FoodieBuddha.com

Now this is one hell of a great idea!  RoamingHunger.com is a site dedicated to those lovely little food trucks we’ve heard so much about.

While these little wandering snack shacks are noticeably absent from Atlanta’s dining scene (since the demise of Via Elisa), this is a great site for the foodie on you. [sic ]  Roaming Hunger is a glorified twitter aggregator that tracks the daily location of roughly 200 trucks.  It comes complete with user ratings and little tidbits about each truck. 

Food trucks are a trend that has grown from underground “coolness” into on the cusp of being overdone.  I’m sure it will definitely hit here sometime … but for now, we have Ketel One vodka’s alcohol-free truck on the loose.  Top Chef’s Ilan Hall is behind the wheel on that.  Meanwhile, Taco Bell got busy, and Ingrid Hoffmann (of the Food Network) is doing it up Miami style.

[thanks FC]

It’s been roughly a year since I last mentioned Foodzie.com.  In that time, the site has grown the point where it is now capable of making headlines beyond our little food community.  The site, which is tagged as an online specialty shop for food, just made a big splash by hiring Adam Sah.  The name won’t mean a lot to many around these parts, but this is an interesting hire.  Sah, who has been enlisted as the VP of Engineering, cut his teeth working for internet behemoth Google.  If you use iGoogle or any of the Gmail gadgets, then you have Sah to thank.  After all, he’s the man behind Google Gadgets.  Though that might not impress every technophile you come across, it is still a noteworthy accomplishment.

This is the result of tremendous growth from Foodzie.  In the year previous, they went from 25 vendors to 250.  Also notable is their branded partnership with The Atlantic, that really kick ass website.  I’ll be curious to see what a guy like Sah will serve up for Foodzie.

[via TechCrunch]

Time is short today, so my first impression post on Miller Union will have to wait until tomorrow.  In the meantime, check out this cool image.

That little artistic gem comes courtesy of the Coffee Creations website.  As you’ll see, its a website featuring the art of someone named Karen.  What’s particularly interesting is that all the work is made from espresso beans.  Neato!  So visit the website or become a fan or a follower.  Enjoy your weekend, reviews are a comin! I promise.

Yesterday, I mentioned how online media portal Hulu.com added Martin Yan’s Hong Kong to their repertoire.  Today, I figured that I might as well expand on that post just a bit.  If you don’t spend a lot of time on the computer, and/or don’t try and stay plugged in to the “what’s happening at an internet near you,” it is quite possible that the name Hulu is nothing more than a head-scratcher.

The joint-venture startup launched just shy of three-years ago and currently houses thousands upon thousands of hours of television.  Unlike some of those other sites offering free television programming, Hulu has several major advantages.  Most notably, it’s legit … so everything is super duper high quality.

The site offers commercial-supported streaming video of TV shows and movies from TV stations like NBC, Fox, ABC and many other networks and studios.  Of particular interest to ya’ll is the website’s Food & Leisure channel.  There you’ll find all shows from the likes of Paula Deen, Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsey (who doesn’t love to see Gordo go ape all over some moronic excuse for a restaurateur – aka Kitchen Nightmares).  Meanwhile, Bravo TV shows like Top Chef are available for your viewing pleasure, as is the Food Network’s Good Eats with Atlantan Alton Brown, and the PBS show Diary of a Foodie.

Even if food related television isn’t your favorite, Hulu is definitely worth a visit.  The site is just loaded with great stuff.  Alright folks, until we eat again.  Meanwhile, any of you who actually have employees working under you – make a beeline for your IT Department and ask them to block the website … otherwise, you’re gonna have some ravenously unproductive people in your office in about 30-minutes.

Chef Martin Yan is best known for his TV Show Yan Can Cook.  If you’ve ever seen it, you’ll remember Yan for his high-energy performances backed by a thick accent and a happy-go-lucky attitude.  Now, Yan has found his way over to the über awesome site Hulu.  This shopping mall of online TV programming features high-quality feeds of most every popular show (and even some long-lost gems).  Best of all – it’s 100% free!!!! [Technophobes such as myself may have heard that Hulu is moving to a premium only option – this isn’t the case.  They are simply going to offer a premium option].

The show is entitled Martin Yan’s Hong Kong.  As the name implies, each episode, you’ll find Yan visiting some of his favorite Hong Kong restaurants and getting chefs to teach you their favorite recipes.  To wet your whistle, check out this interview with Chef Yan over on the Hulu Blog.

I’ve taken the liberty of embedding one of the episodes here.  However, you’ll find the whole dumpling over on Hulu’s website.

Warning: Watching this show may cause irreversible hunger, itchy stomachs, dreams of giant rice monsters, and a desire to jet set to Hong Kong just as soon as possible.

We all know how bad fast food is for us.  We also know how good things can look on TV even if they don’t look good in real life.  In that spirit, a website out there has decided to elevate the appearance of fast food.  FancyFastFood.com takes mundane orders of a Big Mac and turns them into steak and potatoes.  While I still think the photography needs a little work, my favorite to date are the “Tapas De Castillo Blanco” [pictured]  Made from White Castle burgers, those close (but inferior) cousins of my beloved Krystal burgers, I can’t imagine anyone would love them!

[Via Too Many Sources]

Who says computer geeks can’t cook?

Lifehacker.com is one of my daily reads (as it is for most every other professional in the technology sector).  Every once in a blue moon, they drop something cooking related.  Such was the case with yesterday’s post.  Creatively named “The Lifehacker Cookbook,” you’ll find a collection of [mostly] American grub all linked up and ready to go.

Fear not my fellow foodies, the cookbook is really just a link resource to some really excellent stuff.  It includes real stuff from real cooks.

Of the available recipes (which are sorted by meal of the day), my favorite is the homemade ginger ale recipe.  Granted, I haven’t tried most of these recipes.  The post for the ginger ale hit the web-waves just a few days ago; but, the recipe has been around for a bit.  It was extracted from the Jean-Georges Vongerichten cookbook entitled Cooking At Home with a Four-Star Chef.  I had a lot of luck with it; my friends and I gladly polished off a couple of batches in a single sitting.

This has the potential to break my heart.  I, along with every other foodie in ATL, love Holeman & Finch, that über cool English pub in Peachtree Hills.  Well, according to his own facebook status, Adam Biderman is packing his bags and moving to New Orleans.  No word yet on when he’s departing H&F.  It’s possible he’s already done; but, I saw him there on Thursday night. Update: Adam Is There Through The End of May!!!!!

In the meantime, I can assure you that this will be something I’ll keep my eyes on.  Regan, Greg, Linton, and the rest of the gang run a hell of an operation.  I am curious to see what the end result of this is.  While I think Adam does a  top notch job and this makes me sad … I wish him the best of luck on his journey home.

That all said, I expect H&F to remain my favorite hangout joint in town.

 Foodista is back in the news again.  Last time I checked in, I wasn’t optimistic about the idea of a recipe wiki.  However, a lot has happened in the past few months – but nothing that changes my mind.

To start, a group of investors from Seattle and Amazon have decided to throw away invest over half a mil in the site.  That’s not as much cash as it sounds like; but, it’s still more than I’d like to see handed over to a company with no apparent ongoing revenue stream on the horizon.

Back to that Seattle connection … apparently Foodista has decided to organize a conference in Seattle.  Targeted at yours truly, and the like, the International Food Blogger Conference is scheduled to hit the ground running in mid-May.  Okay, so there are some impressive sponsors and some great topics; but, I already have plans.  Thus, no visits to see my sister. Seriously though – 500k in investment!!!! What’s up with that people?

Nonetheless, the site is worth checking out … so head on over to foodista.com and see what you think for yourself.

Oh Yelp! … how I do have mixed feelings about you.  I dabble over there and find the site useful (if used with care).  Backed by a staunch and dedicated user base, Yelp has exploded in recent months.  The site has always catered to the end-user and not the business owner; however, this popularity pushed business owners to call for their own voice.  Last year, Yelp empowered the “profiteers” by giving them that voice, albeit a limited one.  That change handed owners the power to edit their own business profiles and respond privately to reviews.

Ah, but that was not enough and the crack in the user wall has deepened further.  Consequently, Yelp is about to hand the business owners a real bone in the fight for “Real People, Real Reviews.”  Starting next week, businesses will be able to publicly respond on Yelp to the reviews left by customers.  So what’s all the hubbub about …

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