Buffet @ Melting Pot Cafe

had a gathering, errr, well yes food again, this time is to celebrate Boon and Zhu's birthday, and also a mother among us..Cat. In order to watch our wallets, we decided to have in restaurants that have 1 for 1 promotion.  However due to Mother's Day, we can only find 2 for 1 promotion.

Anyway we settled for Melting Pot Cafe at Holiday Inn Atrium.  This is one of the hotel in Singapore that keep changing its name (I think it was called Concorde Hotel before).  Food is ok, but it was great fun catching up with old friends since school days.

Sushi that look like fishes haha

Bread Pudding:

Curry Chicken:

317 Outram Road

4F Holiday Inn Atrium
Tel: +65 6731 7172

Canon Food Photography Session

I signed up for the Canon Food Photography Session, run by Singapore Famous Blogger, Dr Leslie Tay, who is the blogger for ieatishootipost.  I have been following his blog for a while, and in fact, one of the reasons that prompted me to buy my Canon DSLR last is that i want to take the same nice food photo that Dr Tay took!

The sharing session was at Si Chuan Do Hua Restaurant at UOB Plaza, there were about 40 people.  We were also joined by Canon Pro, Jino Lee and videographer, Lance.

Dr Tay is a very friendly and absolutely no airs guy, and I admire him for his passion on food and blogging, despite his busy schedule.  I think that is what you really mean by juggling your passion with your work, and family!

He shared with us some practical tips on taking food photo.  Not so much of those studio set up with lightings, but more on use what you have and take good food photo.

It was a very enjoyable session, and the bonus was that I had 2 photos taken with Dr Tay!  The only complain that I have was that the restaurant was so dim that the photo did not turn out as well.  I also found out that it was quite stressful to have a table of 10 taking photo of one plate of Dim Sum.  First, you have to make sure that you are not blocking anyone's view.  Secondly, no one dare to eat as someone is still taking photo.  Thirdly, you cannot move the food, so you can only move yourself around the table, with people around you! Anyway, if all else fails, just enjoy the food! Bon Appetit!

Green Tea Eggtart:  Unique, but i don't like.

Wrong focus.  The person holding the chopstick was actually posing for her friend, but i "Hijacked" it..hehee

But i got the focus wrong.  My intention was to focus on the Har kau, not the bamboo basket! Haha

Sunset shoot

My dinner was cancelled as my friend was sick, so I thought I will go and take some photo of the new Helix Bridge.  When i reached Esplande at 1900Hr, I was surpised at the number of photographers there!  Most of the good spots were taken, with their camera pointing towards the direction of our famous Merlion.  I managed to find a spot, and before i can set up my tripod, an army of students arrived with their tripod.  I think they were students, or maybe some photography class because the leader was shouting to his tribe "Class set up your tripod here"  There was another group whom I understand were colleagues who were into photography...Heehee I managed to talk to someone while taking photo!  Actually the fact was that he blocked my camera while I was doing long exposure!!! Anyway did not make it to the Helix Bridge as was rather fedup with the crowd.

My teacher told me patience is the most important factor in taking landscape photo, so i will put that into practice.  :-)

Lunch @ Cafe Hacienda

Down with fever, and on one day medical leave today.  Have not had fever for a while, must be the weather or the BBQ on Sat!  Anyway, I had a good rest, and have time to upload my blog.  At least it was not as bad as my food poisoning experience, which took me a week to recover, and no appetite for a foodie is really really bad!

Finally had a chance to try Cafe Hacienda.  I went there on May Day for lunch, and it seems rather busy, and it did not really have the nice and relaxed atmosphere that i read about.  Maybe because i was seated next to a family with 2 toddlers, who were making quite a lot of noise.

Egg Benedict:  Some said it is not worth to pay $16 for 2 poached eggs.  But well, these are not ordinary poached eggs, they are extremely delicious!

NY Burger, one of the Wagyu Burgers on the menu, with gorgonzola, caramelized onions, aioli and sauteed mushrooms.  It is a bit small for $26, but definitely yummy.  Well, i "forced" my friend to pose for me after i caught him stealing my fries!  Haha

Close up on the beef.

I think that the food is very good, though the atmosphere is not as relaxing as i thought.  Yes, there are many books to let you read, including bimbo magazines, but somehow not very relaxing, and the tables are too close for comfort.  Service is very prompt and attentive.  I wasn't very happy with the photos though.  Did not have enough time to take them, as my hungry friend was staring at me while I was taking......I did not let him eat, and he finished his orange juice in anticipation of the food.  That's quite a hint, isn't it?

Cafe Hacienda

Blk 13 Dempsey Road

#01-07

Your Singapore - HDB

For non singaporeans (such as mr TJ), HDB may sounds foreign.  HDB stands for Housing Development Board, a statutory board of the Singapore Government.  They are well known for building flats, whereby Singaporean can purchase at a subsidized rate.  (of course, they have a lot of terms and conditions)
The price of a HDB flat is always in the spotlight, especially in Singapore where land is scarce.

I thought i would take some sunset view from my flat, a very heartland flavour of a true blue Singaporean. 

Another Sunrise

I went to take any take another sunrise today, since I could not sleep well these few days due to some mind boggling unresolved issues.  Since I could not sleep, and needed to be in town for a 8am meeting, I thought I would go & catch the sun.

Alas, another unsuccessful attempt.  The sun was blocked by the clouds again.  Reached Esplande at 615am, wanted to check out the new Helix Bridge.  The bridge looks kind of plain in the morning, and the Maybank building wasn't lighted up today.  Though i could not see the sun, it was a nice outing.  It was very nice, quiet and peaceful in Esplande, a few joggers - Yes, a few joggers at 630am!  (and they are mainly caucasians).  The sun was finally above the clouds at 730am, but it was too glaring to look directly at.  I will try again next time :-)  I am sure one day i will catch beautiful sunrise.

Exploring Bukit Brown Cemetery

Joined Jackie and the boys for a shoot at the rather undiscovered Bukit Brown Cemetery, which is near Lornie Road and Adam Road.  I have never ever been to a cemetery in Singapore before, and when I googled the place, this seems like a popular place for the Singapore Paranormal Investigators (SPI), and they typically do a night tour!  Hmm..may not seems like a good idea to explore a cemetery at night, to take photo!??!

The cemetery is smaller than I thought.  And it also seems quite busy for a Sat morning, quite a number of cars drove in.  The interesting thing is all the people that I saw at the cemetery to pay respect to their ancestors are old folks.  Where are the youngsters?

There was some "drama" with 3 uncles who were paying respect at one of the tombs.  One of the guys had his monopod and his camera shooting at the same direction of these uncles.  So the uncles were very upset, thought we were taking their photo and they started to shouto to us in some hokkien which I could not understand.   They were about 200m away, so we tried to gesture to them that we were not taking their photo, but a bird on the tree behind them!  Anyway they still shouted at us at some hokkien which we don't understand, so to avoid trouble, we decided to quickly move away, and also "scolded" the guy who took the bird photo.

I did not take a lot of pictures, as not sure if it is respectful to take pictures of tomb.  Here are some of the photo that I took: