Competition

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The article

COMPETITION is good.

It keeps you on your feet and when you least expect it, someone ahead or behind you will sneak up with plenty of surprises in their bag of tricks.
Well, it seems that the competition to get some good food stories has heated up a bit.
First, there's the Sunday Metro folks who started out doing street food. They were good at it, but I guess as a rule of thumb, sustainability became an issue.
This was discussed at large among the top honchos on streamlining our coverage on food. So, from now on, no more plugging for joints that don't advertise.
There are some good points in this but as a blanket statement, it affects all those who are directly involved in food writing.
While most food writers consider themselves as 'foodies', I don't see myself in their league. Technically speaking, I am just an overweight guy who loves to eat.
Now, on the other side of the rainbow, our competitor has revived their street food page. Something which I started there two years ago and was put to death because of 'pork' issues. Fuck them anyway! So, to keep abreast on what is going on, I flipped through the pages of 'Streets' this morning.
And on the centrespread, I found a write-up on Shin Kee beef noodles. Now the writer had sarcastically made a mention about bloggers and reviews and well, being broad minded, I
ingored the sentiments.
But after going through a few paragraphs, it read as half-assed article. Why? It was done with a 'know-it-all' attitude. And to me that's not the way to approach a story.
And the best part is this: an old friend wrote the story. The giveaway sign was a pair of spectacles on one of the photographs.
Over the years, we've competed. Who eats and travels the most. And this dude also raised the stake by claiming that he knew plenty about knives.
Due credit must be given, but when you amassed a collection based on cheap junk and entry-level production knives, someone is bound to overtake you.
This is apparent when I visited a factory in the US and attended a knife show. To rub salt into the wound, I generously gave him some knife schwag.
I don't mean no disrespect, but his photography sucks. You give good equipment to a guy who knows next to nothing when it comes to operating them, you get no results.
Anyways, since Streets had raised the ante, I should keep vigil on their progress and coverage. On another note, the pullout has also introduced some of their columnist and one of them, was an asshole who gave me a hard time when they set up the Malaysian Bladeforums.
Over a none issue, my admin privileges was yanked away. I pulled out of the domain and set up my own and never looked back ever since.
Well, that said and with a big responsibility to shoulder, I'll have to innovate and work harder towards achieving my goals for this year.