J.J. 1: Salvadoran Food Blog (???), week 1
A joke on Twitter turned into a surprisingly popular (wholesome!) daily post (and weekly blog?) theme
Hola amigos,
Greetings from El Salvador!
Among the 29 of you lovely human beings who have subscribed so far to this newsletter…
28 of you subscribed all the way back on March 25th or 26th.
So after this initial post — almost five full months later — it’s probably worth following up with a brief refresher soon.
But that proper re-introduction can wait.
Food Blog (seriously?) backstory:
“Bitcoin Twitter” is where my primary network of likeminded liberty-lovin’ internet frens hangs out.
(Almost 4000 followers so far, most of whom I follow back)
With that community in mind, it’s been my primary platform for daily posts, going back well over a year.
Naturally, that’s also made it the best place for most of my updates since arriving here in El Zonte… officially a full week ago now!
Why is that relevant here?
On my first full day here — Wednesday, August 9th, 2023 — I walked from some fellow plebs’ house, where I’m renting a room, over to Bitcoin Beach proper.
For that first walk, I didn’t even bring my phone…
And look… I get it.
I understand that us “Bitcoin maximalists” sound like an insane cult.
But I didn’t want to spoil the moment… my first glimpse of this damned-near-holy monetary mecca.
(And — on a more serious note — I didn’t want to carry my new phone on me at first… not while I was still getting a sense of exactly how safe Presidente Bukele’s “fresh start” country really is)
That initial “vibe check” success prompted me to return promptly, just an hour later.
This time with my phone.
This time ready to take photos.
This time ready to spend some sats at Bitcoin Beach — El Zonte’s local businesses — where the entire country’s path to making BTC officially legal tender began.
Getting to the point…
Naturally, I posted a picture of my first purchase online.
I wanted to enable all those Bitcoin Twitter frens — a few thousand, scattered all around the globe — to share in this relatably exhilarating experience vicariously!
It didn’t go crazy viral or anything… but it WAS a hit among my BTC people:
Joke’s on myself:
You may notice how I treated Food Blogs as a punchline in those two posts.
To be fair…
I’ve never had anything against Food Blogs, like, morally or whatever.
It’s just that… well…
A lot of them vary from being “basic b!tches” on Instagram… to pretentiously pontificating poopholes in self-righteously soulless corporate press rags.
Not a lot of fun.
Not a lot of substance.
Just many literal shitloads of superficial nonsense and angry Yelp reviews.
So how is this different?
Am I just a hater?
Or worse… a hypocrite?
Maybe.
But hopefully not in this specific context!
A wholesome TASTE of Bitcoiner life in El Salvador
Everybody, everywhere, eats.
It’s one of the ONLY things that 100% of all 8 billion people in the world can agree on.
Sure…
Some curmudgeonly grumpypants — and maybe most miserable meth-heads, tweaking out of their misguided minds — probably resent that reality.
But that’s life.
Literally. THAT is LIFE.
“Maslow’s hierarchy of needs” and all that.
But food is also a portal to more:
Experience beyond survival
People like me from “developed” countries often take survival for granted.
When it comes to “developing” countries… we naturally tend to be a bit more skeptical.
Especially when that country was — until recently, when it radically reversed this regrettably reprehensible reputation — the former “murder capital of the world” per capita.
Yikes.
Suddenly… simple survival seems significantly sweeter.
“Seeing is believing”
It’s not really about the food itself so much.
That’s important too.
But I think these posts resonated with people because they offer a taste of the overall experience.
Including a picture each time has been a key factor:
The setting is stunning.
The experience is experimental and exciting.
And the money…
Being able to pay with Bitcoin (“magic internet money”) for every single one of these meals — directly, peer to peer BTC, with no fiat intermediaries — is absolutely surreal.
All of that and more comes together through the topic of food.
These posts are proof of life.
But they’re ALSO proof of LIFE!
So yeah…
My arrogant joke deriding Food Blogs has evolved into something unexpected.
It’s wholesome.
It’s substantive, in ways that transcend the literal substance.
It’s fun!
And — as long as people remain interested — it’s actually a great theme to build on.
It guarantees that I write at least one update per week for all of you lovely human beings who care.
:)
(If you want to help pay for part of my next coffee or meal)
JeThoreau@getalby.com
(For optional tips… NOT a functional email address, just FYI)
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