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online. Can't find decent flour to make bread? Find it online and order it. Need verjuice or pomegranate molasses and the supermarket doesn't have it? Reach for the keyboard. Nobody's done any surveys to find out whether more foodies or non-foodies order their groceries online, but it wouldn't be hard to guess - get the basics delivered and spend your time searching out the fun stuff and creating memorable meals.

Foodies track down cooking tools and appliances online. Have a whim to make sausages? The Internet can offer you the widest choice of manual and electric sausage-making machines, casings, spices - and of course, recipes.

Foodies research restaurants in the cities they are travelling to. While a self-catering apartment would be so much better than a hotel room, because you can buy and cook with local ingredients - there are times when a restaurant is needed. Of course, you'd first check with your online community for recommendations, but after that, it's a matter of finding places and poring through the menus. It's not always satisfactory, as restaurants have failed to embrace the Internet the way that foodies have.

And foodies have embraced the Internet. At 84, Beth navigated the technological waters of computers so that she could "talk food" with an online community, and bemoan that she no longer had crowds to cook for. Who would have met Beth and her love of fine cooking any other way? What else would have brought her onto the Internet but a passion for food?

The Internet makes it easy to share, even with complete strangers. And food has always been about sharing. Foodie strangers rapidly become foodie friends. Being a foodie is no longer a lonely affair. Now, when friends and family start queuing for the free-range chicken, the food talk has already taken place. The chicken will be brined. All that's left, is to enjoy the kudos and tell your online friends about the meal afterward.

Learn more about this author, Janet Pieterse.
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