Food Porn

double pesto with shrimp - ila puti, cebu city - could have used more parmessan cheese

there are still people who look at me oddly when i head out to have a meal by myself. more so when i pose, spread, fluff and arrange the dishes around my table (and sometimes, on the neighboring table) before i whip out my camera for some food porn.

that's what you get if your second biggest passion in photography revolves around food.

oh it hurts the wallet as you go around looking for new dishes to interpret, food doesn't come that cheap in cebu anymore and i've turned down a couple of invites to write positively glowing PR reviews for a couple of restaurants.

i've said it before, and i've said it again - i can very well afford to pay for my own meal. i just want the freedom to say "eeet suuuucks" if and when a dish doesn't live up to my limited taste.

i'm digressing from the topic.

food photography is akin to porn. at least from my standpoint. you can look all you want but you know you can't have it. at least, NOT "have it" because it's all going to your (insert really flabby part of your body here). believe me, i've had to listen to endless lamentation from filipinos based in other parts of the world when i start to post pictures of adobo or lechon. and just like porn, you know it's bad for you but you just can't stop looking at it.

a thai inspired dish from ila puti - the fried rice had  a nice flavor due to the dried baby shrimps

there are other "problems" with food photography. it is good when you go out as a group and you subtly try to convince your companions to order varied choices and not so subtly hint that you want to take a picture of their perfectly set food before they can dig in. i mean how cruel can they be when i look at them with puppy dog eyes and point my camera at their food?

work fast. you don't want your friends to eat cold food.

the other problem is when you're dining out alone. that's where the odd stares come from. dining is generally a social event shared by a group, not by a lonely fellow armed to the teeth with camera gear. then again, most people who dine out are still engrossed with their online world as they tap, scan, post and update their twitter, facebook pages while sending text messages and replying to email. the irony of it all.

for foodies like me, dining out poses a problem as you just can't have one dish for a picture. you end up ordering another dish, preferably something that you haven't ordered previously and run the risk of ending up with a dish that merits an "eeeet suuucks" tag in facebook. just like porn, it looks good on film but probably sucks in real life. i didn't mean the pun.

take out bag here we go.

sigh. i need to get some traveling done soon!

visit my blog for some incessant rambling.