Things have been a little quiet around tummyrumbles lately (you may have noticed), as I ponder the subject of how and why I blog. This was initially prodded by a discussion at Eat. Drink. Blog., but I guess it became more of an issue for me as I struggled with why I do what I do after a recent foray into paid online community management. That’s right, being paid to blog and tweet for someone else. Sounds cushy, but in reality, I’m not quite sure it agreed with me.
I must confess I have been experiencing a bit of a love/hate relationship with the blog of late. I absolutely love it for what it has provided me over the years; a creative outlet to wax lyrical about food and a way of making interesting real life friendships with other like-minded individuals. It has also provided me with the opportunity to do some freelance writing work and the offer af an almost too-good-to-be-true career opportunity. But then I get a bit knotted up about it; the pressure to write and produce posts (mostly from myself…ie “I should blog that”), especially when I have a stupid amount of drafts sitting there, waiting. And then there is the whole PR/marketing thing, which is perhaps fodder for another post as I’m still trying to figure out my point of view on that one.
So let me start from the beginning about how and why I blog. I first blogged on the 18 January 2006, when I decided (stupidly it seems) to commence an apprenticeship as a pastry chef. Uh huh, I had just turned 31, and “after plugging away at local government/health care type work for the last ten years, I…decided I wanted to do something I am a little more passionate about. And what is that? Well it is cook!”. So I became an apprentice patissier, which ended up being the name of the first iteration of this blog, “The Apprentice Patissier”. The idea was to capture my experience as a mature age apprentice at a rather hip cafe/bakery in St.Kilda, which didn’t really last too long as the realities of being an apprentice, in hospitality, in a high-volume environment didn’t sit well with my dainty public servant sensibilities. I admit I was not cut out for the heat; the 10 hour days, the lack of a work/life balance, a body that ached constantly (especially my piping arm!), and the shitty (!!!) pay. It also wasn’t doing much for my love life, as emzeegee can attest. I regaled her often with tales of my dating adventures during our meal breaks (I’m surprised I fit them in!).
In May 2006 I left my apprenticeship and returned to the safety of a Government job, and renamed the blog to its current identity, tummyrumbles.com. Despite the fact that my reason for blogging had changed, I was still super keen to explore the concept of food, which continued to provide the thematic direction of the blog. Back in those days, there were not too many of us food bloggers around in Melbourne, and I was keen to be part of an interesting, burgeoning medium. And it suited me. I was a bit of an IT geek at heart, and I loved to write and take photos (amateurishly of course!), which just coalesced perfectly into blogging.
In September 2006, I finally hit gold with an online dating service and went out with a rather dashing young fellow by the name of Danny, screen name ElegantGourmand (EG). Little did I know I would eventually end up marrying him! EG was no stranger to food writing; he used to write (and get paid for) articles on the now defunct Crikey Restaurant review site. He also maintained a MySpace page, and was well known within his circle of friends for emailing reviews of the newest finds in town. So our third date (…and the first mention of him on this blog) was on 1 October 2006, where I enlisted his assistance to participate in a blog event called The Great Pie Round Up – a meat pie eating review at the Belgian Beer Cafe Eureka (how romantic).
Only a few weeks after we started dating, our relationship was further blessed after Epicure put a call out to readers to submit a 200 word review of a Melbourne dining experience. Both EG and I madly scribbled away our entries, and surprisingly, both of our articles on Pellegrini’s and A Taste of Korchi were accepted and published at the same time!
On 2 April 2007, EG finally wrote his first post for tummyrumbles, a short review about the bar Sister Bella. As mentioned earlier, EG used to write these wonderful emails to his friends, telling them about some of the coolest places in town. I asked him whether he would mind if I posted it on tummyrumbles, and that my friends, is history.
When I think about it now (..and especially after writing this post), the blog is in fact a wonderful diary of our lives, focused around the food we have consumed to celebrate it. The blog has captured our adventures around Japan and Singapore in 2007, and it has celebrated events such as Christmas and Chinese New Year. It was there when we got engaged and married, and offered a medium to capture my own food traditions, such as learning to make kueh and popiah with EG’s family, or teaching my niece Ella to make pasta. My favourite post would have to be the one about making gnocchi. Sadly, my Mum passed away two years ago, but I see her sitting in the background of those photos, teaching me how to roll and cut the dough (which was a job she always did under the watchful eye of her own Mum). I’m so glad to have captured such a beautiful memory.
So in fact, I love my blog. It is the story of me and EG, and the family and friends around us.
And after realising all that (cripes, who needs a counsellor), those shitty bloggy-angsty things I thought I was suffering don’t seem that big anymore. I just need to keep doing what I love, and that is capturing my experiences and life around food, and keeping it all authentic. No sell outs. Not that there is anything wrong with that. But perhaps only for me.
Abso-fucking-lutely
What a beautiful post. There are so few places in our lives that we don’t have to please others, and can be exactly as we please! And when food is pretty close to the centre of your world, you end up with a beautiful history of your life in dinners.
Thanks for sharing your story Mellie. I love that your motivation for writing comes from place of wanting to capture personal moments and your food adventures with your family.
I loved this. We need more bloggers blogging from the heart. Plese dont stop! Ya for you…
Lovely! And as I was reading through each of those landmarks, I kept thinking “I remember that” and realised I’ve been following your blog from pretty much the beginning.
Thanks for sharing. I’m glad that the conference has been a catalyst for so many posts about how and why we blog. More please!
Your blog is a joy to read
Keep up the good work!!
Brava, Mellie, beautifully written! I love your blog; long may it continue. xx
Great post, I’ve enjoyed following this blog and I hope to still do so for a long time to come.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful story with us!
:bows:
Hi there – thanks for the inspiration. Keep doing what you are doing – your blog keeps it real and is a great read. You rock!
Don’t stop blogging!
Do you know that your blog and a handful was part of the reason I started blogging. I have you on my RDD feed for quite awhile and is very happy to finally meet both of you in person.
Love the blog!
Mel, great work! It has been a while between posts but this one was perfect.
Keep it up, whether you and Dan get paid for your blogging or not. You are both very good at it! Compulsory reading.
Hi Mellie, it was great to meet you & have dinner with yourself, Essjayeff & Neil at eat drink blog. Heartfelt post, nice work. Steve
Hi Mellie, it’s really touching to read this post. I only recently stumbled upon your blog and have been following it religiously.
I would love to blog about my gastronomic experiences, but I can say mine is hardly as satisfying as yours. So keep blogging so I can live vicariously through you! =)
That would have been a tough decision to make Mellie. As with many other food bloggers, I have that dream that one day someone will approach me to write articles for monetary returns. However, with that, there has to be some sacrifices. You can’t be as honest as you would otherwise and there will always be pressure to play the game and satisfy certain stakeholders.
I hope that you will continue to enjoy food blogging as your blog is one of my favourites. I love the honesty in which both you and Dan write.
[...] tummyrumbles.com – How and why I blog [...]
Nicely said
This was absolutely beautiful and touching. I am honoured to have been able to read this and take a peek into your life.
Great post. I’m newish to blogging and sometimes get tangled up by what I’m trying to do. Really all we can do is follow our food passions. “keeping it all authentic” Well said!
Honest and straight from the heart. It’s comforting to know there are people out their that struggle with committing to action when they are unsure about how they feel morally.
Your passion, honesty, and love comes out in your posts making them a delight to read. I hope the love in the family around you continues to blossom and keeps you sharing wonderful dining experiences with us.
Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments and support. I am completely and absolutely humbled.
Let the blogging continue….
Mellie,
My best friend ( at http://patersonscakes.blogspot.com/) told me i must read this entry yesterday as it brought tears to her eyes. I have to agree it is lovely.
I feel very aligned to your experience in many ways, I started blogging on life, not just food, in 2003 and from then until 2006 it was integral to my experience. Like you, I met my now husband via the internet and my blog charts the progression of out relationship in detail, to the point that he found out my feelings for him when I first let him read it!
Also like you I have tried, and as yet not succeeded, in transforming my career from one area to another. That journey does continue.
I’ve found that my desire to blog about life, art, food has lost focus this year (maybe because I spend too much time thinking in 140 characters for twitter!) but whatever the outcome I know that my blog has played a pivotal role in my development as a (now increasingly middle aged) adult.
Thank you for sharing your experiences,
Kim
Thank you for sharing your story. I never really believe online dating works! Thanks for showing me it does work.
I think I kinda get what you mean sometimes something changes when you started getting paid to do what you love to do. I do not know what it is either.
But please, do not stop blogging =D
Hi there Kim – thank you so much for your absolutely beautiful comment (..and for Josephine’s reaction!). I guess many of us have this internal need to document the cycle of life. Back in the ol’ days it was in journals, and I guess blogs (well, in this form anyway), are just an extension of that. But seriously, it wasn’t until I wrote that post that I realised how doing this has captured such beautiful consecutive moments in life.
I too started in 2003, although at that time I was travelling through Canada and parts of South America, and it was more a travel journal of sorts (..kept me from writing lots of emails to friends). So when I got back, it wasn’t a hard jump into the food blog. It was just something I guess I was used to doing.
Anyway, I look forward to spending some time on your blog to read about your journey as well. This whole career change thing is something that is really stumping me at the moment.
Hey Megan – don’t worry, not stopping. Just taking a bit of a breath. It’s funny, as twice now I’ve sort of followed what I thought I loved, but it hasn’t quite been the right thing for me. There must be something in that.
awwwwww
great post – and nice follow up to the eat drink blog posts – makes me think about my blogging and how nice it is to have a record – the longer I blog, the more I realise that my blog is really what the word means – a web log because posts are so time specific – good luck with finding the balance between doing it for yourself and your career!
Great post. So lovely to read. I feel like I am reading my own story however, just a little more progressed, as I try to squeeze a food career into my own public service comfort zone. Although I’ve not gone all out with an apprenticeship – just a weekend gig at a greengrocer to start with. And it’s lovely that our blogs are with us every step of the way.
Hey Meli,
I’ve read your blog for years and loved it. I can’t even remember how I found it, but I’ve always enjoyed reading it. I love food and since my partner and i had twins in Jan, I’ve had almost no time to go to restaurants or even cook, but I still love reading about it, and plotting plans for the future of places to go or things to cook.
I had ideas of writing my own food blog at one stage focused around the inner north (my hood) but just never made the time to do it, so I really enjoy reading your blog. Please keep it it up, its great.
As a side note, my partner and I went to Japan ion Jan 2009 and your love of Kit Kats inspired me to given them a go, even some of the really odd ones. They were quiet amazing. Not surprisingly the food in Japan was incredible, and we would love to take the twins there when they are a little older.
Thanks again for the great read, please keep blogging so we can all enjoy reading.
Cheers
Ben
I’m holding back the tears! I love your blog too! I love hearing about your journeys through the food safari. I’m also glad I’ve got to share some of the “little stop-in’s” along the way. Keep em coming!
What an interesting read. I always find it most fascinating to read more personal thoughts or a personal spin to a food related post – puts it and the author in perspective.
I know what you mean in the post. The last few blog posts I’ve written I’ve thought (in hindsight) sounded like ramblings straight from the therapist’s chair. It’s cathartic though, and that’s nice.
Karen from Uni here, just wanted to say what an endearing post. You are a gift!
what a wonderful post!!! I loved reading every single word of it. Its great to see that something that started off as a way of talking about food has transformed into a documentary of your life! Something I truly aspire to! Its been absolutely wonderful to meet you and Danny, and I wish you longevity in both life and blogging!!
Lovely post. Stay true to your heart and your readers will love you for that.
This is beautiful! The way we all love food, how it is an integral part of our lives, how our celebrations and milestones revolve (and are sometimes planned) around these are just a few of the things that we hope to translate from our humble photos across to whoever has had the time to peruse our musings. We must do it for love, for why else would we come home from a full day of work and ‘play’ with our blog most days? =D
Hello!! Does anyone have any restaurant recommendations for a surprise party? I’m new to the city and am planning a birthday party with around 15 guests. I’m trying to keep the costs down to 50 per head. All the restaurants i’ve found so far have been noisy and crowded.
Thanks a million!! Love your blog
This is a great post.
I just look at blogging as memories, reading back over post makes me insanely happy that I put as much detail into them as I did.
Thank you for such a raw, beautiful and honest post.
Your Gnocchi post was also one of my favourites. But I still fail at making it
Great blog Mellie and very well written. I have just started my own food blog, and find this to be an inspiration. Look forward to reading more. Thanks