Every day there are new food bloggers who pop up and join the food sampling army. I love this about the community; it’s constantly growing with fresh perspectives, new tastebuds and more tragic tales about how some random food item reminds them of an especially bad breakup or the time a girl made them wait in a McDonalds for four hours only to not show up.

Er, forget that last point.

However, with every new food blogger comes the retirement of another. We’ve lost so many awesome food bloggers over the years mostly due to time constraints. It’s hard to whip up a 1,500 word essay about fried chicken when you have a full time job and are married with children. Again, you can forget about that last point when I’m concerned.

Every now and again though, we see people come back. Which is what brings me to today’s Beyond the Food with Natalie from Eat Sum Chocolate. A well known (and well-loved) Instagrammer with a knack for awesome photos and succinict descriptions, Natalie has revived her blog and we’re here to find out why along with some other things.

Don’t call it a sumback, she’s been here for years.

Isaac: Before we start talking about your comeback, can you talk abit about how you started?

Natalie: I used to really like making food and taking photos of it then sharing it on Instagram. People always asked me for recipes and I got tired of typing long long paragraphs on Instagram comments so I decided a blog was the way to go! With the love of food.. I think i was born with it. My mom told me she wanted me to behave for my kindergarten interview so she bribed me with ice cream and it worked. And apparently i never behaved for any interviews before that haha

Isaac: So…does the bribing with ice cream thing still work? I swear I’m asking for a friend.

Natalie: Yes it does. Macarons might work a bit better

Isaac: Heh….Why’d you stop and what made you decide to come back?

Natalie: Honestly.. I just got lazy. As you would know, blogging is quite time consuming and I couldn’t keep up cause uni got quite busy.. Nah I think it was mainly laziness haha. I made a come back cause I do want to share with others more than just a description of a dish, and typing long captions on Instagram isn’t really feasible. Plus i’m on holidays at the moment so I have all the time in the world to give it another go!

Isaac: What do you feel is the most time-consuming component of food blogging??

Natalie: Photo editing itself takes up a lot of time. Also I’m not as good as writing as some bloggers like ifat so it takes me a while to vomit up 1,000 words. Plus i’m a perfectionist so i ways double and triple check before I publish!

Isaac: Keep this between us but I think iFat sucks.

Natalie: I think iFat is pretty awesome but i might be biased. Hehe.

Isaac: What have you learnt about food blogging the year during your self-imposed exodus?

Natalie: Truth be told, I didn’t read much restaurant review food blogs before. Before my exodus the only food blogs I read were healthy/ vegan/ paleo homemade food ones. My biggest discovery this year, thanks to ig, would be the actual Sydney food blogging community. Each and everyone of the blogs taught me something but the biggest thing I took away would be the importance to have your own style/voice.

Isaac: What do you have coming down the pipeline for Eat Sum Chocolate?

Natalie: Right now I’m working on a post about a restaurant in Seoul called Jungsik. It’s a bit awkward cause I call it a Sydney food blog but  there is zero content about Sydney restaurants at the moment. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up with around a post a week when I get back!

Isaac: Awe-sum, ready for the lightning round?

Natalie: I’m bready

Isaac: What are your three favourite movies?

Natalie: The Notebook, Chef, Mean Girls

Isaac: What song will be playing at the reception when you take your first dance with your (extremely) lucky husband?

Natalie: Hold on need to go through my iTunes LOL; extremely cheesy but I think All Of Me would be a candidate.

Isaac: What’s your favourite way to enjoy Nutella?

Natalie: Ok i’m gonna let the cat out of the bag.. I don’t actually like nutella that much. It’s too sweet. But probably with pretzel sticks.

Isaac: My world is shattered. This is way worse than me not actually being fat.

Natalie: The name was born when a friend decided to call me nutella because it sounded like Natalie . You’re iFraud!

Isaac: Speaking of, what’s your favourite iFraud post?

Natalie:  Mister gee one cause I was in it LOL. Seriously though, the one about gelato because I thought it’s awesome that you tried out so many gelaterias

Isaac: Finally, how would you SUM up the Sydney food blogging community in a sentence?

Natalie: Apart from the occasional drama, it’s fun and welcoming; it’s almost like a gigantic family with cool cousins that I frequently hang out with and more distant aunties and uncles whose names I’ve heard of but have yet to meet.

Isaac: Glad you’re part of my family, Nat. We should hang out again sumtime. Heh.

***

Follow my homie Natalie on her Instagram account (Nutellasum) and send her love letters at natalieesum@gmail.com. Please keep in mind she has to get through the seventeen I’ve sent her before she can get to your’s.