ottawa foodies

Just wanted to comment on the new photos that FF added to the site header recently (if you don't know what I mean, go to the main page and keep hitting refresh while looking at the photo at the top, where it says 'Ottawa Foodies'. There are some new photos in there!). Looks tasty! ;)

Are those all photos people have submitted to the site, or ones you took, or what? I recognize a bunch of them, which is why I'm curious.

You recognize all the ones that were taken in Ottawa. :-)

I have some arbitrary rules of thumb for site header photos. They must be photos I have taken myself and they must be dishes that I ate. I bent the rule slightly for the shot of my wife's Paradiso Club sandwich, but I did *taste* it.

Thanks for noticing!

For your interest, I'll give you the story behind each of the photos.

Starting with this one! This is an awesome, dense wholegrain spelt flour bread I make. My uncle in Switzerland showed me how he makes it (he grinds the spelt himself just before making the dough), and I took notes and adjusted some things to try to replicate it.

This was a great salmon appetizer I enjoyed at l'Orée du Bois.

A fantastic veal with mushroom cream sauce and noodles I enjoyed at a fine restaurant in Switzerland.

Some rolls my uncle made for a hilltop sausage roast in Switzerland. This is how they were presented, outdoors, on a wooden table.

One of the amazing Swiss restaurant salads (all right, most of these photos are from Switzerland!).

A schnitzel mit pommes frites, as enjoyed at the restaurant on top of Homberg.

And now the new ones...

The seafood dish I enjoyed at El Meson.

Awesome tapas for two at El Meson.

Wifey's Cafe Paradiso club sandwich.

The Cafe Paradiso spring rolls.

Some amazing chicken that wifey made for my birthday this year. We had this at the same time as tandoori chicken that my sister-in-law made. All I had to do was grill them on the BBQ. Awesome!

That's it. Photos taken in natural light usually turn out the best. The really nice looking ones were taken with my bulky SLR (which I rarely take to restaurants).

Very cool! Thanks for sharing the stories behind the photos! :D

THat chicken your wife made looks delicious!

Do you accept user-submitted food porn? You never know when I may actually *have* a camera at a restaurant and want to take a picture of something ;)

tre, you're right! It was quite amazing.

Momomoto, this site exists in part for sharing user-submitted food porn - the more the merrier! As for the headers, I'll have to think of another approach anyway. Having a dozen or so header images appearing randomly isn't the best use of site bandwidth. One more thing to think about. :)

FF. Maybe you could change it once a month with the best user-submitted photo. It would encourage people to bring their cameras out to dine and to post their reviews.

I like your idea, Tiana. A similar one that my wife suggested is to have a "featured review" on the home page (one with a photo of course).