As someone mildly obsessed with food, I cannot deny that I have had secret fantasies about starting my own food blog. I however find it a real handicap to live in Norway. I get the feeling that to be able to write a nice food blog, you need to live in a strategic spot in California and have plenty of time on your hand. Being a busy mediumgeek, traveling mostly on bike, and with a pathetic selection of grocery stores such as Rema just doesn't make for interesting food blog material.

I subscribe to the news feed from 101 Cookbooks. A beautifully written blog with nice photography. I tend to like the recipes mostly for their aesthetic appeal as the ones I have tried have been a bit too bland for my liking. The real treat is really the mental images I get. Just imagine the tranquility and charm of this trip to the farmers' market.

My version would be more like this...
There is this little grocery store not far from my apartment. I hate it. I usually visit it on my way home from work. After sweating my way up the hill from work I park my bike outside the store and wobble in on tired feat. I then walk along the isles between cardboard boxes and shelfs that belong more to a storage area than a grocery store dragging the little worn plastic shopping chart after me and trying not to notice how dirty it is. I pick out the things I want while trying not to hit down things with my overstuffed backpack full of computer equipment and exercise clothes and my bike helmet. Then there is the short ride home trying to balance the plastic bags on my bike and getting my bike, the shopping bags, and myself through two heavy door.

Doesn't sound quite as appealing as it does to stroll out your door with a basket under your arm...

Then there is an issues with the selection and freshness of things. 101 Cookbooks repeatedly writes things like:

There are no vibrant colors in my neighborhood supermarket. If there is anything pink in there it is for sure an artificially colored plastic container. Even the tomatoes are some type of pale vampire tomatoes competing with the zombie paleness of the carrots, and the emo look of the oranges. What should be fresh sprigs of herbs are usually some half dead plants that instantly commit a suicide when they hit your window sill. There isn't much variation in what is available either. To get anything special you need to visit few different immigrant stores that have much to learn about display and tidiness.

Norway has the excuse that almost everything needs to be imported. But one would think that during harvest season you might see some fresh and colorful shades of vibrant orange, yellow and green. But no, instead of displaying the various types of vegetables that are actually grown locally the stores usually just end up with giant cardboard boxes full of bleak-green cabbage heads. All to make Norway's traditional fall dish. The extremely exotic and complex Fårikål which literally means mutton in cabbage. And it really is just that: Mutton and cabbage with some black pepper...

So I really think serious food blogging is out for me. And I will blame it all on the fact that I live in Norway instead of any lack of skills in the cooking, writing, and photography department :) .