Entries Tagged 'Food' ↓

Its been an exhausting week.

Ever tried cheerleading for 7 days in a row? Over the telephone?

Shake your pom poms! Rah! Rah! Rah!

Cheerleading during my time in school was really tame compared to the acrobatics that I see these days. I was never a cheerleader though and being optimistic in order to lift others out of the doldrums is just so taxing when you don’t exactly quite feel that way!

But all that cheerleading may yet pay off because I’m seeing some results. The clouds might yet lift for the sun to shine through!

Whew!

Since everything’s been dark and gloomy and silent here last week, let me showcase some pictures I’ve been taking:-

I have been playing around with my new Canon Ixus 860 in the past weeks. Its a nifty little thing and I’m really loving it. Dare I say my picture taking skills seem to be improving? I hope so!

I’m still taking mostly pictures of food (for Pink Parisian) and learning every day how to take a better food photo for the food blog. I spent the weekend reading loads of sites that offer tips on taking good food photography and am trying to put theory into practice. Its not easy and I’m so pleased that my whole family has accepted me as a food blogger!

We went out for dinner and when I whipped out my camera, my dear ol’ Dad actually stopped halfway to putting his chopsticks into his ramen, just so I could snap a picture of it! What would I do without the support of my family! Unfortunately for me, all the pictures turned out too dark and now that I have a proper camera, I am getting pickier about the pictures I put up online of my food.

There is no more excuse for me to put up mediocre or crappy dark, out of focus pictures online when I know that with a bit of practice and patience I can actually have some proper drool-worthy photos. Yes, I’m turning into a perfectionist. My Canon might be a simple little point and shoot, but it is good enough for me (I’m not yet in the league of the food bloggers with SLR cameras) for now. Its also rekindled my interest in photography so yay! Something new to learn!

Anyway, here are some stuff I learnt about food photography over the weekend that I’m sure will help those of you who are also into writing about food:-

• The Macro setting on the camera is your best friend. It allows you to get right up close to your food and still keep it in focus.
• Natural lighting is best. Not direct sunlight though, just enough sunlight to cast some natural light on the food.
• No Flash at any cost. Using the flash washes out the colours and texture of the food and makes it look too stark and unappetizing.

Not much to my surprise, these tips work well if you are taking photos of beauty products too as I have been for my beauty reviews site. So there is a co-relation between food and beauty after all!

The Canon Ixus 860 has a huge LCD screen but no viewfinder. It doesn’t bug me but it seems to bug some people based on some online reviews. I find the focus good and it performs decently enough under low light conditions which was the prime reason I chose this Canon over the Panasonic Lumix. Being a food blogger (reviewer) too, I have to have a camera that works in low light because most restaurants keep their lights low.

I’m worried about the flimsy cover for the AV/USB output as it feels and looks like it could break at any second so I’m extra careful with it. The battery cover too is rather flimsy. I found battery life decent. A full charge lasted me about a week without having to recharge. However I only took about 5-8 photos a day without flash so that has to be taken into consideration.

All in all, I’m loving this little Ixus 860. Its a decent point and shoot camera and I think I’ll just stick to Canon for cameras from now on because I can use the same USB cable as with the old Canon I had which gives me more mobility!

I hope everyone had a good weekend too and thank you all for your kind support over the last week!

One day late, but here I am, wishing all mommy bloggers who read my blog a Happy Mother’s Day!

We don’t make a big deal of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day in our family. We happen to be averse to crowds so we usually have our celebration dinner a week or two in advance. Last week, Mom had her do at her favourite Korean restaurant where we stuffed ourselves to the gills.

So, this week, on the actual Mother’s Day, we decided to keep dinner simple… well relatively so.

There was starter of fried black pepper prawns served with potato wedges.

Main entree was a medium rare grilled rib-eye steak marinated in black pepper and stout and served with a green salad and pasta.

And for dessert, we had a freshly baked cheesecake that everyone seemed to enjoy. The fact my Dad actually had a double helping and proclaimed it was “Not too sweet” despite my protests, told me it was a bit of a success!

I’m happy to report that my Mom and everyone else enjoyed the food tremendously, and we loved the idea of dining at home where we could sit around in comfort without having the hassle of driving around looking for parking and squashing with legions of other diners, and then taking out the bit of plastic to swipe an astronomical amount for sub-standard set menu food.

Besides, dining at home was also relatively cheap! I think I’m going to have to do something similar when Father’s Day comes around.

Yours fluffily

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake
Baker’s man,
Bake me a cake as fast as you can…

On Friday, I announced that I was going to bake a cake.

I dithered and hmmed and hawed over whether to actually do it, but in the end, I decided to bite the bullet and bake me my first cake ever. So, Saturday morning saw me driving around getting my ingredients (there are actually 7-11 stores that don’t sell eggs! And I don’t know how Mydin stays in business - they have nothing) and by 12pm after a hurried lunch I was ready to start.

Now, my friends, this was not just any cake. It was supposed to be a black forest cake. Yes, I’m ambitious - sue me!

About 40 minutes after throwing the cake batter into the oven, I knew something wasn’t right because I smelt a burning smell. The cake was a chocolate sponge mix but I knew chocolate did not smell like something burning. And yet, I remembered my mom’s reminder to NEVER OPEN THE OVEN DOOR WHEN BAKING A CAKE OR IT’LL COLLAPSE.

So, I peered at the cake through the glass, bit my fingernails and finally, could stand it no longer. So I opened the oven door and this was what greeted my horrified eyes. Continue reading →

I opted to work from home today. The office poses too many distractions and I always find that I get more done working at home than I do at the office.

However, working from home has its perils and distractions too. Here are the perils I faced :-

Lunch - prepacked sushi I’d bought last night

Snack Time - Marks & Spencer crisps (yum!) and dried cranberries

Dinner - or will be at any rate - Grilled Ham Sandwich

Oh me oh my! On the plus side, I’m getting my work done. On the minus side, its time to watch the waistband!

Happy weekend everyone!

Yours fluffily

Following on from my fun with blogging yesterday, I’m happy to report that I did finally meet fellow blogger Pablopabla (who has professed secret ambitions of being a chef! And I have no doubt that he will be a good one too!) over a very Malaysian breakfast of roti canai and nescafe/milo.

The thing about meeting someone you have only ever joked with and communicated with online is that you build up this image in your head of how they are, how they look, how they should behave… and then you meet them in the flesh…

… and in this case, found that it was all true!

Pablo is truly pleasant, friendly and helpful and we spent a happy hour or so talking about blogging (a fount of information he is!!) and other more humdrum stuff. I’m eternally grateful for the fact that he did not once call me “Paris”!

Then, I got into work and found a very helpful email from LB whom I had contacted about some wordpress stuff. It was a case of “Elementary my dear Watson” and some time shifting, but something I’d never even thought about!

So blogging is fun and you do learn something new everyday!

On an unrelated note, it is 3.30pm and I’m suddenly craving for Sarawak Kolo Mee.

DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!