Noms for the ’Gram
From brunch to bistros, the Wellington food scene is rigorously documented on social media, with anything from festival cocktails to fried chicken laid out, photographed and filed online.
Kalliana Kong runs the Instagram account, @Wellingnoms. It covers the spectrum, from fine dining to the annual Wellington On A Plate festival.
Kong, with her friend and former workmate, Hannah Megennis, created the account in August 2015 as a way to spend more time together. Since then they have uploaded more than 2000 posts, and gained nearly 30,000 followers.
Reaching 10,000 followers in the first two years was daunting, Kong says.
“And it still is now, to see the number of people who engage on posts and see your stories.”
Kong works in communications at QEII National Trust, food blogging in her spare time.
Megennis moved to Australia a year and a half ago, leaving Kong to carry on solo.
Today, you can’t scroll an inch on social media without bumping into a food blog but, in 2015, the platform was just gaining momentum.
Wellington was bursting with cheap and cheerful places to eat, “and they’ve probably been there for as long as you can remember”.
She ate out two to four times a week, after work or on her lunch break, and was often invited to openings and menu launches.
Nothing was promised. “We make it clear that if we like it, we’ll do a post about it.”
It would be possible to quit work to concentrate on @Wellingnoms fulltime, she says, but she wouldn’t enjoy it as much if she relied on it for a pay cheque.
“I know that a lot of the perception of influencers and the influencer culture is that they hustle for as much money as they can get out of their brand, but I just can’t be bothered with that.”
Kong has kept her own face off the account for the most part. “I just focus on the food,” she says. “There are lots of lifestyle accounts out there, and that’s not me.”
There was the occasional negative message, but she had learnt to step away from those.
“I think one of the downfalls to not having me personality connected to the account is people forget there’s an actual person behind it.
“I would be lying if I said I never thought about throwing in the towel,” she says, but she and Megennis had made an agreement. “If it ever became unenjoyable, we would stop,” Kong says. “I still do it for the love of it.”
KALLIANA KONG’S PICKS
Cheap eats: Little Penang on Victoria St or The Terrace, Soul Shack on Dixon St, and Pizza Pomodoro on Leeds St. Special occasion: Shepherd on Eva St, Amok on Majoribanks St, and Jano Bistro on Willis St.
Local favourite: Baker Gramercy on Adelaide Rd, Berhampore.