How food goes viral

I have been told that I should get onto Instagram for the love of good food. It's the reason why presentation has suddenly become all the rage. Everyone loves to post foodie photos; smartphones are being designed to be even more photo- (and, therefore, Insta-) friendly. There was a cartoon I'd seen (in The New Yorker, if I remember correctly), where the maître d' is asking a dining couple if there's something wrong with the food - since they are not clicking photos to post on Instagram... that pretty much summed it up! The other day, I'd visited a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, the sort of place where food is slapped down in asymmetrical order on the table; I was intrigued to note that this place now had a 'presentation plan': food was arranged in a particular way, there were interesting cut-outs of veggies in the salad, the crockery had a certain flair... wow, I thought, curation for the sake of food photography is now #trending everywhere. On Instagram, everyone is allowed to be a food photographer, but there is a bunch of foodies cooking out a real storm there; they all have their own distinctive styles and methodologies. We catch up with a few of Gourmet Dubai's Insta stars.
Architecturally, Dubai is hailed as avant-garde. Our cover story this week is on women architects in the city who are upping the game, and reinventing rules; the landscape gets a look-in through 'feminine' eyes. Yet another Dubai story gets a shoutout: a fashion brand that caters to pregnant and breastfeeding women (the founder says new mums need to look good in order to feel good - difficult to beat that logic!).
Travel takes us to Luxor in Egypt: Valley of the Kings, the Sphinxes, the tomb of Tutankhamun, a Nile cruise et al. Bollywood visits Naaz theatre in Mumbai - which used to be one of the most sought-after cinemas back in the day, and has just bitten the dust, like so many other single-screen theatres; alas, the multiplex bug has bitten us all, but at least we can go down the memory lane and revel in some nostalgia. Ramadan is not so far away, and although KT is coming out with its annual Ramadan Cookbook in a while, we give you a capsule collection of traditional favourites in Kitchen Classics. Beauty rounds up some products for you if you're running short of time and need a quick fix.
All this and much more. Enjoy reading WKND and have a great weekend.