Food, Film & Fotography.
I wanted to blog about the outing with my male nano-friends WW and QZ but let me first digress by talking about my new Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.8D (pictured below). This lens is a prime lens which means that you can't zoom it in or out, but you have to rely on your own two legs. A common question is that why is there a need for such things? Can't you get one which can zoom in and out? Well yeah, of course I can but one which is comparable would cost a bomb (a f/2.8 17-55mm lens costs more than $2K =P). Simple logic would show that when one lens can zoom while the other can't and both costs the same, the one which can zoom would certainly be inferior to a certain degree. This is the case here.
Anyway this lens costs only $180 and is probably the cheapest Nikkor lens you can buy new (please to note that $180 for a lens is cheap; $500 is a starting point for 'normal' lens). And what is the main selling point is that the minimum aperture is f/1.8! With such a 'fast' lens, you can create amazing bokeh effects (fast lens means one with large apertures, usually f/2.8 and below). There's also another one which goes down to f/1.4 but costs 2-3 times more. It's easy to see why this f/1.8 lens is so popular that most photographers just buy one of this just for fun. My existing lens only starts from f/3.5 onwards, so before this I haven't seen true creamy bokehs yet. Anyway this lens is just so addictive that I have it on most of the time now rather than my existing one which can zoom from 18-55mm. But there is a caveat though, the focal length of 50mm on a DSLR isn't very convenient. For a normal film SLR, a 50mm lens would be just nice, like what your eye sees. But on a DSLR, you need to multiply that number by 1.5 so effectively the focal length becomes 75mm which is a telephoto range. This means that the view would be quite 'zoomed' in, compared to a wide angle view.
Ok, enough digression. On to the main course. So the 3 of us met at Esplanade with the intention of shooting some photos after I knew that WW is also a photography buff. Anyway this was the first time I saw his equipment. Canon S2 IS with powerful 12x zoom. Man, I really like this feature. Sigh... too bad I already chose the dark side. WW has damn lot of photographic accessories. UV filter, polarizer, tripod, white balance filter, extension ring, wide angle converter, etc.
So when all of us arrived, we moved on directly to the top of Esplanade to do some shooting. Got this threesome of PRCs there, 1 guy and 2 foxy ladies then they ask us to help them take photos. Of coz WW went haha. Think they must be amused to see us with a load of pro photographic gear. Yeah but too bad I din get to snap a photo of WW and them coz QZ was trying to take a photo of me then. :p
Then we used WW's tripod to take a group photo of us which I don't think I shall post here la. As the sky was getting really dark and going to rain soon, so no choice we had to leave. Moved over to Cafe Cartel at Marina Sq coz Espla there nothing much liao.
Cafe Cartel. Time to chit chat tok cok. WW's goin off to Sweden so we need to 'send' him off lah with some chicken wings, which unfortunately turned out blurry (the photo I mean). It was really nice though, very crispy and well marinated. We had lotsa free flow bread though and the photo below nicely illustrates the bokeh effect. Notice how the blurriness increases the further away from the front plate of bread.
At the end we din stay too long. WW had to meet another group of friends at Brewerkz. Here's all the best to him!
Went to Miss Clarity Cafe along Purvis St with XQ and V on Wed for dinner. Along the way there couldnt resist taking a photo of the new National Library. Alas, I forgot I had the 50mm lens on and I could only capture the top of the building. -_-"
The place was still rather empty by the time we reached there. We ordered the set dinner which came with a choice of soup or salad, a main course, choice of jelly or bread and butter pudding and drinks. XQ and V had the pan-fried dory with potatoes while I had the sea bass which came with a cream based sauce and bacon bits (photo below). My sea bass was really delicious, I liked the sauce and bacon bits and the fish was fresh as far as I could tell. But the dory seemed to be not as warm as the girls wanted.
We also had the pumpkin soup and the bread and butter pudding. The soup was overly sweet and tasted like sweet potato instead. The dessert came slowly as at first they served us jelly which wasn't what we ordered. The pudding was nice as it came warm and drizzled with a creamy sauce. Later we realized that our portion each was actually about a quarter of the real thingy which they had for a ala-carte dessert. Anyway me and V had the lime juice and XQ hot tea.
After that we had fondue! BUT... my battery ran out of juice!!! Can't believe it this battery which lasted me days and days of shooting ran out at this crucial moment. So now no choice I've to use words to describe it. Firstly we ordered the small one which is meant for 2-3 persons. It came with marshmellows (tiny ones) and bananas, kiwis, strawberries, cantaloupes and pineapples. They say the chocolate used is Valrhona but seriously I didn't think it was that great. Fruits according to the girls were sour but I thought it was ok. Anyway the portion was really small but I guess for $10 I can't complain much. But after dinner I got a bit of a stomach upset though. Dunno which part of dinner which triggered it. The place was really packed by the time we left. Anyway here's XQ with her nearly finished potatoes with a oh-so-tiny side of chilli sauce.
Was in Chinatown lately with my family doing some pre-CNY shopping and for a breather we stopped at this famous chinese dessert shop along Temple St. Wah apparently the shop has expanded to the shophouse beside it as well. We ordered the yam cake, $2 I believe, which tasted really nice with the belachan chilli which wasn't too hot. Just nice for me. The yam cake is really ingredient-ful, unlike the ones u get commercially.
Of course, we had the desserts as well. For $3.50, the mango sago with pomelo is kinda ex. It also came with small ice chunks inside which makes eating it not a pleasant task. Marks off for that.
Then we moved on to the Smith St area and ah-hah! I found this stall which I wanted to try a long time ago liao. Guess what is this ang-moh selling in chinatown?
Ok actually not so surprising since I think he quite famous liao. Anyway he sells wieners lah. I ordered the mini one which comes in two, with some mustard (optional). I used to dislike mustard but hey I am ok with it now. Anyway I like the spicy one. Very tasty. Costs $3.50 I believe. Well worth it for the novelty since I don't come to chinatown that often.
Outside my PGP cluster.
F2, 1/125s, 50mm.
