I have enjoyed a newly discovered ‘game’ for assisting with my food and cultural studies. We all Wiki things. This would be a hard fact for any internet savvy “curioso” to deny, but I know that anyone (and everyone) uses Wikipedia as a source for answers. Even if just briefly. This makes searching for more meaty information an absolute must when it comes to creating your own content on a subject. I hate it when I’m researching a new discovered dish only to find that every one of the top ten recipes on the first page of a Google search literally repeat the same recipe; ingredient by ingredient, with the exact same measurements. And it isn’t just the ‘how to’ that is repeated. You’ll find the same cookie-cutter historical information and the same cultural fact sheet rewritten to go with it.
One of my first research style changes was to look past all of the big name food sites. It isn’t that their recipes aren’t good, or even well proven. These just tend to be the most often regurgitated by the next rung writers. I also know that they show up first not for their specific content but for their mass of content and the command both their site and their name as a whole carry. Think: Food.com, Food Network, The Spruce Eats, All Recipes…. Again, these aren’t bad sites, but they have a staff of people turning over content quickly and most of it is not coming from what I would like to call ‘a local.’ So first things first I look at least halfway down the first page of search results, if not onto the next, or even third page, and I specifically look for a sites that are regional to a dish or at least in the ball park. In the case of Youtube you can very often find Nationals showing you how to cook their own cuisines. I then make sure to check out several, or as many as ten such recipes to compare flavor profiles and personal techniques. Some sites I have pinned to my toolbar right now: Amigo Foods, Taste of Nepal, Maangchi.
Okay, so those tricks help with actual recipes, but they have to be combined with actual test kitchen cooking before I dare publish something under my own name. The next part is trying to bring more than just food to the table. Using a bit of Wiki info and help from other big sites like the ones I just linked can help, but this is where I get really excited! ….Footnotes! Yup, as of late I have really enjoyed looking up the footnotes at the bottom of the Wikipedia pages. It’s a great place to find links to other sites, articles, and publications. Through this I have ended up on several resourceful sites, recently including Academia which is great source for a ton of articles on the historical side of my learning. The only downfall, and the one that will never go away, is the black hole that is the internet and the trap of becoming a professional student.
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