Food, Film & Fotography

Sushi Kikuzawa

2007-06-10T20:17:00.000+08:00

After being inspired by Camemberu, DT and I was looking forward to gorging ourselves at this tiny sushi bar in International Building which offers ala-carte sushi buffet. Asked the rest of the ASSes but they chickened out. So in the end only the both of us plus WWh made it there for dinner.

The place was really tiny with only 12(?) counter seats (a hallmark of authenticity) though the staff there seems to be from the motherland. Hmmm...

Anyway we got ourselves seated and never looked back. First came some edamame, some stewed oden/chicken and a small bowl of delicious stewed pork.

Sashimi was next, with this being the only dish where you only get 1 shot at. The fish was reasonably fresh, though as expected the tuna wasn't anything to shout about. It's damn hard to get proper tuna in this part of the world. The white fish sashimi is interestingly called leather jacket...

Before we could finish polishing off the sashimi, the sushi started coming fast and furiously. The way they serve is more like omakase where the chef will just continuously serve you the freshest produce of the day (though in this case it could be the cheapest produce out of their selection :P). Oh yeah forgot to add that o-toro sushi is not part of the sushi buffet and if ordered separately costs $20 for two pieces. And before we got onto the sushi, the only other customers in the shop left, leaving the 3 musketeers (or stooges) to enjoy the sole attention of the chef.

The sushi itself was really good for this price level. What impressed me more was that they have aburi style sushi here, i.e. using a blowtorch or a light-sabre, whichever is more convenient, to sear the fish. The aburi shake is the 3rd sushi from the left pictured above. My first experience with this style was at a sushi bar at Tsukiji. An old lady there politely requested for aburi toro and the chef's eyes lighted up. He then proceeded to take out his blowtorch (no, not THAT blowtorch) and prepared the semi-cooked sushi for her. From then on, I know how to impress a sushi master with my vocab. :P Aburi!

Chawanmushi came not long after. I suspect that they steamed it upon ordering as it took a while to arrive after we ordered it.

A shot of the chef torching a squid sushi.

Hedgehog sushi. Tasted pretty interesting.

All in all we had at least 15 sushi each (out of 35 possible choices) plus a negitoro handroll. There were many other choices in the menu which we could order such as donburi, ochazuke, cold tofu, salad, etc. but we didn't. I must say though that the aburi shake tasted really good and would come back again just for this. To round up our meal we had fruit pudding, which was more like jelly. It was really wobbly and was a good end to the meal. Total damage inflicted on us was $46 per person incld taxes.

MGM Cafe (or Disco?)

2007-06-09T08:47:00.000+08:00

Popped over here to meet M and his Viet fren A after lunch.

Amazing.

A cafe which plays House, R&B and ppl dressed to kill (in fishnets no less)? Only in Ho Chi Minh City.

Think the concept is really cool. It's in a bungalow building where the first two floors is a cafe in the day time while the upper floors is a club at night. As A says, ppl come here to be seen. Cool concept. Will it work in SG?

Tom Ton @ Central

2007-05-27T18:48:00.000+08:00

Popped over to Central with SW before heading out for drinks after that. Wanted to eat the Marutama ramen but unfortunately the queue was so damn long. No choice had to look for alternatives. Tom Ton serves middle-priced Jap food and they specialize in black pork (kurobuta) tonkatsu.

SW had the shio kurobuta tonkatsu while I had a grilled kurobuta set (pictured). The batter on the tonkatsu (not pictured) is really light and crispy. Hallmarks of authenticity. My pork was marinated with miso, hence a tad salty but the meat was good. Juicy and fatty.

Anyway saw a lot of tables ordering the shabu-shabu set, which the waitress urged us to try next time. Looks good but unfortunately no tabenomihodai option. Hehe...

More Birds, More Luck

2007-05-07T23:17:00.000+08:00

Couldn't resist posting this iconic shot taken in Ho Chi Minh City recently.

Visa anyone? ;)

Donut Mania

2007-05-05T13:45:00.000+08:00

An automated (Jap?) donut machine found in the basement of Central. Pretty cool to watch the contraption at work.

Unless you've been living in a HDB bomb shelter for the last few months, you would surely have heard of the infamously long queue at Donut Factory (basement of Raffles City). Yet another food craze in our sunny island? From my observation, previous crazes such as bubble tea and roti boy died down becoz they expanded their outlets fairly rapidly. The forbidden fruit once commoditized is worthless. There lies the ingenuity of Donut Factory. They have sticked to just having a single branch at a relatively high human traffic area. Sure, there are other donuts places around but donuts are rather distinctive and not as replicable in taste like bubble tea, for instance.

Donut mania?

Krispy Kremes have been all the rage for S'poreans when they go to places like Australia, often bringing back boxes of it. Never tried it before but the hype definitely makes me want to try it if I have a chance. They opened in Tokyo recently, around the Takashimaya Times Square building, and the queues are horrendous as well. Hmmm... and I thot Mr Donut has the best donuts. We shall see.

Wagyu from Aston's

2007-04-14T21:55:00.000+08:00

Was at Aston's with some of the ASSociatES about a month or so ago to sample the fabulous wagyu. Aston's is a small restaurant over at Katong where they sell western food at reasonable prices. But the main reason why ppl queue over an hour there during peak periods is to try their wagyu beef which they offer at the lowest price in Singapore (short of cooking it yourself that is).

Several of us had the 300g grade 5 wagyu ribeye (pictured above) while the rest chickened out and had the normal Australian ribeye (you know who you are!). Aston's strongly recommends it to be done medium-rare so as not to burn away all the fabulous fat. Interestingly it was just a coupla years ago that I only eat steaks well-done. Oh and the steak comes with a choice of 2 sides. Nothing to shout about in that aspect.

Anyway back to the steak. Wagyu, for the uninitiated, is Japanese species cow bred outside Japan. Over here, most of them come from Australia. That day they also had the grade 9 wagyu which costs more than double the grade 5 version. Needless to say all of us had no balls to order that. Tastewise, wagyu is incredibly oily, in a good way of course. Lol... It has that kind of delicate oily fragrance similar to what you get in otoro (fatty tuna belly) which of course is similarly extravagant. Zoomberg mentioned that it tasted like Sio Bak (fatty roast pork). Regardless, wagyu is definitely a must-try; once in a lifetime at least. It's different enough from the usual beef. Now my interest is piqued on the grade 9. I might even head down there one day to try it. Hehe... ;)

p.s. Thanks to DT for taking this photo.

天灰 (S.H.E.)

2007-02-05T23:12:00.000+08:00

如果你不再出現我的世界還有什麼可貴
可惜不夠時間讓我們試驗什麼叫永遠
想念變成懷念心動變成心碎
偏偏還會關切你最後屬於誰
我的天空今天有點灰
我的心是個落葉的季節
我不知道如何度過今夜
所有的燈早已經全都熄滅

如果你從沒出現我會不會覺得快樂一些
可惜殘忍時間總要把諾言一點點摧毀

8th Singapore Motorshow (Part 3/3)

2006-11-23T01:21:00.000+08:00

Unfortunately, as expected, not all the models were around during weekday nights. So this warranted me to extend another trip there on Fri night. Armed with the experience from the previous two visits, I was ready to shoot shoot shoot!

Indeed I wasn't disappointed. There were more models this time around which I did not see during the past two visits.

A model next door.

My fave amongst the Toyota models.

Mazda models:

Very pretty. 17 years old! Can I ask you out?

She got character.

Nice and sharp.

New Nissan model. DT's fave.

Windbreaker too bulky liao.

Yum!

Killer in Suntec City. Unintended effect turned out interesting!

Clean and postcardy shot.

Lexus models series again:

AH! Cute! L for LEXUS!

In dreamland...

Pot of Gold found at Lexus section!!!

And finally...

My best shot. Makes all the money spent worth it.

That's all for this year's motorshow. See ya next time!

8th Singapore Motorshow (Part 2/3)

2006-11-21T00:56:00.000+08:00

So on my next trip on Wed, I brought my new Lightsphere Cloud along plus my 50mm. Most shots are done wide open at f1.8 and max ISO400. Shooting targets this time is predominantly models.

Lessons learnt:

Although Lightsphere creates a soft and warm lighting effect, it is still possible to get hotspots on the models' faces. However, flash shooting quality improved tremendously!
Prime lenses are really sharp!

As an example take a look at this:

It's obvious which one is the superior photo. The left is made with bounce flash with a diffuser cap on the previous trip. Lighting is harsh, nasty white patches on the face and ugly shadows. The one of the right is taken with a Lightsphere Cloud on my flash and the result is stunning. Warm natural colors and the background is lighted up nicely. Now I know how William got those nicely flashed photos during the USP FOW D&D last time.

The models on that day were pretty much the same as on Monday with some glaring omissions like Jamie from Mitsuoka section. But armed with my new toy, I had to reshoot all the models there.

This shot totally out of the blue. Was standing around him and he suddenly motioned me to take photo of him and this kid. Turned out really well!

Often see her photo in Clubsnap forum.

CY's junior from Fairfield. Apparently only 20 or younger!

Another angmoh model from Alfa Romeo.

Very nice to pose for me even though she's not a car model. Thanks!

Audio models. Very game to pose. Thanks gals!

Nissan model. Nothing to comment on.

Ditto.

My fave Subaru model again. Hehe...

Ooops her again. This time with soft focus.

Eh?? Where did this come from? Lol...

Finally the Lexus models:

Very very tall.

Filipino.

Very sisterly pair.

Good eye contact from Andrea.

Icy stare! *Shivers*

Cheeeeky grin from Mirei! Looks like Lexus has not spare any expense to get quality models this time.

Truth be told it has always been my aspiration to take such nice photos of motorshow models. It all started years ago when I brought my Canon Ixus V3 point-and-shoot digicam to a motorshow at Singapore Expo. Most of my shots were either blurry/noisy or harsh when I used the built-in flash. Then I saw some photos which people posted in the Clubsnap forum of the same event. They were super sharp, colorful and stunning. It has taken a while since then for me to own a DSLR and the equipment to take such shots. Finally I did it.

To be continued...

8th Singapore Motorshow (Part 1/3)

2006-11-19T10:17:00.000+08:00

Was at the 8th Singapore Motorshow at Suntec for 3 nights, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 7pm to about 9pm+. That's not crazy. Got people in the Clubsnap forum who goes there almost everyday! Those usual suspects la, even the models know them liao. Eat finish, too free nothing to do (them, not me). Haha... OK actually it makes sense la. Motorshow costs $10 and you can shoot so many models for all you want. For organized model shoots, it costs at least $50 for 3 hours? Ok you do get the attention of the models for that la. OH well...

The first trip was to recon the place. Took an almost equal mix of cars and models with an equal usage of my 18-55mm and 50mm both with and without my SB-800 flash with diffuser.

Lessons learnt:

ISO800 is too noisy esp without flash!
Flash was rather harsh even with diffuser!
Hand shake + slow shutter = blurry shots!

Ok photos now. Cars first:

Toyota F1 car.

Jenson Button's Honda F1 Car.

Look's like a custom Porsche. Not too sure since I don't really like Porsche.

Flaming Lamborghini.

This one oso dunno wat model. Anyway I don't like Lambos either because they are damn angular. Give me Ferrari anyday.

Ferrari's F1 nose. I like this shot!

Another artistic Ferrari shot.

The Fiorano. Panned by critics for its uninspiring design.

Fiorano's backside.

Ferrari F430. I prefer this to the F599 Fiorano. Looks big here but in reality Ferraris are very petite.

Interesting angle of the F430.

Ok enough cars. Time for the real stuff.

Yeap, good eye contact.

James Bond pose. Very funny, haha.

My fave Subaru model. She looks very familiar. Maybe seen her in adverts or something before.

Doe-eyed look popular amongst the teenage boys.

The Suzuki Sisters!

Mitsuoka model. Only saw her on Monday.

Seems like her name is Jamie. Another head-turner at the Mitsuoka section. Only saw her on Monday as well. Damn...

Foreign talent from motherland.

Toyota models from Jeffrey Chung Models. Darkened the photo with vignette.

Pure white Nissan models. Darkened the photo with vignette for an edgier look.

One of the 3 angmohs at the motorshow. All from the Alfa Romeo section. Added some noise to create a gritty look.

Best photo leave till the end. Foreign talent from Jap and local Andrea at the Lexus section. Added some soft focus to create dreamy effect.

To be continued...

Da Paolo Bistro Bar

2006-11-18T11:14:00.000+08:00

Went down to Da Paolo Bistro Bar at Rochester Park on a nice Friday night with CY several weeks ago. This was my second visit. Made a reservation and was pleasantly surprised to be identified by name when we reached.

CY started the night with a cocktail (something with lime and brown sugar) while I had prosecco.

We shared a plate of crayfish linguine in tomato-based sauce as our starter, which I conveniently forgot to take photo of. The crayfish and pasta were delicious though expectedly the crayfish portion was kinda small.

For the main course CY had an excellent rack of lamb,

while I had an even more sublime rack of veal with porcini sauce. Sorry it was so good that I only remembered to take photo after the first bite. Seriously the meat was so tender and flavorful I contemplated ordering another portion. Fortunately the prohibitively expensive price saved me from doing so.

After that we had panna cotta, which was very creamy and a glass of dessert wine for me. Sweet tidings to end the meal.

The menu at this branch is is rather small with the main courses comprising of about 3 pasta and 3 meat dishs and maybe 1-2 seafood. But they do have the standard starters as well as a soup and a special of the day. It was trout on that day.

Overall, service was excellent. Food was great and company was fantastic. Remind me why the Da Paolo group has always been my favourite restaurants in SG.

Delicious Meal

2006-11-04T23:07:00.000+08:00

Very delicious Long John Silver served on the MRT. West bound train.

Foodie Reviews Update

2006-09-20T17:14:00.000+08:00

Ya... it's not a Saturday but sure feels like one to me.

Cafe Rosso
Went with KQ for breakfast on a nice Saturday morning. Crowd there was predominantly caucasian. I ordered the Tuscan set and KQ ordered the bacon, scrambled eggs and toast set. The set comes with juice; I had cranberry while KQ had lime (note the matching colors hehe):

Coffee/tea; KQ had iced tea while I had iced coffee (initially I thot it's their famous iced coffee with ice cubes made from coffee but later I realized that costs extra :P). You can see how many glasses our table has by now:

And finally this is KQ's set with the bacon hidden (no, she couldnt finish the whole thing):

And this is mine, with toast, scrambled eggs and 2 types of sausages and some cubed tomatoes:

All-in-all service was good and the food was yummy, esp the scrambled eggs. Really creamy and lived up to the all the hype I heard about it. The Japs really know their stuff... and their prices as well. :P Saw in the menu that they have lotsa nice lunch dishes as well. Will be makin a return trip soon!

Hog's Breath Cafe
After seeing the queue at NY NY, me and CY popped down to this place at Chijmes. I've heard good things about their steaks and I have 15% off there, so y not? They also have 20% off if you order before 7pm but we arrived after that. Anyway I had a mug of Heineken to start things off since it was happy hour. We ordered potato skins and a mega cut (400g) of their Blackened Prime Ribs. The potato skins came with some potatoes and bacon, sour cream, etc., so it's not just skins. The prime ribs here are different from Lawry's. At Lawry's the meat is basically roast beef. Here, the roast beef is broiled right before serving. So it kinda becomes similar to a steak. The normal cut is 300g but we ordered the mega cut because we were sharing. We had it medium but the meat seems to be more like medium-rare and rather bloody. But it was tender, that's for sure. They have several ways of serving the meat. The blackened style we chose was slightly spicy. They have other stuff like avocado sauce, BBQ sauce etc. as well. To accompany the meat, we chose hog tail fries (basically curly fries) and salad. Surprisingly we could finish everything and not feel extremely bloated. In fact, I might be able to finish the whole 400g myself if I hadn't had the potatoes! All-in-all a decent place to get some beef, esp if you come before 7pm.

Nan Xiang
This is a new restaurant in Bugis Junction (around Billy Bombers that area) which has surprisingly opened without any fanfare considering that it's supposed to be a famous Xiao Long Bao (XLB) place in Shanghai and has branches in Tokyo, HK, etc. Anyway it was KQ who introed this to me after having been there with her family.

After the not so delicious meal at Din Tai Fung (DTF) previously, I of course was eager to sample the XLBs here. So one fine evening, before catching the Banquet, which ironically had nothing to do with food, me and CY patronised this place.

We had chilled boiled chicken which was so-so. A basket of normal XLB which was decent enough. A crab meat mixed with pork XLB which I felt was pretty good but CY said it tasted weird. Yang Zhou fried rice which came in a larger portion than DTF but the prawns were chopped into smaller pieces. And finally a dish not commonly seen here. A tennis ball sized XLB which has a straw poking out of it and inside is soup, crab roe and some crab meat. Frankly, drinking hot soup using a straw is not such a good idea. Your tongue is sure to get scalded unless you wait very long and by then the soup not v nice anymore. And that bao is quite ex at $6.80 a pop, so I dont think its worth it. Mabbe just once for the novelty is enuff. Oh but I like the fact that they serve tea by using a small pot and proper tea cups.

Overall the food is decent. Probably better than DTF but would be a close fight with Crystal Jade. However the service there is really good. While I was filling up a lucky draw form with one hand (my other hand was holding to my wallet), the cashier actually helped me press down the form which was flapping. Then a waiter brought a chair over for me to put my laptop bag. And all this happened at the cashier counter!

Ok, that's it for now. More photos next time when I've a camera phone!

Investments

2006-08-27T11:51:00.000+08:00

No, I don't work in a bank.

For some idea on what I do for a living, check these out:

A mass-market book about the rise and fall of a particular fund management firm.

A textbook which covers most of the theoretical stuff on what I do.

News

2006-07-24T20:57:00.000+08:00

Updates from now on will be on Saturdays, if at all.

Biei - Asahikawa - Sapporo (Part 2)

2006-07-19T10:37:00.000+08:00

Continuing from the previous post...

Inside the greenhouse.

My first experience in seeing real lavender in bloom.

View outside the greenhouse. That's the main building of Farm Tomita.

Actually there were some other flowers as well in the greenhouse but obviously the stars of the show were the lavenders. There were several gift shops there as well (duh...). Wah they even sell lavenders in pots! Not too expensive though, but a bit crazy to lug that pot around when we still had more than a wk to travel. Anyway, yeah lots and lots of lavender merchandise. They even had rankings on which is the most popular souvenirs. :P

After Farm Tomita we realized it was really late and couldn't afford the time to visit other places anymore. If it was summer, I am sure we could easily spend the entire day there. So we drove back to Biei to return our car. This time around we were smarter and pumped our fuel maybe 20km before we returned the car. Funny thing happened at the petrol station. We couldn't find the lever to open the fuel inlet! After some fumbling around (in embarrassment), it was found situated beside the handbrake. -_-" I am sure the attendants had a good laugh. Anyway later on I dropped our stuff and KS at the Biei JR station and I drove the car back to return. Bought a drink as we were waiting for the train to arrive. At this point, our luggage was reaching worrying weight and the tissue I stuffed into my shoes to ease the blister didn't help much.

Plum soda which tastes like umeshu with soda but without the punch.

Reached Asahikawa soon after and with our JR pass we could reserve Reserved Seats for our ride to Sapporo. Reserved seats are obviously seats which you reserve. Without the JR pass, it would cost extra to reserve them over the original ticket price. Other than the fact that they guarantee you seats on a packed train, the seats were also more spacious and had more leg room. But later as we found out, the train was rather empty, though the reserved section seemed rather full. We didn't had time for a proper meal so we bought bentos to eat on the train. Initially I didn't want to eat because of the buffet later at night, but wat the heck la. KS's bento looked good and because of peer pressure I bought a bento too. :P

Bento boxes bought just before the train ride. Left: KS's fried meat gunboat sushi. Right: My assorted sushi. Both about Y500.

The train ride was smooth enough, with pretty attendants pushing carts of food for sale occasionally. The amusing thing was that once they reach the end of the carriage, they will face in our direction and make a small bow before leaving the carriage. Hehe...

Several hours later we finally reached Sapporo. Our first touch with a modern city after several days in the wilderness. Made our way to the Toyoko Inn beside the ANA Hotel. Had some difficulty in finding it because it was situated in an alley! This was our first Toyoko for this trip and it was pretty good! Prices were cheap and there was additional discount due to the low season. The twin room was interestingly divided into 2 sections with a toilet in between. So basically it felt like we were each in our own rooms. There was double of everything, including 2 TVs (but no 2 fridges though).

Next stop, Sapporo Beer Museum. Actually there's another place called Sapporo Beer Factory, but it's actually a shopping center, so take note of that. We took the subway there but we still had to walk a distance. Silly me did not leave my backpack (with notebook in it) at the hotel lobby. So it was a forgettable walk. Oh, we couldn't leave our bags in the room yet because the check-in time was 4pm and we were still early. So we left our trolley bags in the lobby instead. This would be a recurrent theme throughout our stays in Toyoko.

The museum actually was rather small. Other than some small figurines showing the various processes of making beer and old Sapporo beer cans and bottles, there wasn't much. But still I guess this is a must-visit place in Sapporo anyway to get a sense of the history of Sapporo beer. At the end of our visit there was a bar. Unfortunately no free tasting of beer. We could order a tiny glass or a normal glass of beer. They come with tiny snacks too. There was a also a 3 glass sampler set which includes normal Sapporo, dark beer and local beer. Anyway we ordered a tiny glass of Kaitakushi (local) beer each. Very refreshing! I think KS took the beer coaster. :P

The funky bar and bartender which greeted us at the end of our tour of the museum. As you can see from the top there were so many different beer can designs. Right: A tiny beer plus some cheese.

Oh yeah and it was here that I realized that Ebisu is actually the premium range of beer under the Sapporo range of beers. Ebisu dark beer, is actually one of my favorite beers, together with Asahi Super Dry. But hey, here in Sapporo (or in Hokkaido for that matter), you are not supposed to drink any other beer other than Sapporo. Hehe... Oh and it was here that I realized that the Sapporo beer can had a new design. Apparently they changed the design every year or so. There was also 2 new beers just released around the time we were there. One thing about the Japs is that they release new beers like all the time. Basically they just alter the alcohol percentage, malt percentage, hops percentage and package it as a new beer.

Ok we were supposed to eat our Genghis Khan buffet here tonight but as it was still early we took the bus back to Sapporo station and then back to our hotel to slack for a while. It was when we wanted to head out for dinner when the next major fiasco happened. KS lost his camera! Wah can tell he really panicked lor, though outwardly it wasn't very obvious. So a bit sian, this kinda thing happen, but no choice we went to the subway, train and bus station office to enquire. No sign of it. But KS left our hotel address with them. Then we headed to the bus to bring us to the Sapporo Beer Musuem. KS asked the driver but no news also. The situation very dampened liao. Then we just got on the bus lor. Then LO AND BEHOLD, we found the camera under the seat which KS sat on earlier on our way back from the museum! Hoho... he was a happy pea. But he didn't treat dinner that night though. :P

The bus brought us right to the front of the museum. Saw damn lots of students in uniforms there. I think it was some friendship gathering dinner or something. Japan always got this kind of thing one. Matchmaking cum knowing more people events. Sux... SG don't have such things. Anyway it was here that KS realized we were having buffet tonight. After a little fuss over it, we headed to the shopping center just beside to find some cheap shoes for me. Found a pair of cheap denim loafers eventually at around Y2500. My pain was eased. Actually earlier on, when we first went to the Bier Garten, we were told to come back about 30mins later coz no seats. So by the time we went back there were seats already. Oh and guess what. Being the smarty pants tourist that I was, I found coupons for the restaurant online at GNavi. My Jap fren would later tell me that G means Gourmet (and he was impressed too that I managed to find this site). Anyway it's a damn good guide for restaurants throughout Japan. For each restaurant they would have the menu, map, promotions and coupons! Only thing is it's all in Jap. :P But anyway if I could navigate it, you could too! But I am sure I couldn't harness the full power of it without knowing more Jap.

Yeah anyway so we had a 5% or 10% discount (can't remember the exact figure actually) with that voucher. Oh and one thing which had me stumped before the trip was the Sapporo Bier Garten's website. The photos show 2 types of lamb buffets. One meat is circular, kinda like ham and the other is more normal looking meat. It was only there that I realized the circular one is frozen lamb and the other is fresh lamb. Needless to say, we ordered the fresh lamb buffet with free flow of drinks (nomihodai). Needless to say we only ordered beer and more beer. I think I had like 1.5L in total while KS had 2.5L. -_-"

The inside of the Bier Garten.

My fave beer must be the half-and-half. Basically you mix half normal beer with half dark beer. Yum! The Japs know best! Oh and the lamb was really good as well. Initially we didn't on the table BBQ heat up high but later when we did the lamb came out well smoked and slightly burnt which goes real well with the beer. There was also the dipping sauce which complements the lamb brilliantly. Buffets in Jap always come with time limits. For this case, 100 mins. But trust us. After the first 30 mins of relentless lamb, our pace slowed down a lot. The restaurant also serves ala-carte and other kinds of buffet but I guess for most tourist the Genghis Khan (lamb BBQ) with free flow of beer is definitely the must try. And based on KS's observations, only tourist will relentlessly devour the meat in the first 30 mins. The Japs basically treat it like any normal meal and eat at their own pace.

KS with the paper bib to prevent splattering. Japs think of everything!

Our Genghis Khan meal. BBQ fresh lamb and lotsa cabbages plus half-and-half beer. The set came with cubes of fat to oil the pan with. Not sure what fat it was though.

After the huge meal, we took the bus back. And finally I was able to get access to the internet in our room with my notebook while KS used the free internet in the lobby. I can't believe ANA Hotel charged Y100 for 10 minutes while this cheapo budget hotel has free wireless in the lobby, wired LAN in their rooms and at least 2 free computers to access internet in the lobby! Anyway after some chatting and emailing, its goodnight Sapporo!

Sapporo Beer Museum lit up nicely at night.

Biei - Asahikawa - Sapporo (Part 1)

2006-07-04T10:36:00.000+08:00

Believe me, waking up at 3.45am after a long day is a heroic task. BUT the series of photos in this post is probably the best out of all the days.

And rushing out to the car in a bid to catch the sunrise is equally commendable. But in that rush I forgot to bring out my tripod as well as the 70-300 lens. :P And surprise, surprise, the husband/owner actually was up to let us out of the door! Man... I felt so bad. Working hard the whole day and still have to wake at 3-4am is just torture.

Anyway, so I stepped on the accelerator pronto, and rushed to the nearest photogenic spot indicated by the map given to us by the kind owners of Tomte Rum. Unfortunately because we did not have the time to stake out the places beforehand, we weren't able to find any spots with spectacular sunrise before the sun rose. -_-"

Chanced upon this composition purely by luck. I had to take several shots as the tractor made its way past the trees to ultimately get this sublime shot.

After taking the previous photo we drove on to the nearest tree. Heh... the Biei region is actually famous for "trees". The trees will be named and become a tourist attraction! Haha... for some background, actually a lot of stunning tree-sceneries are taken here at Biei because the trees fit so well into the surroundings. So this tree we went to is the Tree of Seven Stars. Not so sure about the meaning of the name, but you can probably research on it online. Another observation is that the trees are all botak (bald)! It would have been better to see such trees in the winter with snow all around it. Or alternatively in summer when the trees would be lush green in color. So actually spring is not such a good time to visit Biei. :P

The tree of Seven Stars. Can see the sun was already very high up.

Then we drove up the hill to see this place where the owner said (in his humble opinion) is his favourite spot. Well indeed it is stunning, but as before I think summer/winter would be the best. Along the way there we also saw the Tree of Ken & Mary. Initially we had some difficulty finding this tree coz we couldn't find 2 trees near each other. Eventually, we realized Mary is actually "hiding" right beside Ken. Because Ken is so big, it hid Mary. Haha... For those who are going there, it's right beside the Pension of Ken & Mary. KS also said he saw cows blowing steam out of their nostrils...

Potato Hill. Guess what they grow here?

Reminds me of Microsoft Windows.

Another postcard-perfect shot.

And finally, we had to return back for our breakfast, we saw this fox near our pension! Didn't have my 70-300 lens on so the below photo was the best I could do. It was actually running across the road, running towards the distance and then turning back and stared at us. Then it just kept running to and fro until eventually it disappeared.

Fox crossing.

Fox sighting! Wouldn't need to crop if I had my 70-300 lens on! Argh...

Since we had some time, we explored the hill behind the pension. The owner was walking his dog behind there and dunno why the dog suddenly sprinted towards me. Anyway there was a lone tree there as well, and no prize to guess that it's the Tomte Rum Tree. Hehe...

Our pension, Tomte Rum.

Nice flowers.

Ok back inside the pension, we packed our stuff and felt kinda nostalgic. Next was breakfast where they let you choose between 2 time slots. 7.30am and 8am. We chose the former. Can see the breakfast spread below and the items which stood out were the rolls and the asparagus. The bread was so light and fragrant and the asparagus had this nutty taste which was totally unique! A healthy and filling breakfast to start the day. Oh and free flow of Hokkaido milk, orange juice and coffee. Of coz everyone there drank copious amount of milk. One lady even added a tiny bit of coffee in her milk to make coffee flavored milk. Oh the yoghurt with jam seems like a very Jap thingy. Last time in my Jap fren's house I also saw his father adding jam to plain yoghurt and mixing the whole thing up.

Breakfast! Left: Rolls, asparagus, cherry tomatoes, salad, scrambled eggs, potatoes, sausage, yoghurt with a touch of jam. Right: Egg and cheese soup.

Salt and pepper shakers.

Ornaments in the washroom!

OK, finally it was time to leave. I bought a bottle of Tomte Rum labelled beer from them too. Oh yeah before we left we wanted to visit the "bread factory" (a tiny cottage) just next door but of all days it had to rest on that day. FYI, they get their bread from this factory. So we all took photos together outside the pension. Then we packed our stuff into the car and bade farewell with tears welling (nearly). The owners waved to us even as we drove off into the horizon. I knew then that I had to return to Biei/Furano and Tomte Rum one day (hopefully twice, in winter and summer :P).

Along the road again, we headed towards Furano. Destination, the famous Farm Tomita. I am sure you all have seen photos of lavender fields before and more likely than not it is from Farm Tomita. Something like this:

But what we saw was this (LOL):

Tulips in bloom at Farm Tomita.

It was pretty empty when we reached, no doubt due to the low season. There were some colorful flowers around but the majority of the flowers have not bloomed yet. There was a greenhouse though, and inside we got to see real lavender in bloom. Wow...

To be continued...

Abashiri - Asahikawa - Biei (Part 3)

2006-06-30T10:45:00.000+08:00

Reached Biei with some time to spare so we visited the observatory very near the pension. From there got a good view of the surroundings. Glad to know there are still so tranquil places in the world.

The observatory on a hill.

Back to the pension for dinner, we finally got to see the rest of the pension. Total of 5 rooms and 5 set of guests. Aside from us, got a mother and teenage daughter, 2 aunties and 1 lady, a couple and their young child, and 2 OLs. The teenage daughter had this indifferent look and at the end of dinner slumped on her chair. LOL... pretty cute.

Dinner was served by Reina (at the dining room downstairs), the wife while the husband (unknown name) cooked. She can speak pretty ok English while the husband cannot. I read on some other blog that during peak period in summer they will hire girls from mainland Japan to help. We ordered a bottle of their house-label beer for Y600. I noticed the other tables all ordered the Furano wine. Dinner was pretty ok. Not the best western food I've eaten but it was ok. Very homely.

Tomte Rum labeled beer to kick off the meal. Very fruity taste.

Dinner at Tomte Rum. Clockwise from top left: Appetizer plate with wild vegetables, squid, cheese & crackers. Bread. Salad. Potato gratin. There was also a soup not pictured.

The main course. Breaded chicken fillet. A little too much breadcrumbs.

After dinner, I got some band-aids from Reina. Oh yeah, actually since the second day or so, I had blisters behind my ankle. Blame it on those shitty Timberland shoes I bought for half-price at Taka. Not going to buy cheapo shoes anymore! It was quite painful coz the shoe kept dugging into the back of my heel. Anyway as I was to find out the next day, bandaids does not solve the problem. Anyway, we also informed her that we are going out early next morning (4am) to catch the sunrise and asked her what time she wakes up. Er... apparently 6am. Haha... well anyway she said we could just open the door and let ourselves out. Japan is damn safe la. In Abashiri, the Pension Lamp had no lock at the front door at all lor. In fact I don't see any gates anywhere either.

Our cosy bedroom. The whole house was made of pine wood.

After dinner and relaxation in the room, time for a soothing bath. OMG! The bathroom is like the most advanced I've ever seen in Japan (and that's speaking alot). It has digital display to adjust ambience temperature, water temperature, and a whole lot of buttons I don't dare to touch in case anything explodes. Went back to bed that night clutching the alarm clock beneath the blankets. Don't want to wake the whole house up at 4am. :P

Abashiri - Asahikawa - Biei (Part 2)

2006-06-27T10:26:00.000+08:00

Think I should better hurry up and finish this travelogue before, in PY's words, it dies off.

So, we reached Biei after nearly an hour but unfortunately the two girls did not alight (they were probably headed to Furano). There goes our chance of getting to know more people. :P Heh... I wonder whether they will chance upon this blog and then go "Hey... it's us!". Lol...

Alighted at Biei and since I had no idea where our car rental is located, we had to ask at the local tourist center just around the corner from the station. Shit... it was like a 10 mins walk away. Believe me, at this point our luggage was accumulating and my notebook + tripod didn't help matters. Found the car rental at last. It was called Atomu (atom in english) and we got this Mr Bean car. A Daihatsu 600cc lamb. Later we would find that this thing was severely underpowered and a lorry can actually overtake us while I was flooring the accelerator to the maximum! The top speed is like 100km/h and it cant go any faster than that anymore!

And it was like more expensive than the 1.3L we had in Abashiri. Oh well, no choice. Maybe next time should rent car at Furano instead. Got more choices there. Anyway, we headed towards our accomodation for the night first. A pension (haha...) called Tomte Rum. Surprisingly it was much nearer to Biei town area than the map suggests. Pretty good. Wow... really impressed when we reach the place. We couldn't check in yet, since it was just around 3pm. So we just obtained the dinner time (6.30pm) and started our journey to Furano since it was really late by now.

View of Biei.

The ride to Furano took about 40 mins. Along the way we passed through melon farms, flower gardens and lots of snow-capped mountains in the distance. Basically the whole Biei-Furano region is located on the plains with mountains in the near distance.

Reached Furano eventually, and decided to go to the wine factory first. Boy, we realized that the roads in Furano were much more complicated than I first imagined. Our map wasn't too useful as there were really too many roads to navigate. It didn't help too that our car did not have a GPS map console which our earlier car had! Somehow by a stroke of luck, I managed to get on the correct road after a while.

The wine factory was pretty deserted, only 1-2 cars in the parking area. This is definitely the non-peak season. There was nothing much inside though, just a cellar and some machines. We did see some bottles of wine labelled to be matured on 2050 or something though, which was kinda interesting. Went up to the top floor which was the tasting/gift shop. Tried some of the wines by ourselves and the lavender fragrance in the wines was indeed refreshing. Couldn't drink much though coz I was driving. :P

Furano Wine Factory. Did you realize they like to add "factory" and "museum" to everything?

We bought a coupla bottles each and tasted their red grape juice as well. Yum... indeed very rich and full-bodied. Surprisingly we spent only like 30 mins at the place? And it was here that we first see the famous lavender of Furano. Unfortunately, this being spring, we only saw bald lavenders, i.e. lavender bushes without the flowers. So, we can only imagine the beautiful violet colors in our mind.

Next stop, grape juice factory! This is pretty much like the wine factory that I believe they are from the same company. Oh we saw a vineyard too. But no grapes though. Inside we got to taste the white grape juice! I must say I like the white one better (though the red one was already very nice) because it was lighter and more refreshing. I bought a mini bottle and KS bought a big one.

After the short stop, we headed towards the cheese factory. This was really very very hard to get to, despite us stopping to ask a bypasser. Its location was very far from the town center and the lack of distinct signboards didn't help. Ultimately we reached there right before it closed. We hurried to the cream factory right beside it which was really an ice-cream parlour. I got the cheese and milk double scoop while KS got the cheese single. Seriously, to visit the attractions in Biei-Furano you really need a car. The attractions are all so far from each other!

Cheese and milk double scoop, without much cheesie taste.

Then we went to the cheese factory which was already in the midst of closing shop for the day. Had a brief look-around and bought a mini bottle of milk and a mini cheesecake each (Y210 for each item). We tried their cheese too but seemed rather tasteless to me. :P

Metal birdies outside the Cheese Factory.

A postcardy shot outside the Cheese Factory.

The surroundings of the cheese factory is really pleasant. The nice cooling weather plus the tranquil surroundings really made me wanna nuah there. But unfortunately, we had a schedule to keep. Must return to Furano by 6pm.

To be continued...

Services

2006-06-22T19:26:00.000+08:00

Since no photos for the time being, let me rant about something I feel strongly about. The level of service in the retail sector in Singapore. Everyone knows it sux compared to places like Japan, so what's new? Well I am not going to elaborate on how inattentive the staff at Hugo Boss @ Taka 3rd Level (one young chinese chap with large spiky hair), Polo Ralph Lauren @ Taka 1st Level (another chinese chap with large spiky hair) or Aldo at Wisma Atria (one malay chap and one malay gal) are. That's hardly surprising, even if their stuff are 'branded'.

Since it is not unusual for bad service, it is better to applaud exemplary service instead. Alain Figaret just outside Kino @ Taka is probably not very familiar to everyone because it only sells dress shirts (aka office wear) and related accessories. The shop front is pretty small and is easy to miss. But I've received really good service there for the 3 times I've been there. The first time I went, Angela (one of the senior staff there), guided me through the various shirt collars and prompted me to try the shirts for size and for the designs. She knows her stuff and gives advice on the collar styles, designs and materials in a non-condescending manner. At the end when I was ready to pay, I casually asked whether there will be a sale (since it is the GSS after all). She honestly said there's going to be one soon so I mean no point for me to buy then coz I don't need it urgently. So after all the trying and stuff I did not buy in the end. BUT, and that's a big but, I did not get the sour face treatment! I mean she could have silently cursed me la haha but at least she didn't show it. I mean she was really pleasant about it, at least I could tell it was sincere. Wow really good service lor.

The second time I went was when the sale begun and I got the shirts I wanted. I wanted a tie too and again I was patiently shown the various designs. When I was discussing with CY about which design to get, Angela would discretely move away to let us decide, unlike some places where they linger around u irritatingly. Anyway to cut the story short, since I wanna eat dinner now, it's not often I get good service in boutiques (maybe because I look poor? :P) so this is indeed a good experience. Coupled with the fact that their shirts and stuff are really nice and reasonably priced too, I have to give it the thumbs up!

Oh another experience is at Taka dept store where I got good service from one senior staff (the younger staff all cannot make it) at the men's dept. Can someone stop hiring young chinese guys with spiky hair?! After choosing my stuff he offered to queue in line for me! I only had to go to the cashier when it is my turn. Thumbs up again!

No updates

2006-06-21T19:13:00.000+08:00

Haven't been updating lately for a coupla reasons, amongst them the reaching of my Flickr account quota for the month. Bummer... shld I splurge on a paid account?

In other news, I really need a Dell 24" widescreen LCD display now (together with a decent PC of course). Argh...

Abashiri - Asahikawa - Biei (Part 1)

2006-06-15T18:13:00.000+08:00

Thanks guys who complimented me on the photos so far. BUT... believe me you ain't seen nothing yet. The best is yet to come in the coming posts.

The 2nd major fiasco of the trip happened today. More on that later. Woke up very early in the morning in the hope of catching the sunrise on photo. I think I must have slipped out of my room at around 4am. But damn the sun was already up. A coupla meters behind the pension is actually some railway tracks. I thought there must be some potential nice shots to be taken there. So I braved the chilly temperature (definitely below 10 degree) and brought my tripod and stuff out and tried various angles and settings. Photos didn't turn out as great as I expected though. So not going to post them here until I got the time to process them further.

Went back and basically lie down and wait for the time to leave. Since the train leaves at 6.32am I thought I can just wake KS up at 6 and still be on time. And so I lazed...

*Time Passed*

Reached station around 6.28am and was surprised when the digital signboard did not display our train. HOLY SHIT! The train left at 6.23am and NOT 6.32am! WTF! Arghh.... Can't believe I overlooked it! Best liao... I already wanted to faint. Luckily the stationmaster was nice enough and he showed us the alternatives. The next express train leaves at 10am+ but we could take the normal train at 7.40am which will mean that we will reach our destination Asahikawa 2 hours late. No choice, we had to take it. However, we were pleasantly surprised that we received a refund of Y2000 because the normal train was cheaper. Not sure whether other countries have this kind of policy but it sure is good.

So we just nuahed at the station until the train arrived and it was those kind of single carriage trains. Took about an hour to reach Kitami where we had to wait a bit more to change to the train which would take us straight to Asahikawa. The long train ride wasn't that bad. Initially the scenery was all farmland. Can see tractors, livestock, and crops just starting to be planted. Later on we reached the mountain regions and the view changed to snowy landscapes.

Scenery outside the train. From farmland to snowy mountains.

Reached Asahikawa at last and first thing we did of course was to get our railway passes. Alas, we had just missed the train to Biei, so we had to wait around an hour for the next one. Since we had time, we decided to have ramen for lunch. Our guide book listed several recommended places and we chose the one nearest to the station. Managed to find it after a little difficulty. The place is called Mei Guang Gan (in han yu pin yin) and apparently it is rather famous. KS ordered shoyu ramen and I had chashu ramen, which basically is the same as KS's but with a whole lot more chashu. Y700 and Y1000 respectively. Would've ordered the gyoza if we weren't so strapped for time. For the uninitiated, gyoza is the standard accompaniment for ramen. It's like eating donuts and coffee. The unique characteristic of ramen at this place is the huge chunks of bamboo shoots. The chashu was delicious also. But I got kinda overdosed with it coz mine really had a lot of it.

Chashu ramen (shoyu based) with chunks of bamboo shoots.

Interestingly, there were also a pair of foreigners who came around the same time as us. They looked Taiwanese and carried huge backpacks as well. They were girls btw. We had to eat our noodles fast because we realized we don't have much time left. Wow... the girls also ate their noodles in record time! I was alreadi kinda like struggling to finish the bowl lor. Anyway right after we finished, we got our bags and rushed straight to the station. The two girls also finished but they kinda walked leisurely meters behind us. Later we would find out that we are all leaving on the same train! And they walked leisurely because actually we still had some time to spare before the train leaves. :P Anyway, we got on the single carriage train and headed towards Biei. For a sign of how touristy the Biei/Furano region is, the train had English announcements as well. Very rare in Hokkaido.

To be continued...

Utoro - Rausu - Abashiri (continuation)

2006-06-08T08:26:00.000+08:00

The drive back to Abashiri was prety much uneventful. Mainly because I was sleeping most of the time. :P The times I were awake I saw horses. Reminds me that many restaurants offer horse sashimi over there. Also saw tractors and farm machinery at work. It's a sunny Monday afternoon after all.

Reached Abashiri around 3pm and instead of the deserted town, we started to see some resemblence to a big town. Actually the place where we stayed, around the JR station area, is not really the center of the town. Hence that was why we couldn't find much dining outlets at night. Anyway our destination was the famous Abashiri Prison Museum. Abashiri is famous for its high security and harsh prison ever since the early 1900s(?). Can you imagine the winters there? Neither can I.

The prison museum is actually the site of the old prison in the mountain region. The new prison is at the flatlands. We parked our car and was unpleasantly surprised again that it costs around Y1000 to go in! The only bad thing about Jap is that you usually need to pay to go in anywhere, even temples (hence their priests go around in Mercedes'). Yeah it was kinda expensive so we decided to check out the omiyage shop instead. A common theme throughout Jap is the abundance of omiyage. Here we saw t-shirts and even red bean cakes with the title of the prison. -_-" The most common omiyage in Jap must be red bean cakes!

The bridge every prisoner has to pass through so that they can reflect on themselves from the pond.

The exit of the museum is conveniently located beside the souvenir shop. And as can be seen from the photo below, it isn't guarded nor gated. So if you put one plus one together, you can imagine what we did. Anyway it was my idea, KS wasn't too keen but still he joined me eventually :P How ironic... considering this used to be a prison.

Left: The entrance. Right: The exit of the prison museum.

The museum compound itself is rather big. Many sections with different purposes. For instance there is the bathing area, solitary confinement, chapel, cells, etc. Very informative if you can read Jap. Unfortunately I don't.

How the corridor of the prison used to look like.

Nice little stream in the prison museum.

Left soon after as it was closing soon. I took over the wheel this time and headed to the drift ice museum. Another famous thing about Abashiri is the drift ice. During the thick of winter you can take a cruise to the sea to see chunks of ice floating around. The museum needed entry fee as usual so we skipped it and went up the free observatory instead. Wow... really spectacular views of the surroundings as the whole place was up the mountain. It really gives me a perspective of how big the world is. Can see the full 360 degree view of the sky. The wind was really strong up there though. Literally strong enough to shake me from head to toe. We can also see the Abashiri lake and the new prison there.

The observatory of the drift ice museum.

Beautiful clouds taken from the observatory.

Sun bursting through the clouds.

Abashiri lake. The shape looks a bit weird but its really grand in real life.

Next we went to find the Abashiri park. Took us some time to find it as it wasn't really well signboarded. Turned out it was kind of like East Coast Park over here in Singapore instead of a flowery kind of park. Got playgrounds, cycling tracks, basketball courts that kinda thing. So we didn't stay there and proceeded back to return our car. We first went to pump the car full of petrol. First time at a Jap petrol station. Wah the service was 101% lor. You just wind down your window and tell them you want to fill 'em up and they will do the rest and wiped the windscreen with burning passion. When we were pulling out, this female attendant gestured to us to show us the way out. Even to the point of running and literally "showing" us the way. Kind of like how the ground crew at the airport gestures to the pilot. Only in Japan.

And then... back to the Mazda car rental where to cut the long story short, I paid Y20000 for the damages. Then back again to Pension Lamp and the uncle said in funny English: Ah its you again! Haha...

Put down our stuff and off we go in search of dinner. There was actually quite a distance to walk to the restaurants area. Maybe around 20mins from the JR station. Oh yeah, in every part of Hokkaido (and probably Japan) there are brochures advertising the restaurants of that place. And most of the time there will be discount coupons in it. In fact, it isn't restricted to just restaurants. You can find discounts for museums, rides, etc. So its a good idea to check out the tourist center or similar places when you first arrive. We settled for this izakaya called Kita Tori which offered 5% discount and a free dish of some dunno what cheesy tempura. Started our meal with some cold nihon-shu (known as sake outside Japan) and the compulsory appetizer of cold pasta. All izakayas offer you a compulsory appetizer usually costing around Y200 per person. Basically we had all the food below plus grilled pork fat and salmon ochazuke (green tea poured over rice) for me and cold ramen served soba style for KS. It was really hard to order as the menu was all in Jap. We ordered those dishes which we had an idea of what it is. The yakitori was really chunky and meaty with onions in between. The pork was equally flavorful. The chicken skin also did not disappoint. It was very crispy and superb. Believe me, the Japs know how to grill it perfectly. Originally I ordered the pork fat with the idea that it was pork belly meat. But turned out to be just grilled pork fat. Wow... trust me, I have never eaten pork fat as delicious as this in Singapore. Grilled until it was crunchy. I had a glass of umeshu and KS a beer to top it off. Oiishi! Dinner added up to around Y3000 per person. Reasonable for an izakaya.

Clockwise from top left: Pasta appetizer. Shisamo (pregnant fish). Chicken wings. Yakitori (chicken). Pork. Chicken skin.

For anyone who is curious what an izakaya's fridge looks like. They have bottled coke!

After dinner we saw a pachinko place and KS was kinda hyped up. Turned out everyone was playing on the jackpot machines instead (called slots there). But the minimum amount to play is Y1000 and that kinda doused KS's enthusiasm. Oh well... I was equally enthusiastic about pachinko in my first time. After that we stopped at Lawson's (a kombini) just beside the JR station to stock up on some milk. Hey, it's Hokkaido after all.

The prefect night-cap, Hokkaido milk!

Utoro - Rausu - Abashiri

2006-06-06T22:48:00.000+08:00

I think at this point it's a good idea to show the map of the Shiretoko region.

Map from Japan Guide.

Woke up very early as per usual here to a sunny morning. Still felt feverish though my forehead felt normal leh. Packed our stuff and down we go for breakfast at 7am. Can smell the breakfast even before we entered the dining room. Oh yeah we also saw a lot of fugitive photos in the minshuku and even in Abashiri. I think it's because Hokkaido is considered the wilderness of Japan and fugitives come here to hide.

Clockwise from upper left: Salmon, which is larger than it looks. Some ikan bilis. Raw egg to be beaten and poured over rice. Konyaku. Pickles. In the center is fish roe.

After paying around Y7000 each for the lodging and dinner + breakfast (compulsory), we bid farewell to this minshuku and drove over to the town center to pick one of the numerous cruise outlets there. It was then we realized we forgot to return the room key. -_-" Anyway, we decided to return it later and first choose one cruise company called Fox which is also a cafe which offers free internet access. The Shiretoko peninsular is mountainous and its impossible to see its coastal side by anything other than from the sea. Thus a cruise is a must-try for anyone visiting it. There are two kinds of boats. One is a big ferry kind which is shown below. The other is a smaller speedboat type which is faster and costs more but is able to go nearer to the coast. We chose the latter for around Y3000. For each type of boat there are also 2 courses. One is the 1.5 hour trip and the other the 3-4 hour trip. The former has up to 5 trips per day while the latter embarks only once per day (in the late morning). We chose the former, which went halfway up the peninsular. The longer trip would have taken us right to the end of the peninsular (and burnt a larger hole in our wallets).

The jetty where the big boat leaves. The big tour groups will all go into one boat.

We still had 30mins to spare so we explored the port area and saw an enormous rock covered with seagulls. Think we spent too much time shooting the birds and returned back to the cruise area just on time. Quickly rushed to the boat and was unpleasantly shocked that the boat was kinda packed. Turned out that all the outlets basically share the same boat! Sian... no more window seats. As we were reaching the u-turning point of the trip, the captain informed us that there was a bear in the cliff. Wah... at first I couldn't see it. Only until KS pointed to me several times did I realize that that black thing is a bear. Didn't take too many photos along the way because the boat was rocking and I had on my 70-300 lens which was useless for sceneries. Oh well...

Left: Another bear sighting. Right: That's how far it really is from the boat.

To the lighthouse.

Returned back to the port and poked around the town. Then we returned the keys and drove to explore the hot spring region of Utoro. Basically it's quite near the town center except that its in a mountain area, so walking there might not be such a good idea. There's a lot of big hotels there and bus-loads of Jap tourists. Saw a bus leaving the compound and the mandatory waving by all the hotel employees.

Hot spring for hands near Utoro port.

Whoah... wooden bear.

As it was still early, and I was so enamoured by the 5 lakes, I drove back to the mountain area towards the 5 lakes. KS was unaware of my plan though. Haha... anyway as we reach the nature center we saw that the road to Rausu was open! It was closed yesterday due to bad weather. So off we went, and boy was it the best ride we had. A few moments after we drove up towards Shiretoko Pass, the scenery started to become snowy. We passed an uncle in full ~~combat~~ hiking gear and as we stopped to take photos, he caught up with us. Heh he was amazed that we came from Singapore because our car plate was from Kitami and apparently he thought we were Japs. In fact, we got mistaken for Japs very often in Hokkaido. There was another young chap hiking up too, but his pace was much faster than the uncle.

Up the mountains. See what a difference a sunny morning makes compared to the previous day?

Welcome to Shiretoko. On the way up to Shiretoko Pass.

Bear alert. Though I don't foresee they will suddenly run across the road.

As we got higher and higher, I passed the wheel to KS. Which initially was kinda troublesome because he hadn't got used to the sharp brakes and he can't drive with his shoes on. -_-" After a while we couldn't stand it anymore... the scenery was just sooooo beautiful. We had reached rather high up the mountains and everywhere was snow! I hadn't expected this at all while I was researching for this trip. Thankfully there was a place for us to park by the roadside and we actually climbed over a short fence and up the slope! You can see our location and where our car was in the photo below.

There's our car down below.

Spent quite some time frolicking in the snow and up the slope. It was so tranquil and beautiful. Really speechless.

A complicated looking bald tree.

There's Mt. Rausu in the distance.

But all good things have to come to an end. We continued our way and reached Shiretoko Pass soon after. There was a parking area and lotsa tourist buses also. This is the highest point of the road linking Utoro to Rausu and its just spectacular. I went to the mobile toilet there and boy was it the smelliest toilet in Japan. Whew... rushed out in record time and off we go again. It's nice to be in the passenger seat and enjoying the scenery. :P

Finally we reached Shiretoko Pass.

How it looks like from the passenger seat.

Nearing the foot of the mountain towards Rausu, we came to an rotenburo (outdoor hot spring) called Bear's Hot Spring. Maybe bears like to dip in hot springs also? Anyway got this guy bathing and we can see him from the car park. -_-" Actually I wanted to try, but KS wasn't too keen. Oh well. The female bath was covered with wooden walls though. :P Which actually if you climb up the slope a bit you can peek in. Erm... actually there was a lady inside. But I think she finished bathing liao and was dressed. But hey, it's Japan where nudity is so common, see until sian liao unlike prudish ol' Singapore.

Note the not so high walls.

Water from all the melting snow.

Anyway finally we reached our destination. Although I must say this whole Japan trip is tightly planned, this trip to Rausu was totally spur-of-the-moment. I never imagined the drive from Utoro to Rausu would be so stunning. Ok enuff... in Rausu we saw a river which salmons swim upstream when they wanna spawn. Salmon is a native fish in Hokkaido. Contrast it with Tokyo where you won't find salmon in any sushi-ya. Wanted to eat lunch at this place recommended by our Taiwan guidebook but of all days it had to close on Monday. So we looked around the seafood shop (seafood is considered as omiyage [souvenirs] in Hokkaido) and got treated to small pieces of king crab leg. Holy macaroni... this was the first time we ate king crab and its delicious! The meat was unlike normal Sri Lankan crabs we have here but its more like lobster meat. Then one guy wanted to tell us something but erm.. we don't really get it. After some mismash of communication, we finally got the idea that he was recommending us lunch at this restaurant near the shop. Since the sealion meal served at the restaurant above the shop didn't sound too enticing we decided to take up his recommendation.

Famous river in Rausu where salmons swim up to spawn when in season.

The place as can be seen below is wooden. It's by the coast and has a blue flag as its signpost. The food was displayed in an open fridge and we could choose what we want. Being thrifty we chose the moderately priced hoke set meal, when people around us were eating uni (sea urchin), kani (crabs) and ikura. Anyway hoke is grilled semi-dried fish and tasted pretty good. Lotsa bones though after you finish the meaty parts. This took us quite some time devour. Saw this couple who came in after us who were also on the same boat ride as us in the morning at Utoro. We also saw a tall hot babe there with some funky looking guys :P

A very popular place for lunch in Rausu.

Our lunch. The fish is much bigger than it looks.

After lunch, we walked back to our car, grabbed some drinks from a kombini (dunno why at this moment KS started to be enthu about cheap beers in Jap) and began the journey back to Abashiri (passing through Utoro). As we passed foot of the mountain, we saw a digital sign saying the road will be closed at 3.30pm. We were indeed lucky as it was around 2pm+. If the road was closed it would have taken us maybe an extra 2 hours drive back to Abashiri. Along the way we also saw the hiking uncle. He was maybe 75% on his journey to Rausu. Gambatte!

Asahi Black beer from a kombini in Rausu. This is the first time I've seen this ever.

To be continued...

Intermission

2006-06-06T08:53:00.000+08:00

Just some photos and nuggets of trivia to share before I proceed with the next episode of Hokkaido travels.

This is what Oshinkoshin Falls looks like in summer. In fact, everywhere I've been to on this trip will be in greenery in summer. Photo from Pjechorin.

Another interesting fact is that 10 days before we went to the 5 lakes, the 2nd lake was still frozen! Read more about it at the Muroran Chronicles.

More photos from Shiretoko

2006-06-03T19:06:00.000+08:00

Because PY was complaining that the posts were too wordy, here is a photo only post. Nolah... the post for the next destination is taking a hell lot of time to complete, so this is the continuation of the previous post. Enjoy.

This particular stretch of road was soooo straight.

Nothing unusual, but I like the geometrical shape.

The best I could do to create a silky waterfall effect without a ND filter and without overexposure.

Dear tag. Not as sharp as the one from the previous post though.

Doe eyed. Yeah I know its not a doe. :P

The view from the road up the mountain to the 5 lakes. The town below is Utoro.

Random shot of a pretty plant.

A framed view of the 2nd lake.

Another framed view.

Near the 5 lakes. First time taking a stitched panorama shot. Click on it to see a larger version.

Another stunning panorama of the 2nd lake.

Uncropped shot of the bear.

100% crop of the bear swimming.

Stunning sunset. With some color correction from PS of course.

Abashiri - Shari - Utoro

2006-06-02T10:54:00.000+08:00

The room was bright at 4.30am in the morning. No joke. Thankfully I was able to get back to sleep and wake up at a more decent time of 6am. Damn still felt feverish. Anyway no choice had to get up and make our way to the Mazda car rental just opposite the JR station. The outlet opens at 8am so we kinda bumped around the station first and saw school kids in sports outfits on a Sunday morning. Since we were at the station we also bought our tickets for the express train to Asahikawa. Originally this would be free under the JR pass but because we could not change our voucher at Narita, we could not use it and the nearest place to exchange is Asahikawa. The cost of the ticket is a cool Y7240 per person and KS was slightly traumatized by it. But no choice la. We had to take the express train at 6.23am to fit into our schedule.

Abashiri at 7.30am on a Sunday.

Picked up our car soon after and it was a white 1.3L Mazda Demio. Fit the both of us well though initially the brakes felt a tad sharp. Anyway it had GPS in it making it very convenient to navigate the streets! We paid around Y8500 for it for 8am till 7pm the next day. I reserved it via this website which had internet discounts and they only have Nissan and Mazda outlets. In Japan there are countless car rental companies, mainly run by the manufacturers themselves.

So off we started on our journey to one of the main highlights of this trip, Shiretoko! But before that need to boost our energy first and I stopped at Mister Donut. Haha... even in this outpost at the very north of Japan. I think KS wanted to try something else other than donuts but oh well. Haha... Each of us got 3 donuts and off we go. It was drizzling and would continue to be so throughout most of the day. It was at this point I realized the car was 4WD and that seems to be the trend of cars throughout Hokkaido.

Our journey today would take us along the northern coastline to Shari and then Utoro which is the hub town for Shiretoko. Shiretoko actually refers to the whole peninsular which includes Utoro. The roads although wet, was pretty much empty of traffic and very straight. No problem there, as the GPS also helped in getting us on the right track. Seriously, a car is worth it if you are planning to visit Shiretoko. We were able to stop rather frequently to take in the sights as and when we liked, though the bleak and wet conditions did damper photo-taking opportunities. As can be seen from the photos basically the scenery of this journey consists initially of the sea and then farmlands and then mountains.

The scenery along the drive consisted of barren farmlands and plantlings.

We passed by a tiny railway station, a flower garden which was barren at this time of the year and where we had some hot Hokkaido milk from the touristy shops and then Shari, which was deserted (not surprising for a Sunday morning). It was freezing throughout due to the drizzle and the icy wind.

Touristy shops on the left, barren flower garden on the right.

As we were nearing Utoro, we turned into this area which was gated (but open). There were waterfalls inside and is supposed to be a hunting area? Anyway we saw a fresh leg of a deer on the road. Hmmm... wonder why it wasn't rotting.

Very serene place.

We continued on till we reached Oshinkoshin falls, supposedly one of the best waterfalls in Japan. Well it was of course stunning and wasn't too far away from the main road. There was proper parking there and a gift shop as well. We stocked up on coffee. KS had Fire coffee with Hokkaido milk and tasted damn milky. I had this Boss rainbow blend which tasted bland (pun intended). It's called rainbow because it was a blend of 7 different coffee beans.

Men bringing down a tray of deer for dinner. Just kidding. They were bringing it down from the waterfall area because it was injured.

Oshinkoshin Falls.

The town of Utoro, a short distance away, is basically the hub of Shiretoko. It's a really small town which is kinda touristy. There is a hot spring area in the town and its something like 5 mins by car from the town center up the mountain. There's a lot of hotels in that area catering to bus loads of Japanese tourists. Most restaurants there either sold seafood or was closed and in the end we chanced upon a normal restaurant which was catered for tourist buses. We had cheap katsu kare there. Very normal, nothing to shout about.

Katsu Kare = Pork Cutlet Curry

And after that was the first major fiasco of the trip. As I was reversing the car out of the parking lot I bumped into a signpost. SHIT. The side mirrors was 180 degree out of place. Tried to return it to its original state and whew... it snapped back in place. Then HOLY SHIT. The bottom of the door was dented! Argh... This time kana sai liao. I can see my money flying away already.

Sian... But can't let this incident spoil the holiday la. Might not be coming here for a long time so can't let it spoil the mood. So off we go and headed towards the tip of the peninsular to the famous Shiretoko Go-kan (5 lakes). The lakes are relatively shallow and are in the mountains. Along the way we passed along the visitor center and I bought a Shiretoko hard cover photograph book which at Y3000+ is kinda expensive but the photos were stunning. Along the way we also started to see more and more deer. In fact, we turned into this area which is supposed to be a car park in the summer and saw a whole bunch of deers. But they were afraid of humans though. Didn't manage to get too near.

Off to the 5 Lakes.

Crisp photo of a deer.

Finally a while later, we reached the lakes, and boy was the car park packed. We even had to pay to park! Parking is generally free in the rural areas. Seriously the place was packed with old Japanese tourists. All those grandpas and grandmas. The path to walk around the lakes was generally a single file line and you can imagine everyone had to sorta queue to reach the vantage point to snap photos. The first lake was near the edge of the mountain and the second lake was in the forest. Some parts of the path were just stones and soil and so were pretty slippery due to the rain. Unfortunately we could not venture further as the path to the 3,4 and 5 lakes were closed. Probably due to the weather. What a pity...

View from the 1st lake.

And it was here that I achieved another goal of my trip. To see real bears in the wild! KS spotted it first. It was right across the lake away from us. It emerged when a group of tourists left that place and we were both the only ones there. Shit... I had to quickly change to my 70-300 lens. At this point I was already lamenting that I did not have the 18-200 lens so that I won't have to keep changing lens between landscapes and wildlife. In any case, even at 300mm, the bear was still rather small. It sauntered along the edge of the lake and then waded into the lake and swam to another part of the lake! Wow...

Panoramic view of the 2nd lake. The bear was at the opposite side.

Bear sighting. No we were not in the zoo. Compare the previous photo with this one to have a feeling of how far away it was from us.

Can you see all the tourist buses in the background? That's how touristy this place has become after it has been named one of the UNESCO world heritage sites. Fortunately it is still relatively unknown to angmohs. I don't recall seeing any at all.

We then returned to Utoro and to our minshuku (Jap style bed & breakfast) called Minshuku Mariin. Originally I had wanted to book Minshuku Lantan which had a proper website and looked really nice, but apparently they were particular about accepting non-Jap speaking guests. Luckily Mariin took us in, otherwise I would have chosen the hotel right in the middle of the town, which had a hot spring on the top floor overlooking the sea. Not too bad, but we would've missed an opportunity to stay in a minshuku as there wouldn't be any chance later on. This place was run by a friendly chap and his parents.

A simple non-assuming place.

Haha... got funny incident there. When I was going to take a bath, the owner spoke in Jap and seemed to be telling me not to go into the bathroom. Stumped, I got KS down to try to see what he is saying. He kept gesturing to the clock and we kinda get the idea to go back in 10 mins. Later on I realized it was because he needed 10 mins to fill up the bathtub. -_-" After a damn hot bath, it was dinner time! It was then we realized we were the only ones staying that night. The dinner is traditional Jap style. We took a long time to finish the meal because there was just so much to eat and the hairy crab was very difficult to eat as well (no roe!). After some tea, we retired back to our room and after some attempt to clean my camera lens, I dozed off. I think around 8-9pm. Seriously there's nothing to do at night in the countryside and just as well, I was beat.

The view outside the bedroom window.

Dinner. Clockwise from upper left: Salmon, white fish and scallop sashimi, some unknown shellfish, oysters, oranges, pumpkin (which tasted like sweet potato), several types of fish roe and pickles. Top right: Hot plate fish with plenty of cabbages. It was a whole red fish which seemed to be in season.

The star of the show. It was served icy cold as were crabs everywhere in Hokkaido. Unlike the hairy crabs of Shanghai, the ones here were pretty spiny.

Narita - Haneda - Memanbetsu - Abashiri

2006-05-30T09:07:00.000+08:00

Taking the night flight is not a joke. With a total sleeping time of 1 hour plus breakfast served at 4.30am in the morning (Singapore time), I was already beat on my first day there. Service, as usual, on a JAL flight was great. It wasn't a packed flight as well. We started with umeshu on rocks as our first drink overseas. Kampai!

Breakfast comprised of something which I totally forgot now. Guess we were still not in a photo taking mood yet. I remember got some cold udon noodles with dip, yoghurt and some fruit cubes. I vaguely remember the main course being porridge with salted eggs, which surprisingly tasted rather nice.

Arrived at Narita airport at 7am and already a bit under the wind liao due to the lack of sleep. Went down to the basement for a train to Narita city and was pleasantly surprised that we could change our Hokkaido rail voucher for a pass at the ticket counter instead of the travel bureau which only opens at 11am. Alas, they were not able to process Hokkaido passes. I should have known better. In all the brochures, Narita was not listed as an exchange location but I thought I found a loophole in their website which says it can be exchanged there. Oh well. Lesson of the day: Hokkaido passes can only be exchanged in Hokkaido. The JR Hokkaido pass is a 3 or 5 day pass (different prices) which allows you unlimited train (not subway) travel in Hokkaido. We bought it together as a package with the return international air tickets and return domestic air tickets from Tokyo to Hokkaido.

A bit demoralized after this incident (more on it later), we then took a short train ride to Narita city. Other than the train stopping midway for some unknown reason, the trip was short and routine. It was very cloudy and when we reached it started drizzling. The wind was very cold... Lotsa students at the train station and I think for some reason the skirts of the students in Narita is super short. I mean it is a general trend in Jap la, but Narita kids are ALL in short skirts as compared to say Tokyo where you might see longer skirts as well. And Narita is supposed to be a rural town!

Ok, moving on, I spotted Mister Donut right opposite the train station and got very excited haha. One of my goals this trip is to eat there. Ok fine actually I have lotsa goals for this trip. Can't believe I didn't know about Mister Donut on my previous trip to Narita. For the uninitiated, it is a chain of donut cafes which can be readily found throughout Japan. Its practically everywhere! More on this later on as well.

No time to waste as we made our way inside and ordered donuts plus coffee. Hmm... no Pon De Ring, their signature donut. I ordered a French style donut plus a box of mini donut balls. The coffee there, as with alot of Jap cafes, is bottomless. Meaning free flow. Service was good and waitresses cute. KS ordered something similar and a biscuity stick which is rather nice. In fact, this is a recurrent theme la. Everything in Jap is nice. So I don't bother repeating myself throughout all my entries. Haha... Anyway after we nearly finished our stash, we saw the Pon De Ring in the trays! I had to try it! We ordered one to share. Yum... it was as good as I remembered it. Kinda chewy and sweet. Thumbs up! Oh and with every Y300 purchase there was a promotion where we got a scratch-and-win card and KS won a shopping bag. Interestingly, we never won it again on the following visits.

Top left: My breakfast. Bottom left: KS's.

The Pon De Ring. Commonly used to depict a lion's mane in their ads.

After a 2nd satisfying breakfast we were ready to make our way down Omotesando St to Narita-san, the most famous place in Narita. Nothing really new for me here as I was here before and Narita is basically a small town. Saw the usual Yokan and eel shops which this place is famous for. Remember all the while we were pulling along our trolley bags plus our backpacks. So far so good, luckily I packed light.

Yokan. Usually they are in rectangular bars, not squares like these. Usually made of red bean paste with half a chestnut on top.

Men preparing eel in a restaurant.

Apparently on the day we were there there was supposed to be a Matsuri (summer festival)! Unfortunately due to the rain which got heavier as we progressed on, it was canceled (we think). Quite a lot of tourists at Narita-san perhaps due to this being a festival day. It's not a fun task to hand-carry the trolley bags up the steps leading up to the temple. I think KS's bag is 3kg more than mine. His is a jumbo one la.

After a while there, we decided to go eat lunch liao since nothing else to do. This is a recurrent theme as well, gorging ourselves at every opportunity, as least me lah. We went to Edoko Sushi, which based on what I read, is a famous sushi place in Japan. It's near the red bridge which is near the JR station. Ordered the lunch set which is around Y2000 and now I finally know why this place is famous.The quality wasn't drop dead spectacular but it was really value for money. To put things in perspective, Y2000 for a sushi meal in Jap is considered cheap and the fish slices there was huge. I think each fish slice is around 4x the length of the rice. And the sushi includes crab and crab miso soup as well. So it's a good place if you are not too fussy about the quality of the fish. I think good for angmohs lah coz they kenot appreciate this kinda thing. As long as they can eat exotic things they happy liao haha.

Lunch set at Edoko Sushi. The crab leg is the very long piece to the right.

After lunch and a brief stop at a kombini (convenient store), the rain forced us to leave the town back to the airport for our express train to Tokyo. Usually people will take the bus (which is called limousine bus haha) to leave the airport to various destinations as the bus takes a more direct route and is faster. Lugging luggages up and down the train stations is not joke either. But I chose to take the train because we had lotsa time to spare and it is slightly cheaper. We left Narita airport around 1pm for Haneda airport in Tokyo. Our flight was actually at 6.40pm and we arrived around 3 something with 2 train changes along the way.

Haneda airport is a totally different world from Narita airport altogether. I guess I shouldn't be so surprised as Haneda is just 15mins away from Tokyo center as compared to 1.5 hours for Narita. There were just so many shops selling omiyage (souvenirs) and snacks and cakes and chocolates, etc., etc., as compared to the paltry single row of shops at Narita. I went to the Dean & Deluca there too! Wah excited lol! Bought a chilled black pepper ham sandwich. YUM! Later on we also bought a sundae. Mine with nuts and his with fruits. AND later on I bought a multi-vitamin jelly drink which comes in a soft pack and you squeeze it into your mouth to eat. Same packaging as the Ribena pack we have in Singapore but its all in jelly form. Read on the net that such jelly drinks was cool in Japan before. Anyway I needed all the vitamins coz I felt like I had a fever but then my forehead wasn't hot. Hmmm... Oh just an additional observation. Kare (curry) is a form of fast food in Jap, together with ramen and gyudon (beef bowls). Saw lotsa kare houses in the airport.

Dean & Deluca black pepper ham sandwich after several bites.

Fast-forwarding along, we were on the shuttle bus from the main airport building to the plane itself which was really far away. I was kinda expecting the plane to be a mini one as Memanbetsu is kinda ulu. But it turned out decently big enough and interestingly I think we were the only two gaijins on this not-very-packed flight. The flight itself took around 1 hour 45mins, and we arrived there in darkness. We boarded the bus at this very small airport to Abashiri and kinda worrying that there were only 3 ppl in the bus, incl. the driver. Impt to note that the bus always leaves maybe 30mins after any plane lands at this airport, so don't dally too much or you will miss this only bus. The bus ride took 30mins in pitch darkness through vast farmlands to reach the Abashiri JR station. Actually got a dumb incident. The bus got a machine to change Y1000 notes into coins. As I was getting out I changed a note into coins and slowly counted the Y880 needed for the fare. Then the driver (probably frustrated at my dumbness) just picked out Y120 from me and dropped the rest into the coin box. -_-"

True to its status as a prison town, it was really deserted at 8pm. Following the map, we made our way to Pension Lamp, the cheapest place we would stay on this trip and the cheapest in this town as well. The owner was this small and chubby uncle who spoke a little bit of English (believe me, in this part of Jap, a little bit is a lot!). This place is really value for money. For Y2800 each, we got a rather large and clean Jap style room with tatamis and futons. For Y280 more you get breakfast which comprised of a large chunk of bread plus a box of choco milk. But we chose to eschew it as I wanted my Mr Donut for breakfast. He told us that there was also a girl from Singapore staying there that night as well. Unfortunately we didn't bump into her. :P The map shows that it is very near to the JR station but actually still need to walk alot. Scales in Jap is different from scales in SG.

Dinner time! Actually there was a family restaurant (a Jap term) near our place but we decided to walk further on and see whether there are other choices. Unfortunately after a long walk we only saw a KFC, which was closing already. So we walked back to this place called Victoria. It was only later on that I realized that this Victoria refers to Victoria Station and is a part of Big Boy restaurant chain! True to the Jap style of family restaurants there were all sorts of people inside from students, OLs, and of course families. The Japanese family restaurants, ubiquitous in suburbia, has its similarity with American diners I think. It's always in a standalone one storey building with lots for cars around it. And there would be the compulsory tall signpost which you can see miles away.

To cut to the chase, the meal here was fantastic! I was totally blown away by the steak. Seriously I have never eaten a better steak ever at this kind of prices. It was really tender! Admittedly I chose the expensive filet mignon cut but still it was very reasonable pricing for really good meat. To think I have to come all the way to this rural town to get the best steak. -_-" And steak which comes with soy sauce and fresh wasabi, in my case.

Left: My 200g filet steak with potatoes (which to my surprise did not fill me up). The cylinderical thingy on the hot plate is a very hot stone which you use to cook the meat further (as it is rare inside). Right: Fresh wasabi which you can grate yourself. I thought these are supposed to be very expensive.

KS ordered a cut steak set with some deep fried seafood and we had rice to go with the meat. My set also comes with soup which you can get from the bar (they had salad bar also). I chose corn soup but it wasn't very good. Of course we had beer to wash it all down. After our respective sets, I still felt hungry and suggested to order a hambaga set. Interesting it was in a roll rather than the normal patty. The menu itself was huge. 4 types of gravy to with the steak. Pages for steak, hambaga steak, chicken, seafood, pasta, etc. The steak came with different sizes and pairings like bread, rice, salad, etc.

Guess what's inside??
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It's hambagaa steak with hot sauce which splatters! So that's why they use tissue to cover it. The Japs think of everything!

After a freezing walk back to our pension, during which KS bought a can of hot cocoa from a vending machine, we retired for the night.

Choosing a non-coffee hot drink to buy.

Hello Singapore

2006-05-29T07:25:00.000+08:00

Back. Travel entries will be posted soon in a day-to-day format. Hopefully the information will be useful to those who are planning a trip to the places I've been to. While I was researching for this trip I also read a lot of blogs for information. Most photos taken using my Nikon D50 + AFS18-55 + AFD70-300G and KS's Panasonic LZ2. Those photos which you think is nice is taken by me, the rest erm.... hahahaha. Just kiddin.

Me: Goodbye.

2006-05-12T13:24:00.000+08:00

Email me if you need to.

TCC

2006-05-01T16:40:00.000+08:00

Nothing much happened recently. No new photoshoots or anything. The annual Singapore International Film Fest came and went with a whimper. Probably the worst SIFF I've been to so far. So I will just post a review of TCC @ Holland V which I was there for supper some time back. Photos taken using a Nokia 6111. Not Nikon lol...

First we had a Grand Marnier cake, which unfortunately wasn't too alcoholic.

I had a latte with azuki beans (aka red beans), weird but nice.

CY had Yuan Yang.

Still not full (me, not her) so ordered this strange balls which are actually deep fried lychee stuffed with yam paste. Interesting but probably won't order it again.

Finally, ordered another coffee drink because I was too enamoured by all the drinks in the menu. This one was espresso topped with chocolate ice-cream and chocolate chips with cookies at the side.
Ended up sleeping at 4am that day. -_-"

Singapore Fashion Festival - ck (Part II)

2006-04-15T01:26:00.000+08:00

Ok the continuation of the previous post. Seems like the ck outfits are thicker than the Tang's...

Hmm... doesn't look anorexic at all.

Like the blouse texture.

Yeap, it's her, my fave model.

Close up of her. I bet she will have the same expression even if the sky falls down.

Captured the dynamics of the moment well.

The textile seems to be good.

Nice but not for SG.

The End.

A Semester in the Life of...

2006-04-13T00:27:00.000+08:00

... a hostelite.

Beginning of sem. Wah skip lecture again?

Middle of sem. Wah studying for midterms or listening to music?

End of sem. Oh no, results out...

A light-hearted entry. Thx to MK for being my model!

Q

2006-04-11T13:56:00.000+08:00

Does this blog show that I am leading an oh so happy life?

Singapore Fashion Festival - ck (Part I)

2006-04-10T00:17:00.000+08:00

I shouldn't have this set of photos for the ck show at all.

At least not officially. This particular show was an 8pm show, which means that you need to have an invite to get in; unlike most other shows where you can just sign up online for the tix. Well clever me managed to circumvent that and obtain an entry ticket in a, lets call it unofficial manner.

So while some people had to be at a chem lecture (waves to KQ) or rushing a project (waves to CY), I was happily joining the queue outside the tent at Taka. While I had a pass, it was the non-VIP pass. So I had to queue up all the same. BUT this show definitely had a higher glam quotient. People were much nicer dressed and hell, even Denise Keller was sashaying outside getting soundbites from the queue with a videoman in tow. Wow... she is indeed very glam (and tall). Then David Gan walked past the queue too, with a bouquet inside his backpack.

As expected the show started late and as I went in I promptly went over to the photographers platform, after collecting the goodie bag, being the cheapo that I am. Now the 2nd obstacle preventing me from these shots emerged. Only press photographers are allowed at the platform this time round! Shit... but is that gonna stop me? Haha... of coz not. Won't describe in detail what happened, but suffice to say, in the dark tent, I suddenly became a press photographer without a media tag.

Ok so after several near-fatal moments of escaping detection, the show finally started with a loud bang, as well as a not so loud sigh of relief. More full body shots and notice that I was at the left hand side of the platform this time round. Enjoy!

Dance before the show.

This fellow ignited a flurry of whispers amongst the female volunteers of the show.

Sweet!

Gold knob buttons are a key feature for ck this season. I liked the skin tone esp the hands.

Distracting dot of light at the background which I should have PS out.

Looks like a baby doll doesn't she?

Note the gold knobs again near the ankles.

Snake skin?

Gold knobs overload!

To be continued...

SFF 25/03/06 - Secret Garden Portraits II

2006-04-08T09:34:00.000+08:00

Might be nicer with a slight yellowish-red tint.

SFF 25/03/06 - Secret Garden Portraits I

2006-04-07T16:31:00.000+08:00

Fashion show photos coming soon. In the meanwhile have a look at these.

More?

2006-04-05T00:39:00.000+08:00

Eh guys, I still got 2 more sets of fashion shots for the ck and Marks & Spencer show. Want to see or not? Or overdose liao? Lol...

Singapore Fashion Festival - Secret Garden

2006-04-03T00:12:00.000+08:00

OK! Finally... this is it. As mentioned before, I was at the Tang's show which comprises of several house brands. The title of the show was Secret Garden. Very mysterious name eh? Actually last year I signed up as a volunteer for the event but last minute had to backout when I suddenly realized by UROPS report was due in like 4 days time when I haven't even started writing anything yet! Anyway, the show was supposed to start at 4pm but by the time we reached at 3.40pm, the queue outside was like damn long liao lor. So we guai guai go and queue... and queue... and queue... until 4.15pm then they start letting us in. Think we queued longer than the show itself -_-"

But wah seh... first time I went inside a fashion tent lei. Inside was like another world altogether. Cooling temperature, lighting effects, dance music... basically like a club lor. Wah damn cool. So this is the kinda thing which socialites participate in. Hmmm... actually we went in via the 'public' entrance. The VIP entrance had a lounge with a bar inside! Ok, digressions aside, there was a slightly raised platform right in front of the runway. So I went and joined the photographers there. But a bit paiseh since all of them carrying funky huge lenses and pro cameras. The models for this event are much more glam than the normal shopping center fashion shows. Can tell that they are pro! Took a damn lot of photos, just shoot and shoot and shoot. Looks like my 2GB SD card investment has finally paid off. Got cons oso la... after I come back got like 500 shots, have to sift through them like mad lor. Siao liao... anyway I just chose a few better ones to post here la. There's like 24 photos in this post. Okok, enough talk. There's 2 categories of shots, half nudes and full nudes.
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Gotcha! Enjoy.

A fairy tale...

Half body shots:

Erm... a bit too sharp. Can see the pimples :P

Nice design on the blouse.

First intermission:

Don't mess with her...

Second intermission:

Everyone say Awwwww...

Full body shots:

Finally my fave model. Goodnight! Oh and Happy Birthday...

Singapore Fashion Festival 2006

2006-04-02T00:03:00.000+08:00

3 days. 4 shows. 1300 photos. 100% bushed.

A Conversation with a Noob

2006-04-01T10:25:00.000+08:00

*Noob

Noob: With the same lens, a more expensive DSLR camera can take better quality photos than a cheaper DSLR.

To a large degree this is false. Of course with the higher price the quality is bound to be better but, relatively speaking it is not that much better. Instead, what a more expensive DSLR offers is more features which allows the photographer more potential to get great photos. One good example is burst speed. The entry level Nikon D50 (S$1200) can shoot up to 2.5 frames per second (fps) whereas the top of the line D2X (S$7000) can shoot up to 8 fps. When shooting sports, the D2X has a higher chance of capturing a winning split section action or facial expression. Though of course it should be in the hands of someone experienced to fully harness the extra potential, as the more expensive DSLR has much more controls and settings to baffle the user.

Noob: The body of a DSLR is more important than the lens, so you should invest in a high end body.

This is definitely false. The lens is the key component of the camera. A fast lens (meaning one with large apertures) can let any DSLR take handheld photos in low light conditions without a flash. It can also create a very shallow depth of field to create a wonderful blurry effect in the background (this is called bokeh). No matter how high end your camera body is, it can never do that with a cheap lens. Also the camera body is mainly electronics, whereas the lens is mainly glass. Glass are precision objects and is difficult to manufacture unlike electronic circuits. So good lens comes at a premium because it is difficult to make.

Noob: I just want the lightest and smallest DSLR body.

Again this is not a good idea. When you are upgrading from a point-and-shoot camera, mobility is the first thing on your mind. But you should realize that almost all DSLRs have roughly the same dimensions, i.e. BIG. So its no point choosing a lighter/smaller one just based on this criterion. They are all not going to fit inside your pocket.

Noob: Megapixels are overrated!

Finally you are making some sense. To a large extent, the more megapixels (MP) a camera has does not mean its photos are nicer. BUT, and this is a very big but, more megapixels are very useful to have. Consider the case which I have a 8MP camera and the subject I am shooting only appears in about a quarter of the frame. So I crop the rest away and I am left with a 2MP shot of my subject. Now if I shoot the same thing with a 2MP camera, the subject which I am shooting will only have 0.5MP, which is severely under-detailed! Of course this problem won't arise if I frame my subject properly without having to do cropping afterwards. So in this sense, more MP is more forgiving of framing mistakes. Oh yah, always shoot at the highest resolution of a camera because it is the native resolution of the sensor. If you choose a lower resolution, the camera simply resizes it using its built-in algorithm. For better quality, I recommend resizing it in your computer instead.

Noob: Why is a DSLR good and why is it so expensive???

The main reason why a DSLR is good is because it has a large sensor. A digital camera works by letting light into the lens and then recording the image in a sensor at the other end of the lens. Almost all point-and-shoot (P&S) cameras are tiny and consequently their sensors are small as well. But a DSLR has a larger size and hence larger sensor which allows it to capture more data. Btw this doesn't mean more megapixels. More data means wonderful colors and less noise, which equates to better photos. Of course by this I mean that when you give a P&S and a DSLR camera to a professional to shoot a same scene with the same angle and settings, the photo from the DSLR will be nicer. This is the only way for a relatively apple to apple comparison. Other than large sensors there are other reasons such as flexibility to use different types of lenses, etc.

Other than the fact that a larger sensor costs more and DSLRs have mechanical parts in them which increases the production costs, DSLRs belong to a niche market. Not anyone will buy it as compared to a P&S camera. Buying one is an investment of sorts. So the manufacturers will take this opportunity to sell it at a premium. And its impossible for DSLR prices to match P&S prices because it will eat into the manufacturers own sales. Basic economic logic tells us that manufacturers want to sell to different markets and price differentiation is one way to do that. Remember, a DSLR is an investment, it will last you a long time if you are keen in photography.

Noob: But DSLRs do not have a live LCD for me to compose shots before I shoot!

Well firstly the Olympus E-330 DSLR and the upcoming Panasonic DSLR allows you to compose the photo before you actually press the shutter button and shoot, but lets face it. It looks damn funny to be holding a large camera at arms length to take photos. It only looks proper if you hold the big camera right onto your eye. No, it's no problem if you are wearing glasses. Anyway if you want the convenience of a LCD, just get a P&S instead.

Noob: Surely there are some cons about DSLRs...

Well of course. It is troublesome to change lenses. A lot of P&S and those super-zooms such as the Sony H1 has a large focal range. This means you can take wide shots and telephoto shots with the same fixed lens. Whereas for DSLRs, most of the time your lens will be either suited for wide shots or telephoto shots. So to switch between them, you have to change lenses. Besides the 2-3 minutes downtime needed to change lens, dust can potentially enter your camera when you are doing the changing. Dust will probably accumulate after maybe 6-12 months depending on your usage, but you can send it back to the service center for them to clean it for a nominal fee.

Another con is that sooner or later the BBB bug will infect you (depending on your level of enthusiasm). Most DSLR users will be tempted to Buy Buy Buy better (and more expensive) lenses, external flash, tripod, monopod, filters, more memory cards, dry cabinets, etc. There's simply no escaping it. You might think that you have self control but after using a DSLR for some time the bug will inevitably bite (hard). DSLR users are perfectionists. We want the best the equipment has to offer.

Noob: Thanks for all the info about DSLRs but I think I shall stick to a small digicam. :P

Well to each his own. If you are basically taking photos of friends or glamour shots of yourself to post on your blog, by all means get a teeny P&S. Like I said before, a DSLR is a niche item. It does not mean all your shots will automatically become masterpieces. You only buy it if you want the potential to take breathtaking shots. Otherwise save your money and use it to buy nicer clothes and makeup so that your self-portraits are nicer.

Scenery of the Day

2006-03-31T00:52:00.000+08:00

Pebble road leading to infinity.
This was part of the pineapple series a while back but I forgot to post it up. For this, I experimented with some composition tips I read about setting the horizon 1/3 from the top of the frame.

f8, 1/200s, 18mm.

Lunch!

2006-03-29T14:39:00.000+08:00

Haven't posted food related stuff for a looong time. It was my grandma's birthday many weekends ago and we had 2 tables at a local restaurant for lunch. The composition sucks I know, but I didn't wanna make myself too stand-outish in a restaurant lunch. First course Longevity Noodles.

Next was the Cold Dish, which had jelly-fish, kong-bao chicken, siew mai, dumplings, fish cakes, etc.

Followed by a delicious Pih-Pah Duck.

After that a new dish of Squid wrapped in Plastic.

And then a double entree of Prawn Salad (yeah looks like some brain) and Butter Prawns.

Next the ubiquitious Steamed Fish.

And the aftermath of it.

Ending soon with a Basin Vegetables which includes mushrooms, sea cucumber, cabbage, pork knuckle, etc. Bad angle I realized.

Then to end it we "had" Pork Belly with Buns.

We also had Yam Paste but I was too busy eating it to take a photo of it. Oh yah, fruits also, if you are really detailed! :P

Preview

2006-03-26T21:35:00.000+08:00

Blogger keeps having a lot of problems lately. Namely not updating my posts when I do some changes to them...

Anyway couldn't resist touching up one of the fashion show shots as a preview of what's to come. Enjoy!

Milestones

2006-03-26T11:43:00.000+08:00

Ever since I've gotten my DSLR in December last year, I've been taking many different genres of photos. If you browse through my Flickr set you would find photos of

~~Food~~
~~Sceneries~~
~~Sports~~
~~Concerts~~
~~Birds~~
~~Street life~~
~~Misc.~~

I still can't say for sure which is my preferred subject to shoot or which subject suits my shooting style. This is important as you will know what lens to upgrade to. For instance if you are a keen on sceneries you will do good to invest in a AF-S DX 12-24mm f/4G IF-ED and if you are a macro shooter, a AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED.

Anyway, digressions aside, there must come a time when you can say to yourself that you've reached a certain milestone in your phototaking journey. For me this first step was reached yesterday when I joined a band of photographers to shoot a Singapore Fashion Festival show at Civic Plaza. Though I learn something new from every subject I've shot, I believe I've gained a tremendous amount of experience from this shoot, whether it is by observing the professional photographers or by taking note of my mistakes. I don't know what the next milestone will be but I am looking forward to learning more. Remember, it is always the photographer, not the camera that is in charge.

p.s. Though of course I am still aiming for a AF-S VR 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED and a SB-800 after my first paycheck. :P

p.p.s. Anyway, will be busy this following week, so look out for another mega photo post of the fashion show soon. Cheerios!

Portrait of the Day

2006-03-25T00:59:00.000+08:00

Decided to start this new series of photos. Obviously they will be portrait shots instead of my usual sceneries. But I don't foresee many of such photos due to my inclination for still objects.

f8, 1/500s, 300mm.

Important: If you are or are related to the person in the photo and do not wish for it to be posted on the web, please let me know (before you chop me to bits) by posting a comment as well as a valid email address. Otherwise feel free to say hi! Thank you. =)

Scenery of the Day

2006-03-24T00:56:00.000+08:00

Bike in the Dust. Desaturated, adjusted Levels and Color Balance.

f5, 1/320s, 35mm.

Sceneries of the Day

2006-03-22T00:54:00.000+08:00

A House.

First time I am doing a "Sceneries..." instead of a "Scenery..." because these two shots complement each other. Located in the grounds of a temple, it is used for staging chinese operas.

f5.6, 1/125s, 18mm.

Love Me Kelly

2006-03-22T00:12:00.000+08:00

On the 16th of March, I attended local singer Kelly Poon's campus concert at UCC with KQ. It was free so I thought, what the heck, just go and take some photos. We entered the courtyard area 15 mins before the show. Not too many people but apparently ticket holders are allowed in before the fan club ppl. Hmm... anyway we chose a vantage point and waited for the show. Hmmm... I saw two official photographers there also. One of them looked like my (distant) friend whom I din know was a pro photographer. Well, at least his kit looked pro.

The event started rather promptly at 6 with a 93.3 DJ playing the host (and who looked much nicer than Kelly). Kelly appeared soon after in a top which can only be described as frumpy looking. Trust me, the full body shot of her looks even worse... Sorry Kelly if you are reading this. You should discuss this wardrobe issue with your image consultant.

Oh the only saving grace, her heels looked nice.

Kelly sang some songs, played some games with the audience, you know those trivia Qs like what's the name of her album, etc. with the prizes being autographed posters.

Then in the middle of one song she started throwing rolled-up posters to the audience, which appeared out of nowhere. The posters I meant. And there was a minor frenzy. Anyway around 25 mins later it was announced that it was going to be her last song! WTH!!! Total concert lasting only 30 mins??? Man... so much for a free concert. I realized I didn't mention anything about her songs. They were nice but frankly I was too busy trying to get good photos than actually listening. :P

Scenery of the Day

2006-03-21T00:38:00.000+08:00

Sunset @ Kent Ridge. Taken by CY at Kent Ridge Park.

f8, 1/800s, ISO200, 18mm.

Pineapples!

2006-03-19T00:13:00.000+08:00

Was back in M'sia over the past weekend and managed to do some shooting in midst of the tight schedule. Woke up early in the morning to make the trip to this pineapple plantation some distance away from my home. I used my brand new 2GB Twinmos 66x SD card bought recently at the IT fair which performed remarkly fast. In fact, I couldnt tell the difference between it and my Sandisk Ultra II which is supposed to be faster. But there was a minor fiasco as my computer couldn't read it when I tried to download my photos. Had to resort to formatting it and then recovering via some utility program. Thankfully all the images were intact. Problem arose because I did not format it with a computer first before using it in the camera. Goes to show that you should always expect the worst when embarking on a photographic mission. Anyway lets have the photos do the talking.

A bridge apart.

A sea of young pineapples.

More of them!

An attempt at a more artistic shot.

Scenery of the Day

2006-03-17T02:00:00.000+08:00

A Fruit (with a crown).

f4, 1/160s, 50mm.

BEACH FIESTA!

2006-03-15T01:16:00.000+08:00

OK, I guess from all the teasers you can guess that this jumbo post has something to do with the beach. Well yeah, on the 4th of March I was lucky enough to be asked to cover the NUS Arts & Social Science Beach Fiesta. Can imagine how excited I was coz this was my first ever photographic assignment. No, I wasn't paid la, but the experience I got from shooting at a beach is priceless! Not many people can get to do it without kena hoot by over-protective boyfriends. Anyway I had some regrets though. But more of that later.

Just a short intro first to what this fiesta is all about. It's organized by the NUS Arts & Social Sci faculty and comprises of two parts. A beach volleyball tournament and a beach pageant. Reached Sentosa around 10+ and immediately started shooting. Received an official tag which served as a talisman to protect me from being hoot. Most of my shootings alternated between my 70-300mm and 18-55mm. Didn't wanna use my 50mm coz I thought it might be too restrictive and I didn't need the f1.8 anyway. Sigh if only I had a 70-200VR f2.8 or 80-200 f2.8.

Initially I thought that I would post the pageant photos here but dunnoleh... is it ethical to post their photos here without consent? Some of them can send to FHM one leh. And also since I don't have the habit of watermarking my photos, other ppl might use it for ulterior purposes like kidnapping or stalking. Then also they are ordinary students, no celebrities. So they might want privacy? But haha... I think very few people read this blog anyway. Update: I decided to post some non-controversial pics. I don't want to break any rules.

People post AV girls and bikini babes in their blogs, I post bikini hunks. Sure win NUS Best Blog one. Wahaha...

Managed to capture some dramatic shots.

Some volleyball pics.

Even a pseudo-artistic attempt.

Before the pageant began, there was a performance by this duo from a local music cafe. Imagine having to sing with a less than acceptable sound system at 12noon. They were hot, literally!

Here they are, all the contestants in a row to face the firing squad.

After 3 rounds of grilling under the sun, finally here is the King and Queen.

Actually I have many more shots of the pageant but I am not going to post them here. Want to leave them to your imagination mah. Haha... If you are keen in any of the photos which you think exists, contact the event organizers for it. I've send them all of the good ones.

After the pageant was over, my job was more or less done. After bumming around a while more, me and CY headed home, but not without trying the luge ride first. Hehe...

One major lesson I learnt was to always be prepared for the worst. Halfway through the pageant, my 1GB SD card was nearly full. I couldn't spare the time to get my 128MB card which was a distance away so I had to resort to changing to lower quality JPG and deleting some of my earlier volleyball photos. And while the judges were determining the winners, I had to run several hundred meters away to download the files to my notebook which had only several hundred MBs left, so I had to delete some other stuff from my notebook. Lesson learnt: Will be getting another SD card before my next major shoot and if I bring a notebook along, it had bloody better have some space in it.

Another lesson is to always experiment with the camera settings. I almost never applied the depth-of-field effect in all my shots. I think what was going through my mind was that setting a smaller aperture will result in shaper images, hence my settings were f8 and f11 for most parts of the day. This is true of course, but then I am shooting portraits, so less sharp images are not really a problem and a nice bokeh will be better instead. Also by setting aperture priority to small apertures, there are times when the shutter speed became too slow and some of my shots were blurry due to handshake. Normally the speed is still high enough but as I was using a long lens, the shaking was amplified. Lesson learnt: Experiment with large apertures as well as fast shutter speeds.

Third lesson is not to be lazy. There was a total of maybe 24 volleyball teams but lazy me only shot a maximum of 6 teams in action only. Why? Because the rest were in the area which had no shade so I was lazy to shoot there. WTF! How can I be so lazy?? Now ended up I don't have that many volleyball photos to show and most of them are kinda repetitive anyway. Lesson learnt: Be more hardworking and to slog it out.

Final lesson is to improve my warming up skills. What I mean is the ability to build a rapport with strangers and get them to pose for me. I noticed alot of event photography involves taking posed photos of people, either groups of friends, couples, etc. But I only took very few of them. And because I haven't warmed up yet when I first arrived, I missed the chance to take photos of the pageant contestants as they were having their hair and makeup done. Lesson learnt: Be brave!

2 more days...

2006-03-13T13:53:00.000+08:00

5 More Days...

2006-03-10T01:17:00.000+08:00

7 more days...

2006-03-08T11:31:00.000+08:00

Watch out for 15 March 2006

2006-03-06T20:02:00.000+08:00

Scenery of the Day

2006-03-01T09:34:00.000+08:00

Singapore Nightline

A shot that has been done to death but nonetheless, here it is.

f8, 1/2s, ISO1600, 18mm.

Scenery of the Day

2006-02-28T09:22:00.000+08:00

Users of Highway

Dunno why I forgot to add this shot together with my bird-brained photos but anyway here it is. Can interpret this in many ways. Can think of the bird as Big Brother and the ant as terrorist, sneaking behind the bird. Haha... Or maybe no matter whether you are big or small, you still have to pass the highway of life? Or just simply, we are all citizens of the world, so let us share the world together.

f10, 1/250s, ISO400, 240mm.

Throbbing

2006-02-26T12:17:00.000+08:00

Went for a free concert at UCC last Fri in conjunction with the NUS Arts Fest. Rock performance by local band Throb. Don't feel like typing much today, so I'll let the photos do the throbbing:

All photos taken either with my 70-300mm or 50mm. Post-processing done mainly to desaturate and to add noise.

Latest Film Listing Updated

2006-02-23T09:25:00.000+08:00

It's Oscar season once again, and also the time when all the SG distributors cramp ALL the nominees into a single month. I will hopefully be able to watch all of the following, if I don't kill myself from overdose first especially when all of them average 2 hours (asterisks represent importance):

Brokeback Mountain *****
Munich *****
Mrs Henderson Presents ***
Matchpoint *****
North Country *
Syriana ***
Walk the Line **
Constant Gardener **
I Not Stupid Too ****
Hidden *****

Ultra Zoom Lens & Birds

2006-02-18T12:49:00.000+08:00

Before I show off my bird-brained photos, let me first introduce the latest addition to my arsenal. The Nikkor AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6G. I bought it from a nice uncle who sold it second-hand. It's definitely a good buy as it costs much less than what others are selling it for and it practically looks brand new. The lens is spotless and comes with the box, hood, etc. Been using it for coupla weeks now and it's great to have such a powerful telephoto zoom lens, especially for someone as kaypoh as me\. But I must admit it's kinda heavy though. My hands started to ache after carrying it around with the camera for a while. Wonder how I will cope with the 18-200VR which weighs slightly more. Anyway, the maximum effective focal length is around 460mm which is longer than the Sony H1 mega-zoom. And did I mention that it's great for snooping inside other people's house?

One weak point of having a long focal length lens is that it is prone to shaking especially if you don't have any form of vibration reduction, like the Sony H1. But oh well, this is one of the cheapest telephoto zoom lens around and shooting in the daytime should be ok when using fast shutter speeds. Shall wait for the day that I can afford a AF-S VR 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED. OK... enough with the introduction and on to the main course. Reasonably sharp close-up of a common yellow breasted bird:

Bird blending in nicely with the surrounding:

This is different from the above two. It has a dark blue neck. Interestingly this one seems to prefer the flower of the coconut tree while the above ones prefer to hang around 'normal' flowers:

Bird trying to act 'seh' ala Tom Cruise:

Finally the last photo:

Ooops... guess where the bird is now. ;)

Scenery of the Day

2006-02-17T09:24:00.000+08:00

Fireworks at Marina Bay (taken without a tripod).

f3.8, 1/30s, ISO200, 23mm.

Preview of things to come...

2006-02-14T01:00:00.000+08:00

Some shots after the Corrinne May concert at the National University of Singapore's UCC Concert Hall on the 12th of February 2006. More to come!

Intermission

2006-02-12T10:23:00.000+08:00

And now I interrupt your daily dose of food, film and fotography to bring you a hair-raising discovery. For my past few hair cuts (easily over a year since I cut it on average 4 times a year), I've been patronising Heatwave at Marina Square, often before or after a movie. For one reason or another, the past year has seen me appearing at MS rather often and in fact I can't remember when was the last time I stepped into Taka!

***

Intermission of an Intermission

Marina Square is now a shadow of its past. Not sure whether that expression is used correctly or not but it is becoming a kinda hip place (relative of course). And of course there are so many food outlets! The first Carl's Junior in SG was opened here. Wah big American style burgers. Yum! Then there are the familiar Swensen's, Cafe Cartel, Billy Bombers, Hans, Sakae Sushi, Spagheddies and the not so familiar Waraku, Changing Appetites, Kyo-nichi Ramen, Dian Xiao Er, Corona, etc. in addition to the fastfood chains BK, Macs, KFC, Yoshi, etc.

And there was a surprising discovery lately that the food court, imaginatively called Food Loft, has a famous HK roast meat stall with lofty aspirations! It was reviewed in the latest 8Days and its one of the rare food stalls to sell roast goose (!) and suckling pig (!) roasted at the location! I tried the roast duck with char-siu rice (because the goose don't have anymore) and it was great! To add extra meat costs only $1! The char-siu not the usual boring type but it had character. And the duck had well marinated skin with meat that was flavorful as well. The queue was long enough too, with one guy packing 17 packs of chicken rice, no doubt influenced by the review, just like me. Kinda wasted that a few days prior to that I was there with HM and couldn't find anything nice there and had to resort to this not so nice claypot rice. Kena tricked becoz I thot the bacon advertised was real bacon instead of deep-fried bacon ala BK.

Well that's the food part. Marina Sq also has a cinema which used to be super hard to find. Now, it's just hard to find. Other than that, clothing wise the selection are pretty decent though for more branded stuff have to walk over to Suntec.

Of course all those are not the real ultimate reason I go Marina Sq so often. The reason... has to be kept a secret lah.

End.

***

Anyway, as I was saying, I've been to Heatwave for several times and for the previous two times I've had my hair styled by Wini Kwek (hello if you are readin this!). Yes.. styled, not cut. I don't pay so much to just have it cut. :P

She's a nice and pleasant (and rather cute) girl who does a good job on my hair. No complaints so far. I like it that I don't feel obliged to make small talk, unlike with other stylists that I've had before. I don't trust a stylist who cuts and talks at the same time. And she dishes out good advice too in just one sentence per session. First time was don't wait longer than 2 months for a haircut. The last time was don't use hair spray as it flattens my hair. Ok maybe those are common sense, but it sure made sense to me. Another thing is this place is usually not crowded. I just go in, get shown to a seat and the stylist arrives in seconds. I don't even have time to pick up the obligatory magazine they offer you! Great for people like me who dreads spending time at a hair salon. All these coupled with the reasonable price of $21 for a wash and cut makes it a no-brainer place for hair-dressing. Only time will tell how long I will continue patronizing this place since I do have a tendency to change salons. But so far so good.

Scenery of the Day

2006-02-10T14:35:00.000+08:00

Growth of Hope.

Stone pattern found in my garden. This is (I feel) perhaps one of the best photos I've taken of all time. Great for wallpapers too. But as usual, the flickr colors aren't as saturated as the original.

f4, 1/60s, ISO400, 50mm.

One More Thing...

2006-02-09T19:18:00.000+08:00

Hmmm... I dunno why I missed this but I did watch one more film while I was back home for CNY. Anyway it's an old Jap film from the director of the more widely known Double Suicide. It's about a relationship between a student and a teacher and how the student seeks revenge for her teacher. Oh and the student is a lesbian while her teacher is a bisexual (?) herself. This show cemented the stereotype that women are born avengers. Don't mess around with them!

Flowers, Flowers and more FLOWERS!

2006-02-06T10:50:00.000+08:00

People take photos of flowers, I oso take flowers. Though mine are not rare and not found in Sentosa. Can find anywhere in M'sia.

The following three are stylized photos of some shots I took. Needless to say they are post-processed. I experimented a bit with Photoshop and obtained such results.

Looking forward to more great shots of flowers in the future. And oh ya most of the flower shots are done with my Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D.

Super Duper Mega Photo Post (Warning: Excessive photos ahead)

2006-02-03T22:39:00.000+08:00

OK... to make up for the lack of shooting over the past few weeks, here is a super duper long and image intensive post. Been back to M'sia for CNY, and of coz took lotsa photos. Ok first up is the surroundings of my home. First photo is what it looks like when I come out of my home from the front door:

If I turn left this is what it looks like (looks like a never-ending road):

If I turn right this is what I get (dead-end):

And if I return back into home. Wah so many cars! Not mine!:

Triple shot of bamboo in the garden. A good symbol for CNY:

Coconuts (all green but ripe). Er nothing to do with CNY:

Ok and now time for reunion dinner of what else but a simple steamboat for a simple family:

Close up of the main ingredients:

And of coz CNY surely got gambling. It's the chinese tradition. The kids' mahjong session, of all ppl!:

And blackjack sessions are a must:

On another note, I watched 4 movies at home over the past few days. Shaolin Soccer, Dogville (finally!), Darkness Bride and Face of Jizo. Former was funny and interesting but I still think Kungfu Hustle is the superior one. And at last I got my butt down to watch Dogville, which was rather disturbing, and at 3 hours quite a bit long. Contrary to popular reviews, I love the ending. I like revenge! I am not one for forgiveness. Darkness Bride is confounding to say the least. Still can't understand why the great Inky say its the best Chinese movie of that year. Finally is Face of Jizo, a Jap film adapted from a play about the psychological effect of the A-bomb. Have to admit it was kinda boring, but great acting nonetheless.

And to end it, I give you the expression for those people who study during CNY:

-_-" DUH!!!

MEGA Photos Posts Coming Soon!

2006-02-02T21:46:00.000+08:00

Coming REAL soon...

Film Updates

2006-01-19T15:46:00.000+08:00

Haven't been blogging much lately because I haven't been taking any photos! And why is this so? Because the holidays have ended! I've been watching quite a few movies though. Watched Pride & Prejudice, Tin Mine and Proof on Tues. Must say that I am very pleased that P&P is showing again after ending its run sometime ago. It's nice and very romantic. And my two Korean DVDs arrived as well. Wont say what they are though. Heh...

50mm lens and frens

2006-01-08T08:56:00.000+08:00

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!

Miss Clarity Cafe

2006-01-07T07:49:00.000+08:00

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.

Concise Chinatown Visit

2006-01-06T19:06:00.000+08:00

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.

Scenery of the Day

2006-01-03T21:17:00.000+08:00

Outside my PGP cluster.

F2, 1/125s, 50mm.

Scenery of the Day

2005-12-29T08:24:00.000+08:00

Sunset in the CBD.

F13, 1/250s, 32mm.

Notice the difference between the two photos? They are actually both from the same file! I dunno why the upper one posted using blogger and the bottom one posted using flickr has different contrasts. The upper one is the one which I intended. So that means all the while my flickr has been showing the wrong colors.

Scenery of the Day

2005-12-28T19:58:00.000+08:00

A Tree.

F14, 1/50s, 35mm.

Somehow this photo looks pretty ordinary but there's something about it...

Cafe Rosso

2005-12-27T12:29:00.000+08:00

FINALLY! I've stepped into this place which I've heard so much about. Was there around 8pm yesterday to buy a slice of dessert home with CY. Place was empty and seems like they are closing already. Only got a coupla cakes at the counter so I chose the tiramisu ($5.50). Imagine my surprise when they put it in a nice box and even a paper bag which is like something from a designer boutique! Hell... when we got back we found out that they are so meticulous! Inside a box was taped a ice pack and even the cake was taped down to the box to prevent it from moving around.

Service was impeccable as well, with lotsa thank yous and even greetings in Jap from the Jap manager (?). $5.50 is ex for a tiny tiramisu, but with this kind of service, I've no heart pain. Oh yeah and of coz it was Delicious with a capital D. Very distinct taste as it tasted creamy and milky. Perhaps the only nit-picking is that they should be more heavy-handed with the liquor. But no complains!

Cafe Rosso

17D Lorong Liput,

Holland Village,

Singapore 277731.

Da Vinci Code

2005-12-27T05:21:00.000+08:00

Ok, by a stroke of luck I finally got round to reading this hugely popular book. Well, what can I say other than it really is very engaging and makes you want to flip page after page. Lots of twists, red herrrings and what-have-you-nots. At the end I felt kinda empty because come to think of it, there really isn't that much substance. This is a case of the journey is more exciting than the end. But well, it does pique my interest in the paintings mentioned in there, as well as all the arty locations. So I guess I did learn something at the end. It would be better to have read the illustrated version though. Many times I had to search the net for the respective photos of the paintings and locations mentioned in the book.

YERs...

2005-12-26T11:01:00.000+08:00

Time for Year End Rankings. First up are the Top 12 Films! They include those showing in cinemas as well as on dvd and other mediums; as long as I've watched them in 2005. In random order:

Kungfu Hustle - The unexpected hit of the year.

Little did I imagine how good this is. After Stephen Chow's reputation as producing corny kungfu movies, my expectations weren't too high. In fact I think I watched this because it's the only movie at that time which could fit into my free time slot. But the comedy, homages and production values make this one of the most memorable HK movie of all time.

Million Dollar Baby - Set in depression.

Regardless of what people may say about this being a boxing movie, for me this film will always be remembered as one with a big heart yet does not hesitate to bring in the full one-two punch. Life is cruel.

Sideways - Roadtrip comedy of the year.

Roadtrip with lotsa wine and humour. What's there not to like?

Samaritan Girl - No heart to watch it again.

Yet another film which portrays the cruelty of life. I don't think I can bear to sit through this again. It is that heart-wrenching and left me morally torn.

Cafe Lumiere - Simple yet touching.

No other movie this year is as slow and silent as Hou's homage to Ozu. No other movie this year is as touching and survives multiple viewings. Another great supporting role by Asano Tadanobu. Watch out for his subtle facial expressions and gestures.

Perhaps Love - Unexpected love movie of the year.

Perhaps the saddest love film for me this year. Perhaps the only film which makes me weep this year. Mistaken by many to be an half-hearted attempt at producing a musical, in reality it uses the premise of a musical to hint that life is but a stage.

King Kong - Blockbuster hit of the year.

No one does big blockbuster hits like Peter Jackson. His legacy is cemented. The inclusion of Naomi Watts makes this a masterpiece. CGI might be a tad shoddy, but this film is all about love and how humans (and beasts) express it.

A History of Violence - Meditative action of the year.

There's no need to justify the inclusion of this. It appeared in numerous lists of the year. In mine too.

Closer - Sex without action.

This movie is solely about sex. Not the physical action of it but the intricate power play and psychology behind it. Although the plot is bleak, the ending left a grin on my face.

Memories of Murder - Crime saga.

This is actually quite an old movie. The delicate fusion between fiction and reality escalates it to the ranks of the best detective films around. The focus is on a deep understanding of how two opposite police minds work.

A Bittersweet Life - Korean mafia extravaganza.

If you love gangster films, this is the one for you. Many scenes stand out and provide a fresh breath for this genre. I must admit I've a soft spot for gangster films.

Blind Shaft - The mining depths of China revealed.

A probe into the mining industry in China. The gritty documentary style is engaging and truly believable.

Scenery of the Day

2005-12-25T16:50:00.000+08:00

Urbanization. The Padang, Singapore.

F5, 1/3s, 18mm.

Scenery of the Day

2005-12-23T19:22:00.000+08:00

Overhead bridge, Scotts Rd.

F16, 2s, 55mm.

Scenery of the Day

2005-12-22T21:04:00.000+08:00

This one not taken by me. From Rick Bouthiette using a Nikon D70. I swear he took this in heaven.

Yebisu Dark Beer

2005-12-21T19:36:00.000+08:00

Yebisu's dark beer is the most common dark beer among the rest of the Japanese beer producers. I had my first taste of it at a yakitori restaurant at Ebisu (yes, their names are the same), a small high end district in Tokyo. Of course the experience of drinking it here at home is vastly different with the exclusion of good food and company. Here in Singapore, this beer is also not so common. In fact, I bought it at Meidi-ya at Liang Court and don't recall seeing it anywhere else. As expected from a dark beer, it has a roasty/smoky taste to it. It won't replace the normal ale/lager as an everyday beer but its nice to have a different beer once in a while. In fact it does make you feel manly!

Scenery of the Day

2005-12-21T09:25:00.000+08:00

Beside Tangs, Singapore.

F13, 1/10s, 30mm.

Scenery of the Day

2005-12-20T09:18:00.000+08:00

Outside Paragon, Singapore.

F5.6, 0.04s, 38mm.

Focused

2005-12-17T20:31:00.000+08:00

Hi loyal readers (and stalkers),
I've decided to stay more Focused and realign this blog into a F blog, or more specifically The F-Diaries. Namely dealing with either Food, Film or Fotography (yes I am aware of the spelling, but hey its my blog) or any linear combinations of them. Enjoy the ride and be prepared for all the F words. Cheers!

p.s. I haven't forgotten about the Quantum Blog. Quite stupid to call a blog a Quantum Blog when there's no physics in it. So now the Quantum Blog will be a real nerdy intellectual physics blog. Click here to go there.

Provence Bakery

2005-12-13T19:25:00.000+08:00

Trooped down to Provence the other day to get some bread. Been going there quite a lot lately because their bread is simply heavenly. Their selection is pretty small, maybe half of Breadtalk but their quality surpasses all the bakeries I've tried so far. For this post I wanna focus on their croissants. Mainly because I was so taken aback by how this simple and common bread can taste so divine in their hands. The humble croissant comes in two sizes there. A mini one and a normal one (pictured above). The mini one is really tiny. You can pop it into your mouth in one go. It's priced around $0.40. The normal one costs a dollar plus and is more satisfying. The main thing about it is that it tastes so buttery. Maybe it's just me, but a buttery croissant which has slightly crispy skin is just so delicious. I love butter, btw. And to eat croissants without actually having to butter it myself is really convenient. Some other places make the croissant skin either too hard or too soft. Provence makes it just right and somehow it still tastes as good hours later. I attribute it to the quality ingredients they use. Flour imported from France I believe.

Provence Bakery & Cafe

17A Lorong Liput Holland Village

Singapore 277731

Scenery of the Day

2005-12-13T19:17:00.000+08:00

Ngee Ann City

F13, 0.4s, 18mm.

Scenery of the Day

2005-12-09T13:52:00.000+08:00

East Coast Road

F3.5, 1/40s, 18mm.

Curry Rice

2005-12-08T16:13:00.000+08:00

Ok fine so the photo doesn't look appetizing. Curry rice bought from the "Curry Rice" stall from Telok Blangah hawker center. Well it aint that appetizing in reality either. It's way inferior to the one at Bukit Merah View. $2.50 for breaded pork chop, chup chye and rice. Besides curry rice for lunch yesterday, I also had tau hway. Want to kick myself for forgeting to take photo of it.

Scenery of the Day

2005-12-08T12:30:00.000+08:00

Kent Ridge Park

F8, 1/4s, 55mm.

HK Cafe

2005-12-08T11:52:00.000+08:00

Brought CY to this place over at Upper East Coast Rd after a nice supper there with SW some time ago. We went around 8pm and boy, the whole area was rather crowded. Had to park in some residential area behind the place. Brought my Dotty with me so I took some nice photos. I dunno whether it seems weird to be lugging that DSLR around to restaurants, but so far so good. At least with a companion with me I don't feel so shy whipping it out. Since we are having dinner today, we ordered more food than previously. For drinks I had iced Yin Yang, which is HK lingo for milk tea and coffee combo, while CY had iced milk tea. I realized the iced version was more worth it compared to the hot one which came in a rather small mug, even for $0.50 less. For sides we ordered the familar classics, two polo buns, one polo bun with charsiew, french toast with peanut butter and sour and spicy soup. CY felt the Crystal Jade (CJ) polos were nicer but to me I think the ones here are better. They are smaller but comes warm and just feels right. Of coz I must go to HK to verify the authentic ones. The charsiew one wasn't as nice as CJ though, I must admit. The charsiew is not as plentiful and flavorful. French toast again was wonderful though CY (as usual) thought that the one made by her sister was nicer. Finally the soup was good as well, chockful of ingredients though it wasn't too spicy for my taste, which probably means most ppl won't find it spicy at all. For the mains I had the classic instant noodle soup with luncheon meat and fried egg. The luncheon meat came in a thick disc. Kudos! Meanwhile CY had beef kway teow, which I dunno whether its authentic HK food or not. The beef was tender but the kway teow was a bit bland. Perhaps the result of assaulting our tastebuds with butter, honey, sour/spicy soup? Anyway total bill came up to $27. No complains there because I ate until I was damn bloated. Which isn't something I feel very much nowadays. On a side note, the waitresses there are really hot. There's one in her 30s (?) and has this mature look and resembles Rene Liu (CY doesn't think so). From her accent can tell she's not local and probably a Hongkie, which of course brings further authenticity to that place. CY thinks another younger waitress is prettier though, but lets not go to there.

Polo buns, yum! The behemoth at the bottom right is the charsiew version.

French toast with peanut butter inside and plenty of honey slattered on top.

Instant noodles hidden underneath an egg, luncheon meat and a stalk of HK kailan.

Clockwise from top left: Beef kway teow, milk tea, Yin Yang, sour and spicy soup.

Fiery Flava

2005-12-08T10:49:00.000+08:00

Had KFC for lunch yesterday because I wanted to try their new chicken after CY's recommendation. But apparently there's no new chicken. it's just chicken under the guise of new clothes, or rather sauce. The fiery flava [sic] KFC chicken is basically the normal crispy type but they give you this fiery flava sauce to go with it. Anyway was a good chance to try out my DSLR on foodie photos but I wanted to kick myself for forgetting to shoot the sauce as well. Darn... now its just normal KFC. Anyway here's how KFC looks like from a DSLR:

Ok on to a brief review. Basically the set for this new flavor costs the same as their chicken meals. The sauce itself reminds me of sambal initially, but after that initial moment, it tastes sweeter and more tangy. And well that's all to it. I did think about how KFC is marginally healthier than Macs though, since they include coleslaw in their meals. Oh well, marginally healthier is better than not healthier right?

Fish & Co.

2005-12-08T10:26:00.000+08:00

Had dinner with CY there on Sunday. We went pretty early, so it was not full yet, but still compared to the other restaurants at the Suntec basement area, it was relatively the most packed. This was my second visit and my first one was also at the outlet in Suntec, but at different locations because they shifted to another location facing the fountain. We ordered seafood platter for one, swordfish collar, kola tonic and passionfruit soda. Drinks was pretty standard with the former being cola layerd with tonic water and the latter passionfruit syrup (?) topped with soda water. Service was good though they did kind of forget my swordfish collar which I had to remind them about when we were nearly finishing the seafood platter. Seafood platter was good as usual, though the fish was a bit soggy. I loved the grilled calamaris though. Please to note that there's no mussels in the single person version. Nonetheless the swordfish collar was fantastic. It came in two big pieces with chunky meat all over the large bones. We got some stares from the surrounding tables when it arrived. Yes, it was that huge. The deep fried fish didn't have the texture of swordfish steak but was more flaky and nicer. It did look like a huge chunk of deep fried chicken breast meat though and you have to really dig through the crevices to find the meat. It came with this sweet and sour sauce which goes real well with the fish. All in all, for $14.80 it is really worth it. Would go there again just for this. We also saw a family order this whole deep fried fish which seemed kinda out of place in a western restaurant. A caucasian pair was also drinking red wine with their seafood. Hmm... Anyway, total bill came up to $48 and nothing to complain about considering the quality and the portion. For future trips thought I would want to order the big fishy drinks. Initially I thought $6.50 was too much to pay for a normal fruity drink, but actually they were drinks big enough for 2 persons to share. I also realized they serve some cocktails as well. Interesting. Oh and there was this supervisor/captain who looked like Belinda something from local TV, but with a way oversized uniform.

Kit! Kat!

2005-12-05T16:03:00.000+08:00

Found! In Singapore! Limited Edition Kit Kat! From Japan! By Patissier Takagi! 3 Types Available! The Wine and Noir goes for $5.90 and the Strawberry $1.90! Wine and Noir are mini Kit Kats in a big box while Strawberry comes in 2 normal sized twin bars!

Kit Kat Wine! With all the goodness of red wine!

Kit Kat Noir! With all the goodness of dark chocolate!

Strawberry Kit Kat! Real strawberry bits in them!

BUT! Haven't seen this here yet! Maple syrup Kit Kat! Hope we can see it soon!

Arthur & George

2005-12-02T21:52:00.000+08:00

Finally finished this Booker prize shortlister. The story is based on the lives of Sir Arthur Conan Doyal (SACD) and George Edalji (GE) and how they crisscross each other. Before I read the book, I knew about SACD but not about GE. So my initial perception was that this was a piece of fiction which just happens to use SACD as is protagonist. But later when I did a search on the net. I found out that this book is a sort of pseudo-fiction. GE is a real person and the way their lives are related is indeed true. The filling up of all the gaps in between the historical events is the reason why it is a fiction. The author, Julian Barnes, clearly and charmingly weaves a yarn of detective tale right up to the standards of Sherlock Holmes. The book is really engaging and has all the ingredients of a suspenceful and clever detective story. Even though there is no twist because the story is already well known, the author brilliantly slips in many other worthy issues to ponder over. GE, is actually a second generation Indian in Britain. This fact isnt immediately obvious from the beginning of the book if you did not already know the historical story, but the author cleverly fills us in as the story progresses. So issues of race, class and proprieties are brought into the picture. As a large part of the plot revolves around the legal profession, many conundrums are posed and you learn alot about how you really can make bricks out of straw. Ultimately what left a strong impression is how prejudices are easily formed and how in the hands of too much power, reality can be fabricated.

Mega Food Post

2005-11-30T10:19:00.000+08:00

Been reading about a lot of food related stuff lately and wanna recommend 3 which I love to read. First is Chubby Hubby, a Singaporean foodie who serves up alot of stunnning food photos on his blog (sidenote: apparently his foodie wife is in this month's Her World best dressed list). I believe you need a SLR to take those kind of photos. Though I still cant imagine someone whipping out a SLR in a restaurant or hawker center to take photos. Oh well... next up is the Makansutra forum. Very useful forum to discuss and read about everything related to food in Singapore and sometimes beyond. I picked up a lot of info from there for food recommendations and reviews. Finally is She Who Eats, a blog by a Japanese, who blogs in English. Again, the photos she takes are stunning! I swear she can take photos of natto and make me wanna eat it, despite the fact that I believe I can never acquire its very "unique" taste.

Anyway, based on those sources, I have been on a foodie trek lately. First up is Provence bakery. It's a Japanese run bakery, but with European influences. This is the thing about Japanese, they can take things from others and make it better than the original! In this case, European bread and pastries. In the words of CY, going inside the shop is like entering a different world. A world of quaint Europe, with all the delicious bread. I tried the coffee cream which was simply sinful, with lots and lots of coffee and whipped cream ($1.60). Then I had the sesame roll with cream cheese ($0.40), utter delicious. An pan, red bean bun which was nice. The sandwiches, which looked great although I only tried one type. SW swore her herb-tuna-ham one was outta the world. Btw mind you I went there several times, not just once. Yeah then the latest discoveries were chocolate wassants ($4 for 10) and their croissants. The wasants were fabulous and as I am typing this now I am popping one into my mouth. Oh actually wasants are tiny croissants but they are not flaky and have chocolate layers in them. I dunno how they make their bread so soft even though I kept it for more than a day liao. And their croissants... man I tell you, I never tasted croissants which was as good as this. The buttery taste is superb!!! I tried the mini one which went for $0.40 but next time I am gonna get the big one. Oh yah got 1 more, their cinammon roll ($1.80). Very sinful indeed. Truth be told their stuff is not cheap, but based on the number of their Japanese clientele and the quality, I believe we are paying good value for the quality.

Then there's Cafe Rosso at Holland V. Yet another Japanese style place. But this one is more of a cafe serving hot food. I heard good things about their breakfast sets. Apparently they use real maple syrup for their pancakes. This place is also very expensive with breakfast sets averaging around $15. Think most ppl will feel its crazy to fork that kind of money for a set of maybe toast + eggs + coffee + juice. But I'll reserve my judgement till I tried it with SW.

Another current "hot" place which I am going to lately is Alexandra Village food center. This place wasn't new to me as previously I've been there for the Rong Guang BBQ seafood. I love their crayfish, stingray and mussels though dunno y my mother say it's average. But lately I've been going there very often for dinner and trying out the other food there. There's 2 orh luak stalls there. One is selling orh luak solely while the other sells it together with char kway teow, hokkien mee, carrot cake, etc. The former is operated by a mid-old aged couple with a long beard (the man of course). Their orh luak is dryer and more akin to carrot cake style. The other one is wetter and is more starchy. Both are very different styles so you can choose which one you feel like having. Btw the char kway teow from that stall is good too. And similar to their orh luak, it is wet style and rather sweet, though not as sweet as the Lao Fu Zi stall at Old Airport Rd. Then there's the Bak Kut Teh stalls. Got 2 of them. The one facing the carpark is marginally cheaper but I cant taste a big difference between the two. Both are rather the same style and averaged $5 for a single person portion with youtiao. Then at night there's satay from the Ponggol satay stall which is damn good, though the gravy could be a tad more spicy though. Considering that I can't take very hot stuff, theirs is really very beginner level. They have pork, chicken and mutton though when I was there mutton was not available. Each is $0.40 and the ketupat rice is $0.50. Then there's BBQ chicken wing also which is really damn good! Each costs $1 (reasonable) and has crispy skin. The marinade is good as well. One thing to note is to eat it while its hot. Otherwise not so nice liao. The stall also sells rojak, the version which has cuttlefish and taupok. Haha... I think I becoming an expert at this food center liao. Another stall which I frequent is the one which sells tze-char. The reason is that they sell single person portions. It's actually side by side with another stall selling roughly the same thing but I always buy from the one with the mean-faced lady taking orders. Dunno y leh, but the stall just looks nicer. Prices averaged around $3.50. So far I've tried their Malay fried rice which comes with fried chicken wings (the fried rice not so good), beef with kailan (rather good) and beef with bittergourd (good as well and comes with black beans). I also like the fact that they separate the hot stuff with your rice when you tabao back. This ensures the rice remains dry not mushy. Will try their hor-fun and chicken chop rice one day. Wait... still got more. Tried pork chop from the stall opposite the tze-char stalls. The gravy was weird and overall not very memorable. Had the cold orh-nee from the vegetarian dessert stall. Not so nice as well. Oh this food center is famous for avocado juice as well. Can see many stalls selling them though actually I think only one of them is the one which sparked off this trend. It's the one facing the car park and in between the bak kut teh and duck rice stall. It was recommended by Yummy King. Oh and actually the duck rice stall is famous as well (Yummy King recommended too). Though during dinner they are usually sold out. Must try their glistening roast duck and char siew. Damn good! Man... this paragraph is never ending. I got a final stall to recommend. The Depot Road claypot laksa. It used to be at a kopitiam along Depot Rd, which is very near to the food center. Their laksa is served in a claypot and has chicken shreds and prawns. Caution due to the heat of the claypot + the spiciness, it is not for everyone. Actually personally I couldnt finish mine. I sweated like hell and numbed my tongue. :p Ok tat's all for AV, time to move on.

Pasir Panjang food center! Currently circle line construction is taking place there so might not be very convenient. Anyway I only tried the green char kway teow there. It comes with more green veges and cabbage than kway teow! Seriously... I just remember eating a plate of veges. :p Anyway its intersting lah, and featured in foodie guides as well. Worth a try, though mainly for the novelty. SW said its expensive, but my $3 portion was pretty ok lah.

Next stop. Holland V XO fish beehoon. Whoah heard about this place for long time but only recently went to try with CY. Was at their Chinatown branch before and the XO was nice as was their san lao hor fun and prawn paste chicken. This time round we had the XO fish meat beehoon for 2 person ($10). The soup was nice, fish well fried but the beehoon was slightly mushy. CY complained that the beehoon shouldnt be cut so small. Oh well... Overall soup was excellent while the beehoon could be improved.

(To be continued...)

Lists

2005-11-26T20:33:00.000+08:00

List of Movies coming out in Dec which I'd be watching

~~Oliver Twist (technically it was out in Nov)~~
~~Narnia~~
~~King Kong~~
The Promise
~~Aeon Flux (watching with KQ)~~
~~A History of Violence~~
~~Perhaps Love (watching with YT)~~
Pride & Prejudice
~~Wallace & Gromit~~
Sha Po Lang
Just Like Heaven

List of Books I'd read before holidays end

~~Arthur & George~~
Warped Passages
Invitation to Contemporary Physics
Lost Japan
The Tipping Point
Freakonomics
Dan Brown series
(Now let's not get too ambitious shall we...)
The Road to Reality

SD or CF faster

2005-11-20T20:06:00.000+08:00

I hate to break this to you, but CF is theoretically faster than SD cards simply because it has a bigger data bus, i.e. its pipe is bigger. Most if not all DSLR use CF and if SD is really better than they would have taken over the world by storm now since they are smaller than CF.

Cheers!

Food, Film & Fotography

Sushi Kikuzawa

MGM Cafe (or Disco?)

Tom Ton @ Central

More Birds, More Luck

Donut Mania

Wagyu from Aston's

天灰 (S.H.E.)

8th Singapore Motorshow (Part 3/3)

8th Singapore Motorshow (Part 2/3)

8th Singapore Motorshow (Part 1/3)

Da Paolo Bistro Bar

Delicious Meal

Foodie Reviews Update

Investments

News

Biei - Asahikawa - Sapporo (Part 2)

Biei - Asahikawa - Sapporo (Part 1)

Abashiri - Asahikawa - Biei (Part 3)

Abashiri - Asahikawa - Biei (Part 2)

Services

No updates

Abashiri - Asahikawa - Biei (Part 1)

Utoro - Rausu - Abashiri (continuation)

Utoro - Rausu - Abashiri

Intermission

More photos from Shiretoko

Abashiri - Shari - Utoro

Narita - Haneda - Memanbetsu - Abashiri

Hello Singapore

Me: Goodbye.

TCC

Singapore Fashion Festival - ck (Part II)

A Semester in the Life of...

Q

Singapore Fashion Festival - ck (Part I)

SFF 25/03/06 - Secret Garden Portraits II

SFF 25/03/06 - Secret Garden Portraits I

More?

Singapore Fashion Festival - Secret Garden

Singapore Fashion Festival 2006

A Conversation with a Noob

Scenery of the Day

Lunch!

Preview

Milestones

Portrait of the Day

Scenery of the Day

Sceneries of the Day

Love Me Kelly

Scenery of the Day

Pineapples!

Scenery of the Day

BEACH FIESTA!

2 more days...

5 More Days...

7 more days...

Watch out for 15 March 2006

Scenery of the Day

Scenery of the Day

Throbbing

Latest Film Listing *Updated*

Ultra Zoom Lens & Birds

Scenery of the Day

Preview of things to come...

Intermission

Scenery of the Day

One More Thing...

Flowers, Flowers and more FLOWERS!

Super Duper Mega Photo Post (Warning: Excessive photos ahead)

MEGA Photos Posts Coming Soon!

Film Updates

50mm lens and frens

Miss Clarity Cafe

Concise Chinatown Visit

Scenery of the Day

Scenery of the Day

Scenery of the Day

Cafe Rosso

Da Vinci Code

Latest Film Listing Updated