Category Archives: Food

That Final 5%

★ Posted on at 09:18 pm ★

in their own world

Sometimes you get lucky and capture moments like this, where everyone is doing something and you are wondering what the guy is thinking, or what the woman is looking for in her bag. I only managed a couple of shots before the train arrived to ferry them off.

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Sent out a couple more job applications. It’s still a struggle for me at times, as I have one application sitting there undone since Monday. It’s due tomorrow and it’s the last 5% of the application, yet it’s probably the most important 5% that determines whether I get selected for an interview or not. Some days the fear of rejection promotes procrastination. Heh, there are days when I’m not systematic about things, especially when I have to confront my own weaknesses.

I am also delaying pushing the publish button for my photo book. Most of the pictures are already in, and you could say it’s 5% to completion, and yet it’s probably the most important 5%. I’m deliberating between whether I should add text to describe the locations, but that would mean I’d need an extra pair of eyes to edit my writing style. Part of me just says that I should submit it, get a copy, and note for future any changes I’d like with my next project. It’s only easy for me to move on, when I don’t keep moving the goal posts. It’s like cooking, you prepare the meal and enjoy it for what it is, remembering to make adjustments to what you didn’t like the next time. There are times I imagine the meal in my head, and think I’d be able to do it. Sounds easy enough conceptually, and you know the pitfalls, which you’d like to avoid, but that means the meal remains a dream until you realise it.

It’s back and forth, these arguments with myself, and some days I get pass that starting line and end up on the finish lines, other days I’m just wandering aimlessly. Hence my continued reliance on posting something for the blog, to deliver something, to flesh out the thoughts so that I have a marker to know my progress, instead of gunning for the dimmest stars that seem furthest away.

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On the list of items to experiment on, fried chicken and a soup stock that goes with noodles. Heh, I’m also deliberating on dabbling with yeast to make pizza dough. The thin crust with basic toppings on basil, tomato and mozzarella water my mouth each time I think of it. There, I’ve said it. So come on, just do it!

Other Interests

★ Posted on at 10:35 pm ★

20110603-1

More autumn colours. Green and gold. I like the cacophony of colours and leaves strewn all across the ground. It really adds texture to the image.

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Still enjoying my free time from not working. Had a while to spend with relatives who are visiting, so managed to whip up some soup noodles for lunch. It was a pretty methodical process by my standards, starting with soaking anchovies in some water, before adding that to some pork bones and boiling the stock. Added some szechuan peppercorns and ginger to the stock.

For condiments, I made a pork mince dish to add to the soup noodle. That was just a mixture of ginger, garlic and shallots. Prepared the pork mince before that by marinating it with a bit of rice wine, soy sauce, pepper and sugar. Fried the tubers first, before adding in the meat. Had soaked some black fungus and shitake mushrooms prior to that and added it all into the mix once it had cooked a little more. Seasoned the mixture with chinese vinegar and added a dash of sesame oil at the end.

The other side condiment was fried anchovies. Heated up a small pot of oil and just cooked them until they browned through.

Once that was out of the way, I started making the dough for the noodles. It’s flour, eggs, oil and salt, mashed together until it forms a dough, and kneaded until I think I have worked the gluten enough. As I let the dough rest, I started poaching eggs in simmering water with a dash of vinegar in it.

A good 2 hours have passed getting all that done. In between all the cooking and the chopping (also prepared some choy sum to add leafy greens to the noodle soup), also managed to do some washing to recycle some bowls, pots, chopsticks, spoons etc for the cooking. This attempt yielded about 8 bowls of noodle soup, served with a really spicy bird’s eye chilli in soy sauce.

Now if only I had a picture to show you the end product. Heh. It was a good attempt at food, and I feel a slight sense of satisfaction that I was able to cook any of that at all.

I have many failed attempts at food, so the process of getting the final bowl of soup, noodles with pork mince, egg and anchovies really requires persistence as I have made all the individual parts before cooking other dishes. Like all other things, you learn to balance a delicate touch when it comes to food so that you don’t overcook or undercook something. Minor details like the size of the vegetables going in makes a difference to the whole mouth feel of eating something.

It looks effortless for celebrity chefs on television only because they have spent countless hours perfecting their craft, and there are subtle ways to get the best flavours out of different ingredients.

I am a big fan of flour now, seeing what you can produce with it (also baked an apple pie the day before that, and also without a picture to show), even if I don’t think we should be eating that much of it. Have plans to try making an aglio olio (garlic olive oil pasta). I’ll at least try to take a picture of that.

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Need to focus on what I should be doing now. As usual, I like doing everything, but have only limited time to do some things. I keep repeating myself, avoiding the things that should be done first. At least blogging reminds me that I should focus on getting the business started. I have an incentive to do that now so I should stick to it and see it out.

Distracted

★ Posted on at 09:13 pm ★

alfie

Alfie with his tennis ball. It is his favourite past time which he never gets bored of. You throw the ball and he goes to fetch it. Only problem is that he never quite learned how to let go of it. Heh, and after that he will happily run round in circles while you try to get the ball off him.

The picture was taken at 12mm (18mm for the 35mm format equivalent). I have never figured out how to use this lens in the sense that other than trying to cram everything in, I’m trying other creative ways to use it. I know ultra wide angles require you to do a closeup, to give a different perspective on the subject matter. At least I’m trying something new.

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Nearly finished with my photo editing. The pictures from the last few days of the trip yielded some more interesting shots. I still need a lot of practice for travel photography, but feel I am getting better at event photography.

I keep getting distracted, with different things needing my attention. Alfie has overcome the cardboard that separates him and the upper floor. So he wanders around freely at the moment, which is not an issue as he has pretty much learned to control his bladder. As long as you don’t overexcite him he’s fine. When he does lose his control, he gets booted out of the house as that’s probably the most effective punishment I can think of for him. He can sense that when he has done something wrong as he just lies there and at times, barks back at you if you stare at him too intently.

The weather hasn’t been all that great either, with Brisbane under water at the moment, and Melbourne getting plenty of rain over the last few days.

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Have also made some improvements with my cooking, and doing a pretty decent fried rice now. If Vyanne thinks it’s nice, that’s pretty much a complement for my cooking. Heh, so many other recipes I want to try out and perfect so I can eat different varieties of food. My last experiment was with eggplant and while I’ve cooked it a few times before, I’ve never got it to the taste and texture that I like it at. Reviewed some videos online with regards to eggplant and I have some ideas for the next round when I try cooking it again.

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Keeping the house tidier now, and clearing out bits and pieces as I go along. There’s also a systematic fashion in which I go around things now. I’m finding I have less and less time as I find more and more things that needs to be done around the house.

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Just need to churn out a post every now and then. I don’t want to just let the days slide by without me noticing what I’ve done. At least with some writing, you get a sense of order on the things that have happened.