My Utah Week and the Pinterest Recipe Mess
Mountain meetups, SLC foodie spots, and why ten-minute croissants are ruining our feeds
Utah in June surprised me. Two days at the gorgeous Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City began with focused morning sessions in a ballroom-sized space, then rolled into early dinners and long evenings. Picture a lounge filled with oversized chairs, soft lamplight, and a circle of blogger friends chatting over a cup of hot chamomile tea served with a lemon wedge and a pot of honey until midnight. That is easily my favorite kind of “networking.”
It was my first time in Park City, and the scenery took my breath away; I would love to return during ski season.
With the mountain portion wrapped up, I spent the next two days in Salt Lake City searching for fun foodie spots. Here are the stops I managed to fit in:
Oquirrh - I had mussels and milk braised potatoes for apps, followed by pea and asparagus pasta topped with lemon ricotta and pine nuts
Loki Café - Cozy coffee shop, I ordered a latte with their signature house coffee blend
Baby’s Bagels (with Lady Flour baked goods) - I tried the olive oil cake with passion fruit icing.
Sugar House Coffee - I ordered a Mayan mocha without the vanilla, not bad, but the cayenne was a little overpowering
Monkey Wrench - I had the key lime pie ice cream, it was good!
Whole Foods cookie bar - because we don’t have this in the UK! We have a Whole Foods, but no Cookie Bar :(
Granny’s Drive-In in Midway - I got the raspberry shake, and we shared a portion of fries just for the fry sauce! If you’d like to make your own, here’s my recipe!
Swig, a drive-through visit for the sugar cookie. It is tasty, but my version is honestly so much better. Taste and compare: Recipe here.
Downtown Farmers Market at Pioneer Park this morning - LOVED the apple cider donuts, and I had to buy an apple strudel, it looked really good!
Caputo’s Market & Deli - I heard good things about their hot pastrami sandwich, so I had to try it. Delicious!
Nights in the city finished at the Grand America Hotel, where a late swim in the indoor pool set me up nicely for live music in the lounge.
Now for the rant.
Pinterest is drowning in AI recipe spam that promises ten-minute croissants and brownies made of thin air. No filter I try gets rid of it. If you did not know about this, or did not notice any AI-generated fake recipes, here’s an example that I thought I’d share:
Why does this matter? Because these fake pins waste your time, your grocery budget, and perfectly good ingredients, and they crowd out real, tested recipes from people who actually cook. If your searches look clean, take a peek at the screenshot I shared, you’ll spot titles and site names so absurd they read like a bot’s daydream. I haven’t found a filter that keeps the junk away, so if you know a trick that works, please share.
Anyway, next up in my kitchen is an olive-oil cake inspired by the one I had in SLC, along with a quick guide on spotting both AI and real recipes in the algorithm fog on Facebook. If you have Salt Lake favorites I missed, or Pinterest survival tips, hit reply. I read every comment.