Food, Film & Fotography.
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...
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.
Labels: food
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?
Labels: fotography
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...
Labels: food
Couldn't resist posting this iconic shot taken in Ho Chi Minh City recently.
Visa anyone? ;)
Labels: fotography
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.
Labels: food
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.
Labels: food
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
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!
Labels: fotography
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...
Labels: fotography
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!
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...
Labels: fotography
