Iain Ilich, Editor — Iain is a writer and editor based in Edmonton, Canada. His writing has appeared in newspapers across the country including the National Post, the Edmonton Journal and the Calgary Herald.
Iain has also written for magazines like Dose, Where, City Palate, The Tomato and This Magazine, and for popular men’s lifestyle website Askmen.com. He spent time as a restaurant critic at Vue Weekly, Edmonton’s independent arts weekly, where he learned to enjoy being paid money to eat things. He has also contributed nationally syndicated radio pieces to CBC Radio, the public broadcaster in Canada.
Iain is a member of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta.
—
So, what’s NEAROF?
NEAROF is all about the food you eat between the spectacular five-course meals other food writers obsess over. It’s a site that aims to review the food you actually eat and the kitchen gadgets you might find genuinely useful. We love good food, but we’re not snobs. We’d rather write about Skittles and cake pops than about how to make a perfect truffle-infused aioli.
This site started as an experiment back in 2010, largely as a way to learn by doing at a time when newspaper training budgets had ceased to exist. Since then, a lot has changed. A move to Calgary and then back to Edmonton, a child that demanded to be fed and changed and didn’t much care if that meant a drop in our posting new content, etc.
And still, even through the recent neglect, people kept visiting the site, posting comments, and asking us when new pieces would be going up. Thank you for sticking with us and for continuing to read what we write.
The posting frequency isn’t what it used to be. We treat the website as a hobby, as a tool to teach ourselves new things and as a way to give back to the Internet for all the hours of cat videos that it has given us.
We hope our enthusiasm for food is contagious, but not so contagious that it requires an ointment.
A Warning of Sorts
Three things:
- All the words and pictures on this website are copyrighted. Please don’t use them without our permission. You’re welcome to quote a paragraph on your blog, as long as you link back to the NEAROF story you’re quoting. Just don’t think that because you found one of our photos through a Google image search that you have the right to use it for commercial purposes. We don’t want to get all “karma” on you, but really, we all know stealing is wrong. Quote us and link to us, but don’t take our words and/or pictures and use them to earn money of your own.
- Don’t take everything you read on NEAROF to be the gospel truth. We’re human, and we make mistakes. Don’t base purchasing decisions solely on what you read here. Opinion is just that: opinion. We’re entitled to our opinions, and you’re entitled to yours. But we’re not responsible for you not liking the candy or kitchen appliance we said we loved.
- Please, eat responsibly. We mean it. Gooey, cheesy, gravy-soaked poutine is pretty incredible, but we know it’s a treat, not an everyday snack. We hope the site helps you discover new food that interests you, but know that NEAROF is part of a balanced diet.
Thanks again to everyone who has supported the site with clicks and comments. If you have any questions, get in touch.