Back in 2010 I wrote this particularly unhelpful letter to the Croydon Advertiser after reading yet another pointless review of another pointless restaurant:
Dear Editor,
The second review of South Croydon’s Apatura restaurant in this weeks advertiser was as glowing as the last that appeared less than three months ago. Meanwhile Patsy Payne has given a Beefeater and a Toby Carvery four star reviews. I understand the Advertisers budget may not extend to employing Giles Coren or Marina O’Laughlin but something other than this saccharine codswallop wouldn’t go a miss.
I have highlighted a problem, and now I wish to solve it. I am available to write restaurant reviews free of charge, I will even pay for my own meal. Hopefully I will be able to wittle together something more inspiring than an overview of JD Wetherspoons very nicely cooked and perfectly good value all day breakfast.
Croydon’s food scene is vibrant and exciting. It deserves better. The reviews in the Advertiser are not doing it justice. Please consider my offer, I would be happy to offer samples of my work.
I look forward to hearing from you,
A.R.Baggs
Unfortunately I received no reply.
The Croydon Advertiser obviously didn’t want their readers to be amused or informed. They just want a few extra quid from Kebab Kid in return for peddling their salt ridden battery farmed rat burgers.
Because they couldn’t be asked to put my thoughts in print in their newspaper I decided to let you read my thoughts on a blog.
5 years later and a lot has happened. I am more interested in eating than ever and I have had the pleasure of munching in some pretty amazing places. I’ve occasionally updated the blog with some flim flammery. And then, most recently, with some travel writing. The blog now carries food and travel writing, some published, some not. It may cover my holidays around the world, and the stories of the food I see and the people I meet. I hope you enjoy what is here, and what is to come.
Meanwhile for a more visual look at the Croydon Food Scene (yes, it exists) follow @eatscroydon on Instagram. That’s me, too.
Contact me at andrew.baggs (at) hotmail.co.uk
Unattended Baggage 
Just read your review of Kimchee (which is across the road from my office) and found it really helpful!
I’ve just moved from SW8 Battersea/Clapham to SE25 South Norwood (not by choice) and I am so delighted to have come across your blog.
My partner and I have been somewhat cautious about eating out in Croydon…its rather different from what we are used to.. so we often end up back on the old SW turf!
I’m subscribing to your blogg right now and eagerly awaiting more reviews in the Croydon area sothat we can start getting to know the nice places to eat!
Hey K,
Thanks for the comment, on the whole Croytown is a bit of a culinary wasteland, but hopefully I will discover some gems. If you haven’t already been to Le Cassoulet in South Croydon it is definitely worth a visit. I am about to write up my review – I rate it highly!
AR
Hi there,
I’m Ele, and I’m on the eCommerce team at Square Meal (squaremeal.co.uk). Whilst getting to know the Square Meal world and website, I’ve been looking at the input of bloggers, who link their personal blogs to restaurant pages on our website.
I’ve come across your blog and have really enjoyed reading about your foodie experiences. I’d like to invite you to link your blog to the Square Meal restaurant review.
For our users, it is so useful to have easy access to other diners’ experiences, to help them choose a dining venue. Including a link to your blog on our website will increase traffic to your blog.
The Square Meal website has over half a million visits and 2.5 million page-views each month, so there’s great potential for people to click through to your blog.
Linking is really easy. To add a blog review to Square Meal;
• Visit http://www.squaremeal.co.uk
• Search for the restaurant and visit its Square Meal page
• Click on the Blog reviews tab (where all blogs appear)
• Select Find out how
• Copy the HTML link of the Square Meal badge (we provide a few so choose which you prefer) and past it into your blog post. Please ensure that you do this in HTML view
The eCommerce team then approves the blog link and your review (and ability to link directly to your blog) will appear on Square Meal within the week.
It would be great if you would try out linking to us as we’re so excited about this feature.
If you have any questions or suggestions about the blog link or about how we can improve your experience, please do get in touch – via email (eleanor@squaremeal.co.uk), phone, Facebook or Twitter.
Best wishes
Ele