Honorable mention, only because the author of Tea & Cookies splits her time between Seattle and the Bay Area.

Well, after my post on food websites last week I received a surprising response from readers asking why I didn't include more information about blogs, questioning my rationale between blogs and websites, and asking for blog recommendations--specifically local ones. So in a way, this is a continuation of last week's post, a Part 2, blogger-style. And it was surprisingly difficult to put together. I needed to choose some way to narrow down the food blogs I read or the list would get out of control. So after many sleepless nights (I jest), here's the criteria I came up with:

Must be a Bay Area food blogger
Must be on my Google Reader (hey, it’s my post after all, right?)
Must write interesting, creative content that's somehow innovative/unique.
Cannot be one of the contributors to Bay Area Bites (although some of us have awesome blogs...but I want you to discover someone new this week).
Must keep current and produces consistent posts.

So here goes. I realize I'm probably leaving out your roller derby buddy or your girlfriend's sister, but hopefully you'll stumble across something new here that's worth a look. Happy reading.

local lemons

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Originally from Brooklyn, Alison Arevalo moved to Berkeley for a change of pace. Her blog, local lemons, focuses on original, all-natural recipes. Of the recipes and ingredients she chooses, Alison says:

"I take advantage of as much local produce as I can in my recipes. I shop at farmers’ markets in Berkeley and Oakland, while making stops at Berkeley Bowl and Monterey Market. Using organic, unprocessed ingredients is as important to me as shopping locally. When I was living in Brooklyn, Whole Foods or Fairway was my supermarket of choice. Now, even though I live a few blocks from one, Whole Foods is only an afterthought."

There are a few things that make her blog an absolute pleasure to read. First, those photos. Good lord. Alison has a brilliant eye for composition, color, and light and you can’t help but become enthralled with each recipe after taking a quick glimpse at each post. Second, her recipes are creative and varied. I was blown away by the 'Fast Food Makeover' series she did recently, where she took typical bad-for-us food that so many of us love and revamped them using organic and local ingredients. Who doesn't love a chicken nugget? Or how about a filet of fish sandwich? Yeah, that's what I thought. I remember when I first started blogging and I posted about how I was trying to find the identity/voice of my blog, struggling with how much personal information to include and where to draw the line. Alison wrote in, encouraging me to do what felt right—whatever I wanted. You can tell she follows her own advice. local lemons is the real deal: a genuine, likeable voice in an increasingly glutted food blogging world.
Twitter:@LocalLemons

eating/sf

I'm not totally sure how, but Kasey's blog was one of the first local food blogs I discovered. We have similar taste in recipes and cookbooks and I often notice strange coincidences between what she covers on her blog and what I cover on my own--like how we both made Brussels sprouts the same week or fell in love with the Ad Hoc Cookbook around the same time. But, besides the no-fail recipes and clean site-layout, the concept of Kasey's blog makes this a must-read. She's paired up with her husband, Matt, who does the "Musical Pairings" portion of the site. I love thinking about food as a sensual experience--and obviously music is much the same way. So it makes perfect sense: when you think about the components of a meal, there's the food but there's also the lighting, the music, and the company you're with. So I've always loved the concept over at eating/sf, and I've discovered some great new artists by reading the blog.
Twitter: @kfleisher

No salad as a meal

Last week, my friend Anthony contacted me to ask if I'd heard about this blog, No salad as a meal. Anthony's flirting with the idea of moving to San Francisco, so he's been checking out our food scene, and apparently this was one of the first hits that came up on his Google search. Of course, I replied with a resounding yes. How could you not appreciate a blogger that doesn't fear lugging the ol' DSLR camera into dark restaurants and getting busy? There's even a post about shooting food in dark restaurants if you're interested in learning the ins and outs of setting up shop at COI. So essentially, No salad as a meal focuses mainly on detailed restaurant reviews featuring exceptional photos. The author also includes a supplementary section entitled "Entremets:" short stories in between meals. Recently one on airplane food caught my eye. This is a great site to explore when your mom's flying into town and you're drawing a blank for dinner ideas. There's a brief "NO SALAD RECOMMENDS" list with such favorites as churros at Contigo and couscous at Aziza. So all in all, it's a fun, visual feast that'll inspire you to try someplace new. The restaurant selection is tastefully culled and the posts are smartly written. What more could you ask for?
Twitter: @nosalad

101 Cookbooks

I can't say enough about 101 Cookbooks, the local food blog where Heidi Swanson writes about "the recipes that intersect my life, travels, and everyday interests." The inspiration behind the site goes a little something like this: Heidi turned around one day and realized she had over 100 cookbooks--it was time to get cooking. Most of the recipes are vegetarian and focus on natural and whole-foods ingredients. From baked doughnuts to pan-fried chickpea salad, I've whipped up some amazing meals from Heidi's site. And in addition to her growing recipe collection, 101 Cookbooks was my original inspiration to learn more about food photography. If you take a look at Heidi's blog posts or her book, Super Natural Cooking (of which she did all of the photos), you'll see why. They photos are actually quite spare without the use of a lot of fancy props, but they're absolutely stunning. She has a way of capturing the essence of each dish with the simplicity of a special bowl, the right light, and the perfect angle. When I'm struggling to think of how to photograph a certain dish for my blog, I often step back and think, what would Heidi do?
Twitter: @101Cookbooks

chez us

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Denise Woodward and Laudalino Ferreira created chez us from a 20 square-foot ~~apartment~~ kitchen in the city (which has since changed to 40 square feet). They say: "We wanted to share with everyone how we live small but still eat big." chez us stands out for a few reasons: their rotating thematic organization and great videos. For example, instead of just listing the recipes under categories like "Breakfast" and "Main Entrée," Denise and Laudalino create searchable categories such as "Easy Eating," "French," and "Portuguese." Then there are the videos, where the couple walk their readers through things like making homemade yogurt (I want that yogurt machine!) or hearing Peter Reinhart talking about bread. The blog's easy to navigate, informative, and has great original content. Anyone whose trying to make a small kitchen work in the city will appreciate what Denise and Laudalino pump out (you can see their video on creating a pantry for storage inspiration ideas).
Twitter: @chezus

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