Marga's Foodblog

The Cook's Thesaurus is one of my favorite food websites, and probably the most useful site around. It's basically a food encyclopeadia; it gives you a description (even info about its origin and types) of almost any ingredient you can think of and tells you what you can substitute for it. Today, for example, I needed a substitute for sherry and the site told me that, as I suspected, I could use madeira. It also told me I could use red wine plus sugar, which I wouldn't have thought of myself.

You can find it at http://www.foodsubs.com/

I'm not sure if I'd call this a "great" website, but it's certainly amusing. Read the musings and rantings of bitter waitresses (and waiters!) at bitterwaitress.com

kiss my bitter ass

From http://www.comicazee.com/cartoonist.asp?id=5

I just came across jatbar.com, AKA Jason and Terrys Bay Area Reviews, a new (to me) website with personal reviews of Bay Area restaurants. The reviewers specialize in the South Bay, and they have LOTS of reviews. It's worth checking out.

A couple of days ago I was searching for reviews of Quince when I stumbled upon the Vinography.com blog. As expected, the blog focuses on wine but it also includes a few reviews of Bay Area restaurants. What's notable is how well written they are. I usually just read restaurant reviews for the information, but these were just a pleasure to read for their own sake. I wish I could write like that!

I'm adding a link to Vinography and I'll be reading its feed, maybe it'll encourage me to get more into wine as well :)

Food Muse is a food blog by one of my favorite writers. I love the elegance and sumptuosness of her writing. I also like the clean look of her blog and the ever changing top pictures. I may just copy that :)

I discovered Becks & Posh's blog when they visited me and I haven't been able to stop looking at it since. They have some of the most gorgeous food pictures I've ever seen. Looking at them makes me want to take my food photography seriously. Until now, all I've been doing is taking a quick snapshot of a dish and praying it'll be in focus (our digital camera could be better for these purposes). Their pictures remind me of what my old photography teacher used to say: "don't be afraid to get close".

http://celestialcoupon.whitehorse.com/

Expires May 18th.

I love the restaurant reviews of the East Bay Express. When I'm looking for a new place to try for dinner, I check the Express first. They review all sort of interesting restaurants (here is where I found The New Zealander, Old Weang Ping and Tropical Paradise) and the reviews are well written and fun to read. They also tend to be much more thorough than those of the Chronicle (which are utilitarian but boring). So if you're looking for a place to eat in the East Bay, check it out!

eastbayexpress.com | Dining