food blogs & podcasts

well, after sufficient castigation from this blog's esteemed elders (double-teamed on the phone on a sunday morning, no less), the little bird has come to post. i've been a little busy, so i've fallen victim to this annoying little habit i have which entails me thinking about what i have to do and then thinking that i don't have the full amount of time that i think i would need to invest to do as good of a job as i want, so i think i'll just not do it at all and just lay here on the couch or look at a few websites. i am the world's best procrastinator. anyway, i do have a few things to write about, so i should have a few good posts coming up.

so, i've been into this podcasting thing for about the last year or so. (if you aren't on the podcast bandwagon yet, see here for my own rather feeble attempt at describing podcasting to the layperson.) anyway, as the universe of podcasting continues to expand, the number of subject matter topics seems to expand correspondingly and has expanded to include one of my favorite topics, fooooood. i'm always on the lookout for a new podcast to subscribe to and i have enjoyed kcrw's "good food" for some time (on the radio for a while and as a podcast more recently), so i decided to look for some food podcasts to add to my list a few months ago. here are a few that i found and really enjoy:

the food geek podcast: the food geek is the podcast that alton brown would make if he had a podcast. well, not exactly, but close. he is definitely "in the ab camp" when it comes to food. this is not just a recipe show, the food geek talks about a range of subjects related to food. the episodes are also not based on a certain theme, instead they have several segments per episode. he usually has one good rant per episode, which is funny. he seems to watch a lot of food network, as he does a bit of kvetching about their programming. note that he calls himself the food geek, not the food snob. he enjoys food in all its forms and seems to equally enjoy investigating the process of making it and educating people about making it. the food geek has a funny, self-deprecating sense of humor and the production values are very good, so the podcast is quite enjoyable. my only complaint is the episodes aren't released very regularly.

the podchef's gastrocast: i have to admit to having a love-hate relationship with this podcast. the podchef is doing something that i would love to do, which is go live in the sticks somewhere and raise/grow/cook really good food. he is very into organic food, local food procucts, sustainable and humane food production, and all sorts of other tree-hugger sorts of ideas, and his podcasts offer a lot of good information on these topics that you're not going to hear on the food network. however, don't be fooled: he is not one of those whiny vegans and he has really good taste in food. each show is based on a theme and always has a recipe section. he usually cooks the recipe on the podcast and then posts pictures on his flickr page. admittedly, i haven't had the chance to test any of them yet, but this one particularly is on my list. the downside with this podcast is that it is a little hard to listen to. also, the production values are fairly horrible, full of abrupt transitions between badly edited musical pieces and ear-shatteringly suprising volume changes. and sometimes the podchef gets a little whiny. all of that nothwithstanding, i really do like this podcast. episodes are faithfully released every week. the information about sustainability is very thought provoking. the recipes are interesting. and, annoying as they are, the production foibles are indicia of an indie podcast that is a true labor of love.

food podcasts i'd like to see: alton brown (which may be coming soon, according to his website.)