About Vkeong.com

(Last update: 23 Aug 10) Hey! Thanks for wanting to know me better

I’m a 27-year old guy, grew up in Bukit Mertajam aka “Tua Shua Kha” in Hokkien. It is a small town on the mainland side of Penang.

There are two reasons why I started this blog: passion for good food (I live to eat!) and photography. 4 years ago, there weren’t many food blogs and MalaysiaBest was my favorite at that time. It was my biggest influence in starting my own food blog. After taking thousands of photos, I am now more interested in photography compared to hunting for food to be honest. So, sometimes I eat or travel just for the sake of taking photos. Except working hours, I am never without my camera.

I do realize that my writings are simple, straightforward and not as narrative like other food blogs you may find. Or simply put, my English is not great. My blogging style is based on how I would like to read a food blog – I just want to see how the foods look like, know the location, the price and most importantly the taste. Nothing more.

But recently, I have changed my style of writing to include some history about the food that I blog. Videos and more detailed information like operating hours, address and the GPS Coordinates are also being included. This is something you will definitely not see in my older posts. Last time, I would just snap the food, secretly snap a photo of the shop and then run away lol. Anyway, I feel this change is good for me as mingling with the people who prepare your food does give you a good feeling about the food you are going to eat. Sometimes, their stories would even touch you.

Now, about food blogging.. it is no secret that I used to do the so called “invited reviews”. I never really liked that term because it gives an impression I am doing this for a living or professionally when in fact I am doing it as a hobby. I used to even put up a page to let restaurant owners contact me for “invited reviews” because not many food bloggers get this type of invitation stuff at that time. It made me felt honored and such lah, syok sendiri.

But after doing this for a while I felt my integrity and direction in blogging is affected. This aside, I also noticed there is a faction of food bloggers that blogs for money and often ask for free meals from restaurants. In order to stop myself from being associated with these bloggers, I have stopped responding to restaurant owners’ invitation. I have always worked independently and I am very glad with my way because believe it or not, there is politic stuff going on among the factions of food bloggers.

So if you see a chubby and specky looking guy in Penang who carries a camera around, eats alone and snaps photos of the food before he starts eating, most probably that’s me!