It can be hard to stay positive as everything around us is changing, and social media feels extra like it’s our lifeline to the world and to each other. There are a few PA food people who have taken up Instagram as a tool to communicate with us, spreading smiles and bringing some levity to moments in our days. Plus, food tips and ideas are extra-helpful right now as we’re all raiding our pantries to figure out what to make for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
Tenaya Darlington, aka Madame Fromage, is one of PA’s most engaging food folks via her blog and social media channels. Darlington, who’s also written a number of cookbooks and has been the cheese director for Tria Cafe, has an infectious joie de vivre and is an amazing wealth of knowledge when it comes to artisan and small-batch cheese. Over the past week, she’s released lots of great content on her feed, including how to meal plan with cheese, and she’s also released an Instagram video series she’s calling “Quarantined Quesophile,” covering topics like how to order cheese directly from cheesemakers and makers, milk types and mystery cheese. These friendly info sessions, and reminders of the power of small pleasures of things like cheese, help to bring our stress level down.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B94vSK8jchE/
We’ve always loved Philly Chef Marc Vetri‘s honest, unfiltered presence on social media (he is, in fact, one of the food-loving Pennsylvanians we suggest you follow on Instagram). It looks like a little of that spirit has worn off on his pre-teen kid, Mario, who has started an at-home Instagram cooking show called “Quarantine Cooking,” which his dad posts through his channel.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B94UiRRndiT/
Seems like some of Vetri’s cooking chops have rubbed off on Mario, too. His recipes are really fun, his delivery is spot-on … and the hair slays, too. This is the kind of optimism and positivity we need in our feed right now, and we hope there is more to come from Mario and other food folks, too. Teaching kids to cook, or helping kids with beginner skills advance to the next level, is maybe one of the best silver linings we can hope for out of this global health crisis.
Mike Landers is a bartender at the restaurant/bar Martha in Philly’s Kensington neighborhood and one half of Fishtown Ferments, which makes small-batch pickles, kimchi and the like. So far during the first week of social distancing, he and his friends have been entertaining themselves (and us) with humorous at-home cocktail DIY videos called “Sweatpants Cocktails.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B95c1oQDpUS/
While someone off-screen “live dubs” the script, Landers and his buddies make up cocktails, pulling from their deep stash of spirits, liqueurs and elixirs. Even if you don’t have access to the ingredients necessary to recreate these concoctions, it’s fun to watch mixologists getting fast and loose at home.
No doubt, it’s been a bizarre week with so much in flux, but ingenuity, innovation and fun are just a few of the things we hope can come of this great experiment in social distancing through social media. After all social media allows us to virtually connect with people all over the globe, which is our only real outlet right now. We’re excited to share more PA food media and stories with you in the coming weeks — what is the content you’re looking for? Please don’t be shy and let us know, either in the comments here or via the PA Eats Facebook page.
- Feature photo: Raw Pixel
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