E-books are here to stay, there’s no doubt about that. And whether you Kindle, Kobo, iPad it or even read them on your phone, the selection of reading material is growing. Today on Food Matters, I introduced some reading material that should make you quite hungry.
It’s the kind of idea that makes you think, ‘why didn’t somebody do this before?’ Victoria resident Jen Reiher has started a company called ‘Tastebud Guides’ that has just e-published its first offering called ‘Local Flavour, Victoria 2012’. It is an interactive electronic guide to a slice of Jen’s favourite restaurants in Victoria with a lot of room to expand with future editions.
Jen Reiher has been writing a blog about her restaurant visits in Victoria, and she eats out a lot in the city. So much so that this idea of sharing her knowledge base with anyone interested became something she just had to do. This reminds me I’ve something I’ve said in the past that goes along the line of, ‘If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me where to eat in Victoria..’
Of course she wants to make more than a nickel every time someone downloads this book…but it only costs you $3.99. Which is not bad considering that you might spend that much on parking outside your favourite restaurant in an evening. But this is an interactive guide which I think gives it added value the way Jen has cross-referenced restaurants and she loves the flexibility e-publishing has given her. When you are on the page for one restaurant you can easily click to jump the restaurant’s website if it has one, to other restaurants in the area, or other restaurants of that style. There’s even a neat infographic linking together via hop vines all the different breweries in Victoria which describes the flavour and style of beers they produce.
The title is ‘Local Flavour Victoria 2012’, which kind of sets us up for 2013…which is funny, because one of Jen’s New Year’s Resolutions for 2012 was to maybe not eat out so much…but if this becomes a success she will have to eat out even more so she can do a 2013 edition! Her plans are to augment and update each year, but beyond that, because she has put so much work into the format of this, she hopes other people will come to her to produce other niche guides. She says that the idea is that Tastebud Guides will serve as a template for other bloggers or food professionals to publish their own guides or reviews.
I think I will keep my own ideas secret for now! But here are some I’d like to see that I probably wouldn’t do myself…best places to have a cocktail in Victoria, complete with some recipes to try at home. Or what about a guide to Vancouver Island wineries? The opportunities are really unlimited, and it’s a format easy enough and affordable enough to put into reality that we could only have dreamed about a few years ago. In the future on the show I’ll tell you about some other neat ways food is coming to an electronic tablet near you!
To download Local Flavour Victoria 2012 to your reading device, just follow the instructions at this link.