It’s been an interesting experience food blogging in NYC. Certainly, when one is on holidays, one eats out a lot more, so there’s been a real opportunity to try all sorts of food, from the very elegant (Del Posto) to any of the many diners and fast food places I tried, and places in between.
I really have found it amazing that with little research, I stumbled across some of the best tacos I’ve ever had (Street Taco), the best tamale I’ve ever had (Mexico 2000), the best traditional Korean food evah (Cho Dang Gol) not to mention great Soul Food (Bobwhite’s Lunch and Dinner Counter) and kick-arse happy hour drinks (Huertas).
In the meantime, I discovered that my preferred food review site, Zomato, is just not that popular in NYC. I think they never managed to make inroads on the much more popular Yelp, but something’s weird too that I don’t understand as some listings have many scores but no actual reviews or only a few, spread out over years. Many new restaurants, as I discovered, are not listed, whether they’ve been open two months or six months. They don’t seem to have anyone who is researching new restaurants; so new listings just go up based on the free labour of bloggers like me…
Why do it at all? I am prey to companies that have gamified my life… and the good thing, for me, is that because so few people use Zomato, I’ve popped to the top of their leaderboards. It’s astonishing. I’m higher-ranked than in Sydney…
Leaving New York City, I am currently their #3 foodie (i.e. regular reviews, no blog)
And #7 blogger
And even the #11 photographer (though I imagine these widgets will show different numbers as my ranking drops after I stop reviewing in NYC). In Sydney, I’m currently a top ten blogger (with some effort), but #76 in photos and #365 in reviews (I prefer blogging which allows me to get into the top ten, and use my website; but I could never compete with all the food reviewers in Sydney).
People in NYC must really not like Zomato. On the other hand, if there are any other Zomato fans who come to NYC, perhaps they’ll find my reviews useful…
There haven’t been any scales in the places I’ve stayed, but I’m hoping that all the walking I’ve been doing and that I usually limit myself to a nice meal a day will ensure I don’t return to Sydney round as a donut. Still, there’s so much junk food here. Walking back from Smorgasburg in Williamsburg today, a food fair of sorts (I’d say market, but there weren’t any goods for sale, it was all food stalls), people are out in the street eating… desserts and ice creams and cake and sweet things. It would be hard to eat properly in this city!