the best of five

the assignment: evaluate five individual professional food blogs, then crown one supreme amongst its fellows. after reviewing such sites as anthony bourdain: no reservations, david lebovitz, kate's blog, the traveler's lunchbox, and vinography, my favor ultimately settled upon the traveler's lunchbox.

we are taught not to judge a book by its cover. yet despite myself, I was allured from initial glance by this blogs minimalistic yet aesthetically pleasing design. whereas pages such as that of david lebovitz were marred by advertisements containing the entirety of the visible color spectrum, each vying for undisputed attention, the traveler's lunchbox maintained focus on the essence of the blog: the posts themselves.

bringing to the forefront the aspect of post content, I would like to elaborate on my preference for the posts created by this blogger. the author, a melissa kronenthal, tends to embark on her posts with clear intent, then gradually veer off course with philosophical conjectures accompanied by factoids extraneous to the topic of the post. though some might define this as unprofessional meandering, I find the style endearing, as I attempt to relate melissa's observations in some wild fashion back to food. her posts stand in stark contrast against those of say, gastroville, the author of which succinctly and pointedly publishes his observations, a writing style I am not overly fond of. but to each his (or her) own, I suppose.

the traveler's lunchbox is, in essence, comprised of a myriad of post-journey debriefings, enhanced by clear, humorous photographs and the melissa kronenthal's admirable tendency to dig deeper into an issue than seems appropriate, and insert vivid images at every single opportunity. to be sure, many might write this blog off as unfocused, perhaps even 'bad', but personally, I am absolutely enamored with melissa kronenthal's blog, the traveler's lunchbox.