Recap of Food Reviewing (Part 3 of JGF Review)

Originally I expected Just Good Food to have fresh, delicious, and not too expensive food to eat. Only two of those things are true. The food was fresh and inexpensive, but it didn't meet my high bar of deliciousness. If the highlight of the meal is a dessert, then the rest needs some work. Also, I was worried it might be dead inside. It was. I'm not sure if the nice weather was to blame, or if JGF is a more eat and run kind of place.

The was dissonance between my expectations and assumptions too. I did not expect there to be cool jazz playing in the background. There was, and it fit the mood of the place, but the nature of the music startled me at first. I think of jazz as lounge music, not deli music. I also assumed I would not need to go back twice to get a feel for the place, but I did and it slid my original feelings into a higher bar of positive mixed review.

The view of "authentic" as a claim to fame for restaurants is a complicated one, based on location and inhabitants of that area. For JGF, they are an authentic wedding catering business, though that is not what they claim, it's just a service they offer. In that case, the food I'm eating can be served at a large scale, and be transported easily well. Am I thinking that as a consumer? No, because that's not my focus, maybe I just want a sandwich, not a wedding lunch. In terms of dining in restaurants as a kind of tourism, JGF is a local business. Maybe I want to experience the culture of Kalamazoo through its food. By eating food that comes from the area, an individual can taste the "flavors" of that area.

In the future, experiencing "tourist" like actives, such as eating, I now know not every experience will have "good" food, though it's a learning experience all the same. I also know how distracting pictures can be, and what a crutch they are when writing reviews. Plus, I really dislike cameras at a dinner table, along with cell phones. Technology and food are just a distracting combination. For a review, removing oneself from the experience makes a better written piece about said experience, but it deadens the whole memory making aspect. It becomes a job, and it's not quite so fun anymore. Food reviews, and blogging too, are quite a bit of work.