#MYLDN (709)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

This week I have featured a relatively new phenomena in London (or at least one I have just started noticing a lot) which is queuing for food. Not in a Communist Russia kind of way, there aren’t any shortages, just people who are happy to queue (even in the rain as demonstrated above) to eat at their chosen eatery.

Apparently there are around 20,000 restaurants in central london so its not like you couldn’t go somewhere else. In Soho, where most of the photographs were taken, you are never more than a stone’s throw away from half a dozen decent food joints but still people will queue endlessly to get a taste of the delicacies the reviewers have been banging on about. Soho as an area has been transformed in the last few years from a late night party area of bars and clubs into an area full of cafes and restaurants. Back in the day you only ever used to see queues for clubs and now the great british tradition of waiting in line has been adopted by the clientele of their successors. It would seem that people would definitely rather go out eating than dancing these days.

You only have to look at the Time Out listings to see the change. The club section used to be four or five pages long and now you barely get a half page of listings as oppose to the ‘eating out’ section which now seem to dominate the publication.

It feels like everyone has become a foodie in this city. Personally I couldn’t really give a shit. My general policy is to eat then meet as oppose to most people who want to meet then eat meat. Its not like I don’t like food. I just don’t need every meal to be a culinary masterpiece. Food is fuel. We need it to survive. My tastebuds don’t need fireworks every time I throw something down my gob.

I think mainly its do with the fact that I find food socialising a little bit sedate and a bit too sedentary. Its also very expensive in this city and you can’t help feeling in most places when you get the bill and cough up an inordinate amount of cash that someone has dragged you into a nearby alley and mugged you for all you’ve got. So getting fleeced for a ton when I don’t really care and would much rather spend my money on other consumables leaves me trying to avoid all food based meet ups. This is quite restrictive on socialising these days and fairly difficult to refuse invitations without upsetting the inviter.

If you tell people these days you’re not fussed about food you see their face flatten in disbelief and vague contempt. It feels like a new religion and its sacrilegious to be indifferent about it. Guess that makes me a heretic and I’m heading for hell..bon appetit!