A talented friend of mine was the main programmer for building The History of Jazz for the iPad. What he learned from that experience was that there didn’t have to be original content to create an app, but the focus was on curating the existing content and figuring out an innovative way to weave the information together for the users to enjoy.
I’ve been thinking about the value of curating, especially in our lives today where we are bombarded with information: the massive volume of records from our past, newly recovered information and their analyses, new information from our scientific discovery, not to mention our overflowing inbox, Twitter feed, Facebook postings and more.
Another friend wished I reviewed restaurants on Yelp because there are many reviewers he wouldn’t trust, and he seems to enjoy the same types of restaurants I like. Yelp and other similar apps don’t work for someone with a particular need or taste because their results are that of the aggregate. Artificial Intelligence has yet to screen my google searches for my taste, even though Amazon is desperately trying to recommend things I might also want to purchase because others have.
Reviewing anything is a drag, but here are some sources for recipes that I have enjoyed. People with similar taste to mine can see if they are helpful in filtering the millions of recipes and food related websites out there.
Others: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison has not failed me yet. Jacques Pépin‘s cookbooks are great for techniques. Mark Bittman‘s simple recipes reflect our health-conscious life style while not skimping on taste. I don’t actually own a copy of Dean and Deluca cookbook by David Rosengarten but my friend does, and I’ve been the happy taster for her creations from that book, and only hits and no misses so far. When I was living in Denmark, I was very hungry for Asian cuisine, and because there isn’t a critical mass of Asian immigrants for good Asian restaurants, I had to take matters into my own hands. Besides the Japanese recipe sites like クックパッド which require you to at least read Japanese, Ono Kine Recipes Facebook page gave me inspiration to make familiar dishes I only ordered in restaurants.
Hope to hear from you if you seem to have a similar taste and you have a suggestion to add to this list!
Photo: “Geisha’s Kiss” at Sushiritto in Palo Alto, California