9月 19, 2009

「廚魔」的心思

這次回港三個多星期收穫甚豐,包括認識了不少從加拿大回流香港發展的餐飲業工作者。論國際名氣,當中以位於灣仔船街,剛於去年摘下米其林兩顆星星的 Bo Innovation (中文名稱「廚魔」)的大廚 Alvin Leung 最為人熟識。但鮮為人知的是,這位出生於英國,在加拿大成長的「廚魔」,五年多前開始經營第一間餐廳之前是一名執業機械工程師,對專業煮菜亳無經驗,甚至沒有接受過正式的廚藝訓練;卻憑著不斷看書鑽研苦學,終於在香港這片餐飲事業競爭激烈的商場上,成功打出一片天。

店名打著要「創新」的旗號,餐廳的賣點是「x-treme」中菜,所持的理念是以傳統食譜為藍本,用時尚富創意的烹調方法和材料,把過去的經驗智慧和現代的知識技術,微妙地融合一起。例如 Alvin 所演繹的「小籠包」,用又薄又透明,以清湯製成的外皮,包裹著濃郁的肉湯和薑茸,再配以一片薄薄的浙醋片。然後把所有食材一起放在口裡,肉湯隨即破皮湧出,熱度剛好的汁液令這個外貌酷似鹹蛋黃的「小籠包」無論在味道和感覺上都跟傳統的小籠包不相上下。這樣不夠創意?分子美食的鼻祖 El Bulli 創製出煙肉雪糕,而 Alvin 則用液化氮製作無論在質感和味覺上都跟臘味炒飯相似的「雪糕」,在雪白的「飯粒」上散滿顏色像臘味的粉末,放進口裡真的像在吃臘味炒飯,只是感覺冰凍而已。或許你會在抗拒這種把傳統食物東拉西扯,改變食材形態的烹調方法;或許你認為臘味炒飯一定要生炒至軟熟,又香又熱又不油膩才叫真功夫,我卻認為不然:在香港現時大暑濕熱的天氣下吃臘味炒飯,只會令人更感不適;但能把這種秋冬食品做到夏天也可以品嘗,足見大廚的用心。

「廚魔」強調他們要把傳統的中菜,以新的方法烹調,但我一直有一個疑問:中國八大菜系博大精深,一般師傅要用上多年時間才可以掌握箇中精粹,Alvin 以行外人身份開餐廳,又怎能於短時間內精通各家各法,再加以改變成為有自己風格的菜式?Alvin 用很科學的角度來回應:「我從來不會 trial and error,我一定要自己先多吃多看,做足研究,然後有一個 proposition,再用實驗來証明自己的方法是可行的。」怪不得 Alvin 經常週遊世界,到不同的地方試菜,更成為 El Bulli 和 The Fat Dduck 等頂尖餐廳的常客了。而 Alvin 的菜式確實顯露了他的心思:就像「韮菜鵝肝」,用的是韮菜豬紅的食材,卻換出豬紅而改用同樣帶點金屬味的鵝肝,用中式避腥的方法,不用油煎便可帶出鵝肝的香嫩質感。這樣的心思,實在難得。我自己就看過在香港中環某高級酒店內一間由德國大廚掌舵,同樣做分子美食的餐廳,把美國大師 Grant Achatz 出版的食譜,一式一樣的抄回來當自己的創作,就連上碟的餐具也是從 Grant 的餐廳 Alinea 購買回來的。

臨離開的時候,Alvin 還告訴我一個秘密:「要知道新做的菜式好不好,我一定會找小孩子來試菜。」說真的,小孩子沒有太多的歷史包袱,只要食物好吃便一定喜歡。看來好學不倦,肯努力嘗試創新,成就了繼 Heston Blumenthal 後,另一位沒有受過正式廚藝訓練的星星大廚。

刊於 《明報》加東版 9/19/2009

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7月 07, 2008

Foolishly hungry

Summerlicious 的確是一個很好的 promotion,兩日以來已做了近一百個餐,是平日的兩三倍。Appetizer 中我覺得「Mushroom and goat cheese croustinis」很不錯,因為很大機會是我調味的,哈哈(其實是 mushroom 本身已很有味道)。主菜我比較喜歡「Duo of beef」,但其他兩個菜也不錯。

最近重溫 Jobs 先生的畢業演說。雖然是一則老聞,但再聽起來也很勵志。別人都說我放棄了一份「好」的工作而天天 work like a dog,加上又要捱到很晚才吃飯,是一個很蠢的決定。其實我覺得我已 literally 做到 Steve Jobs 所說的「Stay hungry, stay foolish」了:)說真的做生意很難,大小事情要親力親為也很煩,一點也不「romantic」。但正如 Steve Jobs 所講,我們很快都會成為過去,會死,會被遺忘。所以我們不可能浪費時間,活在別人的生活裡(Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.)

And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become, everything else is secondary.


我相信,我今天的選擇好歹也會是個寶貴的一課。

未知生,焉知死?
未知死,焉知生。

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10月 04, 2007

朱古力波波

There is a local chocolatier close by the campus I have my French class, and I've heard good things about it. Yesterday I decided to give it a try.... and they're extremely delicious! My parents and I finished half a dozen of bonbons within hours! They're really tempting.... especially the Tarragon Black Pepper! The infused ganache is a little bit spicy but it's very exciting. Also be careful when you eat the Sea Salted Caramel, since the caramel ganache will flush out as soon as you break the shell!


js bonbons

js bonbons
163 Dupont St, Toronto
(416) 920-0274

They also have classes teaching you how to make the bonbons, which I'm thinking of taking them :-)

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9月 15, 2007

Lee's hell kitchen

I know that working in a kitchen has a lot of yelling and all that, but couldn't have imagined that the kitchen of Susur Lee, a celebrity chef in Toronto, can be this bad...




I was planning to try my luck there getting a job as a line cook... but looks like I won't be able to survive for over a year--especially now that I bad mouth his restraunt I probably wont' even get a job. HAHA!

Interestingly enough, the Facebook group "I Worked @ Susur Lee's and Survived!", as mentioned in the news article, is gone now...

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9月 09, 2007

戒色

剛剛看完《色·戒》,明白到為何要給電影這個名字。差不多三個小時,卻很緊湊。故事週旋於情、慾、理想、責任的拉扯矛盾中。

非常好的一部影片!

***

謝謝你的翻譯!!

***

剛收到從英國寄來的兩本權威飲食雜誌 《Restaurant》,看見這樣的菜色,可以不拍案叫絕嗎?

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8月 02, 2007

集體(吹水)回憶



Andrew came back from Calgary en route to CA and then leaving for Hong Kong going back to work. A few of us who are also leaving Seattle in the near future gathered and had hot pot on this not so hot summer day. We had a swell time, singing a few good oldies at the end...

And I'm glad that the person who purchased the record player didn't come pick it up last night, so that I can play Leslie's version of 《似水流年》 one last time:

望著海一片 滿懷倦 無淚也無言
望著天一片 只感到 情懷亂
我的心又似小木船
遠景不見 但仍向著前

誰在命裡主牢我 每天掙扎 人海裡面
心中感嘆 似水流年
不可以留住昨天

*留下只有思念 一串串永遠纏
浩瀚煙波裡我懷念 懷念往年
外貌早改變 處境都變 情懷未變


Good luck to us all!

****

Thanks Peggy for getting more information on Macau:

禮記雪糕
地址:荷蘭園大馬路12號至12A
電話:28375781

莫義記大菜糕
地址:氹仔官也街9A

瑪嘉烈蛋撻店
地址:賈伯樂提督街41A
電話:28527791

沙利文餐廳
地址:南灣大馬路512號
電話:28881881


Some information about Macau can be found here.

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8月 01, 2007

世界變大了...

I'm planning a quick Taiwan trip right after the Rainbow Service Trip... will cross the year of 2008 over there! I'm getting excited now. Finally I can try out various good food in Taiwan!! Too bad I will only stay there for two days :( Will get started planning anyways!

***

Did some research on the good restaurants in Macau. Here's the information I gathered so far:

九如坊吃葡國菜
‧電話:(853)331-818
‧地址:板樟堂巷3號地下(本島)
‧營業時間:12:00-23:00(周一公休)
‧推薦美食:海鮮焗馬介休82元、焗釀海鮮龍利94元、芥末烤羊鞍88元、焗鴨飯98元

六記粥麵 
電話:853-559627
沙梨頭仁慕巷1號D地下 (29號碼頭對面)
Have you tried 錦滷雲吞 before? I miss it so much!!

誠昌飯店
地址:澳門乙仔官也街28-30號(在大利來記咖啡室附近)
電話:825323;827589
營業時間:中午12:00-晚上12:00
水蟹粥

大利來記豬扒包
澳門氹仔巴波沙前地18號
TEL:827150
限量豬扒包下午三點準時新鮮出爐!!

義順牛奶有限公司
TEL:573-638
澳門議事亭前地7號
營業時間:11:00~23:00
雙皮燉奶!!


我流晒口水喇!!

***

I guess I look like any ethnic group but Chinese--a lady came in today trying to buy the bullet planter asked me if I am a Yugoslavian?! The other day a boy came in and take my bedframe away asked if I was from Cambodia/Vietnam?!

And this is the most rediculous... I got an invitation asking me to join the Indian club on Flickr....

Sigh....

That said, although the lady has wrong eyes on my birth place, she KNOWS the stuff I have in my house.... we chatted a lot.. bascially walked through every single item and talk about the stories behind the items. Too bad she wasn't able to get any discount from me :-) She even wanted to get my vintage DANSK candlesticks for free!

Of course I didn't fall into this "trap"... I'm happy though knowing that my stuffs are going to the right hands who will take good care of them. It's sad, but I can't bring anything with me to the grave anyway... this day of parting with my collection will come sooner or later :P

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7月 10, 2007

More about Lyon...

Oh, btw, when you're in Lyon, don't miss the central local butchery market "La Boucherie Centrale" located at:

102, cours lafayette - Halle de Lyon
69003 Lyon

It has a lot of meats there, but what you'd be most interested in is the sauages--one of the traditional foods of Lyon (another one is beef tripes :) You got to try their 血腸!

From 蛇果 Travel:
現時La Halle de Lyon是全法國優秀貨品最齊備的街市,市內的餐館和星級餐廳的廚師,都前來選購心水材料,集合各式肉檔、芝士檔、蔬菜檔、魚檔、酒鋪等等,尚有餅店、小酒吧、生蠔吧、三文魚吧等,是可以讓大家即買即食的地方。
營業時間:
星期二至四7:30am-12nn、3pm-7pm 星期五及六7:30am-7pm 星期日7:30am-12nn

地址:
102, Cours Lafayette

交通:
地鐵PartDieu站下車,徒步8分鐘。

You can fix all your lunches there for a good price.

This article from 蛇果 is pretty good too.

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7月 09, 2007

就是這一間

Woke up by a phone call at 5 this morning--my sister in Hong Kong who is going to travel in France wanted to know if I have any recommendations on restaurant in France. I guess it'd be worth if I blog the information instead. So, here you go:

In Nice:
This is the restaurant I mentioned earlier that has a very long line. It is tucked away from a little square in the old town of Nice. The food here is very cheap, and I guess the quality should be good given that the line is so long. A quick search on the web though warned that their puddings are over-priced.

If you like dessert (which you should be :) go to the little square and find a gelato/crepe store that is crowded with people (there are many such stores, but usually only one of them has a long line).

Restaurant du Gesu
Address: Restaurant du Gesu, 1 place du Jesus
Directions: Just off rue Droite which is the road that runs straight through the Old Town, north to south between rue St Francois and rue de la Prefecture. It's on the same road as the famous Palais Lascaris, which will be sign-posted. (closed Sundays and cash only)

Make sure you don't miss the beautiful sunset at the beach! I would go for a dinner after 9pm because of that...

In Lyon:
It's difficult to find a place that has bad cooking in Lyon, except that if you order beef tripes like I did--so never ever order internal organs in Lyon and you'll be fine.

Here's one that is a little pricy:
La Mere Brazier
12, Rue Royale
69001 Lyon, France
04 78 28 15 49
04 78 28 63 63

Here's one that is less expensive:
Cafe Comptoir Abel
25, Rue Guynemer
69002 Lyon, France
04 78 37 46 18

I tried their Quenelle mere Brazier (a pike mousse/"dumpling" on white sauce) but I hate it. I couldn't find, or even tasted, any fish in this huge mass of flour. It's recommended by the registrar of the cooking school though, so I assume other dishes are good.

Notice that most restaurants do not open for dinner until 7:30pm.

Of course, you have to try out the restaurant Saisons located inside Institut Paul Bocuse. I think it's the best in town for the price!! Enjoy a three-hour meal in this peaceful Château! Notice that the restaurant closes on Wednesdays.

Call ahead to reserve: +33 (0)4 72 18 02 20 (English spoken)

If you are taking the bus, take Metro Line D (direction Gare de Vaise) to Gorge de Loup, then take the Bus (TCL) Line 3 (direction Dardilly-Le Jubin) to Ecully le Trouillat. There are two Line 3 buses from Gorge de Loup, get on the bus with the correct direction. Also the bus stop names are spelled out on the sign of each individual stop, so you don't have to speak French to get off at the right stop... the challenging part though, is that you have to find the way walking to the school. Ask the locals and they should know. The walk is only 15 minutes or so after getting off the bus.

You can also take Bus Line 55 (direction Ecole Centrale) from a different Metro station to Ecully Le Trouillat. The bus stop is closer to the school than Line 3.

Here's a map with directions to the school.

Pick up a Metro and Bus map from a Tourist Information center when you arrive.

Actually, it's much easier if you take a cab :) Here's the address:


Institut Paul Boch

Château du Vivier - BP 25
69131 Ecully Cedex - France

In Paris:
I didn't get to try out the restaurants in Paris. For one thing, it's kind of expensive comparing to Lyon, and I didn't have much time eating. But if you want to spend 140EUR for two for a lunch (which I'm sure you won't :), you can try

La Tour d'Argent
15-17 Quai de Tournelle
75005 Paris
+33(0) 1 43 54 23 31

It's a short walk right across the river of Notre Dame.

Of course, there are many restaurants along Champ D'Alysee.

Oh, when you're in Pairs, make sure you go to the Paris Opéra (or National Academy of Music) and get a ticket for that night's show. Usually it's not expensive (20 EUR), and the box office is super helpful to get you a cheap ticket with good seats.

And you can't miss a classical concert in the Sainte-Chapelle! It costs 25 EUR (but the regular entry fee is already 7.5 EUR, so it's worth it!). It's an unforgetable experience sitting in this historic building surrounded by stained glass listening to classical music!

Hope the information helps. Have a great trip!!

(argh, you made me start missing France... it's indeed a country I would like to go back some day)

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4月 27, 2007

Seriously...

I am thinking of going to The Fat Duck, which is located 45 mins away from London.

Alone.

Good that they don't have any dress code!

The pictures of the food is really tempting...

I guess I'll probably need to sleep in hostels all the way through the trip to compensate the extra expenses :-) But I'm sure it would be well worth of it.

Hopefully, one day, I will own a restaurant too that people from other parts of the world will give up something just to try out my food.... haaa, a dream within dreams.

***

I totally forgot my friend's birthday! Good though my friend reminded me about that... We went to the Tap House Grill in Bellevue downtown. A pretty good restaurant where they serve 160 beers on tap! I asked the bartender to pick a few beer samples for me. Not that impressive. I should just get a Rogue Chipotle. My friend got a Leavenworth Whistling Pig Hefe which is supre good. The food is great! I was too full though after finishing two big pieces of bread--I can't resist their steam clam sauce :-)

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4月 24, 2007

Blessing or curse?

Everything has it's flip side, I guess, it all depends on how to choose to face it.

After two uneventful days I started to miss work a lot. Not that I like to become a slave again, but that office fun, that humorous team of people, that "lunch?" IM message I faithfully send out at 11.46pm are all the things that are itching me now. I've never thought of staying home can be this boring and *sigh* nothing but boring.

Although, I for sure wouldn't like to go back to that very unbalanced life where I had to go back to the office during weekends like what my friend did :-) No wonder AMZN is back to its glorious days after the earnings report--hum, is it time for me to cash out now :p Oh wait, what are you actually doing in the office??



Well, yeah, I guess it's just a transition, but I need to make good use of my time now!

I just signed up to do volunteer work for a non-profit organization, so that will take up a lot of my time. On the side, I need to finish up the EU trip planning--for now, I have the logistics pretty much fixed, but I need to finalize lodging soon. Then I'll need to start the AZ trip planning. That should be an easy one though. And what else? Learning French, do some readings, going to the gym, do some cooking, fix up the house, ... yeah, I do have something that I look forward to after waking up!

***

Went to Ginza today, a friendly authentic izakaya-like Japaense restaurant that serves a lot of good food. Their sashimi is super fresh! The price is very resonable. Be sure to arrive early (by 6pm) so that you don't need to wait for a table.

Ginza
103 102nd Ave Se
Bellevue, WA
(425) 709-7072

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4月 10, 2007

Crush: Spendy trendy

Last week a few friends and I went to Crush, a two-year-old restaurant located on E. Madison, Seattle.

First of all, I'm impressed by their hip design decor--especially their Pandon chairs! Unfortunatley, to be honest, it's a bit too much if you know what I mean. If I were to redesign it, I'd choose something stylish but not plastic to match the "classic American" style of the building (yup, it's a house-converted restaurant). The Pandon chairs would be a great match with an overall space-age designed restaurant, but probably not this house :)

The service is pretty good. The waiter is knowledgable about the food on the menu! I mean, some waiters care nothing about what they're serving and that always piss me off. Talking about waiter, I used to think that it'd never ever be a job that I would like to do. But now that I'm planning to look for that position (while I'm in school), I need to change my mindset... I remember I once heard from the movie The Gold Rush directed, again, by Chaplain, that a waiter is someone who serves, but not a servant in itself. It's like God serves us, but He is not a servant to us. Interesting perspective, isn't it?

Anyways, talking about the food of Crush, I can't say that it's exceptional, but they're done right to me. I mean, the food tasts good mostly because the ingredients are fresh and have good flavour, so I guess it's relatively easy to cook them right.

I liked my lamb chop a lot--it's very juicy and has strong flavor coming from the melting fat; unfortunately my friend who ordered the same thing had exactly the opposite experience: his lamb chop was done way too rare and it's not juicy at all. Incosistensy isn't something any successful restaurant should have, not to mention that the two chops were done at about the same time!

The desserts were something that I wished I had passed. The nougatine was way too sweet to me. Talking about nougatine, I didn't know that it's one of the famous products in Canada!

Will I go back again? I probably would--if they are not so pricy.

Read on other reviews:
Yelp
Tastingmenu
CitySearch

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4月 01, 2007

CitySearch: 又一次失落

Went out for dinner with some friends before one of them are leaving for a job offer in California. We searched on the web and City Search says that Gingogae has a rating of 9.0--and again it proves that their user reviews are disappointing.

Read this:
Just PERFECT!
Posted by taraluv on 12/07/2006

Well, it's an amazing korean restaurant. The food is excellent, the service is great and it just feels very good to be there! Plus it's a very good deal. Once you've been there you just keep going back.

* Pros: Very quality and tasty foods, Nutritious food, Excellent Side dishes
* Overall user rating: Highly Recommended

To be honest their food is far from "excellent". How could marinated Korean food be a lot different? They just tast like more or less the same. Oh well, OK, may be my taste buds are not sensitive enough. But how could their service be "great" with only one waitress (actually I think she is the co-owner) serving the entire restaurant? Not to mention that their side dishes are the worst I've ever seen here--very limited varieties, and the kim chee is taken right from the fridge that it's way too cold to eat with other hot dishes...

Hum, user generated content is good, but you also need to build up their reputation...

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3月 30, 2007

Zoë : 食環境

Finding a single guy/gal to dine with me is like looking for a parking spot around downtown area during rush hour (ha, sounds familiar right)... Finally met a good Samaritan, who is willing to have a very late dinner (yup, we reserved a table for 9.30) on this last day of 25 for 25.

The restaurant we choose is Zoë, which is located in the Belltown area.

Comparing to Campagne, the food quality is better, and the portion is much larger! Unfortunately, I ain't convinced that I will go back for more--too salty and too sweet.

Here's what I order:
Starter:
Ricotta gnudi with crispy sage in brown butter balsamic vinaigrette sauce.

Entree:
Beef steak with spinach, bacon, pickled onion, and smahed potato.

Dessert:
Chocolate Chantilly pot de creme

The ricotta gundi is the best of all three, and the deep fried sage leaves beautifully sit on top of the ricotta that have subtle smell of cheese.

Teh beef steak is disappointing. I ordered it medium rare, but it looks like rare to me. The center of the steak is not warm enough (and in fact I have minor diarrhea right after I get back home, which could be related...). The steak is also too lean that makes it hard to chew. The potato/veggies mix is really salty. I think the bacon added the extra saltiness.

The chocolate Chantilly is even worse. It's way too sweet to my taste that I can't even finish it. It just keeps irritating my throat...

The good side of this restaurant? The atmosphere. You feel like you're home in this little cozy restaurant filled with customers who all dress like a designer of some sort.

And the great hospitality you received in this restaurant is one of the best in town--you can feel the passion of every single staff in the team.

Oh well, except that they take our order ten minutes after we are seated...

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3月 14, 2007

Campagne: This is why you have 25 for 25

There are these restaurants I would never try if not because of 25 for 25, and Campagne is one of them. And sadly I think it's overrated.

How so?

The mimosa has no suprise at all, the mussles are not fresh (some of them actually gone bad), and the chocolate cake is way too sweet that I can't even finish it! $25 for this food quality is too pricy. Good though that we spent three hours over the dinner and it was the chatting that's the funniest.

It's true though Campangne has a romatic view of Pudget Sound.

I heard that Barking Frog is pretty good. May be I should give it a try.

****

Finally I signed off my life to the George Brown Chef School last night! This was actually the easiest part. Now I need to start shaping up the house AND THE LAWN and get prepared for putting it on market... or may be renting it out. Either way, I need to start cleaning up!

****

The China trip to Chongqing this June is canceld because of the drought and extreme weather in the summer...

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2月 19, 2007

開年飯與情書

Very spicy!!

We went to a newer restaurant Bamboo Garden, located very close to Bellevue's Toys'r'us. Before Bamboo Garden was opened, it was a Japanese restaurant called.... hum, forgot already :-) A few of us went to the then Japanese restaurant and found out that it's way too expensive for the food quality. But I'm still a bit surprised that they decided to sell their business so quickly.

The Bamboo Garden serves Xi Chuen food, and I would say it's really good--it has all what Xi Chuen food needs: 酸辣、麻辣、乾炸、怪味、椒麻、紅油... Very exciting! If you don't like spicy food, I highly recommend their 糖醋魚, the sauce is awesome!

They are having promotion right now. Dinner menu is 25% off (I heard they were doing a 50% off promotion until the end of last January. Too bad I missed it). We had 13 people, and we ordered 11 dishes, which cost only $108!

I'm going there again this Wednesday, I'll try their「 夫婦肺片」 (i.e. 麻辣牛肚加牛脷) for sure!

Up until now, my tongue is still very 麻麻麻...

Oh, if you see an older lady picking up used dishes for you, don't be fooled by her waitress look. She is actually the owner! And she's not that friendly, mind you.

Bamboo Garden
202 106th Pl NE Bellevue WA 98004
Tel: 425 688 7991


Didn't know that the Polaroid SX-70 was used in 中山美穗's 《情書》... The more I look at it, the more I'm attached...

It would be lovely if we can have meetings that are similar to what this Japanese Polaroid Life is doing. Interestingly, most of the participants are girls!

Here is another good Japanese site that is dedicated to tributing SX-70. Looking at these albums, it seems like 90% of the photographers are girls as well!

At about the same age as me, this camera has some magic power that can attract...

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2月 14, 2007

單身者關注日開心手冊

Get yourself a gift... Polaroid SX-70!!

What a romantic... bathroom :-)



The camera itself looks really romantic already. Look how slim it is when folded. The blue cartilages on its right are one-time only flash. Each flash bar has ten bulbs. But I wonder who would use these already rare flashes now? It also comes with a leather case!



When opened, the view finder will pop up, and all of a sudden it becomes an SLR!! So cool... too bad focuing is a bit difficult because of how the lens is oriented. So most of the time you need to focus on the subject first, and then recompose.



You can put on the flash in a slot right above the lens. The flash bulb is one-time use only, and the flash bar has five bulbs on each side. I tried once, and it works!! The flash is not sophisticated, but it does the job pretty well.

Operation is super easy, and apart from focuing, what you need to do is to adjust the lightness/darness (EV) knob. Oh well, most of the time it needs a bit trial and error.

Once you press the shutter, it is up to the camera to decide how long to expose the film. Once it's done exposing, the motor will roll out the film.



This camera doesn't have any compartment to hold a battery. So where does the power come from?

The secret is in the film cartilage. Each of it has a 6v zinc battery buried inside the cartilage. So every time you put in a new pack of film, you get fresh power. Smart, isn't it?

The SX-70 uses its own films-- Time Zero and SX-70 blend. The Time Zero is famous for the ability to manipulate the photo even after a few days it is developed. How so? The emulsion wont' settled down until a few days. Alternative potographers usually use tools like a crochet hook, cuiticle pusher, rounded dental tool, burnisher or any other thin, but not sharp tool and start to 'draw' on the print a few minutes after it develops.

Too bad Polaroid has decided to stop producing Time Zero since last year...



****

Went to the Facing East Taiwanese Restaurant, and turned out to be pretty good. We had a little bummer because of the table, but overall the food is good!

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1月 20, 2007

英皇道炳記

Argh, missed Hilary Hahn's recital today, and my friends were saying that it was a very good concert...

Oh well, may be it's a good thing, I don't need to pretend I know classical music during and after the performance :-)

***

Didn't know that 英皇道炳記 was one of the hottest restaurants in Hong Kong (yeah I said "was" , since you know how fast things change in that little place). This place is right across to the street where I lived when I was small. It reminded me a lot of my first times: my frist time having 炸醬面 with my dad, the first time I had hot pot, and the first dinner I had with my friends at night...

I heard that the following are not bad:
杏汁豬肺湯
燒汁白鱔
砵仔焗魚腸
砵酒焗生蠔

地 址 ︰ 鰂 魚 涌 英 皇 道 911 號 地 下
電 話 ︰ 25614351
營 業 時 間 : 星 期 一 至 五 12nn-2:30pm , 5pm-12:30am 星 期 六 、
日 及 公 眾 假 期 5pm-12:30am
收 費 ︰ 只 收 現 金 , 不 設 加 一 。
交 通 ︰ 魚 涌 地 鐵 站 B1 出 口
泊 車 ︰ 麗 池 花 園 $16/hr 。

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1月 08, 2007

蘋果在外的蘋果批

評分:70
Le Pichet
1933 First Ave, Seattle, WA
Cuisine: French

I heard a lot of good reviews for a Seattle French restaurant Le Pichet so I decided to go give it a try with a friend tonight.

Le Pichet (meaning "The Jug") is located at the corner of 1st Ave and Stewart in downtown Seattle. It's small restaurant with high ceilings, white tile floors, and tables packed back to back together. The restaurant wasn't full tonight, you can't believe this little place is quite loudish.

As soon as we were seated, the waitress gave us two little pieces of buttered toasts, topped with a soft, very light taste cheese and a piece of radish. It was awesome--the texture, the taste all mixed and matched perfectly, and we were all indulged immediately to the menu.

For "les entrées", we chose "Pàté albigeois", which is a pork pàté served with honey and walnuts. We also ordered another pork pàté, but mixed with foie gras. Both of them tasted OK, but I'm not a big fan of this kind of appetizers.

For the main course we ordered Fish of the day roasted with mustard-onion crust, on stewed veggies. We also got a Preserved duck leg on sauerkraut. Both of them are very rich in taste, and supposedly they are very authentic French food. My friend thought that the leg was done pretty good, since the skin was very crisp, while the fat laid under it wasn't too thick but provided the juice. The meat was marinated well and was really soft. I totally agree with my friend, although I don't think it was presented well to my taste, and the fermented veggie was just a bit sour to me--well, I mean too authentic :-)

I tried my friend's fish, and it was just what I had expected: rather dried. The mustard onion crust was a bit overwhelming and covered the sweetness of the fish--if it had any. Which I doubt since it was probably previously frozen.

For dessert we ordered something like an "apple pie", with the caramelized apple cubes placed aside, instead of inside, to the pastry puff. Again, the presentation wasn't as good as I thought, and the fact that they separate the apple from the puff was an interesting idea, just that I don't really like it.

May be that's their style? Everything is done technically perfect, just that when they're put together they somehow cannot create a surprise.

Overall, I am quite happy with this restaurant as the food is pretty French authentic, uninspiring though it may be.

(Oh, my friend complained to me just now the MSG level was quite high that my friend woke up in the mid-night craving for tea. And now I remember I couldn't get into sleep for a while since my heart was beating quite fast and hard. Hum, MSG effects?)

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12月 14, 2006

(巴黎有) 摩天輪

If there isn't, create one!

***

Thanks for your insight! Institut Paul Bocuse is a dream next to impoosible, but that could as well open up a lot of opportunities.

***

Finally I got a chance trying out Lynn's Bistro. I heard a lot of good things about it, and was always curious about the food.

Apparently this is a small restaurant full of a lot of group dinners. We waited for an hour before we can be staged on a small table, served with bread (since we're complaining about the long wait and we're all starving).

The food turned out pretty good. I ordered one of their signature dish--crab cake, which was made with chunks of dungeness crab meat. A little bit try, and the lobster sauce wasn't generous enough. Also it's a little bit too salty and too rich to my taste. 評分:75

We also ordered their anotehr signature dish--French onion soup. Apparently this is one of the most famous dishes, since one of the tables ordred it at the end of their dinner! The thick bread soaked up hot and sweet onion soup, topped with a generous layer of well baked gourmet cheese. It's the best to try in this cold weather! 評分:85

The Owner and the Chef is a very friendly person. Since we (well, especially I) were curious enough she told us her culinary life:

She worked in the jewelry industry backed when she was in Vietnam. She then moved to Seattle and spent four years working as an apprentice in a local restaurant. She then flew to Houston, trying to get a job in restaurant. Unfortunately she was looked down pretty bad and wasn't able to get any.

One of the restaurant owners said that she didn't have any certificate, so no one would trust on her. So she flew to New York City, studied in French Culinary Institute, one of the best culinary schools where you can get a certificate in six months.

She then got a job in NYC, being paid $80K a year working as a chef, and those were the days in 80's.

She went back to Seattle, and was hooked up with some French businessman who wanted to hire her in the then unopened W Hotel--for merely $8/hour!

Well, of course, she is now the owner of her own restaurant that has been running for six years.

I asked if she would recommend people (like me) going into the industry. She answered without a thought, "Don't!"

Well, I asked the same question to every chef I met in the past (well, around four now). And every one of them gave the same answer--except Chef Christian, the executive chef at PICA :-)

Oh well, Chef Christian acutally did tell me the bad side of working in the kitchen, and he just can't say no to a person questing for a culinary school, right?

Anyway, thanks for much for the dinner. I got a lot more than the food--meeting Lynn, and had a great fellowship. I will sit on your suggestions!

After all, spending 5 years learning how to cook and get an MBA seems to be attractive.

***

Hope you'll get the paper done soon! I also want to know more about your profession :-)

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