Full disclosure: This post was supposed to be about a recent visit to a great seafood restaurant in NYC. I had been looking forward to writing about it, and yet here you are reading this disclaimer about what I was supposed to write instead of well, what I was supposed to write. So, why am I not writing about this unnamed place? Excellent question! I did indeed go to said restaurant and I certainly enjoyed the food! Unfortunately something else went very wrong. It’s a problem I’ve always had, but one that has become more and more apparent as of late. It’s hard to believe, but the truth of it is –

I hate taking pictures of my food!

As the author of a blog centered on food, you can imagine this is a bit of a problem for me. Going in, I thought this would make a great place to write about. I had been there before and knew I was in for a treat. And yet, I completely forgot to take a single picture. Appetizer? Nope.  Either of the 2 entrées? Nada.  Not even of the whiskey cake amuse-bouche (yeah, yeah, yeah the word technically refers to an hors d’oeuvre and not a dessert, but I just learned the word today and want to sound sophisticated). Without any pictures to bring back, I didn’t feel I could write about it just yet.

In general I’m not one to really take pictures of anything (I am ashamed to admit, I did once take a selfie in 2008. I swear it hasn’t happened again since), but there is something about stopping to photograph food in particular that just seems (I’m looking for a word other than “wrong”) wrong to me. Maybe it’s that by the time my food arrives in front of me I’m so full of anticipation (and my stomach so empty) that I just can’t fathom doing anything except diving right in, fork first. Maybe it’s that I feel like a fool taking out my phone and photographing (and inevitably, I’ve left my flash on) every dish that makes its way in front of me.

A large part of it I think, is that just isn’t how I enjoy my food. Certainly there have been dishes that have left me visually wowed and compelled me to reach for my phone before the dish even hits the table. I’ve snapped pictures of everything from a literal boat of sushi to a 5lb burger that looked about as big as the cow it came from (which if you’re curious, I finished… the things people do for a free T-Shirt). Those exceptions aside, to me, a picture can never capture the best thing about food – the taste and the experience of the meal.  At the end of the day, that is what I appreciate most about my food. The best way to share your favorite food with someone is to actually share your favorite food with someone.

But I realize that isn’t always quite so easy.  Taste is the hardest sense to share with someone else (except maybe the sixth sense since whenever I try to describe what that’s like for me people just look at me like I’m crazy) so I understand the draw of taking and sharing pictures. Especially as an amateur food blogger, sharing a meal with all my readers would be pretty difficult (well, on second thought, given how many of you there are that might be pretty easy), but sharing a picture is simple (if you remember to take one). With that in mind, I will do my best to capture my gastronomic adventures in pictures, because no one should have to read 1,000 words written by me 🙂