A few months back, we were invited to take part in an episode of Food(ography) with Mo Rocca on the Cooking Channel. Well, we're thrilled to announce the episode airs tonight at 9pm EST!
Take a look behind-the-scenes of our shoot – "Going Coconuts On The Cooking Channel" – and be sure to tune in to support your fellow foodspotters!
It's the team's first full day in Austin for this year's South by Southwest festival. Already we've met so many friendly foodspotters who have stopped us in the streets because they recognize us – and our awesome t-shirts.
As you know, we're here to meet so many more of you, to spread the Foodspotting gospel, to give our best shot at the Team Android Choice Awards, and to host a kick-ass Street Food Fest with BlackBerry this Sunday. In case you need a reminder why you should join the festivities and tell your friends to download Foodspotting, check out this schweet piece just posted on WIRED: "Foodspotting Turns Up Heat on Austin’s Food Trucks"
In the article, Jason Umlas, owner of Lucky J’s, which specializes in chicken-and-waffle tacos, says:
“I think Foodspotting is definitely a really cool site for connecting people with the actual place and dishes... Being a chef, I don’t really take everyone’s opinion into much regard, but a picture’s worth a thousand words and being able to be like, ‘I have this awesome food in front of me, check this out!’ — that means a lot more to me.”We couldn't have said it better ourselves. See you guys on Sunday!
Top photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Aside from releasing our Android app and announcing our Official SXSW Street Food Fest presented by BlackBerry, we came across all manners of fun food news, announcements and discoveries this week. Below are a few of our favorites. If you have a tip for next week's Weekend Wrap Up, just shoot us an email with "Weekend Wrap Up" in the subject line.
- Foodspotting First Friday is today! Tag related tweets and include #FSEatUps in the notes section of your sighting. This month's theme is "circular shaped foods."
- We were left speechless by this Japanese sushi candy video.
- Watch cream hit the surface of coffee in this gorgeous high speed video by Modernist Cuisine.
- Visit The Nutropolitan Museum of Art in New York City this weekend. Receive a free jar of peanut butter just for stopping by. Exhibit runs from today to Sunday, March 6th.
- Secret crops of the Japanese citrus fruit Dekopon hits stores in California. (LA Times)
- The new season of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations premiered this week, and we're so excited to stumble on Into No Res, a Tumblr blog that goes behind the scenes of the show.
- We'll be watching America's Next Great Restaurant with Chef Bobby Flay this Sunday night on NBC.
That's all for our first ever Weekend Wrap Up. Catch us on Twitter and Facebook, and have a great weekend, everybody!
After the lobsters were presented on a platter at our table, they were whisked away to the kitchen where they (magically!) became lobster sashimi for our first course. The second course was lobster tempura, and for the final course, the lobster remains flavored a filling lobster miso soup.
The three-course lobster menu for two is available for $120. If you're seriously considering stopping by, do make a reservation. This experience, along with some of New York's best sushi, should inspire adventurous eaters and sushi "afishionados" to put 15 East on their Wanted list!
From Foodspotting's inception in fall 2009 until we announced our angel funding last summer, we were a bootstrap operation through and through. So, when we announced that we raised $3 million in Series A funding in early January, it was nothing short of a dream come true. But who are these people who believe in Foodspotting so much that they invested in us? Meet Jay Jamison, venture partner at BlueRun Ventures, who advocated for us from the beginning and who made the funding possible. We sat Jay down for an old-fashioned Q+A and found out that food isn't only the best way to someone's heart, sometimes it leads to a great working partnership too...
Why did you invest in Foodspotting?
At BlueRun Ventures, we were immediately drawn in to Foodspotting, I suspect in large part for the same reasons that so many users are. We love food, and Foodspotting helps me enjoy my passion for food even more. I enjoy spotting food, and I love seeing the dishes others are submitting from all over the world.
In addition to loving Foodpsotting as users, we admire and respect the Foodspotting team—passionate professionals who are have such a great dedication to creating a vibrant, authentic brand.
Let's talk about dishes. You’re stuck on a desert island, and you only have ingredients to create three dishes for the rest of your life. What are they?
Edamame, buffalo mozzarella and tomato salad, and grilled salmon with beurre blanc (a type of French butter sauce) topped with poached egg and asparagus…Spill it - Favorite meals of all time?
I wish I’d had Foodspotting for each of my favorite meals. They are:
Gotham Bar & Grill in New York. I took my wife there on our first date.
Daniel in New York. On the evening of June 17, 1994—the day OJ Simpson led the LAPD on a low-speed pursuit in LA broadcast on TVs everywhere—my parents and I ate here. We had what I can only describe as the best meal I’ve ever tasted.
Il Mulino in Tokyo, Japan. On my 35th birthday, a group of close friends and I spent the day golfing and then rolled into a dinner at the Tokyo branch of Il Mulino. Best Italian restaurant I’ve ever been to.
Blue Ribbon in New York, c. 1994. After I finished college, I moved to New York to pursue a career as an actor. Much of this time, I was waiting tables. Open until 4am nightly, Blue Ribbon was the restaurant for restaurant professionals to go after their shifts. My brothers in arms from different restaurants and I had a blast rolling into Blue Ribbon at about 1:30 and staying until close.
This again shows why I think Foodspotting can be such a powerful brand—many of us can tie certain very fond experiences in our lives with the food we were eating at the time.
Last but not least, what are some key goals you have for Foodspotting this year?
Foodspotting is an application and community that we all love being a part of. If we continue to focus on continuing to extend that to more and more people in the same authentic, high quality way, then we will have achieved what I think our key goals are for 2011.
In honor of Presidents' Day, we decided to take a look at what US presidents past and present love to eat. Thanks to the Internet, we soon learned that George Bush senior famously expressed his dislike of broccoli and that, throughout his presidency, Jimmy Carter often served some variety of grits to White House guests. Much like our own taste in food, presidential food preferences cover a wide range, from Abe Lincoln who was "almost entirely indifferent to food except that he liked apples and hot coffee" to Bill Clinton who didn't shy from fast food at all. Below are some more presidents paired with their favorite dishes.
HINT Click on the photos to reveal the presidents' favorite foods.
Research based mostly on The Food Timeline.
What makes a job the best job ever? A few weeks ago, Foodspotting got the chance to talk to one of our heroes, technology and gaming video hostess, Veronica Belmont, for Best Job Ever. In this segment, our co-founders Alexa and Teddy talk about the qualities we look for in a Foodspotting team member, and discuss what makes for a great developer in any company. Think you might be a good fit for Foodspotting? Apply here.
Right now, Plovgh co-founders Elizabeth McVay Greene and Nikki Brovold are using a neighborhood-based distribution model to make food from farms available at hubs throughout cities across the States. To start, they have sign-ups in New York and 80 other cities. For foodspotters who are interested in getting food straight from the farm, take a look at Plovgh's website! Elizabeth and Nikki say that once they have sufficient demand in a particular neighborhood, they'll match that neighborhood with farms that can feed it.
A few days ago, Plovgh stopped by Foodspotting's New York office to chat about their venture and farm fresh food, like the beautiful multi-colored eggs from Neversink Farm, which got us thinking about egg dishes. We considered cooking with the eggs, but our good intentions were thwarted when we realized we had a big kitchen, but no stove! Nevertheless, just think of all the egg dishes in the world, like the Croque Madame Soraya had this morning and, my favorite, burgers topped with eggs. For our #heartspotting Valentine's Day campaign, Foodspotter JKat even submitted a heart-shaped egg in a hole!
Tell us - how do you like your eggs? And what are some of your favorite egg dishes?
