We’re eating more Organic food, we’re starting to shop and eat locally, we’re thinking more about trans-fats and processed foods, and in the past decade our food knowledge and food availability has been greatly expanded.

The trend in 2009 isn’t a local one.  It’sInternetional.  We can say goodbye to the old ingredient trends such as truffles, asiago cheese, portobella mushrooms, and duck which all of a sudden appear on every menu in every form.  Truffle shavings, with truffle oil, sitting on a carpaccio of truffle, and topped with a frozen truffle foam.  Online, is where the latest food trend is to be found.  There are webgroups, blogs, Meetup groups, networks, food websites and a great assortment of restaurant-review websites.  It is something we all have some degree of access to and that caters to every level of chef, cook, foodie, and person who eats.

In our home, we have had the computer in the kitchen for several years now, because I useepicurious.com and foodnetwork.com for many of my recipes.  I love my cookbooks and those that I’ve pilfered from my mother’s bookshelves and kitchen cupboards and I won’t replace them with the websites.  However, if I’m looking to do a full menu or I have an ingredient in the fridge, from my CSA or in my Boston Organics box that I want to use, then the easiest way to have a huge selection of ingredient-specific recipes at my fingertips is online.

Here is Part I of the hottest food trend for 2009.

Old Friends and a Newbie

epicurious.com
Their tagline is “for people who love to eat”.  I use the site primarily for food recipes, but also for drink recipes and occasionally for full menu ideas.  In addition to the recipes, there are articles and guides, and there is a community section for forums and discussions.  Most of the recipes on this site are from Gourmet magazine and Bon Appetit.  There is also a virtual recipe box where you can store the recipes you like to use.  If I can’t find what I’m looking for on epicurious I’ll often go to foodnetwork.com and vice versa.

foodnetwork.com
My relationship with the Food Network began when my daughter was about six months old perhaps even younger.  She would start her day at 5:00 a.m. at the latest, something I found a little hard to live with having not slept more than 3 hours straight for more than a few months.  So we found this little routine that worked.  Since we didn’t have Tivo and my daughter was not one to entertain herself, I would lie on the couch with her and put on the Food Network because I knew there wouldn’t be any violence from news or advertisements nor would there be any shows all of a sudden that were’nt PG- 6 months (I know, I know no television before 3 years – these are my own guidelines out of desparation).  So Isabelle and I now often talk about Ina andMartha and occasionally Giada and Nigella.  We still sometimes unwind together in the afternoon now with 2 year old Henry as well and watch a cooking show.

For foodnetwork.com, I tend to go to my favourite television chefs (also chefs in their own right outside the box or flat screen).  I also go there if I’m looking for a more “homestyle”, local, “old school”, down to earth recipe than one might find on epicurious.com.

foodbuzz.com
Their tagline is “find flavor, share taste”.  This is a foodblogger community.  When I started my blog Farm Fresh, I was just writing to have some small memories of times on the farm with the children, and to keep the momentum up for a project that I was starting with a friend (now on the back burner).  I had no idea there was a whole blog world, perhaps galaxy out there. My blog was like my own little memory box.   However, the land of blogging is more like a Pandora’s box.  Throughout my online travels I have come across some amazing blogs, food photographs, recipes, anecdotes.  The world of food and the world of blogging can emulsify quite nicely.

I go to foodbuzz to wander and browse.  I’m fairly new to the foodbuzz scene so I have to admit that I’m still getting my bearing, but I love that it is global and personal.  For example, my list of foodbuzz friends include:  chez what eat this and Culinary Types (from NY), Shizouka Gourmet (from France living in Japan), seasaltwithfood (from Vancouver), I Cook Stuff (from Boston), Joie de Vivre (from Richland) and  Tri to Cook (from Boston via Philadelphia).

Coming up next are some more exceptional, intriguing, educational, and entertaining food and foodie websites and online tools.

Bon appetit. ttyl your BFF (Boston Family Foodie)

For more info: epicurious.com,foodnetwork.com, foodbuzz.com