Interview with The Food Pornographer

Monday, 1 March 2010

I was recently interviewed by May Kang, editor of Lighthouse, the magazine of the International Students Service, University of Western Australia. The interview first appeared in Lighthouse magazine 2010, Issue 1 and has been republished here with permission.
Read Lighthouse magazine online (needs Flash)

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m a 34-year-old woman living in Perth. I live with my partner of almost 13 years, Jac, and our two cats Pixel and Billy Lee. Most of the home-cooked meals featured on the site have been cooked by Jac, and you’ll see photos of the cats regularly on my blog too. I have a PhD in English literature and an Honours in creative writing, both from Murdoch University. I work full-time in communications. I love eating, taking photos, computers, books and the Internet. My website is a food blog called The Food Pornographer and my readers know me as TFP.

When did you begin blogging about food and why?

I taught myself html 11 or so years ago when I first got an Internet connection at home (back in the days of dial-up), and since then I’ve always had a personal website. Over the years it evolved into a personal journal-style site, then a blog, and then a food blog. My journal/blog was originally a way to keep my friends and one of my sisters who lived overseas up-to-date with what we were getting up to here in Perth.

The food blog came about after I bought my first digital camera. I never intended to have a food blog specifically. It just began with me taking photos of the food we ate at family get-togethers, which I then posted on my blog to show my sister who was overseas what she was missing out on – photos from Chinese New Year family reunion dinner, Mum’s beef rendang, Grandma’s lotus root soup, stuff like that. I also took photos of other food I ate, including junk food like McDonald’s and pizza, and meals we ate at home and at restaurants. I was surprised at the enthusiastic response to the food photos, not just from my friends and family, but complete strangers, who would stumble upon my site, presumably after Google searches for various food words.

One of my friends made the comment that my photos were food porn, which I thought sounded cool – I decided to start a new blog called The Food Pornographer. Even then I didn’t think of my site as a food blog – to me, it was just a blog by a person who happened to love eating and taking photos of food. I have readers who’ve been reading the blog ever since I started it in 2005 – they’ve been through everything with Jac and me – my PhD, my changing jobs, Jac’s surgeries, our moving house… with all the meals at the time, including hospital food!

What is food to you?

It’s delicious, it’s comforting, it fills me up, it makes me happy. Jac often says she never sees me looking more content than when I am eating.

What does Jac and your family think about your food blogging addiction?

I asked Jac for her thoughts on this question, and she said:

“TFP loves eating, loves the Internet and is a really creative person, so food blogging is a perfect way for her to do things she enjoys and express herself creatively.”

Jac is fully supportive of my food blogging because she can see the passion I have for it. When she cooks dinner and it’s ready to serve, she doesn’t tell me “Dinner’s ready!” – instead she calls out “Got your camera ready?” I think my family (I include my in-laws here) have grown used to it. They probably find it irritating at times (especially when I’m hovering around the kitchen or when they have to pause for a few seconds while I photograph the food we’re about to eat), but I know they also enjoy seeing their culinary creations on the blog and reading the comments from the readers. Sometimes when I’ve been absent from family get-togethers, family members have expressed disappointment that I wasn’t there to photograph the food!

Do you bring your camera everywhere? Like take it out and stopped everyone from eating to take pictures?

Yes, I carry my camera in my bag wherever I go. At family events I’ll wear my camera on my belt. I always carry a supply of spare memory cards and batteries too. When I go on holiday I have camera, spare memory cards and batteries and if possible, my eee pc to download photos to.

At get-togethers with family or friends I tend to hang out near the kitchen or the barbecue so I can take photos before the food is served so I won’t have to stop people from eating.

When we dine out I will take photos as soon as dishes are served, as quickly as possible, so the food won’t get cold and people won’t get too annoyed. Over the years I’ve been doing this I’ve become better at keeping my hands very still so I don’t need to re-take shots too often, so I can photograph the food quickly. The last time we went out to dim sum with friends one of our dining companions said he never even noticed me taking photos of the dishes! I will always take photos of everyone else’s food first so they can start eating as soon as possible; I leave photographing my own food to last. Sometimes this means I eat my meal cold, but I’ve gotten used to it and my enjoyment of the food is not diminished at all.

If we’re at an event with people that I don’t know very well, I may not photograph the food – it just depends on how I think they’ll respond to it and how much explaining I will have to do. In certain situations it’s not convenient or not “right” to take photos – cocktail functions, wakes…

You’ve been interviewed several times and you were nominated in the Best Food Weblog category. How does that make you feel?

It was a real surprise to be nominated in the Bloggies as I hadn’t thought about them at all. I don’t seek out awards, recognition or attention; food lovers and food blog readers find their way to the site without the need for me to actively promote the site. I think it’s great that people enjoy my site and journalists have thought me worth interviewing.

I noticed from your family gatherings that the meals are usually traditional asian food. Which ones are you favourite? Do you get to eat them elsewhere or is that just something that you would get at home?

My family is Chinese-Australian; we migrated to Australia from Malaysia in 1986. Growing up in Australia in the family home we’ve always eaten traditional asian food as well as western food. In my home now with Jac (who is western, by the way) we also eat a mixture of asian and western food. My favourite home-cooked/family dishes are: ginger chicken, peanut soup, lotus root soup, chicken curry, steamed whole fish and nasi lemak. When my grandma was alive she cooked those dishes regularly. My mum cooks them too. Out of all those, the only ones I’ve never found in a restaurant are the peanut soup (not like liquid peanut butter, which is what many people visualise when I say peanut soup – I mean the clear broth made with pork rib bones and peanuts cooked till whitened and slightly softened but still firm) and lotus root soup, which I love even more than peanut soup. Jac has learned to cook some of dishes I’ve loved ever since I was a child – rice porridge, minchee (pork mince and potato cubes cooked in oyster sauce), chicken rice, ginger chicken… so between family get-togethers, Jac’s cooking and dining out around Perth I get my regular fix of traditional asian food.

Obviously, you’ve been in Perth for a while now, are there any favourite food places that you would recommend to international students who are new to Perth?

International students from SE Asia who may be craving a taste of home should check out Spencer Village International Food Hall at 200 Spencer Road in Thornlie, across the road from the Thornlie Train Station. I feature photos from meals eaten there regularly at my website! There’s another international food hall, again mainly asian, called the International Eating House, at rear 1020 Albany Highway, East Victoria Park. There is such a fantastic range of cuisines available in Perth – Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Korean, Indonesian, German, Italian, Middle-Eastern, modern Australian (of course, that is not a complete list)… I’d suggest especially going to the cafe/restaurant strips in suburbs like Mount Lawley, Leederville, Subiaco, Northbridge, Victoria Park and trying out what’s on offer. Even shopping centre food courts often have surprisingly good food. Be adventurous! I know this will be read by UWA students, but if you ever find yourself at Murdoch University Campus, the chicken rice and laksa at the Wok Inn in the Refectory (the Ref) are both fantastic!

A lot of your posts feature the art of ‘bento’. What are your tips to bento?

I’m no bento expert – there are more serious bento bloggers than me out there!

The original “bento” is a Japanese boxed lunch that is usually a visually appealing meal (some bento lunches are amazingly beautiful!) packed in a box. Bento lunches can be any kind of food, not just Japanese food. So don’t feel like you have to be good at cooking Japanese food to bento. My own bento lunches very rarely include Japanese or Japanese-style food – my bento lunches have included salads, sandwiches, dinner leftovers, or fried rice that I’ve cooked specially for my work lunch. I’ve even put leftover Chicken McNuggets in a bento lunch, along with a fresh salad I made.

In Perth, it’s difficult to get bento equipment. I’ve bought most of mine from eBay or online bento stores – J-list and I Love Obento There are many more out there, it’s just a matter of googling for them. But my current favourite lunch box for bento is an Aussie lunch box – Decor Tellfresh Quarters – they are a good-sized lunch box with four removable compartments. You can buy them at Coles or Woolworth’s supermarket for around AU$7.00. It is more fun, of course, eating your lunch out of a beautiful authentic Japanese bento box. I try to make my bento lunches balanced meals – some carbs (rice, bread or noodles), some protein (meat, fish), and some vegetables or salad. I like to include something sweet in my bento lunches as well – for example: mini strawberry jam or mini kaya sandwiches or fresh or dried fruit. Including something sweet doesn’t mean something unhealthy necessarily. I prefer fruit with no pips that can be eaten whole, like seedless grapes or strawberries – easier to eat and no mess.

Hungry Jacks or Maccas?

Depends on the food item! For chicken nuggets, Macca’s McNuggets win easily over HJ’s. For a fish burger, I prefer Filet O Fish – it’s one of my favourite burgers, actually. For a grilled chicken burger it has to be HJ’s. For a battered chicken burger I prefer McDonald’s McChicken (I love McChicken sauce). I do like Big Macs (Macca’s) and Whoppers (HJ’s) on occasion. Sometimes I crave McDonald’s apple pie or Hungry Jack’s onion rings. There’s plenty of room for both Hungry Jack’s and McDonald’s in my life.

I had fun doing this interview. Hope you guys enjoyed reading it too.
Read and listen to more interviews at TFP in the Media »
Read other TFP SAYS… articles »

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