HCM Red Yeast Rice

Red Yeast Rice is very good for helping people with high blood cholesterol, also good eats. Foods take on a beautiful crimson tint, in this case Chicken Soup. A little spirit, brandy, red wine or here glutinous rice wine gives it a little sweet punch. A comfort food that is light on the stomach.

Ricoh GXR A12 1/90s f/2.8 iso 400

Ricoh CX4

Clock work production. Ricoh has released their next point and shoot CX4 unfortunately overshadowed by the announcements of the usual giants releasing their multitudes.

What is new? Night scene multishot, first seen I believe in Sony's NEX, basically de-blurring and de-noise by combining multiple shots. Gotta see to believe.
Subject tracking AF is also interesting, could it bring focusing performance close to DSLR? Doubt it, but good try.

Danish Ice Cream

What is there to say? Just dig in.




Ricoh GXR A12 1/130s f/2.8 iso200

Food Court Food

Most of the time, shopping mall food court food is basically functional, you fill your tummy and get out, on occasion you get gems. Today is not quite that day.


Straits Times' Foodie expert Ong Sor Fen gushed about this particular eats in 2009, mainly about their barbecue pork or Char Siew. It is really tender, without being overly greasy, the result of using pork belly, rather than shoulder butt or tenderloin.
But sometimes a big star cannot save a movie if the rest are sub-par.

Ricoh GXR A12 1/80s f/2.5 iso1600

This is a typical Wanton Mee served in Singapore and Malaysia, noodles are prepared dry, bathed in a sauce, accompanied with vegetables and dumplings. The saving grace in today's dish is the Char Siew and noodles, Pontian noodles to be precise. If you like noodles al dente, Pontian noodles are that a bit more "toothy" or "q". I love "q".
What disappoints is the undercooked vegetables and worse the Wanton.
I general dislike the local version of wanton, the meat dumpling has stuffing measured with a micro pipette and wrapped in thick flour blanket, dunked in soup it is like eating weird tasting mushy marshmallow. They were "generous" by giving the fried version together with the soup version, but more of something blah just reinforces how disappointing it is.

Char Siew and Pontian noodles are just fine with the sauce. Dump the dumplings.

What the Duck

Every photographer would know this edutainment series. Calling it cartoon is too clinical and totally inadequate.

Breakfast and Lunch

Dome Club sandwich, good for breakfast or lunch.

Ricoh GXR A12 1/100s f/2.5 iso800

Ricoh GXR A12 1/80s f/2.8 iso1600

Lunch at The Asian Kitchen Teahouse.
Recommended is their Roast Duck, which also can be partnered with a herbal sauce, plum sauce or a fiery Sichuan 麻辣 sauce. Today was with a sweet tangy plum sauce.

Ricoh GXR A12 1/50s f/2.5 iso800

Skyline

Familiar buildings but different moods when the backdrop changes. I love clouds, very whimsical and transient they can tease or threaten. While seemingly monochromatic, they can make or break landscape scenes.





Ricoh GXR A12

Ikea Fried Chicken

Who would have thought of going to a furniture shop to get good fried chicken wings? Of course this is no simple home decor shop, Ikea is home furnishing, playground, part time day care, meeting place and restaurant all rolled into one. In Singapore where a place for eating is a requirement, Ikea evolved from a small cafe to its current sprawl to handle any holiday lunch crowd of a couple hundreds.
Swedish meat balls are a must on any Ikea menu, here on our sunny island however, chicken wings really ..er.. fly off the counter.  I think it originated as part of a Nasi Lemak offering, but realising how popular it is, the bit part rose to be a star.


Ricoh GXR A12 1/35s f/3.2 iso200

All Spicy

Life while all nice and safe here in Singapore, could do with a little spice. Being a person of routine and familiarity, variety would mean choosing a different stall in the usual eating place. I am sure everyone reading this blog would know not to expect unexpected food finds, but hey, sometimes it is just good to remember we have plenty of good food around.

Be grateful and don't waste food.

Now a little spice without the vice.


Ricoh GXR A12 1/220s f/3.2 iso200

Buildings

This is the new extension to the Carlton Hotel, pretty striking facade when you stand at the corner of Bras Basah Road and North Bridge Road.


Ricoh GXR A12

Infra Red

Attempting infra red photography hand held.  Pushed the sensitivity to iso 3200 and tried to steady everything.

Processed it differently in Lightroom, fascinating program, a lot of control.

Ricoh GXR A12 1/20s f/2.5 iso 3200

Paradise Revisited

Lunch again at Paradise Inn

Nai Bai Cabbage with Ling Zhi Mushroom.


Deep Fried Cod fish with fermented bean curd batter

Ricoh GXR A12

HCM Sayur Asam

Indonesian sour vegetable soup. It's a little like Sayur Lodeh, but a tart version, works well as an appetizer or a main dish.

Singapore Garden Festival 2010

The Garden Festival is back, unfortunately between work and a long annoying cold, I could not set aside much time to visit. So when there was a lull in my schedule, I grabbed my shiny new Ricoh GXR and made my way down to Suntec City.

It was getting crowded when I arrived late afternoon, view and shoot meant contenting with posers and people oblivious to other people around them. I joined the crowd. The Halls of Suntec expo halls rarely look so beautiful, the organisers transported a small jungle and filled up the walkways.

I was not the only one with the GXR that day, bumped into another Ricoh GXR user, this is the first time so far. Didn't stay to chat, as I was on the clock and hoping to clear my head of the day's earlier irritations.

The top level was dedicated to Garden Design Competition and other Landscape showoffs, absolutely gorgeous and calming. Did 2 rounds of the floor, maximising the use of the A12 and P10 units. Lighting was definitely a problem as to preserve the ambience of the displays, and I was doing hand held all the way.

Anyway it was a good chance to stress test the high ISO performance of both units. The A12 was short on image stabilisers as I am not the most steady of hands and the P10 was strained trying to capture at iso 1600. All in all not that many pictures capture and even far fewer decent, plus in my haste, there was only about half the battery charge left.

All in all it was still a relaxing afternoon, although I find nature being man handled into cramped designs a bit er unnatural sometimes.

Ricoh GXR A12





Ricoh GXR P10

Shopping at the garden

Hong Kong Cafe Fare

The Hong Kong Cafe or Cha Chaan Teng (you just can find about anything in Wikipedia) style of cooking was/is quite popular here. Eateries serving anything related to Hong Kong, sprouted like post precipitation fungi not too long ago. Left standing are the hardier and better financed groups, notably Hong Kong Cafe, Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe and Central Hong Kong Cafe.

My first experience was at THE Hong Kong Cafe at East Coast Road, which was a little sad, nothing wrong with the service or place. However, after a long day of work, eating a lonely dinner of Maggie Noodles served with a piece of luncheon meat and blanched frozen vegetable cocktail (The chopped carrots, peas and corn in a bag type) is a little depressing. My Pavlovian reaction to the mention of HK cafes is "Oh, The Maggie Noodle Place."

Things now are a little better of course, you can choose more than just Variations on Maggie Noodles.

Lunch at Xin Wang.

Ricoh GXR A12

Lunch at Paradise Inn

A quaint eating place, dressed up like a little Period drama set. Just a touch of tacky that is actually fun. Food is generally basic but well done.






Ricoh GXR A12

Professional Point and Shoot

Sometimes a DSLR is just cumbersome for a spur of the moment, so what do professionals use for times like that? Answer is here.

The common as weeds iPhone lies in the middle of the list, while the top is dominated by the Canon G series.

Good to know at least one professional photographer use a Ricoh as an alternative to their usual DSLR. A CX2 this time.

Little thing relaxing

Does it really destress? Certainly good to smell nice trying. Now scram while I relax with this from Yankee Candle.