Byte link for gourmands
(eastday.com)
Updated: 2005-02-18 08:43

Local food lovers are turning to the Internet for grassroots information on where to find good restaurants, and some are even forming their own diner's club where strangers get together for a meal and perhaps to make a few new friends.

The cyber meeting places are the bulletin board sections of local Web portals such as 21cn and sina.com.

A city resident surnamed Zhang appears to be at the forefront of using the BBS to make adventurous dining a group experience.

Whenever he finds a good restaurant, he posts a message online inviting others to meet him there for a meal.

Sometimes 10 or more people show up, and many of them are strangers. But Zhang said the dinners are always enjoyable because everyone involved is a food lover, and lasting friendships are often formed.

Huang Jia, who's a 25-year-old office worker, began visiting the restaurant message boards several months ago.

"In the past when I wanted to have dinner with my friends, choosing a good restaurant was always a lot of trouble," Huang said.

"We didn't dare visit unfamiliar places for fear the food wouldn't be good or it would be too expensive."

The message boards, which provide loads of details on cuisine and prices, solved her problem. The most helpful postings, she said, were comments from diners.

"I once read a recommendation about a restaurant featuring Sichuan cuisine; so I tried it, and found the food was very good," she said.

"But the restaurant doesn't have an attractive appearance and sign. If I hadn't read the recommendation, I wouldn't have stopped in."

Though she doesn't make a restaurant decision without consulting the message boards, she's not quite ready to start digging her chopsticks into shared meals with strangers.

"I'm a bit concerned about whether those Internet friends would all be healthy," she said.