer by trade, Austin always has an eye for something visually captivating.

Check out these blogs, and give them a hello from me. Happy blogging, everyone!

Comments

[Scott]

Some excellent blogs here that I didn't know about. I found Stickyrice especially appealing.
Good finds!

[Rachael]

Thanks for the great suggestions!

[Lucy Vanel]

Dear Pim, these blogs are really delicious and inspiring! They make me want to book some tickets and get away. It has been awhile since I traveled in Asia. Thank you for the links!

[Stash]

Longtime lurker, first time poster.

Thanks for the links, pim.

[bayi]

Robyn and Dave from Eating Asia certainly deserve praise for their food and cultural posts. They write about the types of food that are really loved by the locals and surprisingly, many of the locals don't even know about the locations of such great eating places. They blog about the unique culture in Malaysia and Indonesia that many of the locals don't even get to experience. They have a great and wonderful blog indeed!

[maryeats]

Pim, thanks for the links to these blogs. I ate my way through SE Asia three years ago and reading these blogs took me right back.

[Martin]

Hi there Pim,
Just come across your blog, it's great. We run an on-line food magazine for lovers of Cumbrian food. Cumbria is an area of England with a national park in it called "The Lake District". We get some 17 million visitors each year, it is a rural economy with a strong farming community. For a variety of reasons we are lucky to have a large number of really excellent local producers who are increasingly turning organic. There is a growing band of people who are rejecting "supermarket" shopping in our area and sourcing their food locally, our site and blogs help them find out who does what and where to get it and what we like. - www.artisan-food.com - Have a look and let us know what you think! - Martin

[Rasa Malaysia]

Yes, Eating Asia is a gem. I am a Malaysian and yes, I confess that we take a lot of our traditions and cultural events for granted. Seeing the pictures on Eating Asia is constantly a moving experience.

Other than that, the other 4 sites rock. Southeast Asia has a lot to offer when it comes to the food department.

Thanks Pim!