Thiswassupposedtobeaseriousblog - The Tech Update

Here's something that really caught my eye and made me go WOW! That's really cool and a lot more affordable than an iPod Touch! Of course it doesn't do half of what an iPod Touch does either. This is a range of designer USB flash drives from mimoco called mimobot. Thumbdrives have never looked this good if you asked me (those with DIY Burt thumbdrives might disagree though). I actually think they make perfect christmas gifts if you are really rich - a perfect combination of function and form, and are pretty much collector's items! I could well do with one! (hint hint!) These toys are available in 512Mb, 1, 2, 4Gb versions and ship from the US of A. They don't exactly come cheap though. The 1Gb versions go for about US$49.95 and the 2Gb ones, US$69.95. That's about S$80 and S$110 respectively, without shipping. Not too bad if you ask me.

Moving on to something else I would like for Christmas, the newly released Canon 40D.
(Read on for reviews on this new camera.)

Here's a pretty comprehensive review of the 40D by Camera Labs. Conclusion - "The new EOS 40D improves on its predecessor in almost every respect. The resolution has a slight, but measurable increase, the continuous shooting accelerated from 5 to 6.5fps, the AF system and weatherproofing improved, and both the viewfinder and screen enlarged. The EOS 40D also features Live View, anti-dust, interchangeable focusing screens and full PC remote control. Oh, and the ISO value is also finally shown at all times on both the secondary LCD screen and in the viewfinder. If you value these performance enhancements, it could be worth upgrading from the 30D, but if you skipped a generation and are still using the 10D or 20D, there’s enough here for most to justify a purchase." - Camera Labs


Here's another beast that was just released recently, the Nikon D3. Scott Kelby had the chance of spending a few days in the field with it and wrote about his experience with it on his blog. Scott is also the President of NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals and the editor and publisher of Photoshop User Magazine, Layers magazine (the how-to magazine for everything Adobe®). You will find many interesting tips on photoshop at his blog too.

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Photo Essay : "A Cookout like no other"

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Thiswassupposedtobeaseriousblog! - The Food Update

I was wondering whether to do a one time super update, but I think that would make this blog post far too long for any of you to read, so I decided to break it up into a few posts and tag them properly. Ok, first up, after my initial try at cooking Carbonara, I decided to experiment with it another day, and try to improve on the first recipe. This time, I made sure I took a picture of it. Well, so it doesn't really look like the one in the previous picture. Somehow after mixing the cream sauce in, the whole thing looks kind of gooey. I used streaky bacon instead of back bacon this time, a bad mistake. Streaky bacon might be good to fry on its own in strips, but once you cut it up, it falls apart too much! (Read on more more food recomendations!)

Still on the issue of food, I have been telling some of you about this ice cream shop that I discovered about 15 min walk from my home. Well, I finally went to find out more about it. I have not been there myself, but I think their promotional video looks pretty exciting.

The place is called Ice Cream Chefs and it is located along East Coast Road at Ocean Park (besides St Patrick's Sec). Their concept is pretty similar to Cold Rock at Holland Village - choose your flavours, add your mix-ins and watch them combine it into one lovely concoction! I tried Cold Rock the other day and it was indeed heavenly. (I think I had Pistachio and cheesecake with tim tams and brownies.) Let's plan an ice cream outing soon! For those interested, Ice Cream Chefs is opened Sunday - Thursday 1-10pm, and Friday - Saturday & Eve. of PH: 1-11:00pm. Check out their website here.

Oh, and in case you have not noticed, Blogger has ended a video loading application similar to their photo posting one. About time isn't it? Now you don't have to bother yourself with all that copying and pasting of code from Youtube and others.

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Lunch-time Adventure

Having stayed at home for the past 3 days to "piah" my dissertation paper, I got really bored and decided to try something interesting for lunch. I have grown quite sick of eating rice with soup, mee with soup, kway tiao soup etc. That has pretty much been my diet at home since my mum thinks I should eat "healthy" food since I am still trying to get better from my cough. Don't be mistaken. It's not that I don't appreciate my mum's cooking. It's just too much of a good thing for now. The idea of ordering from Thai pan downstairs didn't seem too appealing either so I decided to be adventurous and cook something for my self. I had a certain craving for Carbonara. Short of paying over $10 for a plate of delicious pasta at Cafe Cartel, which incidentally is one of the best I have tried, I decided I shall try to make it by myself.

I don't profess to be any kind of master chef, though give me Google any time and I can follow instructions pretty well. Read more about my cooking experience after the break.

Here's a recipe I found on Yahoo Answers.

From someone called, iliketorideigohago...
(clicke here for other variations of the recipe)

This is the BEST dish ever - my mother calls it my 'signature dish'.

INGREDIENTS:
Right - you'll need eye bacon (about four slices per person) or streaky bacon (whatever your preference). Streaky has a lot more fat, so will be a lot more salty.
2 x egg yolks
Parmesan Cheese (grated) (about half a cup)
Cream - around 350 mls
1 or 2 garlic cloves
Portabello Mushrooms - about 3 large per person

Pasta - fresh and long works best, as it absorbs the flavours.

METHOD:
Cut the bacon in to strips - about 4 or 5cm long, and 2 cm wide.
Put bacon in to medium heat pan (with a touch of olive oil in the bottom) and leave to get crispy.
While bacon is cooking, put raw eggs in to bowl or jug and add parmesan cheese. Mix together.

As the bacon is getting crispy, put the water on for the pasta.

Turn the heat down on the bacon once crispy, and add the one or two (finely chopped) garlic cloves. Once garlic has cooked, add enough of the cream to cover the bottom of the pan, and let simmer.

When the cream has reduced sufficiently (it needs to be fairly thick, but not completely reduced), add the portabello mushrooms (your choice -leave them whole, or slice thinly) I prefer to slice them.

Cook until mushrooms are done and add plenty of cracked pepper.

Ensure that the pasta is done at this point, and drain and put in to warmed dish. take the parmesan / egg mixture from before and mix in to the warm pasta. make sure you mix quickly, otherwise the raw egg will cook and bind to the pasta.

Now add the bacon / cream / mushroom mix to the pasta and mix around (toss).

Grate some parmesan on top, and cracked pepper - and voila!

IT'S AWESOME!

So I went down to the convenience store at my place which didn't turn out to be that convenient at all since I could not find everything I wanted to get. No cream, no parmesan cheese. After some deliberation, I ended up buying a packet of Linguine, a packet of white button mushrooms and a bottle of Prego's mushroom and herb sauce, costing me a total of $11.55. (Now, maybe I should have just gone to Cafe Cartel.)

By the looks of what I managed to buy, I had some improvisation to do. Digging through my well-stocked-by-mum fridge, I managed to find some nice bacon streaks and a big packet of what looked and smelled like parmesan cheese and started cooking away! Chopped the garlic, sliced the bacon, sliced the mushrooms, boiled water for the pasta, put in some butter, put in pasta when water was boiling. PRESTO! It is done! Ha ha. Not quite lah. Anyways, I managed to almost burn the bacon since I think I put the fire too big Also, the cream sauce end up being a little too thick for my liking. Oh, and yes, the pasta was kind of a little tough (not enough boiling time).

I wished I had taken a photo of the final product for all of you, but I finished every bit of it before I could spell B-L-O-G. Loved the bacon. Anyway, the pic above CLOSELY resembles it I promise. And did I mention I made a small mess of the kitchen? Ha ha. I've cleaned it up, and left no evidence lying around. I'll cook it again for any of you if you dare to try...

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Photo Essay : "Fishy Business"

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