What does it take to be a food blogger?
I dont know how common a thing is it in your country being called a food blogger or an influencer but in India it's a pretty big thing that almost everyones into it and most of them are into it for the free things they get in return which is really disappointing.
Let me tell you how I started of with food blogging now;
My journey as a food blogger “Amateur Food Blogger” started in the early 2018 somewhere around June I suppose, all this was during the so called “Year Out” period of mine from engineering. Before my journey into food blogging, I was an avid traveller, I still am, most of my days would be spent up top on the peak of Kumara Parvatha (Which Is The Highest Peak In Pushpagiri Wildlife Sanctuary In The Western Ghats of Karnataka) in my tent or I’d be exploring Bangalore.
During my travel period most of what I used to do was eat, basically eat eat and just eat. A friend of mine during one of my travels suggested that I start up a food blog, a week later “The Big Hungry Panda” came to life. It’s not a blog per se when I started it, it was just a page up on Instagram where I post food reviews for my followers. At first this was just a thing to overcome boredom but then within a few months my page started gaining a bit of popularity around Mangalore, India and soon after I started getting invites from cafes, restaurants and various other places.
I got a chance to meet some really amazing food bloggers in Mangalore and interact with them and learn more and a few of them have become really close to me.
People often ask me you aren’t a huge person then why call yourself a big hungry panda, the reason for that name is my appetite, like have you seen me eat? I can consume a lot of food like literally a lot. In 2019 around July I did a solo Bangalore food trip of 3 days and each day I’d review 5 places and in each place I’d have starters mains and obviously desserts with a few drinks here and there. Well that’s how I thought of the name “The Big Hungry Panda”
Sadly I still have people trying to put me down always for the work I do, They say that I take money for these reviews and I give them a positive review just for the sake of being paid. But the reality is that 98% of the review on my site and instagram have been paid for from my own pocket. The remaining 2% are paid for and even then if the food is bad it's specifically mentioned on my blog. Half of the restaurants/cafes dont invite me because I actually critique the food they serve and not just simply fake it
Forget all of that now and lets focus on this image here. this was an invite to Steak Palace in Mangalore about 2-3 years back and turned out to be quite a memorable invite.
I mean just look at all that gorgeous seafood on that table manh, Here's a list of items that are present on that table.
P.S I Will Not Be Responsible For Any Excessive Drooling LOL.
- Barbeque Crab - Rs 180 (2.44$)
- Grill Fish (Red Snapper) - Rs 580 (7.85$)
- Arabian Grill Fish - Rs 620 (8.39$)
- Karimeen Tawa Fry (Perl Spot) - Rs 260 (3.52$)
- Karimeen Grill (Perl Spot) - Rs 280 (3.79$)
- Dragon Chicken - Rs 220 (2.98$)
- Chicken Chilly - Rs 190 (2.57$)
- Kerala Chicken Dum Biriyani - Rs 140 (1.89$)
- Neypathal (Dep Fried Rice Roti) - Rs 12 (0.16$)
- Puttu (Steamed Rice Cakes) - Rs 40 (0.54$)
The food here turned out to be really good and even the pricing here was quite affordable for seafood surprisingly because seafood in Mangalore is quite expensive. So if your ever in town this place should be on your dinner list.
Currently this place is closed temporarily due to the lockdown in the state and wow this is my longest post so far. Proud Of My Self Yaayyyy
Hope you have an amazing Saturday folks, See you tomorrow.
Upvote, Comment, Repost And Follow If You Like My Work!
Have A Great Day!
