FOOD BLOGGERS AND A DUMBED DOWN WORLD

A group of us walked past Ho Lee Fook last night- you know, the much-maligned, bashed mercilessly and dismissed by, apparently, one of the most “well-known food bloggers in Hong Kong”, as, being basically a pretentious Chinese “fusion” restaurant lacking in everything except for one pork belly dish.

Well, so much for reviews, so much for believing everything you read, and so much for reading the thoughts of food bloggers as the restaurant was packed to the rafters with an upwardly mobile crowd of yuppies and chuppies, rarely spotted in this area of Soho.

While on the one side, some friends had forwarded myself and others the scathing review which became a mild topic du jour, others shrugged their shoulders and reminded everyone of music and film critics, how no one pays attention to what they write and how, these days, everyone is a food blogger.

This made me think of websites and magazines that send their army of foodies to “review” restaurants, call these restaurants to say so- and mooch a free meal for their staff which is probably their monthly pay- and has the sucker punched restaurateurs doing somersaults while juggling balls, dishes and woks to please these people.

But for what?

Reviews have always been one person’s opinion. And unless not having one- an opinion- you become a lemming who’s easily led and wouldn’t know mediocrity from superiority, crass from class and turn into a pathetic wannabe- an easily led and manipulated dedicated follower of fashion.

For example, how many movies, bands, television series and singers that have been slagged off by reviewers have gone on to be massive hits and billion dollar successes?

And in this world today ruled by social media and where a night out means replying to tweets, instagramming your dinner and constantly on WhatsApp and with so many apps for saps that we download- but never use because we’re zapped and apped out- more and more, that old adage- Don’t Believe Everything You Read- becomes increasingly true along with not bothering to go out.

There are way too many stupid people out there- in all walks of life- as we are living in the Age Of Morons, which needs to, somehow, be killed off as it’s become tedious, embarrassing and as mindless as being married to one of The Stepford Wives.

© Fast Track 2014 All Rights Reserved No part of this website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials.