When the body is healthy, the soul dances

Two days ago I ran into a friend and since it was shortly after lunch and neither of us had eaten yet, we decided to take our meal together. We ended up at Pancake House. By the way, that photo of the blueberry waffle isn't from Pancake House but from a website called Delicious Days.

So as I perused the menu and picked out a sandwich, I made a mental note to drop by the place again soon and have one of those delectable pancakes featured on the menu. While waiting for our orders (my companion ordered a taco salad), I suddenly remembered the half a dozen food blogs I had bookmarked for future posting. Now is the future.

That bookmarking happened over a week ago, when I felt like looking through brilliant photography and ended up at food blogs and sites that featured remarkable photos of -- what else? Food, food, food. Of course there were recipes but for someone who doesn't cook (such as myself) yet appreciates the pains that other people take in order to prepare sumptuous gastronomic delights, the pictures were the center of attention. Also, since I recently had experienced a boost to my appetite, setting my eyes on wonderful culinary creations took on new significance.

While going from one food blog to another, I felt tugs of envy toward these bloggers -- some of whom apparently got the chance to travel quite a lot. One was a Swede living in Tuscany; another was a Danish lady who wrote about her delightful vacation in France. A lot of these food bloggers are French and I've mixed up the different profiles already, but the fact that they live in France (Paris, Cote d'Azur...and other places that, to me, spell "getaway destination") makes me wistful. And their photos aren't bad! In fact, "not bad" is an understatement; never had I appreciated the porous beauty of bread until I came upon photos like theirs.


Then there's the Spanish illustrator from Madrid who just recently came back from a vacation "driving on Baltic roads for fifteen days." Her blog, Lobstersquad, features some recipes, too, as well as her artwork.

I think it was The Traveler's Lunchbox that I stumbled on first, and then from there it was one food trip after another (he's got a lot of links of other food blogs -- by country -- not to mention a cool photo gallery). That picture of the fig and prosciutto pizza you see on the left up there is from the photo gallery just mentioned.

(At this point, I would like to mention that I have grown famished from all this dwelling on food.)

I wonder if a lot of other people in the Philippines watch "Boy Meets Grill" which has chef Bobby Flay cooking up various dishes al fresco. I find the show remarkably engaging. I don't know if it's Bobby's way of talking about the ingredients, if it's the outdoorsy appeal of the set, or the choice of recipes. It could be the camera shots. But the chef sure makes whipping up those ingredients look easy -- and fun! But last night I chanced upon "Iron Chef America" where Bobby, I learned, is the defending champion, and he didn't look like he was having fun at all. Who would enjoy preparing meals under all that pressure anyway -- and with cameras documenting your every move?

I think this is enough talk about food! After hitting the "publish post" tab, I'm going to make myself a sandwich. But someday I'm going to learn how to much something with an exotic name like "seafood socca," which is this: