I am glad to introduce a very talented and innovative Food Blogger, Noor. She is the girl behind fabulous photography and recipe blog SPATULA IN MY POCKET. I like the way she presents her recipes in a different way, she is a young addition in Foodie world of blogging. She has a lot of potential to attract readers towards her.
“If you are careful, ‘if you use good ingredients, and you don’t take any shortcuts, then you can usually cook something very good. Sometimes it is the only worthwhile product you can salvage from a day; what you make to eat. With writing, I find, you can have all the right ingredients, give plenty of time and care, and still get nothing. Also true of love. Cooking, therefore, can keep a person who tries hard sane.” John Irving.
She is hard worker and a successful future blogger. Here she is telling about herself :
Hi, I’m Noor, the creator, designer, author, photographer, chef, and baker (basically the brains and heart) of the new Pakistani food blog Spatula in My Pocket. I’m a student at NUST Business School, currently doing a business administration major with tentative intent to work in HR or to open a street food café (fingers crossed).
I believe that baking and cooking run in my blood, which is funny because everyone else in the family is more interested in the eating rather than the making of food.
ME: Tell us about your blog and its name and origin, did you have any goals when you started it and have you achieved them?
NOOR: I also believe that a passion for something fun and productive should be shared. The idea of starting a food blog was at the back of my mind since the beginning. I tested the idea by posting pictures of my dishes in Facebook and the resulting demand for recipes and instructions further fueled my resolve. Many people are hesitant to start cooking and most stay away from the oven because they believe that it’s something complicated that requires special skills. If I hadn’t taken the first step and burned all those cakes years ago, I would be thinking similarly and would have never ventured in the thrilling art of cooking.
So, Spatula in My Pocket is a food blog where I document my food adventures and instruct about what to do and especially what not to do. It comprises of tried and tested recipes by renowned chefs around the world and some of my own food creations which were a success. The name has caused a bit of an uproar among my family and friends. Everyone wants to know what a spatula is and how it’s pronounced. I admit I am having fun educating them. :p The process of baking is very difficult and wasteful without the help of a trusty spatula (or five). It is magical and everyone should go buy one.
ME: When you first started blogging which method you find was the most successful to build up your audience?
NOOR: Our lives today revolve around food and the Internet. Joining various food groups and interacting with other Food bloggers around the globe through Facebook has really helped my traffic grow.
ME: How did you get attracted by cooking and what was your first dish?
NOOR: The love for cooking was always there, lingering in the background as I read a friend’s cookbook cover to cover, burned orange candy muffins and fried doughnuts with my sisters. It built when I attempted my khala’s recipe for chocolate cake every Friday and every time the cake turned out different; dry, moist, flat, too sweet. It intrigued me.
But the love, I think, really kicked in after 10th grade, when I had five months of holidays and nothing to do. Boredom led me to Masala Mornings, every morning at 11. I owe my first written recipe to Shireen Apa. The first recipe became the first notebook, which turned into to 3 over the months. I couldn’t get enough. There were so many cuisines to try, so many yummy ingredients combining to form something even more yummy. I started researching the different techniques involved. I printed hundreds of recipes. Still hard to keep track of them all. Still so many to try; to cook; to make. Thinking about it makes me giddy.
ME: What was Your Major Challenge when starting out and how did you overcome it?
NOOR: My greatest strength was also my greatest challenge. Social media. I now had to reach maximum Consistency. I hate that word. But yes, consistency in my posts is what I’m struggling with. I can’t keep up with any of the schedules I design. I see a post with high traffic and decide to forgo the next post for a day later. I see a post doing slightly worse than average, I decide to put up the next pot immediately. So the timing is not right. And one other major challenge would be coping with pressure of the social media. The vast amount of attention you need to put in there. It’s so hectic. You now have to handle two-Facebooks, Instagram’s, Pinterests, twitters, Gmails…
ME: What are some of the biggest mistakes you see Upcoming Bloggers?
NOOR: As I’m just an upcoming blogger myself, I am in no place to judge or comment seeing as I’m still learning from my own mistakes.
ME: Which aspect of food blogging you like most?
NOOR: The Eating, obviously! Haha no. I love the cooking part the most. Correcting the balance of spices, adjusting the flame for just the right heat. And then the photography, however pathetic I am at it, I love taking pictures and making things pretty. The sitting down and writing and formatting the post, the recipe is the part that I abhor the most. It’s the part I procrastinate as much as possible, leaving for as later as I can. Writing at the last minute. but when it comes to documenting it on the good ole Internet, I prefer eating them all instead of writing about them.
Share your favorite food related memory.
My favorite food related memory is the Master Chef audition last year. The atmosphere, the people, the pressure, and the cameras. Of course, presenting my dish to the renowned judges and hearing them they say nice stuff about my food was the best moment of my life. But this is only second to my father complimenting me on my dishes…that means the world to me!
ME: What is your favorite Pakistani dish which you have posted on your blog?
NOOR: Rolls parathas! I’m a huge fan of Pakistani street food. The roll paratha recipe was the first Pakistani native recipe on my blog. Hot, flaky parathas filled with succulent pieces of spice-rubbed chicken and loads of chutney…YUM.
You can join her here:
Blog: Spatula in My Pocket
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spatulainmypocket/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spatulainmypocket/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/spatulainmypock
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/spatulaIMP/spatula-in-my-pocket/
Snapchat: noora559