Food Gawking

So I recently discovered StumbleUpon.com, and it has completely changed the way I surf the WWW.  For my first stumble, I chose the food/cooking tab, and starting stumbling.

So that led me to recently discover FoodGawker.com, and it has completely changed the way I find and research recipes.

I’ve been using FoodGawker for the past two weeks, deciding it would be more appropriate to write a blog that contains actual feedback and personal opinions from what I have encountered myself.

1. The interface design of FoodGawker is highly effective.  As pictured below (under the second numbered bullet), you will notice how clean and simply laid out the menu bar is, and each recipe is accompanied by a high quality photo.  With the click of a photo, a new window will open which takes the user to the recipe page.

2. The “Favorites” tab allows a users to choose their favorite recipes by clicking the heart icon on the recipe box.  These chosen recipes will then be stored under the “Favorites” tab for convenient accessibility.  Pictured below is my current Favorites page.  I made the resolution smaller so the content can be more broadly viewed.

3. The most interesting/unique aspect of FoodGawker is that it’s a community for food bloggers to share their recipes from their blogs.  Taken from the FoodGawker website, “foodgawker is a gallery where food bloggers can showcase their food and photography skills. It’s a place for you to discover new sites, dishes, recipes and ingredients to inspire your own cooking. Anyone can submit pictures, if they follow our simple site rules…

1. Attribution is MANDATORY! Do not steal other site’s pictures!
2. Do not violate anyone’s copyrights! Any post with violations will be removed immediately. Let us know if your photo was mistakenly posted.
3. Registration is required to post pictures.
4. Post beautiful, well-balanced, food related photos.
5. Photos are cropped to 250 px by 250 px.
6. We reserve the right to remove posts at any time.
7. Submissions are moderated.”

As you can notice, FoodGawker can deny any submissions, ensuring the quality and aesthetic appeal of their interface (and reputation as well).  The recipes reside on the blogs of serious food bloggers, which additionally holds promise that the recipes are authentic, trustworthy, and simply delicious!

Here To Serve Restaurants

I always plan ahead and do my research.  Especially with restaurants.

There is nothing worse than showing up to a restaurant and only having a few minutes to scan the menu and decide what you want before the waiter asks for your order.  How often have you found yourself saying “You go first!” to the person/people you came with, not wanting to make the others in your party wait for you.  I just hate feeling like everyone is annoyed that I take so long to decide.

For this reason, I always prefer to do my research.  Before dinner, I look up the restaurant on the Internet and study the menu, deciding (for the most part) on what meal I will order.  Not only does this ensure that I order what I really want (and that I don’t order something because I freak out and pick the first thing I look at), but it makes me more relaxed and able to enjoy myself when I first sit down.  I don’t freak out, I don’t make hasty decisions, and I’m an overall nicer person because of it.

Here To Serve Restaurants, or h2sr.com, is one of my favorite restaurant websites.  Its design, usability, and overall organized access to information about nine of the best Atlanta restaurants makes this site a top contender and model for how restaurant websites should be constructed.  The following information outlines the main reasons that this site is successful:

The Design Interface: This website has undergone some minor changes over the past month, with its most recent design being extremely effective.  I have included a screen grab for a visual, but you should visit the site for better understanding.  Notice the professional and inviting photograph, the stylized list of restaurants right below that, and the more detailed yet summarized list of specials and highlights with further clicking options located on the yellow body content.

Consistency:  No matter which restaurant tab you click on, the main page interface stays consistent, bringing up information, news, and menus of each restaurant in the same design as all the others.  Some basic differences such as color scheme and photos better define each restaurant’s page, and the linked content on the left hand side (reservations, menu, gallery, contact) are also altered.  The consistency of this site is a big plus for me.  Try it out yourself…IT WORKS.  The organized and consistent information ensures that the viewer does not waste time figuring out the site structure, and with nine restaurants to view, this aspect is effective.

Any suggestions/examples of restaurant sites that work for you?  Let me know!

Chili Cook-off and Chili Video and Chili Recipe

What I respect most about chili cook-offs and any similar type of food event, is that the main focus is community.  People love to get together to share their recipes, whether they win or not.  Just being able to get together as a community, enjoy good food, music, and company, and to raise money for charity or to raise awareness (which is the main target of many food events) will always provide for a good day.

The International Chili Society holds over 300 chili cook-off’s each year, so far raising over $75 million dollars for charities and nonprofit organizations (way to go!).  View their virtual map for cook-off’s near you!

Check out this video of “chili-heads” from the Deltona Chili Cook-Off and Music Fest…are YOU a chili head too?  Can you name every style of chili mentioned in this video?  Give it a try!

The following recipe is a world-class-top-secreat recipe that I have provided just for you!  Any additions/suggestions/changes to my recipe?  Leave me a comment!

My Chili Recipe (as promised)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb steak strips (the kind they sell for fajitas), diced into 1/2 inch lengths/cubes
• 1 tbs. olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1 small can diced chilis
• 1 can beef broth
• 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp chili powder
• 2 cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 cans diced tomatoes (chili flavored)
• Salt/Pepper/Hot Sauce, as desired

1. Brown the steak bits in olive oil until medium.
2. Add the diced yellow onion and green pepper, and cook on medium-high heat for 2 minutes, stirring regularly.
3. Add the diced chilis, and cook a few more minutes.
4. When everything starts to semi-stick to the pan, or when you think it’s time, add about one fourth of the can of beef broth.
5. Add cumin and chili powder, and cook for about another 30 seconds to 1 minute.
6. Add the kidney beans and stir.
7. Add the diced tomatoes, stir, then cook for about 2 minutes.
8. Add the remaining beef broth, stir, and cover, reduce heat, simmering until you feel like it’s done.
9. Season with salt/pepper as needed, as well as hot sauce.

Developing a Voice in Writing and Design

When you write a story, you have to have a voice.  I learned this from being a literature major.

When you develop a blog, you have to have a voice.  I learned this from being an Interactive Media graduate student.

Stories and blogs embody different styles of writing, but they must both contain voices (if they are to be well received).  You can’t develop a voice in one day by a stroke of good luck.  Instead, you learn from others, whether from the writing styles of great authors or great bloggers for influence on what works, or from horrible authors and horrible bloggers for influence on what does not work.  No matter which type of writing you do, you are influenced by the works of others.

So as I develop a personal website, along with sections of websites for other people, I find myself realizing that a voice exists in visual design as well as in written design.  Instead of reading about what works and what does not work for design, I believe you have to see what works and what does not work firsthand to form your own opinions.

Here is a list of sites which have given me great inspiration:

• http://www.simplyinteractive.net/
• http://www.planetizen.com/websites/2009
• http://bestflashwebsites.blogspot.com/
• http://www.webdesigndev.com/category/flash
• http://www.webdesigndev.com/inspiration/26-light-website-designs-that-work-well
• http://www.webdesigndev.com/inspiration/26-dark-website-designs-that-work-well
• http://www.webdesigndev.com/category/inspiration

Chicken Marsala and Chef "Kitty Kitchen" at your service

This past weekend I was making my famous Chicken Marsala recipe (which I will provide below!).  While I was dicing the chicken into chunks prior to frying, I received a phone call, but couldn’t answer it because by the time I turned on the sink to wash my hands, the call was lost.  I mean, you CAN’T touch your cell phone with chicken hands.  That’s GROSS and it’s not like your phone isn’t already gross, so there’s no need to make it any more gross (really you should sanitize your cell phone at least once a week, that’s just a suggestion).  You should also get a flu shot.

Have you ever run into this issue of chicken hands versus a phone call?  Or even just chicken hands and the encounter with the sink?  Your hands are covered in raw chicken juice, and you fear contamination.  It takes at least 15 seconds to contort my elbow to lift the faucet handle, and that’s only because I have my own sink figured out.  Give me 20 seconds at someone else’s house, and give me 25 seconds if the sink is too high!  I don’t need to explain this issue, we all have it, and if you don’t, then you are germ-y  Admit it.

Here’s what I needed this weekend: Delta’s new “Pilar Touch-Activated Single Handle Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet with ToucH2O Technology” though I hope the name is shortened because right now it sounds kind of intense.

Touch to activate, touch to deactivate.  Easy? Yes!  I want it!! No more elbow contortions, and no more missed calls as a result of chicken hands!

Here’s another kitchen “chef” who will enjoy the easy access to the touch sink faucet:

As promised, Chicken Marsala (at its finest):

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts, diced into one or two inch cubes
• flour, salt/pepper, 2 tbs. butter, and 2 tbs. olive oil (for frying)
• 1 pack sliced mushrooms
• 1 shallot and 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 to 3/4 cups marsala cooking wine
• 4 tablespoons butter (don’t use margarine and then tell me this recipe didn’t work)

1. Season flour with salt/pepper and then dredge the chicken cubes in it.
2. Heat oil and butter in a frying pan, and add the chicken to it when the pan is hot.  Turn once, and set aside in a glass dish when it’s done.
3. Add one tbs. butter to the same pan (do not wipe down the pan when the chicken is done).  Sauté mushrooms on medium heat for a few minutes until they start to sweat.
4. Add diced shallots/garlic, a bit more butter, and turn up the heat.
5. After a few more minutes when it starts to smell good, add some more butter, continue to cook for one more minute, then add the marsala wine.
6. Cook until the wine is reduced by maybe half, then pour the mushroom mixture over the chicken in the glass dish and pop into the oven for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees F.
7. I usually make asparagus to go with this dish, so when the chicken is ready to go in the oven, I put the asparagus in at the same time on a rack above.  It usually takes about 8-10 minutes to bake or broil asparagus (after you drizzle olive oil, lemon juice, and salt/pepper on it!)
8. Eat!  But only if you used real butter.

Viral Videos

Stickiness: explains how and why people are attracted to certain web sites

Spreadability: describes how the media becomes widespread in circulation within a networked culture

What is sticky? Spreadable? Viral? How does it all work?

When analyzing and looking at memes and viral communications, what qualities, concepts, attributes, and characteristics of viral videos make them work?  What are people looking for, and what grabs their attention?  Which are the most important of these to tackle/include in any attempt at building a successful interactive communication?  Broken down:

1. When the video is original and creative enough to where you can appreciate the work put into it
2. When a video captures a rare and/or monumental event.
3. When people can relate to the videos (whether through emotion, humor, etc.).
4. When the video is brief yet substantial enough to hold viewer attention.
5. When a video is universally accepted…the more generalized and accessible the video is to a widespread audience the more spreadable it will become.

Sometimes most importantly, simplicity is the key factor.  Simple ideas and simple executions of concepts can ultimately be most effective.

These ideas are general and may not hold true for all viewers.  Many of these ideas tend to contradict one another based on what single viewer reactions, needs, and desires are when viewing a video.  Everyone reacts to things differently, and everyone will rate viral videos differently based on what they find or get out of it.  For this reason, it is easy to understand why there are so many viral videos, because so many people have so many different opinions on what is funny, sad, original, creative, substantial, simple, etc.  It’s about communication!

For fun viewing, here is a list of links to watch  While watching, try to ask yourself why the videos became viral, and if you can relate them to any of the five characteristics mentioned above (I won’t give you too many or you will waste too much time!).

Wedding Dance

Intoxicated Driving Singing ABC’s Backward

Crazy Guitar Skills

Treadmill Music Video

And below you will find my current favorite, a great example of stop motion and ultimate creativity!

Hi-Tech Kitchen Cutting Board

It’s face to face time again in Elon, North Carolina!  Listed below are some links to interesting and innovative interactive gadgets or media tools/concepts presented by my classmates:

• Sony Unveils VAIO X
• Texting Elephants
• Fast and Slow Seasons of the Internet
• Photosketch
• Virtual Autopsy
• Wireless Charging

My face to face topic for this week is a hi-tech kitchen cutting board, pictured to the right.  This hi-tech kitchen cutting board (still in its planning and prototype stages) comes equipped with a flexible touch screen LCD display that will have Internet Wi-Fi access which can download recipes for you to view as you make your meal.

A lot of flack is being discussed about how this cutting board will be scratched when a knife cuts it.  When I first heard about this board, I figured only something made out of a diamond would be able to withhold such scratches!  Contrary to popular belief, the acrylic surface is supposed to withstand most regular kitchen knives.

The surface is also flexible tempered glass, emulating many computer surfaces of the future!

I’m still a bit skeptical about the mechanics of this cutting board.  If a scratch were to be made, and liquid from any cut food was to get into the interior of the board, I’m assuming it would be disaster…either the board dying from water failure or the chef dying from electrocution.  Also, wouldn’t your recipe be covered up when you’re cutting on it?