THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 16, 1995 TAG: 9507130010
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 180 lines
WHEN FOOD and computers are used in the same sentence, that sentence usually has a negative in it. As in:
Don't eat near your computer.
Don't drink near your computer.
If you don't wash your hands after eating, the grease will destroy your computer.
But to foodies, computers - or, more correctly, on-line services and the Internet, to which computers connect us - are a diamond mine of culinary connections, a never-ending coffee klatch of foodaholics, a rapturous resource for recipes.
Start with the Internet, that vast superhighway in cyberspace. For the purposes of this story, think of it not as an endless interstate, but as one rest stop after another - all filled with unique and interesting things to eat and drink.
Usenet groups
Begin with the bulletin boards of the Usenet groups. Here, you'll find discussion groups covering every conceivable topic. On a diet? There's alt.food.fat-free, where you can find out more than you ever wanted to know about beans, or alt.food.low-fat.
Heading out of town? Query the lurkers in rec.food.restaurants about the best place in Baltimore for soft-shell crabs.
For the college student there's alt.college.food, where you can learn how to make a low-fat version of boxed macaroni and cheese (add 1/3 cup plain yogurt instead of butter and milk) or debate the benefits of meal plans.
Looking for a recipe for chicken cordon bleu? Try alt.creative-cook, or alt.food.recipes, where you have recipes for everything from peanut butter and carrot cookies to German onion pie.
For the general cooking question, such as ``What can I do with a potato?'' there's rec.food.cooking. There, you'll also find 18 ideas for topping a bagel.
Looking for a late-18th century recipe for grog? Check out rec.food.historic, where topics range from the history of curry to the search for Mongolian recipes from the time of Ghengis Khan.
Into baking bread? Then rec.food.sourdough is for you.
Eschew meat? Try rec.food.veg.cooking, filled with vegetarian recipes, or rec.food.veg, for discussions on the vegetarian lifestyle. For example, ``Are vegetarians better lovers?''
Coffee drinkers can try alt.food.coffee to debate the best cup of java. At rec.food.drink.beer, you can help some home brewers in Wisconsin name their beer. Rec.food.drink focuses on wine, but also includes tips for stocking a liquor cabinet and discussions about other types of alcohol (but not beer).
For true oenophiles, there's alt.food.wine, which is just on wine. Recent topics included: What red goes best with barbecue? And, what wines should you put down cellar now for a new baby to drink when she's 21?
Most of the groups have FAQ (frequently asked questions), which are files available for downloading. They can provide you with more information than you probably ever wanted to know about food and drink.
Web pages
If you have a Web browser, such as Netscape or Mosaic, the World Wide Web is the place for you.
The best starting site is http://www.vuw.ac.nz/who/Amy.Gale/recipes/other-sites.html, where foodie Amy Gale has collected an awesome list of food-related sites on the Web.
Here you'll find recipe archives for many of the Usenet groups, searchable by keyword (or key ingredient) and links to other food-related sites, such as Hazel's Recipe Page, the Internet Kitchen and, for the beetle lover in all of us, Iowa State University's Tasty Insect Recipes.
There are ethnic recipe sites (for that perfect Slovenian dinner party), vegetarian sites and drink sites. There are restaurant reviews, mail-order food catalogs (Godiva Online!), and PizzaNet, Pizza Hut's attempt at cyberdelivery.
There's even a link to the WAIS database of recipes - thousands of recipes all searchable by key word.
Another favorite foodie site is the eGG, the Internet e-zine devoted to food and cooking (http://www.2way.com/food/egg/index.html). It includes columns on everything from gourmet recipes to quick tips to ``toasts and quotes,'' regularly updated food sites around the Web and an index of the month's recipes.
Click on ``Food Sites,'' and take off into a plethora of food-related links. There's ProVisions Online, which claims to provide a single listing of every food and beverage-related site on the World Wide Web. It's also a gathering site for those in the professional food business - be they chefs or waiters.
The ``Blue Directory,'' (http://www.2way.com/food/pvo/bluedir.html), with links to food-service companies, including delivery services and culinary trade schools. There are restaurants listed by cuisine, wine clubs and newsletters, and wholesalers.
Other Web sites of note include:
Aunti Boo's ridiculously easy recipes (http://www.sar.usf.edu/(TILDE SIGN)zazuetaa/recipe.html): A collection of recipes the author promises to be ``tried and true and thus guaranteed to be nearly impossible to mess up.''
Condensed Guide to Chile Resources (http://www.2way.com/food/egg/chlguide.html): Includes links to the online Chile Pepper Magazine, mail-order sources of chilies and other products.
Creole and Cajun Recipes (http://www.webcom.com/TILDEgumbo/recipe-page.html) A culinary arts student in New Orleans posted this home page, which is topped by the quote from Mark Twain: ``New Orleans food is as delicious as the less criminal forms of sin.''
Says the page's author: ``And now beware, all ye who enter here . . . remove the words ``diet'' and ``low-fat'' from your vocabulary now.
The Jean-Paul Sartre Cookbook (http://web.kaleida.com/u/danfuzz/info/words/stories/sartre(UNDERLINE SYMBOLcookbook.html): This is the home page for culinary nothingness, where you'll see such fun selections as:
``Oct. 3. Spoke with Camus today about my cookbook. Though he has never actually eaten, he gave me much encouragement. I rushed home immediately to begin work. How excited I am! I have begun my formula for a Denver omelet.
``Oct. 4. Still working on the omelet. There have been stumbling blocks. I keep creating omelets one after another, like soldiers marching into the sea, but each one seems empty, hollow, like stone. I want to create an omelet that expresses the meaninglessness of existence, and instead they taste like cheese. I look at them on the plate, but they do not look back. Tried eating them with the lights off. It did not help. Malraux suggested paprika.''
Over the Coffee (http:///www.infonet.net:80/showcase/coffee/): Everything you ever wanted to know about coffee. This site includes the Wall of Java, where visitors leave their own paean to the caffeinated brew. Like Marc, who writes: ``Having just returned from my first visit to Naples, why is it that coffee in Naples is quite noticeably better than coffee anywhere else in Italy - which is, therefore to say, anywhere else in the world?''
Or Dave, who, upon returning to Boston from Great Britian wrote: ``Great to be back in the the 'ole USA, where we all believe in GOOD coffee. I have just returned from that tea drinking country, and find to my amazement that they DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE MISSING!! And to think, they used to rule the world.
The Recipes Folder (http://english-www.hss.cmu.edu/recipes.html): This site offers vegetarian recipes for any vegetarian. It also has information on vegetarian-friendly organizations around the world, environmental data about meat-eating and, for nonveggies, ``dead animal'' recipes.
Wine Community (http://www.wine.com/wine/Wine.Com): This site features wineries around the world, other 'Net wine sites, and information on viticulture and research.
Robin Garr's Wine Bargain Page (http://iglou.com/why/wine.html): With, you guessed it, reviews of great wines that are good bargains.
Another wine list can be reached at http://www.ee.pdx.edu/TILDEtimt/html/wine.html), with links to education and research sites on the Web dealing with viticulture, wine societies, wine dealers, wineries on the 'Net and Wine Weekly, a Web wine 'zine.
Listservers
Listservers are similar to Usenet groups, but they work through e-mail. The messages come directly into your mailbox, and you can send a message to everyone on the list simultaneously.
Here are a few related to food and beverages with instructions on subscribing (note: insert your own first and last name where it says YOUR NAME):
BEER-L: Send message to: listserv(AT)ualvm.ua.edu. In body of message type: subscribe BEER-L (YOUR NAME)
CANWINE (Canadian wines): Send message to: Majordomo(AT)acs.ryerson.ca. In body of message type: subscribe CANWINE.
CHILE HEADS: Send message to: chile-heads-request(AT)chile.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu. In body of message type: Subscribe.
EAT-L (general list about eating and food): Send message to: listserv(AT)vtvml.cc.vt.edu. In body of message type: subscribe EAT-L YOUR NAME
FAT-FREE: Send message to: fatfree-request(AT)hustle.rahul.net. In the subject line of header type: ADD.
FOODWINE: Send message to: listserv(AT)cmuvm.csv.cmich.edu. In body of message type: subscribe FOODWINE YOUR NAME
HOMEBREW: Send message to: homebrew-request(AT)hpfcmi.fc.hp.com. In body of message type: Subscribe.
WINES: Send message to majordomo(AT)ee.pdx.edu. In body of message type: subscribe WINES.
VEGLIFE: Send message to: listserv(AT)vtvml.cc.vt.edu. In body of message type subscribe VEGLIFE YOUR NAME.
VEGAN-L: Send message to listserv(AT)vm.temple.edu. In body of message type: subscribe VEGAN-L YOUR NAME.
VEG-COOK: Send message to: veg-cook-request(AT)netcom.com. In body of message type: subscribe.
OZWINE (Australian and New Zealand wines): Send message to maiser(AT)koala.cs.cowan.edu.au. In body of message type: request subscription from administrator. ILLUSTRATION: [Color illustration]
JOHN CORBITT/Staff
KEYWORDS: INTERNET by CNB