If you’re on Facebook too, why not become a fan of FoodIRL and recommend it to your friends? Then you don’t have to load up this crummy old website to see when there’s a new post; you can just obsessively reload your Facebook page to see an announcement from FoodIRL there! Progress certainly is grand, is it not?

On an unrelated note (but certainly under the category of “food in real life”), here is a picture of my dog eating a hot dog. As you can see, he is the world’s only vegetarian dog, opting to toss the meat and feast on the bread and relish.

I’ve been traveling, and what with the holidays and all, it’s been crazy around here. I need one more day to get some posts ready, so until then, please accept this video about food photography tricks that several readers have sent me.

I like how she did the fries! What was your most favorite part?

Who is spending more than $299 on candy? I want to party with that guy.

• Meals by Healthy Choice average a taste rating of 2.4, while meals from SmartOnes average 3.3.
• Meals containing cheese have gotten average looks and taste ratings of 3 and 3.14 respectively, while meals containing shrimp averaged higher scores of 3.8 and 4.1.
• Meals cooked on the stovetop have the highest taste rating of all cooking methods at 3.83, while meals cooked in the microwave have the lowest taste rating at 2.6.

Here are the complete lists of all of these aspects, including their average ratings:

• All Brands
• All Ingredients
• All Cooking Methods
• All Storage Methods
• All tags

Which rating surprises you most?

And just for fun, here’s an authentic Neapolitan pizza I had a few years ago in Sorrento, Italy:

My mouth is watering just looking at that picture.

It’s the Food In Real Life Taste Hall of Shame: A collection of all meals reviewed on Food In Real Life that have scored lower than 1 out of 5 in the taste department. It even doubles as a dieting aid, since you certainly won’t be hungry after reading it.

If you haven’t guessed by now what tomorrow’s announcement will be, ask for a hint from the reader to your left.

Well, I had already planned on doing that, so don’t think you got the jump on me or anything, but it’s finally ready: The Food In Real Life Hall of Shame: A list of every meal that has gotten 1 or fewer points in the looks department, automatically updated every day. (RSS feed here for you technologically advanced readers.)

I have a few other features up my sleeve that will be unveiled over the next few weeks. The first commenter to guess what any of them are wins a gold star!

This weekend, I added a reader rating system to the site so you can all participate in rating the appearances of the foods. (These extra ratings won’t replace mine; they’ll be in addition.) Here’s an example of what the rating widget looks like:

Since there’s no food in this post to rate, take a look at Saturday’s disgusting Hormel Compleats post for an example. Just click the “Rate This Food’s Looks” link and then click on whichever star you’d rate the food as. (If you’d rate it 3 out of 5, click on the 3rd star.) After you rate it, the page will refresh and show the new average rating for the food from all users.

What do you think of this feature? Can you think of any ways to make it better?

If so, then have I got a deal for you: The Food In Real Life Hall of Fame! Featuring only those meals that have earned a full 5 out of 5 score for their looks, so you can continue living in ignorant bliss.

There’s an RSS feed too, so those of you that prefer the confines of some homely feed reader to the beauty of this site can lie to yourself just as easily as the rest of us.

Update: I’ve had to turn on moderation for anonymous comments. You can thank the loser who is spamming the comments with “cheap airline ticket” links. Thanks a lot, guy.

If you notice any weirdness on the website, would you be so kind as to email me at food@foodirl.com so that I can fix it? I would be ever so grateful. Even if you don’t have any problems, I’d love it if you could just comment on this post so that I know you’re seeing these new postings.

And to keep this post on topic and not completely boring, here is a picture of what a microwave meatloaf looks like after cooking. (The full post with ratings and a review will be appearing sometime next week.)