Sometimes, they smile indulgently, as if I just announced that I like to collect beetles during my spare time. Their smile says that they think food blogging is just an eccentric hobby you do to kill time. What a strange thing to do, but I shall play along with you, they seem to be saying, proud of themselves for being so gracious.

Or they may smile quizzically and nod, pretending they know what I’m talking about but wondering what the heck is a food blogger. What is there to blog about food, They may wonder. It’s just things you put in your mouth and digest out into the toilet.

Or they might smile with a twitch at the corner of their lips, barely covering up their smirk. I can’t believe you just called yourself that, They mock silently. We all know bloggers are just faceless nobodies who think they actually have a voice in society.

Or maybe they actually really mean it when they smile and say, “How wonderful!”

So which is it? I have no idea. A smile is a very mysterious thing—it can hold all sorts of cryptic meanings and thoughts and significance. Think about it: when did you last smile just for the heck of it, because you are happy?

Excuse my paranoia on this case. But it used to be something that runs through my mind every time I was forced to tell other people that I blog about food. I mean, it’s not like I blog about war, politics, charities, or anything that…well, is “important” and “altruistic”. I just blog about food.

But you know what? Who says food can’t be just as important? Come to think of it, it’s one of life’s three basic survival needs. Every single person, no matter how grand or philanthropic, have no choice but to spend the majority of their day thinking about food…even more so than any of the other more “valuable” matters.

Of course, inevitably there are some that take their interest in food to the extreme, but all in all, I’m just glad I found my own niche. And though we may blog about things that we poop out, within our very own circle, I believe that there are a lot of significant influences going on: valuable friendships, inspirations and motivations in life, encouragements and comforts through trials, advices and recommendations, and of course, who can forget fun and entertainment? Every person needs a little joy in their life, don’t they?

One thing that made me realize this and take a certain pride in being a “food blogger” even more was actually meeting these other food bloggers. There is almost an instant sense of connection…and the strange thing is, I barely think of the fact that we’ve only known each other through food blogs…but just enjoy their presence as a real person, with real things to talk about other than food (though that topic always comes up, of course).

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting two bloggers: Maya from American Gourmande, and Lele from Lele Lurves Plants.
I’ve met Maya once before, and had been charmed by her vivacious personality, wide smile, and warm honesty, so I was delighted to see her again. This was the first time I was meeting Lele though, and I was equally charmed by her—she is this spunky, smart girl who laughs and talks with refreshing freedom.

Maya wanted to visit a Korean bakery, so I suggested meeting at Annandale, the sort of Koreatown of Northern Virginia. But first, we decided to have lunch at a Korean place. Since Maya is vegetarian, that ruled most Korean restaurants out. The only place I could think of was Lighthouse Tofu Korean Restaurant, a popular, authentic place for soon dubu jiggae.
 Soon dubu is translated literally as “Mild Tofu”, and jiggae means “stew”. It is a spicy tofu stew made from soft, silky tofu and other ingredients of your choice. It’s really best on a cold winter night, or when you’ve got a hangover. Thus the place was rather empty on a hot, summer afternoon:
But that meant we had the whole place to ourselves! Woo hoo! We were started out with some obligatory banchan, or side dishes. I was impressed when Lele pointed them out as banchan correctly by herself.
I was also impressed that she knew what mul kimchi (water kimchi)was…
..and that these eggs were raw eggs to crack into the stew. 
But I was even more impressed when she ordered her seafood soon dubu jiggae in the spiciest level: spicy-spicy!
Just look at that blood of RED!! What’s more, she wasn’t even freaked out by a pair of eyes peering out at her from her stew:
Apparently, she had visited this place before, and was well-versed with the food here. As you can imagine, I warmed up to this girl immediately.

Maya was no spice wimp, either. Since she is a newbie to soon dubu but also love spiciness, I suggested she order the next notch down, the spicy. So she got the spicy vegetable soon dubu jiggae:
As you can see, the intensity of the redness is a bit toned down compared to Lele’s spicy-spicy, but still rather bloody! Here’s Lele cracking her egg into her stew:
On the side, we were also served a stone pot which had been used to cook our rice.
The bottom part of the rice was left in the bowl to crisp up against the hot stone, and then barley tea poured in. The result is supposed to be a porridge made from crunchy bits of rice and barley tea, but the stone was not hot enough and the rice never crisped up. How disappointing!

As for me, since I’m a rebel against my Asian blood and dislike tofu (especially the soft ones), I got a pajeon (Korean-style pancake), in the vegetarian version and in the largest size so that Maya and Lele could try it too:Holy pancakes this was HUGE! It was the size of a large pizza…and so very delicious! The best pajeon I’ve ever had! 
What was lovely about this pancake was that they fine-grated potato into the batter, so that there was this really delightful chewy consistency. The pancake was also cooked on a well-oiled hot stone plate so that the exterior got nice and crispy.
I’d forgotten how fantastic a good pajeon can be…I’m definitely going to try to recreate this in my kitchen! Maya and Lele teased that I’ll definitely put my own spin to it, and they’re probably right. I’ll probably sneak some cheese in there, maybe some bacon…hmm…

We had a great time together.
It was nice to be able to introduce Korean cuisine to fellow food bloggers personally. It’s different when you can urge them to taste and smell the dishes instead of just viewing them through 2-dimensional pictures. It was also lovely being able to talk to them face-to-face, and a few deep topics came up, too. 
As both of them talked about some of the ways food blogging has been beneficial to them, I was reminded again that food blogging is not just about food. Be it a food blog, or a blog about knitting, photography, mothering, business, or astronomy, it’s really not entirely about that particular subject, but about life, and people. The topic is just what brings different people from all over the world together to share a common interest.