Archive for June, 2008

Jun 30th, 2008

Stick food outside Times Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

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Food, Hong Kong

Shot with Canon
curried flavour fish ball

Wow… Look at all the choices!

Here I am standing at the famous hangout place Causeway Bay and in the middle of Times Square.

These are very popular and is one of the delicacy in Hong Kong, you can find these snack stalls in every corner! The locals love Curry Yu-Tan (Cantonese) the most, which is Curry Fish-Balls. Don’t forget to buy some and try when you drop by Hong Kong! I love those paper bag they put them in, it just tastes better with it.

Mmm the curry taste

Ok I was in a hurry… so I ta-pao-ed (Cantonese) which literally means takeaway.

The curry sauce is just nice, not too spicy not too plain. The fishballs are small and chewy, which is tasty!

and more fishballs!

Close up of the tasty fish ball covered in curry sauce *Mmmm*

Does anyone in Auckland make these? Maybe this is a new business venture for someone :smile: reading now

Lastly some octopus to go with it…. tastes not bad, but i prefer curried fishballs, CURRY YU-TAN FTW!

Great snacks when you are in a hurry, the roads and footpath are ever so busy in Hong Kong, please watch your step! its quite hard taking pictures at a busy intersection

Jun 30th, 2008

Food Court at Changi Airport, Singapore

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Food, Singapore

Shot with Canon
Mee Pok Dry

Only SGD$4.00 ! So satisfied to pay, compared to New Zealand *hehe* Sorry but Mee Pok Dry is one of my favourite dish, I don’t know why but the noodle really attracts me. It’s thick egg noodle, not as thick as kuay teow a little bit thinner but it tastes so much better.

It’s just dry noodle dipped in hot water and drained. It comes with fish cakes, fish balls and simple veges.

You must try it! Anyone who is going to transit in Singapore, its on the ground floor, you can apply for a few hours just to eat some authentic Singaporean food. The chicken rice in the boarding area (after you enter departure gate) is not too bad, but the one underneath departure gate is much much better!

If you know of any mee pok existence in Auckland, please please please tell me! And I mean the real mee pok okay? :silly:

Choose your noodle!

Waaaaa… look at all the variety you can choose from. Spicy to non-spicy! And Otak too! And all so cheap….. :cwy:

Mee Pok in the making

My beloved mee pok dry in the making… you can choose wet :silly: too, which just means with soup.

The aunty is very fast, just 5mins you will have your noodle ready to go! you just queue on the spot and move along just like everybody else. It seems very popular with the locals, as I can see many airport office workers and flight attendants queue up fast when it’s time for lunch! :lol:

Perhaps you did like BBQ?

Perhaps you dont like noodles, you can go for BBQ Pork ? Roasted Duck ? Soy Sauce Chicken? and Chicken Rice, whichever it is… it’s all TASTY

my mee pok dry

Ok I decided to go with Mee Pok Dry with mince and etc. YUMMY. Comes with free soup too.

Time for some dessert !

Chendol!

Chendol – traditional dessert consist of shaved ice, coconut milk, pandan food colouring and flavour, palm sugar, red beans, glutinous rice, grass jelly and creamed corn. You can choose your toppings too, ideal on a very hot day, especially in Southeast Asia :cool: .

Jun 30th, 2008

NISHIKI – ROBATA-Yaki Bar

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Auckland, Food

Shot with iPhone
Nabe pot Chicken cartilage

Nabe pot with generous pieces of sliced beef. & Chicken cartilage grilled on charcoal skewered.

Mmm tasty beef pieces! Slurp tasty soup!

This nabe pot is really worth ordering! The soup is great, excellent on a cold night with beer, you can dine outside too!

Deep fried prawn rolls Gyoza - prawn dumpling

Delicious deep fried prawn in spring rolls. & Gyoza – Japanese deep fried prawn dumplings, very nice.

Takoyaki octopus battered balls Yakitori combo

Infamous takoyaki, octopus coated with batter! & Yakitori combo (sirloin beef, charcoaled chicken, sausage)

The skewers tasted very succulent! Takoyaki is just alright, I am in favour of the real thing where they cook with the original takoyaki pan, but these are just fried (like in most places of Auckland).

If you want genuine takoyaki taste! go to HULU CAT ! they are the best (at least for now).

Mixed sushi platter Miso paste smothered rice balls

Mixed platter of sushi ! Mmm taste exquisite & Miso paste smothered onto grilled rice balls (onigiri).

Chicken Katsu Nishiki ! on 100 Wellington St, Auckland City

Chicken Katsu covered in sweet miso sauce. & Outside Nishiki located at 100, Wellington St, Central Auckland.

Obedient doggy Total bill Takai desu ne!

Upon leaving I found this cute and obedient dog outside.. waiting for his owner patiently. His owner (a group of young asian kids) allowed me to take a pic and he posed nicely.

Lastly the bill was NZD76.00 hum…. quite pricey (takai) to be honest, but hey thats New Zealand but yet again its Japanese cuisine :face:

Overall, it was a pleasant experience. Very busy by the looks of it, remember to book if possible! otherwise after 9pm is perfect, as it quiets down abit. Parking is very cramp and limited, also becareful the Diary closeby as he puts a warning sign that your car would be TOWED if parked more than 5mins (its really for his customers only) HEHE.

Otherwise this is by far one of the best Japanese food bar in Auckland City. They have a range of food! heaps to choose from. Don’t forget to pay them a visit! Oh and don’t worry if I did not mention the dish names in Japanese, they have a menu filled with pictures! :w00t:

Rated 5/5

Well worth it! The Chef got Skillz! 8) Everything tasted like they put effort and their heart into making it (unlike some restaurants *hehehe*)

(Note: I will create a rating design soon, so everyone can see What’s HOT and What’s NOT :) )
Jun 29th, 2008

University of Auckland May Graduation

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Auckland, Celebrations

Shot with Canon

Last month, my friend invited me to her May graduation of the University of Auckland held at Town Hall in the city. Of course she wants me to be her photographer, reluctantly i agreed *hehe* as it was my 5th time attending a graduation in New Zealand! Not because it’s boring, but it does get very tiring, especially if you wear heels!

Nevertheless it’s still a happy day for everyone! Congratulations to all graduands of 2008!

Receiving your degree in person is a must! after all it could be the only time in your life.

I took over 300 pictures for my friend and her boyfriend, and only a handful of the buildings and the graduation hall. The sun was very strong and I forgotten to bring my lens hood :ninja:

Below are 3 pictures I attempted using HDR techniques.

Note: More pictures will come slowly… later

Auckland University new building

This building is The University of Auckland Business School, is indeed very stunning!

Such surreal clouds

The buildings on the opposite is very modern and minimalistic. Looks like tiramisu cake from here :tongue:

I kinda like this picture… as it looks so surreal… the clouds looked so thick and dense

Exquisite organ at Town hall

This is the pipe organ located in the middle of the Town Hall, a man with pink hood (most probably Masters in Music degree) will play on the organ intensively just before the beginning of the ceremony and just before the end of the ceremony. Very entertaining if its your first time.

There was blueish back lighting as you can see. Pretty cool!

Kristin graduation

Kristin the graduate, posing :sideways:

Cute Bcom bear!

Look at this cute graduation bear with a degree hood and a trencher! This hood is dark orange in colour which represents Bachelor of Commerce.

A colony of graduands! wow

Like a colony of birds… a colony of graduands!

MBA, MCom, BCom and so on.

*yey* The End of the graduation ceremony. Now we can all go drink and club till we faint.

Pretty Boy

The boy who finds my tripod very amusing :8 No doubt he has the best eyelashes ever! without the use of mascara :kissing:

Girl supporting her dad

My cute little friend supporting her Dad :wub:

Lastly, a big smile and thanks for being a good model for me. :lol:

Jun 29th, 2008

What’s in a name?

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Thoughts

Why photospeaks ?

It took me a few hours to brainstorm a few names, then I had to check if it was available,

I was only going to register a dot com since everybody needs to own a dot com once in their life!

Meanwhile i was getting frustrated, every single word you can think of is gone,

every single word extracted from the dictionary even! two words combined are also taken! *lol*

Anyhow I had to finalise my ideas, exactly what type of website am i making?

what words would be suitable?

Obviously I was going to show my photography more than my own writing, and thus photospeaks was born!

(Note: It was decided photospeaks.com because the dot com was available *phew*)

My definition of Photospeaks: Photos that simply speaks for itself.

Tip: If possible, choose words that are actual words so people can easily SPELL and remember, as well as try avoiding “hyphen” e.g photo-speaks.com, its harder to type i suppose as mammals tend to be lazy :sleeping:

Also I tend to type it out in photoshop to see how it would look like, play around with typography as most words have more potential to look better than others, therefore they can be easily designed into a logo or implemented into anything (tshirt, sticker, poster and so on).

Remember to experiment, experiment, experiment! take your time, it will be a name you will own forever (well until you stop paying). Later on I will talk about web hosting (what’s worth, what’s not, what do you need and so on), nowadays it is very affordable!

Back to my plans:

I plan to improve my web design, photography and writing skills through this personal blog.

I hope you enjoy the journey you will travel with me

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