1000 lovely things

Recipes, Food and Travel Stories

Home
About
Recipes
Travelling
Get in Touch

The Lastest Recipes

Spicy Beef and Chickpea Shakshuka Recipe

Bavarian Potato Salad Recipe

Spicy Peach Peanut Sauce Recipe

Healthy Crispy Vegan Falafel Recipe

Hello!

Hello my name is Juli and I am the person who keeps this place full of food, stories and bad jokes. Just kidding, my jokes are the bomb! I am a thirty-two (still cannot believe it) year old 'girl' living in the south of Germany and I refuse to see myself as a grown-up! In fact I think I never

Let’s be Instagram Friends

Instagram post 2342108192652607904_327489385

It’s day 120 of self-isolation and it has finally happened. I have experienced my first real meltdown last week. It wasn’t even Covid-19 related though I highly suspect that the lack of personal human interaction and my non existent work-life-balance have factored in at some level.

But I am not going into detail about that here (or anywhere), let’s rather catch up on the things that weren’t as shit as me needing to chuck a giant Vodka Martini with 7 olives at 4.30 pm on a random Tuesday.

Today is the first in 143 days that Stefan and I don’t spend together as he was summoned to work from his office again. So far it’s super nice to have the apartment to myself but at the same time we have texted 4 times before 9 am already.

Last week we had a date night!!! The first one since February that didn’t take place at our own dining table. I still wore sweatpants (always a plus) as we first went to a beer garden and then brought (alcohol free) beer and snacks to the drive-in cinema to watch ‚Back to the Future‘

Stefan built me a sideboard for all my newly acquired cookbooks (that I keep buying even though I am unable to follow any recipe). I love it! I just oiled the shelves this morning and now my living room reeks like a fast food chain restaurant on a warm day that I am not going to disclose here.

Last week I started running again after a 6 year hiatus. I never made the decision to stop but after finishing a half marathon I never felt the urge to run again - until last week. My heart rate monitor needed a new battery, I need a new cardiovascular system as my pulse is doing somersaults when I have the audacity to accelerate my pace only a little bit; the only thing that hasn’t changed is my enthusiasm for my really weird half marathon playlist - the epitome of my bad taste in music!

Also it’s raining outside - and sharing this shows that I am clearly out of topics now. How are things in your part of the world? Are you still at home? How are you doing/ coping?

Instagram post 2332640372206129977_327489385

Do you guys enjoy cooking? Or is it more the eating part you’re interested in?

I have to confess that for me it’s definitely more the eating part. Whenever I travel my ‚food to try list‘ is definitely longer than my ‚places to see list’. I love to explore new dishes and spice combinations. I love going to restaurants and try new things but if I feel like it I can as well have Schnitzel three days in a row and not getting tired of it. I think the sense of taste is so exciting to explore!

Yet lately the cooking part is getting more and more exciting to me as well. Malicious gossip has it that it’s a displacement activity. Like exploring cuisines as a substitute for exploring countries. Malicious gossip I am spreading myself (mainly to myself as no-one else is here apart from my plush Wombat Russell who doesn’t care) in case that wasn’t clear.

But jokes aside…

I have never minded cooking and I have definitely tried to recreate my favorite dishes from around the world on a regular basis but it’s always been end result driven. The cooking part was more or less the thing you had to do in order to sink your teeth into that glorious piece of food you were after.

I mean experimenting is fun but wouldn’t it be so nice to get it right on purpose rather than by a lucky accident? Or being able to recreate a distinct taste. Because spoiler alert, all my Asian dishes kinda taste the same! Good but the same!
So a couple of months ago I started to interest myself more for the whys and not only the hows. I want to figure out how taste on a plate even works. Though that sounds super cocky and what I actually know is nowhere near an understanding yet.

The past few weeks have been focused on Asian cuisines (working on different tastes) and I will go back when my new Vietnamese cookbook arrives. And this week I am going to explore Israeli cuisine. A pound of chickpeas are soaking in the kitchen as we speak!

So what’s your relationship with cooking like and what other cuisines should I explore as a displacement activity?

Instagram post 2329746326303514518_327489385

Gosh this has been a weird week…

I am currently sitting at my bar table, high on caffein and to be quite honest probably a little too caffeinated already and I feel like chatting a bit. I also need a reason to procrastinate a bit and isn’t Instagram ideal for that?

I have been feeling sick on and off for a bit now and in the beginning of this week I was not well at all. Unfortunately I still cannot shake off the feeling of responsibility towards work I needed to establish a healthy relationship BUT I didn’t work any extra hours so I consider that a win, albeit a small one.

In the course of two days not only our microwave but also our vacuum broke - or so we thought… after spending hours online to order replacements (ordering everything 3 times and then instead of getting confirmations mails getting ‚ooops out of stock‘ notifications), this morning also my coffee machine denied me its services - a personal offense!!! So now the feeling that it might be a problem with the electricity and not the appliances is creeping up on me. I need to google what to do now. Also apparently we bought unnecessary replacements the very week our car also needed new (expensive) parts.

It feels like everything around me breaks apart while I am simultaneously feel very very grateful for all my privilege - I am dealing with a lot of contradicting emotions right now.

On to my first world problems… we need a new bed. When I think of that now, maybe we should postpone that for a bit… but honestly, it’s years overdue to get new mattresses. So this week we went to a furniture store, dutifully masked to check out mattresses. It felt so wrong to lie on a bed in a furniture store especially with that mask. So we went home and took a long, soapy shower afterwards. It’s weird how basic contact with anything and anyone freaks you out nowadays.

And as we’re already making a mess in the bedroom, I decided to paint the walls. Because I don’t have too much to do already. Tbh I suck at it. I need to apply a second layer today after work. Fingers crossed my competencies miraculously improved profoundly overnight.

How has your week been? How are you coping? I feel like I am slowly going insane.

Instagram post 2324647714338777233_327489385

Let’s talk photography today!

It’s been really fun and interesting to read all you guys had to say about why and what you like about food photography. It’s been lovely to read how passionate you are about the food and the stories you are able to tell on a tabletop.

All you said made me think a lot about the emotional side of a dish and how you can transport these emotions in a picture. And that sparked another burning question I would love to get your input on:

What makes a great food image?

Let me explain: sometimes when you look at a picture, even though it’s technically perfect, it doesn’t really touch you. There’s nothing wrong with the image, it’s just that you can’t communicate. As if you do not speak the same language. And sometimes there are pictures that are so shockingly beautiful that it’s hard to look away. And then (and for me that’s even rarer) there are pictures that are so full of sentiment, that it’s almost painful to allow yourself to take everything in.

But what is the difference between those images?

At least for me there are several things that make a great image. First, there is something I would call ‚grab appeal‘. It’s when the dish looks so damn yummy, that you wish you could just reach through the scene and grab a bite.

Another aspect can be styling. And I think that is part of the storytelling process so many of you described on my last post. It’s when a scene is approaching me on an emotional level and I wish I could climb through the screen and be part of it.

The third thing for me is tied more closely to the technical side of photography again. It’s dramatic lighting and a moody atmosphere. I guess the melancholy just meets my emotional climate best. And the play of lights and shades has just always been fascinating to me.

So now that I have described my own personal evaluation at length, I would be super interested in hearing your thoughts. So, the technical aspects of a good image aside, what’s a beautiful, stunning, great image to you? One that makes it hard to look away?

Instagram post 2321777159004580980_327489385

Guys, I have a question today. Why do you like food photography?

As you have stumbled upon this picture somehow, I assume you’re either a (hobby or professional) food photographer or you just like to look at pictures of food. Or you might as well not give a crap about food photography but know me in real life and follow my account out of common courtesy… if you fall in that category, that’s probably not a question for you. But I digress… again!

Anyway… lately I find myself flipping through cookbooks, Pinterest and food photography related hashtags on Instagram. Analyzing pictures and styles, themes and color schemes I find myself captivated as well as completely fascinated by what I see. Even though I am currently struggling a bit with the execution, I am falling in love with food photography as such again. And when you think about how fascinated one can be with images of food, I can’t help but feel it’s indeed a bit random.
So I try to recall why and how I formed an interest in food photography in the first place. I fail to answer that question. Sure, I think first and foremost it’s the love of food. It is probably the common denominator that unites us all. But there must be more.

I mean, I have tried landscape and travel photography and franklyI am a bit bored by it. I tried portrait photography and while I am more fascinated by it, I am just not good at giving instructions and working with someone in that way. I tried a bit of street photography (definitely an interest of mine), yet personal rights in my country are not particular street photography friendly.

So the one thing I am always coming back to is food photography. One might think it’s easy. You don’t need a model or to be at a particularly exciting place BUT cooking (and don’t even get me started about baking) something pretty is damn hard. It’s time consuming and sometimes utterly frustrating. But it’s the one thing that’s keeping me interested and that makes me fall in love with itself over and over again for years now.

So please share with me what you like about images of food! And if you are part of category one, I’d be super interested to hear why you first started with food photography?

Show More... Follow along

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins
This endpoint has been retired

Search the website

Enter your Email Address here

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy