Food 2.0

A little Cantonese lesson before we go any further – “Wai sik” is the Cantonese romanization of “love eating,” and that pretty much tells you what this blog is about. Sui Mai has been documenting her dining experience online since 2005 with pictures and criticism – one is about her poor lunch at a fast food restaurant which reads, “I *HATE* bad lunches... I have fallen victim to a bad lunch and am sitting here fuming. What a waste of a good stomach.” The blogger is now in Paris (with blog entries on Parisian food, of course), so for everyone who can’t leave your office desk but dream of Paris, this could very well be your Barmecide’s feast.
http://suimai.blogspot.com/

Another Cantonese/food lesson – “cha xiu bao” is Cantonese for steamed bun with barbecued pork. The blogger Josh is another enthusiastic one who has traveled around the world for the best food – catching the cheese festival in Bra, Italy and having a meal at the Fat Duck restaurant in London – arguably one of the very best in the world. One might wonder if he lives to write this blog – but his motto pretty much sums it up: “What is the biggest problem in this world? Eating it is!”
http://chaxiubao.typepad.com/

This might be the most complete online food guide in town – but it's Chinese only. The site has all the essential information of almost all eateries in Hong Kong, together with lengthy comments from more than 300 members – many of them are so dedicated that they turn it into a platform to publish their own food blogs. Very useful if you need some last-minute advice.
http://www.openrice.com

This blog is definitely a bizarre attention-getter. Inmates on death row are granted one last meal of their choice before they ride the lighting, and unfortunately, some of their choices remind us of why they’re in prison in the first place. A perfect example is Corey Hamilton, executed in Oklahoma earlier this year. His last meal was a BBQ platter with chicken, chopped brisket, ribs and hot links, barbeque sauce and baked beans. And why did he end up in jail? He shot four employees at a chicken fast food eatery. And then there is John Bryant Moore of Texas, who requested Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and beef-flavored Rice-a-Roni, but then again just about anything from the outside world tastes good after spending 25 years in the slammer.
http://deadmaneating.blogspot.com/

If a last meal blog doesn’t zap you with enough shock value, the dishes featured here definitely will. Remember when you were small (actually some adults still do this), nozzling a little bit of every flavor into your cup at the 7-Eleven slurpy machine? We’ve all made small attempts at fusion, but this is just insane - imagine mixing beer and soup at a food fest in Belgium, or dipping raccoon (wow), pork brain, crocodile and rooster testicles into Shanghainese hot pots. These daring creations are worthy of Fear Factor. One of the bloggers of Deep End Dining is Eddie Lin. When others ask why he dares to, he explains, “Because it’s there...” The same answer climbers give when asked why they want to scale Mount Everest. “It’s like cliff-diving for foodies,” he says.
http://www.deependdining.com/

Open minds, look no further. As unappetizing as bugs and various animal parts may sound, the most hardcore experience has to be hot sauce. Of course, most of us have dabbed a speck of Tabasco on a burrito, but a scale of hotness for peppers and chili stretches to both extremes; that’s right – from mild to wild. There’s a whole subculture of hot sauce lovers who organize conventions to feature blazing new recipes and to shop for and compare rare collectibles. Here on Hot Sauce Blog, you can find hot sauce comics, bottle label artwork, and brand names such as Femme Fatali, Firecracker 500, Global Warming, and the Pit Viper. The limited edition Defcon Zero Batch #4 packs one whole pound of dried orange Habaneras into a 5ml vial. Talk about outrageous. Hot Sauce bloggers explain their passion for fire: “You get a big friggin’ kick in the ass from the right tamale,” says Lisa, who has weathered some of the hottest batches.
http://www.hotsauceblog.com/

Bloggers on this site are all on a mission, literally. The McInformation network is an independent group comprised of volunteers from 22 countries working to snare McDonald’s in any trap they can. They claim that the fast food empire is the definitive symbol of big business, greed and exploitation. Everyone knows McDonald’s spends billions of dollars each year to promote the golden arches. Even Microsoft Word recognizes McDonald's as an English word. To balance the scales, McSpotlight bloggers use forums for issues, campaign news, and debates to voice their alternative viewpoints. The blog gets about one million hits a month making it quite a powerful network. Of course, McDonald’s sells over a billion hamburgers in the same 30 days.
http://www.mcspotlight.org/