I Shot My Foot And Other Photo Stories

I shot my foot...with my camera. Finally learned the trick from a friend. The only thing I don't quite like about this photo are the lines on my foot. I know you must be thinking this person needs a pedicure...you are right as a girlfriend told me the same thing when I showed her an earlier photo of my foot.
As I was processing my photos, this shot brought to mind...the view from below. Don't just view life from below. View it from another angle...you'll see things in a different way.

Check out the view from above.
Plants do grow in strange places. There are green shoots growing from underneath floor tiles in my house porch. And this one....green shoots from a wooden block with a tiny door.

Chopstick Song

I remembered there was a song I learned to play on the piano named Chopstick(s)….ages ago. I have since resigned from playing the piano. Well, chopstick(s) isn’t just about a song but a great invention. Chopsticks are believed to have originated from China but have since been used extensively in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan and even areas in Tibet and Nepal that are close to the Chinese border. Chopsticks are commonly made of plastic, wood and metal with the more expensive ones from ivory and bone. I consider chopsticks a cutlery marvel as the user has to maneuver a pair of sticks properly in order to pick up pieces of food.

I was brought up in a mostly westernized household where we eat with forks and spoons...from a very young age. Even until today, I don’t eat with a pair of chopsticks at home. Only at Chinese restaurants. So much so that people can tell from the way I hold the chopsticks that I am not a regular user. What about you?
And what are some of the rules and etiquette in using a pair of chopsticks?
According to Wikipedia:-

Universal etiquette:

Chopsticks are not used to make noise, to draw attention, or to gesticulate. Playing with chopsticks is considered bad mannered and vulgar (just as playing with cutlery in a Western environment would be deemed crass). Chopsticks are not used to move bowls or plates.
Chopsticks are not used to toy with one's food or with dishes in common. Chopsticks are not used to pierce food, save in rare instances. Exceptions include tearing larger items apart such as vegetables and kimchi. In informal use, small, difficult-to-pick-up items such as cherry tomatoes or fishballs may be stabbed, but this use is frowned upon by traditionalists. Chopsticks should not be left standing vertically in a bowl of rice or other food. Any stick-like object pointed upward resembles the incense sticks that some Asians use as offerings to deceased family members; certain funerary rites designate offerings of food to the dead using standing chopsticks.

Chinese etiquette:

In Chinese culture, it is normal to hold the rice bowl—rice in China is rarely served on a plate—up to one's mouth and use chopsticks to push rice directly into the mouth. It is acceptable to transfer food to closely related people (e.g. grandparents, parents, spouse, children, or significant others) if they are having difficulty picking up the food. Also it is a sign of respect to pass food to the elderly first before the dinner starts. It is impolite to spear food with a chopstick and/or play with the chopsticks. It is rude to use the chopstick to dig for food in the common dish. Chopsticks should not be left vertically stuck in rice because it resembles the ritual of incense-burning that symbolizes "feeding" the dead and death in general.

Korean etiquette (since the pair of chopsticks were photographed at a Korean restaurant):

Koreans consider it rude to pick up the rice bowl from the table to eat from it.
Unlike other chopstick cultures, Koreans use a spoon for their rice and soup, and chopsticks for most other things at the table. (Traditionally, Korean spoons have a relatively flat, circular head with a straight handle, unlike Chinese or Japanese soup spoons.) Unlike the rice eaten in many parts of China, cooked Korean rice can be easily picked up with chopsticks, although eating rice with a spoon is more acceptable. When laying chopsticks down on the table next to a spoon, one must never put the chopsticks to the left of the spoon. Chopsticks are only laid to the left for deceased family members. The blunt handle ends of chopsticks are not used to transfer food from common dishes. When no communal chopsticks are available, it is perfectly acceptable to pick up banchan and eat it without putting it down on one's bowl first. Also, there is an old saying suggesting that the closer one's hand is to the tips of the chopsticks, the longer they stay unmarried.

A Nite At Kim's

Lately, there has been quite alot of Korean influence in my life thanks to a friend who introduced me to Korean arts, culture and food. Last weekend was another food adventure to Korea, at a nice restaurant named Kim's (after the owner) at Bandar Mahkota Cheras.

Here are some snapshots and little stories of my food adventure. On the left are pieces of the Korean traditional dress, the Hanbok for little missy and her mommie. The hanbok is a colourful dress after the Joseon Dynasty style which is worn during traditional festivals and celebrations. The ladies' hanbok consist a wrap around skirt and a jacket. One of the local partner who co-owns the restaurant asked if I would like to try the hanbok....hahha..I said no thank you. I love the colourful dresses but I doubt I'll fit into adult sized one as it looks rather roomy for my small frame.
Aah..we have the ubiqutious kimchi again which I blogged about earlier. Here we have vegetable kimchi and appetizers - potatoes with small anchovies and thinly sliced fishballs. I was told the appetizers are Korean dishes but they seemed like normal Chinese dishes. The appetizers were great and I enjoyed them very much.....we even asked for refills ;)
Bulgogi is pan cooked thin slices of beef marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar and garlic with the addition of scallions and mushrooms. In Korean, bulgogi means fire meat which refers to cooking over an open flame and not in reference to the spiciness of the dish. This restaurant serves up a good bulgogi. Good enough to be eaten with just plain rice.

Korean BBQ. Slices of marinated chicken and mushrooms were placed onto the sizzling hot stove and cooked. The pieces of chicken are wrapped up in lettuce and dipped into a fermented bean sauce or oil. The barbequed chicken tasted good - sweet and savoury at the same time.
I was told there's no dessert on Korean menus so we ended our meal with a glass of soju. Soju is an inexpensive Korean wine made from grain or sweet potatoes. Tasted quite strong for me. But my friends and Mr Kim seemed to like them as they downed at least two shots each. Good drinker I am NOT!...hehhe. Friends have suggested mixing soju with vitagen and watermelon juice. Guess this bunch of diners will try it out the next time we visit a Korean restaurant...till then :)

Boy And Girl

One of my latest projects last weekend was learning to photograph people off the streets. I have always felt that photographing people was a challenge - in capturing the mood and emotions of a person. It was a just shoot and learn moment for me. Here are my favourite shots of a boy and a girl.

This is a photo of a boy taken at a community event. I was fortunate to have caught this moment as he smiled and looked sideways :)
A girl dressed in a pretty kimono at the same community event waiting for her mom. She looked kinda bored don't you think?

There you have it, a smile and a frown. Have a great Monday!

Heavenly Custard

Heavenly custard. Tastes so good but not everyone's cup of tea. For those who don't like durians, they say the fruit smells...like smelly cheese and sweaty socks :)

What I couldn't understand was how a food host on tv could stomach worms but not a bite of this fruit? Puzzling!

Anyway, I like my heavenly custard fix once in awhile. I had this sudden craving for durians last Friday night so I bought a pack of the red prawn (udang merah) variety.

What's special with the red prawn durians? This variety is distinguished by its orange reddish coloured flesh and they are normally smaller in size. The red prawn variety's also not overly sweet which suits my taste well.

What about you? What's your favourite variety or are you one who shuns the King Of Fruits?

A Taste Of Korea

Here are snapshots of the light refreshments served at the gallery for the evening. I didn’t get many food shots as the buffet table was packed with people jostling for space as they picked at the food spread. On the left is the spicy vegetable kimchi.

Kimchi was the mainstay of the evening. There were two types of kimchi served – vegetables and seafood, of which I only had a taste of the former. This was also the first time that I disovered that there’s a seafood kimchi. With my limited knowledge of Korean cuisine, I had always thought kimchi’s just vegetables. But hey..they have a seafood variety. Kimchi is a common side dish featured in every Korean meal. It is a traditional dish made of fermented vegetables and of the common spicy variety known as baechu. This dish is so versatile that it can be made into kimchi fried rice and kimchi stew. Did you know that a space kimchi was developed so that the first Korean astronaut had it on board the Soyuz space ship?

The most popular type of kimchi is the baechu, made from Chinese cabbage. There are also varieties made from cubed radishes, scallions and cucumbers. A total of more than 100 varieties of kimchi have been documented by the Kimchi Field Museum in Seoul. Common seasonings used for kimchi are garlic, brine, scallions, ground chilli pepper, ginger, onions and fish sauce as well as fruits or fresh seafood. The use of fish sauce has since been replaced with salted fermented anchovies and small shrimps.

The taste of kimchi differs from the northern and southern parts of Korea. Kimchi from the northern part of the country are more watery, less salty and spicy and brined seafood are not used for seasoning. The southern version is more like what we Msians love – spicy!

Eating kimchi is healthy as you get a high dosage of dietary fibre and vitamins from the various types of vegetables. Kimchi is listed as one of the top five World’s Healthiest Food.

Seafood kimchi

For the less exotic of the evening - cocktail sausages and mini toasted bread.
My friend wasn't too sure about this one but from the looks of it...I would safely bet it's something Msians are familiar with - muachi, glutinous rice balls coated with peanuts. This Korean version is coated with cocoa powder.

Music And Art

These are some brilliant work by young artists at Mu Gung Hwa, an art gallery run by a Korean couple who have chosen to make Malaysia their home instead of back home in Korea. The owner and his wife are both talented artists themselves. The wife takes on the younger aged group and as the students grew older and progressed in their art, they are moved to more serious art studies under her husband's tutelage. I was informed that the owner is also a musician who does gigs with his music group and the wife was formerly a journalist. Music and the arts run in this family. I don't know much about their oldest daughter except that she's pursuing her tertiary studies at a local college. Here are two pieces of pencil artwork done by two girls aged 10 and 11 respectively. The bottle sketch happens to my favourite from the entire gallery. On the other hand, the portrait reminds me of a young Korean pop/movie star don't you think? And now for a stunner, Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Carribean presented to you by a 9 year old girl. This young artist is one talented girl as the portrait looks exactly like the real Captain Jack don't you think?
This cute "choo choo" train is crafted by a 10 year old boy. What I like about this piece is the paintwork and colours. A nice piece to hang up in a child's playroom.
Guests for the evening include parents of the students and friends and me....courtesy of an invitation from my friend who taught the gallery owner's wife English.
These are The Three Tenors. I mentioned earlier that music runs in the Korean family so it has to be part of the art exhibition. A group of well groomed men sang for us that night. I couldn't understand what they sang (in the Korean language) but it sounded really good and it was without microphones and music accompaniment.