M Silas John Wesley - Best Moments Occur In The Least Expected Times (Food & Travel Blogger)

This journey and passion of mine is my part of telling the world about the stories of these flavours I encounter in my journey as a blogger/ Vlogger.

1. Tell us about your background and journey.  Also, when did you first decide that you wanted to be a vlogger and how did you start?

I am a Speech-Language Pathologist and Audiologist by profession and a Food and Travel Blogger by passion known commonly by my handle name The Vogue Traveller.

I started this journey on 15th July 2017 when was on a tour in Coutrallam (Tamil Nadu).

Food and Travelling as always been something important to me, and I have always believed that every food and the flavours in it has a story and cultural background waiting to be experienced and told to the world. 

 And this journey and passion of mine is my part of telling the world about the stories of these flavours I encounter in my journey as a blogger/ Vlogger.

This whole passion for food and travel was curiosity-driven, and that's how it started in the first place. And just when I started exploring and collecting all these experiences and keeping it to myself, I began to draw motivation and thoughts from one of my college senior (a friend) who was into blogging (Handle - The Yummy Fantasies). 

She was one of my biggest inspiration, to start this blogging. Seeing her blogs, it striked me - Why Keep all these experiences to myself? And that's when the blog page "The Vogue Traveller" came into existence. 

2. Do travellers like you stick to a strict schedule or go with a flow?

I travel and blog because it's my passion and it's not always schedule based, sometimes I do plan and have a schedule. But most the time it's about going with the flow and being open for new experiences. BEST moments occur in the least expected times.

3. Tell us one place that you would recommend to explore?

I consider myself a budding blogger, and I haven't yet been into much of travelling as much as I have been into food blogging and I have a lot of places which I wish to visit in future. But to point out some places I have already visited, I would recommend Singapore (an amazing place to experience the diverse culture, food and tourism) 

4. You do food blogging too, tell us your favourite cuisine and dish?

Being a food blogger, or generally itself you just can't have one favourite cuisine or dish. Same implies with me, I have been a fan and lover of many cuisines some of my favourites are Tandoori, American, European, French and Chettinadu in South Indian cuisine. And some of my favourite dishes are - Biryani, BBQ's, Burgers, Parotta's, Pizza's etc

5. Should food blogging be just a passion or can it become a regular career?

I feel it should food blogging should stay as a passion rather than a career. It is a debatable topic, but my personal view is that food blogging as a career is acceptable when the blogger can clearly distinguish between a blogger and an Influencer. 

They should be neutral and genuine in their feedbacks and should not promote a brand or food blindly just because they are getting paid.

6. Which restaurants/food joints would you recommend to food lovers?

I am based in Chennai, there are a lot of places and flavours to experience in #NammaChennai - for a food lover like me, some of my recommends in Chennai are :

American / continental/ Italian etc :

• Cafe de Paris
• That Madras place (pasta & sides)
• Madro cafe
• Kepabci
• Nolita
• The bark
• That mallu joint (Kerala cuisine)
• Nasi Kandhar Pelita (Malaysian - t Nagar)
• Kailash kitchen -Tibetan
• Naga Reju fast food (home delivery recommended - Nagaland cuisine)
• Rasavid - (Andhra style - Velacherry)
• Fromage - MRC Nagar
• Basil with twist - t Nagar
• The mayflower cafe - Gopala Puram
• East coast at madras square - ECR
• Kalos - Mahabs
• Toscano (KNK road - best Italian)
• Bread and chocolate (healthy food - must try)
• Nasi n mee (Singaporean)

Desserts :

• Sandy's
• Nolita (tiramisu)
• The chocolate heaven
• Cinnamon house
• It's waffle time (Anna Nagar - Shanthi colony)
• Fresh baked goodness (Alwarpet - take away only - theobroma cake etc)
• Antari - (Mexican coffee buns - Kilpauk)
• Kurtoshh - chimney cone dessert

Street foods :

• Alsa mall bread omelette (Balaji sandwich)
• Vijayarams coffee - (waffle cup coffee - t Nagar)
• Seena Bhai - sowcarpet
• Bombay lassi - mount road
• Chai waale - (lemon tea- Anna Nagar)
• Delhi tandoori chaap (Anna Nagar)
• Althaf food court (little mount - best shawarma)
• Sri vishalakshmi milk centre - (Paal sarbath - perambur)
• Ashok Anna Nalli Dosa Kadai - Roundtana (Anna Nagar)
• Ram's Tea House - Anna Nagar

Food streets:

• Kora food street (Anna Nagar)

7. What makes you appreciate a particular dish or a restaurant and talk about it on your blog?

First things first - the look, the food should look appetizing, next the aroma of the food and the taste in terms of flavour, the quality of the ingredients used and the method and the way of preparation of the food. These are the main things we see before recommending food or dish

When recommending a restaurant, a lot of other factors are considered like service, sufficient manpower, the ambience of the place (sometimes we recommend places that are not great in terms of ambience and cleanliness - but we would be recommending such places just for the Taste and quality of the food and also we would provide a disclaimer about the ambience before recommending it to somebody) and also how consistent is the restaurant in terms of taste and quality etc.

All my posts would be having my personal rating called the "F.A.S Rating " Which stands for Food - Ambience - Service, it is 5 point rating scale and I rate all the food and restaurants based on this criteria. I feel this helps and gives my followers an idea about the food and the restaurant before they visit it.


- M Silas John Wesley (Speech-Language Pathologist and Audiologist, Food and Travel Blogger)

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_vogue_traveller/

Interviewed By Akshaya Rathinavadivel