Just annoy her by saying "too much butter in that" for every meal. Butter is a chef's cure all but they will never admit it.

Different strokes for different folks. Some people are really into food. Some aren't. I do actually find it interesting and occasionally helpful when people do the restaurant research for me. I have a couple of friends who are foodies - they try out a lot of places and report back, and sometimes what they say helps me to decide if I want to spend my own money there or not. Some of them have different tastes than I do, so their specific comments are helpful vs. just a general "this was good."

Going out to eat with them might be annoying, though. That said, I'd be more annoyed by the picky person who made a million substitutions to get the meal as healthy as possible, or who had a million questions because they have weird food issues. Life is too short for that.

13:46 - I think I must know you, because I know exactly who you are talking about.

LOL. She's like 10 years too late to this hobby.

Just make plans that don't involve food, OP.

Sounds like my friend, Mel.

Anonymous wrote:Stick to drinks or coffee?

How much time does she spend photographing her food? I'd think like a few seconds, right? And then, how much time talking about or dissecting the meal?

Just tell her that you want to spend time catching up with her and not talking about the food. You can frame it in a positive way ...."I am really excited to hear about...(your new project, boyfriend, hobby, etc) so it doesn't sound like you are super annoyed with her behavior.

I'm guessing you've never had a meal with a "foodie" like this. My MIL gets into this sometimes. It takes her like 10 min to property setup her plate, remove background distractions from the view of the camera, keep checking the picture on her phone to see if she got it just right, and the uploading & writing the post. Sometimes she wants to do this with other people's food or with shared dishes as well. We're all supposed to just sit there and not eat until she's done. SUPER annoying. And the food discussion can take up the ENTIRE meal.

I feel your pain, OP. If you really like her and want to continue the friendship you need to either avoid eating together or be upfront with her about this. If she can't recognize this behavior is annoying to you and try to curb it, I wonder how good of a friend she is. All relationships are about compromise. You can tolerate some food talk and photographing of food and she should be able to keep it to a minimum and not post or be on her phone until you've parted ways.

I would avoid hanging out with her at all costs.

Foodies are the worst. Totally crushes the dining experience. I don't want to take pictures of my food, I want to eat it.

Stick to drinks or coffee?

How much time does she spend photographing her food? I'd think like a few seconds, right? And then, how much time talking about or dissecting the meal?

Just tell her that you want to spend time catching up with her and not talking about the food. You can frame it in a positive way ...."I am really excited to hear about...(your new project, boyfriend, hobby, etc) so it doesn't sound like you are super annoyed with her behavior.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't you tell her, and not us? Not trying to be snarky. Let her know that this bothers you, but you enjoy meals with her. Then say something next time it happens.

Well, I'm afraid it will hurt her feelings. I have mulled over in my mind how to say it and really anyway I say it, her feelings are probably hurt.

I can't think of any way to say, "I know that you love talking about food, but I hate talking about food, so please don't." that won't result in hurt feelings. So your choices are:

1. Continue listening to her talk about food.
2. Avoid meeting her in any context that involves food (although even that might not work, if food is her hobby).
3. Tell her, and hope that the friendship is stronger than the hurt feelings.

I'm not a big fan of talking about food either, especially talking about food while we're eating, so I do understand your feelings here.

Honestly she sound like 90% of my friends (29 years old). Drives me insane. And they send food back often. It makes me hate going to dinner with them all, so we stick to happy hour.

I have one guy friend who tells me nonstop "I'm a food snob." DH and I laugh about it every time he says it. Makes him sound like he's a bad person.

The Food Network effect. Maybe she'll get over it and move on to other things soon.

So do other things with her. Or, if she's really a friend, you should be able to confess something like, "I'm not much of a foodie, so can we eat somewhere where we skip the photos and food blogging tonight, because I really love talking to you about all kinds of other things, and we don't get enough time for that when we do the foodie thing."

Anonymous wrote:Why don't you tell her, and not us? Not trying to be snarky. Let her know that this bothers you, but you enjoy meals with her. Then say something next time it happens.

Well, I'm afraid it will hurt her feelings. I have mulled over in my mind how to say it and really anyway I say it, her feelings are probably hurt.

She sounds insufferable.

Why don't you tell her, and not us? Not trying to be snarky. Let her know that this bothers you, but you enjoy meals with her. Then say something next time it happens.

I have a close friend who is a foodie.

Every dining out experience must be at a new, hip place. Every meal is dissected while eating and very often the food isn't really that amazing (according to her). Lots of taking photos of the food and posting on social media. (Am I the only person who finds these photos not terribly interesting? Or is mildly annoyed that dinner turns into a photo shoot?)

I get it, this is her hobby and she enjoys it. But it's kind of a buzzkill. Sometimes dinner is just dinner and you eat at the old standby or someplace conveniently located.

I'm beginning to almost dread planning dinner out with this friend.

I guess I'm venting. She's a good person and a long-time friend. So I wouldn't consider not being friends with her. I just need to deal, right? Or is there a tactful way to point out this is annoying?