Pizza My Heart

When a pizza craving hits me, I rarely opt for the chain restaurant variety. I typically stroll up a few blocks to my favorite neighborhood joint or bust out the Pillsbury dough (yep, Pillsbury) and whip one up on my own.

Domino's, however, is starting to tempt hungry people like me with its technology offerings. They are testing pizza tracking in 3,200 of its 8,000+ stores in the U.S. For safety reasons, customers won't be able to know exactly where the driver is, but the automated system can say whether or not the pie has left the store.

Pizza service technology (for lack of a better term) has taken shape in recent months. Papa John's and Pizza Hut have both introduced text-to-order and Dominos.com allows customers to rank pizzas created by others. The last time I checked, there were 11,800+ "registered pizzas," ready for ordering. Social networking for pizza? I doubt that is the last new media pizza offering we'll see this year...

Media Makes Me Hungry

I am notorious for watching the Food Network while I eat dinner. I have no problem with fixing myself a huge steak and plopping down on the couch, flipping to channel 35 and listening to Emeril tell me about pot roasts and parfaits.

It seems that the joy of cooking has taken shape across all media, and its presence online is no exception. I am a loyal reader of Slashfood (a site that gets fed into my Bloglines, of course) but suddenly I find myself checking many other obscure food sites as well. Gone are the days of merely posting recipes; consumers are now actively posting instructional videos, step-by-step photos and networking with each other. Here is a list of my favorites:

1) SmittenKitchen
First of all, the name is adorable. Second of all, the photography is so amazing that you find yourself drooling for hours. I am a fan of the "skyscraper cakes" entry, and the woman behind it all seems to have quite a loyal following already.

2) Taquitos.net
I come from a family that loves to snack, so what better way to find out about the latest and greatest munchies? Taquitos.net features reviews on chips, cookies and everything in between.

3) Tastespotting
A place to showcase pictures of food. 'Nuff said. Caution: do not visit this site on an empty stomach.

4) French Laundry at Home
For those of us who will never experience Thomas Keller's genius at the actual restaurant, we can at least watch this guy attempt to make recipes from the cookbook.

5) TastyFood TV
A "Lifestyle Food TV Network Community for Video Sharing," with helpful user videos. Some of them are lengthy (7 min for tiramisu) and others are much more simple (egg poaching).

6) CookThink
This site poses the simple question "What are you craving?" and then answers it with their database of recipes. This is great for when you want something specific but aren't sure how to prepare it, or what to pair it with.

7) Nook & Pantry
More scrumptious food imagery. Not much else to say, other than they had me at their Nutella Stuffed Brioche French Toast.



Now, please see my previous entry on Nike+. After you read all these food sites, you may need to go for a run or two also. ;)