Introducing Field to Feast: An African Food Blog

Until recently, the stable of Web sites I checked regularly was small and select – the New York Times, Alternet and Duke Basketball Report. Some of you may network through Friendster or LinkedIn, others may troll music Web sites or monitor Ebay auctions. But me? All I needed was to read the news, read the news that wasn’t being reported and then get my sports fix. That is, until I discovered food blogs.

If you stood in front of a spice rack of food blogs, here is what you would see. First in line, beside the sea salt and tellicherry peppercorns are the blogs written by people addicted to cookbooks. They gamely test recipe after recipe, chronicling their results and offering recommended adaptations. Moving towards the peri peri are the blogs composed by travelers with intrepid taste buds who divulge their food discoveries in lands near and far. Their entries feature interesting ingredients, fantastic restaurants, traditional recipes, and fascinating insights into the nexus between food and culture. Finally, abutting the homemade curry powder, are those blogs cooked up by amateur chefs who create and share their own recipes. Most food blogs contain a pinch from each genre, are embellished with excellent photos, and fold together a personal anecdote along with the sweet and the savory. My favorites – which I, fittingly, peruse daily over lunch – are Chocolate and Zucchini, Orangette and Traveler’s Lunchbox. However, these sites are just the tip of the iceberg lettuce. Let’s just say that I did more research before voting in the 2005 Food Blog Awards than I did before voting in the last U.S. Presidential election.

So, why I am telling you all this? First, all obsessed people want the validation of hooking other people to their drug. Second, I have decided, with Field to Feast, to craft what hopefully will be more than just a pale imitation of the work of my blogging idols. Field to Feast will be mostly peri peri, with a pinch of sea salt and a grind of tellicherry peppercorns. One entry might extol the virtues of the baobab fruit, while another tests recipes with rooibos tea, investigates the properties of the moringa tree, or ponders exactly how African women balance 10-kilo bags of sugar on their heads. Living, as I do, in southern Africa, this blog also will recognize the less appetizing reality of food – the fact that, for many people, accessing the quantity of nutritious food they need to thrive is never a given. Field to Feast will talk about food as a celebration, a discovery and a struggle. No food-related topic, from field to feast, will be off-limits.

Tags: introduction, first post, Field to Feast, food blog, Africa