6x6 film format - Yashica mat 124G classic camera

At the courtesy of Pixmation, he sent me this photo of his new toy - a Yashica classic camera, unused for 25 years. After some chat with Pixmation, I gotta know why some people are lingered with this type of camera. It's a larger format of film used 120 format or 6x6 (or 56cm x 56cm). As it's in a larger format, the DOF (depth of field 景深) is quite different from the 35mm film. The upper lens is for the viewfinder and the lower one for photo taking. (*Pixmation, please correct me). May I share the photos taken by Pixmation on this camera:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixmation/sets/72157626013536892/

Candy candy

I am surprised with how my sister made a cupa tree and the international variety of candy available in her Chinese New Year candy box.

Jumbo Seafood Floating Restaurant 珍寶海鮮舫, Deep Bay, Aberdeen, Southern HK

When I was a kid I was brought to this kind of floating restaurant, it wasn't a nice experience to me. Seafood smelled with kerosine (火水) since the sea water filling the fish tank is just from water area surrounding the boat. I often heard my grand ma and aunts claiming going to those floating restaurants are not good with "kerosine seafood".

As time goes by, things have been improved. However, my image about floating restaurants was just for tourists. The last time I was here was to bring some overseas business clients in the mid and late 90's.

Until recently my sisters told me this restaurant surprised them on their dim sum, I decided to give it a try on their recommendation. It turned out it's really something. Very nice shrimp dumpling and fried rice too. Besides, it's not that expensive. It's about HK$100 per person for the below food (very full), in considering it's a floating restaurant.

New car, BTS BKK

When I found this new hand rails, I hope the other subways (HK, Taipei and Tokyo...etc.) should learn this. Quite many of you may encounter someone often leaning their bodies on only one rod in the middle of the car. It would be hard for you to have something to grab for standing stable. Besides, check the 2 sides of the rails. Good that to have more on the sides instead of just in the middle section. *now I am practising to take photos with my camera from above or other angles without seeing it in the viewfinder. The more you practise, the more you would know how to have a different angle. I would forget about those flip live view LCD. We have to sometimes train ourselves by judging it ourselves instead of relying too much on some auxiliary stuff.

Diabetic warning - Lei Bistro 利小館, Times Square Causeway Bay HK

If you prefer all the food to be sweeter than normal, this is the one.

1. Black fungas in black vinegar HK$48. Black vinegar (sweet) with sesame sauce - don't know why they could invent this sauce.

3. rice in lotus leaf HK$68. Much too oily and of course sweet and no lotus leaf aroma. Interesting not much other ingredients. Only rice and sweet soy sauce, and 2 baby shrimps and bamboo shoot.

4. This pan fried buns (HK$48) have sweet veggie pork filling. The brown surface is only some color, not aromatic at all. I really don't like cooking in abused use of non-sticky pan.

5. Preserved "snow" veggie 雪菜 and sliced pork on noodle soup, HK$35. First time I ate "sweet" preserved snow veggie. They soaked the veggie til it's not salty and then marinated with quite much sugar. Supposed this veggie should be a bit salty and best with some fresh chili to go with it. This one is red bell pepper. Fusion?

6/7. steamed date cake/sticky rice in ginger soup. Of course, double sweet.

*Lei Garden set up this outlet with a name as Bistro. Apparently this is to please certain group of people.

Back to Mine - Kuen Fat restaurant 權發飯店, 筲箕灣東大街 Tong Tai Street, Shaukiwan, HK

This restaurant is another love and hate. Love is on their food definitely. Hate is on their packed and noisy eating environment. Most of all, you need to have at least over 4 friends for a meal of 3 dishes or even 2. Their portion is double in general, but was normal in the standard of the 60's/70's. *remarks, better come here at around 5pm before the long line is there.

*I picked up my 50mm F1.4 lens to take the below photos. Not bad though it's not wide enough. The below are without any post processing. 1st one on F2.2, 2-4 at F1.4 and the rest at F2.8, shutter varies at 1/50 or 1/60 at ISO 250 to 500.

1. This menu is only for the lunch time at a cheaper price.

2. Dried veggie, pear, pig's knuckle HK$58 霸王花雪梨豬踭. Small portion can still be served for 10 bowls. This soup is very nice and I don't prefer using "local" taste but Kuen Fat can mean that to me as it brings back what I had in my childhood. No need to be delicate. Kind of raw flavour and original too. Or I can even define it as Dai Pai Dong (street stall) style.

3. Deep fried shrimp/crab ball 百花釀蟹拑 HK$88. This is the best in town I can claim so. Juicy, bouncy inside with strong original shrimp mixed with crab meat flavour. Original seafood sweet and not salty at all. Very nice deep frying without much oil left. Crispy and you would hear your jaws "cracking" sound when you had a bite on it. Highly recommended.

4. Dried scallop on baby spinach HK$98. You may find it a bit expensive but it's double portion. So it is about HK$50 in normal portion. As you can see, no water left in the plate and the dried scallop is so nice! I was surprised their food is not heavily seasoned. So original in flavour.

5. Sweet and sour spare rib HK$72. Very nice sauce coating with some haw 山楂 in it. BTW, gotta be original. Supposed this dish is in spare ribs, not pork. Spare ribs has the "bone" aroma when it's after deep frying. The original recipe should have a very light touch of soy sauce to marinate the spare ribs so as to have the "soy salty sweet flavour 淡咸鮮香". Madam Lee Tsang Pang Chin already proved it in her recipe of all these. The portion of sugar and vinegar needs to be equal. Kuen Fat made it right! I often find most other restaurants having just "sweet" only. So the classic recipe should have more sour and the pork a bit "soy salty sweet flavour" to make a nice taste blast in your mouth.

6/7. Deep fried taro paste on duck meat 荔竽香酥鴨 HK$98. So lovely but so heavy too. One piece is good enough. Better share it with more friends. This is a very difficult dish. The taro paste can't be too hard or too soft. This one is perfect.

8. Golden prawn 黃金蝦球 HK$88. Another top signature dish from this restaurant and also my most favourite dish that I would only try it in Kuen Fat. No other shops can do this right. Very fresh prawn. The salty duck egg yolk was very aromatic on the prawn with some sweet broccoli to offset the heavy taste. A must try dish in Kuen Fat!

9. From the simple word on their entrance, you would see how down-to-earth of the restaurant style. No need to say "famous chef" or "no. 1 in the World"...etc. Simple word as "Tasty dishes. Fried rice/noodle. Specific chefs to cook".

Business class review: Royal Jordanian Airway HKG-BKK Feb 2011

On my way back from BKK-HKG, the business was very full and even more full than economy class. There was a big group of "high end" religious HK people occupying over half of the whole business cabin traveling back from Amman (Jordan). When I checked in at BKK airport, my friend and I got separated on the already booked seats. So we decided to ask for changing the seats with other passengers. There it came some angry passengers refusing to change, but the funny thing is that the person sitting to my friend and the one sitting next to me know each other. What's more, the person sitting next to me told me "it's not that I don't wanna change the seat for you. I need to show it to the crew - they did something wrong.". On and off that lady kept talking on how they spent their 2 week trip in Jordan and even asked me what the weather was like in HK. I immediately replied "How about checking with the crew. I also left HK for a long time.". When the meal was served, she condemned the meal with "shit" and then took a big bag of potato chips on her own and got so noisy with the bag. As a result of this lovely group, the 2 Thai crew was stirred up to be bitchy by throwing the hot meals to "all" passengers. No greeting word. No word for coffee or tea... At first, I was a bit annoyed with these alternate passengers but with those cool crew, I found it like watching a zoo show.

The sector for HKG-BKK was very pleasant in comparison. Jordan Air has replaced their old business class seats. I like the way they had a clipping basket for shoes. Keeping the cabin more tidy. Food wise, not bad but only cold food was served for HKG-BKK. Service is nice on the Jordanian crew. They joked with passengers for a happy mood and explained in details on their wine selection. Well, sometimes we need to be interactive with others and try not to be too demanding and picky. Otherwise, it's like a virus spreading to affect the others. When you yell at someone, that person yells at the other and the other yells back at you.

International Curry House 國際咖哩館，Wanchai HK

I am not much into curry but this one is an exception. I kind of love it and hate it as it's quite oily, but no oil isn't aromatic enough. So I often tried not to pass around that area. Their curry is not just hot only, but a lot of various herb. The shop is still only one branch on Tai Wong East Street 大王東街. I somehow prefer shops with just only one.

1. their classic menu

2. Plain salad, HK$25. See that salt on the side. Yes, sprinkle some salt on it. That's it. No need to have any salad dressing. I like this way.

3. Curry Samosa HK$35. A bit not dried-out fried, but the filling is so nice with some beans and curry paste.

4. Curry Prawn HK$88. The prawns are very fresh and about 8 big prawns were used. What's more some fresh pineapple and tomato were put in the curry to make it a bit sweeter.

5. Hot spicy African chicken HK$88. Highly recommended. They used fresh chicken. So HK$88 is justified. The chef stir fried the onion, parsley, chilli and some herb. So fragrant!

6. Pakistan curry with beef HK$78. The beef was stewed well. The curry is so aromatic. Highly recommended.

7. It's still crowded with its fans.

8. the shop outside. I noticed a Nepal restaurant on the 2nd floor. Will try that out later.