artificial intelligence | Big Little Meals

I’ve had some extra time lately and decided to play around with drawing instead of cooking. What do you think of my attempt to create a humorous rendition of our fat cat, Choco, and Wynn, our funny little Cardigan Corgi, hanging out together…in the style of Rodrigue’s Blue Dog? Art has never been my forte but it’s fun trying.

Obviously, I have a long way to go until I get as advanced as this amateur artist, Jason Allen, who won a 1st place prize for art at the Colorado State Fair last year.

“Théâtre D’opéra Spatial” by Jason Allen – winner of blue ribbon at Colorado State Fair for digital art

As you can guess, our blog takes a lot of time, so I’m enjoying this little break. Which reminds me…some friends of friends asked us recently whether it makes any sense to start a blog – especially when you’re well into your 70’s (or, in Andy’s case, almost 80!). Here’s an excerpt from our response:

Many popular food blogs are connected to social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Food bloggers are generally young adults between the ages of 18 and 30 years old. Preventing food poisoning is a primary concern for most food blogs. Additionally, many food blogs become more informative and educational as the author ages.

Not many bloggers are over 79 years old. The oldest known food blogger is 98-year-old Lella Aksutow from Kazakhstan. She started her blog at the age of 77 and now has over 1,000 subscribers on her channel. Food blogging can be a good hobby for people in their 80s and 90s. People in this age group tend to lose interest in things quickly, which makes food blogs a good way to stay active. Food blogs provide a good way for older people to stay active and find interest in new things without losing interest in them quickly. Additionally, food blogs can provide an avenue for older people to market themselves and launch new careers.

You’re onto me, aren’t you?! Everything above in bold and italics was generated by Smodin AI, which is similar to the more sophisticated ChatGPT, and which allows computers to respond to ordinary language. My lord it’s scary. FYI: ChatGPT’s parent company, OpenAI, is headed by Sam Altman, a 37-year-old Stanford grad.

Andy and I are both old (right!) teachers and can’t even fathom how the world of education will deal with all of this. Or the world of food. Or the world of art (see DALL-E 2, which I used for my “art,” or Midjourney, which Allen used for his Colorado State Fair entry and which Sondra Bernstein, owner of the popular Sonoma restaurant girl & the fig, uses. Her work is on display now at the restaurant).

Meanwhile, Andy in today’s Andy’s Corner throws down the gauntlet to AI over a breakfast burrito. It’s a battle you’ll not want to miss.

DALL-E 2 generated photo I asked for. See my next sentence 🙂

But let’s make hay while the sun shines. I’m still enjoying my free time, so I’ll just have ChatGPT tell you some ways you can be more efficient as far as cooking and meals – and manage to get some of that precious free time. I actually think the suggestions are helpful ones. Good goin’, AI!

And, really, why should I take the time to search for and experiment with recipes when ChatGPT can do it for me? You may remember from a much earlier blog that I’ve been on the look-out for years for the perfect Dan Dan Noodle recipe after enjoying them at Cafe China in NYC. I’ve probably made about 10 renditions – and none has been perfect.

First I asked ChatGPT for the recipe from the Cafe China and got this response: I’m sorry, but as a language model, I do not have access to specific recipes from specific restaurants. However, you can find many recipes for dan dan noodles online or in cookbooks.

So I followed up with “Can you give me a good recipe for Dan Dan noodles?”

In about 2 seconds I got this recipe back. Will it be more perfect than any I have worked so hard at finding? I’ll give you my thoughts at the conclusion of today’s blog.

Note: This is the first of 3 different recipes for Dan Dan Noodles that resulted by asking exactly the same question of ChatGPT…which has interesting implications for trying to determine if something is AI generated. So glad I’m not still teaching!

I wasn’t sure whether it was my expectations or the ChatGPT recipe that was at fault for my being very disappointed with the meal. So I consulted with Grace Young, better known as The StirFryGuru. We’ve known Grace since our daughter Sara and she became friends years ago. Grace has written 3 excellent cookbooks on Chinese cooking and is now all over the news (like here and here) for her work toward helping the Chinatowns of our country survive, for her James Beard Foundation’s 2022 Humanitarian of the Year award and the 2022 Julia Child Award for her dedication to preserving and sharing Chinese culinary traditions. Are you impressed? I surely am.

With Grace’s help – and by using up my free time searching for recipes – I tried yet again to make the perfect version of Dan Dan Noodles. You’ll find the result below.

When you, too, have a free moment, we think you should all try ChatGPT or one of its competitors. It’ll give you lots to think about. And maybe worry about. Or maybe even be excited about. And it’s a fun way to waste a little time. And then try making our Dan Dan Noodles!

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