By Daniel Bargioni, Deputy Food Editor
Curate your feed and re-conceptualise Instagram as a medium of inspiration rather than a source of stress with our “Foodies to Follow”.
Friends often tell me that they’re sick of instagram and have even temporarily disabled their accounts to steer past the vicious cycle of distraction or from pure boredom. We need to ask ourselves: what is social media and instagram, really? Its seemingly natural metamorphosis in and around our lives has hit us at technology’s light-speed pace. We need to take a step back and ask ourselves what we want from social media, so we’re not bored, or stressed, or unhappy... And of course, we want to bring back the fun in instagram as a medium of inspiration, rather than a source of stress.
Food undeniably thrives on social media because of its tasty aesthetics, cross-demographic interest and super-sensory appeal essential to our online zeitgeist of “camera eats first”. However, we must tread lightly as often instagram food can be overly materialistic, unrealistic or simply unobtainable. Sure, that gold leaf diamond encrusted caviar and truffle pizza does look cool, but ultimately does it taste good? Will this inspire you to cook at home?
As a starting point, we will be featuring our favourite instagram accounts, or “Foodies to Follow”, which have inspired us to be more creative in the kitchen, try new things, explore the depths of the Chinese or Indian or Polish supermarket to find that obscure yet essential ingredient for your new culinary adventure. With the world at your fingertips, food recipes and stories are unbound from pre-internet restrictions, why shouldn't you be audacious? Because we strongly believe, the more you cook, the happier and closer you’ll be with your family and friends. Why not inspire others and create your own instagram account showcasing your gastronomical endeavours to your friends, spread the love!
The Bristol One:
Explore your city! We love this account because it really does expose us often Clifton/Stoke Bishop-sheltered students to the “other” parts of Bristol, the better parts. Take Easton for example, with their diverse set of supermarkets such as Sweet Mart that provides ample herbs and spices, fresh and well priced fruit and veg and an excellent hot food section.
The Fun One:
Whatwillycook’s account is great because it’s entertaining, with his aesthetically pleasing, quick video recipes and cheap and cheerful puns you can't go wrong. Also, he covers a wide variety of recipes from Thai-style pork laab lettuce cups to a classic beef tartare. They’re by no means all authentic but the variety of content really does inspire you to cook something exciting rather than bog-standard oven food or cereal.
The Restaurant One:
A great restaurant by Harbourside serving some seriously good tapas and a collection of prawn dishes which never fail to amaze, especially the pil pil! Warning, following this account will make you want to eat there a lot and you’ll quickly be broke, but definitely full and very happy.
