Thing 57: Tastespotting - Foodies Rejoice!

This discovery exercise has us visiting Tastespotting, the website that allows users to browse by pictures instead of by keywords for their favorite food items. Each food item has been submitted buy the users themselves but are reviewed by the team at Tastespotting to be sure it falls within the submission guidelines.

I created a free account and set to discovering what Tastespotting had to offer. It was certainly easy to discern what you might like trying, or avoiding, simply by browsing the pictures. Bookmarking your favorites for future reference is easy, just click on the star in the bottom right hand corner of each picture. Soon I had a page full of favorites. From poached pears to stir fried bok choy there was plenty that caught my attention.

I then tried the search feature to see what was available. I typed in tea, tea party, and tea sandwich and got some very intresting selections. Since it was December and I was on the tea theme, I thought I would see if there were any references to Russian tea. The only thing that kept coming up were entries referring to Russian tea cookies, but not the tea itself. So I thought, this would be a good candidate to add to Tastespotting!

I finally found a site called Crazy for Tea that gave a good overview of Russian Tea, recipies for it--both traditional and instant, the ceremony, the Samovar, as well as a Russian Tea Cake/Cookie recipe. Then I just clicked on "Submit New" and added an image of the Samovar from Crazy for Tea (images must be 250x250 pixels). Then I cropped the image to the most interesting parts. I included the link for the site, and added a description. Then Tastespotting let me choose from categories that best fit my item and I checked to be notified when they added my entry. It may take up to 24 hours before it appears on their site because they review each entry.

Now I'm just waiting to see if it will be added. When it is, I'll feel that Tastespotting will be ready for the holidays. Now I'm inspired to make some Russian tea and watch The Nutcracker! This is a great website for Foodies everywhere. Mmm-mmm-yummy!