About / FAQ

What You Should Know (About Me) When Reading This Website

After almost three years with the same “About Me,” blurb, I’ve decided to entitle this section “What You Should Know (About Me) When Reading This Website.” So here goes, the “About Me” section updated for 2008.

What you already know
Yes, dessert is my favorite part of the meal, it’s the course without compare. But I’m not just about dessert. I live to write about food – after eating it, of course. I’ve been a food writer contributing to various magazines since 2000, but it’s here at Dessert Comes First where I call all the (food) shots: it’s my playground for my passion and a chronicle of my food and dessert adventures. If it’s about food, it’s all here. I tell it like it is — no BS, no kidding.

I champion the home baker, those who make and sell sweets from the home; I’m convinced that they are the source of Manila’s best desserts. I’m a big fan of all Filipino foods, and I push local ingredients as much as I can. I also believe in letting new restaurants find their groove before I feature them. Above all, I write for people who are like me: zealous and passionate about food, almost to a fault.

As a budding food photographer, passionate home baker, and enthusiastic food chronicler, I traverse the city and bond with fellow foodies for food finds of the sweet kind, and I’m always on the hunt for places to have that one great cup of coffee, with milk please.

What some people want to know

Taking care of a website is very much like taking care of one’s own kid. I created this website one rainy afternoon three years ago and have nurtured it to what it is now. In that time, the same questions are repeatedly asked of me regarding some things that I do here at Dessert Comes First. Realizing I was emailing myself around a loop, I present the answers here to all and sundry. This is my quasi- testament, what I believe in, and putting it here – I think – is akin to carving it in stone.

1. How do you go about featuring restaurants on your site?
I have a long list of restaurants culled from write-ups and places people have told me about. Depending on what I’m hankering for and which area I’ll be in, I consult this list and then go. I eat at restaurants in the same way that anybody else does: I walk in and ask for a table. I’m there because I want to eat there and experience what the establishment puts out for its guests, day in and evening out. Unless asked, I rarely whip out my business card and if I do take pictures, it’s done rather discreetly. I don’t speak to the chef or manager because I don’t want my experience to be influenced by something that was said. Simply put, I want to receive the same treatment as every other diner.

2. How many times do you visit a restaurant before featuring it?
Anywhere from one to five times. Restaurants usually say what they have to say in the first two visits.

3. Are you paid to feature restaurants?
NO.

4. Do you pay for all your meals?
YES. I don’t want to be indebted to anybody for a favorable feature.

5. What makes you think you’re qualified to publish these restaurant reviews?
Ever heard of the saying, “Everyone’s a food critic”? I’m often called that but I sure as hell don’t see or call myself one. What I am is an eater, an avid food lover who chronicles her eating experiences through words and pictures and shares them on a website. If you notice, my so-called “food reviews” are actually described as food features. As I said in the first section of this piece, I write for people who are like me: zealous and passionate about food to a fault. What you think about that is up to you.

6. How does a home baker or a restaurant get featured on your site?
Simple. If you’re a home baker or food purveyor, email me your product list and I’ll take it from there. If you’re a restaurant email me as well and let me know about your place, but I can’t set a date as to when I’ll be there, which leads me to the next question…

7. I emailed you to feature my restaurant/baked goods almost a year ago! Why haven’t you come around?

Just like my Restaurant List, I also have another list, this time my Waiting to be Featured list. When someone emails me asking to be featured, their name and details go on that list and again, depending on my schedule and inclinations, I work my way through that list although not chronologically. Admittedly, some restaurants and desserts appeal to me more than others. And no, I don’t meet restaurant owners who invite me to their restaurants. I’ll just show up on any given day and eat there just like any other guest. (See question #1).

8. What camera do you use?
The photos for the first year of Dessert Comes First were taken with a Powershot G2. It has since gone on to camera heaven. I now have two cameras in my arsenal: a Canon Powershot G7 and a Canon EOS 400D SLR. I’m not a photographer, just someone who loves taking photos of food. And no, I’ve never taken photography lessons in my life.

9. Why don’t you answer queries in the Comments section?
Ah, this is the new oft-asked question after the one above. The Comments section is just that – a place for readers to comment and react to what I’ve written. It’s not a forum really. If readers have something to ask me, I prefer that they email me instead; otherwise the comments section ends up veering off topic and everything snowballs from there. It’s just the way things are done around here.

10. I can’t seem to post my comment. I get this white screen of gibberish!
Because of the increasingly insidious nature of internet security, I’ve had to install some supreme spamguards to protect the integrity of my website. Thus, readers on dial-ups will probably not get their comments through as well as those with IP addresses that the spamguards consider “dubious.” My apologies.

11. Why do you post so irregularly?
For a full answer to that, I direct you to A Note About the Irregularity of Posts (or, What Dessert Comes First Is All About).