Are digital food trends actually good for you or just plain silly?

As far as the online food world is concerned, it's pretty much a truism that the self-congratulatory, tasteful universe of craft beer (still!), "farm to table" photo stories (was ever a term so misappropriated?) and everyone's last food holiday in Spain, is chronically nauseating.

For all who are sick and tired of the earnest, super-hip, trying-so-hard digital food life we're all being asked to lead, here's some stuff for light relief, some left-of-centre, some just plain silly.

Supersize vs Superskinny: For those who haven't followed its somehow perverse narrative, you can watch most seasons of this British food show on YouTube.

The premise is dubious, both philosophically and nutritionally. Getting skinny people to put on weight by adopting the nightmarishly unhealthy diet of the obese, and vice versa (when it's clear in most cases that therapy rather than more or less calories is required) is kinda creepy. Plus, it has the cheesy, cheap-shot novelty set-ups that mark all reality-type shows. And, so of course, it's addictive watching.

Off-piste food blogs and sites are thick on the ground, too. The girlmeetsbug blog, which I guess is pretty much self-explanatory, gives plenty of inspiration for bug cooking - some gross, some not.

Someoneatethis on tumblr celebrates cooking bugger-ups along with really bad flash-lit pics. It's deliciously, X-ratedly un-PC and hilarious.

But my favourite is still The Katering Show. Check it out on YouTube. I can't explain, just watch it.

WATCH the hilarious The Katering Show season 2 trailer

And if we're talking left-of-centre, then I have to include the following recipe. It's always met with disbelief, but please don't think it's some seat-of-the-pants fusion invention; it's a traditional dessert from Catalonia, where they use aubergine for both sweet and savoury applications.

HOW TO MAKE APPLE & AUBERGINE TARTE TATIN

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients: 

3 green apples (golden delicious or Granny Smith)

1 large or two small eggplants

100g butter

100g sugar

puff pastry large enough to cover 20cm pan

1 yolk

20cm oven-proof pan.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190c.

2. Peel and core apples and slice thinly. Peel and slice eggplant ditto.

3. Melt the butter in the pan, then add ¾ of the sugar and let it caramelise on medium heat, watching carefully. When sugar is golden-brown, remove from heat and arrange slices of eggplant and apple on top.

4. Dot remaining butter over the top and place in the oven for around 15 minutes. Remove, and spoon any syrupy juice from the pan base over the top layer.

5. Place pastry carefully on top, tucking into the edge. Brush with the yolk (or milk) and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

6. Place a plate over the pan and flip over so that the pastry forms the base. Don't worry, even if some pieces stick, just prise them off and relay them casually on top.

7. Eat immediately with thick cream or brie. 

• This article was originally published in The Times.