By Burt Lum

The culture of food separates us from the animal kingdom. We humans are fascinated and fantasize about food.

We prepare food, cook food, serve food, write about food and have television shows about food. There are probably a million Web sites on the Net about food.

Perhaps because of its universal popularity, I haven't yet written about any food sites. Plus I'm an eater, not a preparer, and wouldn't be able to compete with the already established gaggle of food critics out there. But at a first Bytemarks brown bag, I got to meet Sun-Ki Chai, moderator of a food site called forums.egullet.com.

I am still trying to get over a food site named Egullet. To me, gullet rhymes with mullet and reminds me of gizzards and gristle. But we won't hold that against them. Maybe the Ecuisine domain was already taken.

So, while chatting with Sun-Ki, I was reminded that food is a topic that communities are built upon. Everyone has his or her favorite restaurant, and I've always got my ear peeled for the great hole-in-the-wall place that serves ono plate lunches, like Ethel's Grill in Kalihi. As it turns out, the forum is all about that and more.

The main forum page has a diverse assortment of food-related topics, from what NASA sends up with the astronauts to what food is in the media. Check out the forum for Hawai'i: forums.egullet.com/index.php?showforum=128.

Since Sun-Ki is here in Hawai'i, this is an unabashed plug for his efforts as moderator for the Hawai'i forum. He has single-handedly taken on the task of being the man on the street, reporting on the various food events around town.

He did a photo journal of the Japanese Cultural Center's recent 'Ohana Festival, Chinatown Festival and Korean Festival.

Visitors to the site, mostly from outside Hawai'i, probably drool over the pictures.

More importantly, this is a site where the rest of us in Hawai'i can share our favorite finds.

I want to know where your favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant is. ;-)

Burt Lum is one click away at www.brouhaha.net.