The painless plastic surgery (for pictures only!)

Who doesn't like flawless skin, no blemishes, no pigmentation, no eye bags, no wrinkles, no double chin? In real life, I think only really perfect people like the only one in a million would have such qualities! Pretty models and idols on the magazine cover, are they really so perfect like how they look like in real life? Maybe not! (I've seen my idols right infront of my eyes, with skin- that doesn't look that perfect like what they looked like on magazines and articles. After a long hours, make up smudges and "fall" from the face which reveals the truth below make up, so TADA, yeah. Sometimes make up can't even do the job of covering serveral types of skin problems, ie, the "orange skin" surface if you get what I mean).

To the main point, because of doing the Comparative study for the magazine project, I finally (I really mean finally) I got the chance to "explore" Photoshop! It really does wonders, and thinking of it, we have been really relying on Photoshop for our photos in the magazine.

Anyway, I'm proud to present to you a FOOD photo (I think I shouldn't be so bad to reveal the Photoshop-ed photos of my group members for this comparison here- Hehe)

BOOMZ! Froyo (Frozen Yogurt)! :D

The trick about capturing nice photographs of froyo is that is melts super quickly, so at times you will take a photo of a froyo that looks quite melted and that is totally unsightly for a magazine quality photo. So the above photo, can you see what is the difference? (IT IS REALLY THE SAME PHOTO!)


In the photo:
-The melted tip has become "stiff" again and having a nice sharp tip.
-The kiwi, strawberry and peaches look more!


FYI, I only used one of the function which is Liquify! Cool right? This function can also used to make eyes bigger, darkening make up, making your smile look nicer, etc~ Just explore and you'll get the hang of it! :D



That's all for now! Looking forward to visit the Bollywood Vegetable Farm this Friday! :D

The rumbling stomach!

My second food review! Japanese cuisine!

Last week, to celebrate my friends' birthday, me and my fellow friends hopped into a Japanese Restaurant, Itacho Sushi at Ion. Many recommended this place for sushi, so how did they fair?

Just getting ready for food to be served!

Salmon rolls. Definitely a must for people who loves sashimi! But it was rather acceptable for someone who doesn't fancy sashimi!

Prawn tempura hand roll! I love the generous servings of prawns (:

Salmon sushi!

Crab meat steamed egg (chawanmushi). Silky and flavourful!

The so-normal crab meat salad (surimi crab stick and not crab meat) ):

Soba, just the right taste! (:

Salmon mayo wrapped in beancurd skin. Good flavours! (:

Food: 4/5
Service: 2/5
Ambience: 4/5
Money-worth: 3/5

Reviews: I was totally not satisfied with the service, miss orders and asking to wait too frequently. There wasn't any one at the front desk to bring the customers into the restaurant, so that's a minus for this restaurant. However, the ingredients were rather fresh, nice and cozy place to dine at.

Garnishes like make-up!

Who doesn't want their food to look tempting when it's served on your dining table?

I emphasize that I LOVE food photography especially when they are all presented nicely with garnishes and nice plating etc. Today's post, I will be sharing with you all two of my pictures that I took which was hidden some where in my files in my computer, so I happened to find them and I thought was relevant to introduce garnishing and plating to you readers!

Again, I took those photos when I was in Hong Kong some time in May or June. It was again taken at the Oyster Bar and Grill (buffet). So you do not expect much of individual dish garnished with one portion or so. So here we go!

First up, drizzled with one dot of sauce to enhance colour, and see the other oyster shell below? It's empty, the purpose is just to elevate the oyster making it look nicer. (For this, I credit my mum who did it for the sake of me taking pictures!)

Of course I wasn't satisfied enough, so I grabbed a couple of leaves from the salad (haha) and a piece of lemon, more colours = more appealing isn't it? So does this look like it's being garnished by the chefs from the kitchen? I just felt satisfied after doing all these to make it look nicer just for the photo!

Garnishes are like make-up, it enhances the look of the dish, just like how you put make-up on your face (: It may not be compulsory but for all, it makes you feel good and look good! See the relevance?

Chocolate Lava Cake's Mania!

This post is going to be so chocolatey (: Showing my blog readers the photos that I took personally (of chocolate lava cakes) when I go out to hunt for food! Some were taken when I was overseas, I LOVE FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY; it explains (: In this post, I am going to show u 3 pictures at different events, so you be the judge, you choose what you like! (:

1st up, from Bakerzin. Garnished with berry sauce, vanilla ice cream, berries (strawberries, blueberries and raspberries), classy and neat!

Next up, from a random dessert shop in Hong Kong, Kowloon Bay (its around a neighbourhood area by the way). My mum ordered this and I think the presentation is really really nice (and the price was quite reasonable) with two scoops of ice cream of your choice, just look at how they plate this dish, using chocolate sauce to draw a flower and butterfly (with pink and orange polka dots) Sweet looking right!

Lastly, from Oyster Bar & Grill in Hong Kong, Wanchai. This was a buffet setting, but we can order the chocolate lava cake (like one serving per person) it came like... naked, only sprinkled with icing sugar (plus that watermelon was what I added because I thought the cake was quite lonely standing there)

So which do you think looks the best? The best garnished one and plated one? Personally I really like second one, probably its the most special looking and most creative in terms of garnishing! (:

After choosing which one do you like, have you ever thought of how chocolate lava cake is made?

My mum told me that the "lava" from chocolate lava cake is the uncooked batter of the cake. How true is that? I went to search for answers online, my mum was right! But on top of that method, there is another way which chocolate ganache (frozen ones) is added into the batter before baking. But from the picture I see in the website, the amount of "lava" is quite little. And also, those that I've tired should be like the one my mum mentioned, uncooked cake batter, which I also found a recipe on the internet, and also the mouthfeel on the "lava" was also a little floury.

The chocolate lava cake from Oyster Bar and Grill in HK; the amount of "lava" depends on your cooking time, so how do you want yours served?

Check the recipes on these websites out if you're interested: Chocolate ganache center lava cake and Chocolate lava cake (normal) Have fun trying to make your favourite chocolate desserts! (: Cheers!

Eye for goodies @ Bakerzin!

How the appearance of the food we eat influence our choices and appetite? Garnishes, plating? Yes, they sure influence your what you want and what you choose!
As the picture suggest, Visual Memories; Bakerzin, a place where my mum loves to visit! (and I love it too!) Eve and I went to Bakerzin for some afternoon sweet snack!

Pictures taken from the menu, just see how pictures on the menu can influence our thought of choosing what we're going to eat!

& more goodies from Bakerzin!

My pick of the day! Warm chocolate cake with ice cream! (who doesn't love chocolate?) I was pretty impressed with the appearance when it arrived on my table - SATISFACTION! W-H-Y?

Comparing it the the photo on the menu, it's like 99% similar! Which I feel that not all restaurants are like that because the pictures on the menu always looked so nice and when it comes to your table you go "???" it didn't look like this in the menu! Its like deceiving the customers! :x

Garnishes can come in a few forms, from plating using sauces to drizzle over the plate, using fruits, mint leaves (for desserts) and cut fruits, it enhances the overall presentation and gives it more colour to the dish.

On a whole I like the warm-and-cold combination and the sweetness is just right, and for those who have not tried this famous dessert from Bakerzin, you ought to try it! There's even a piece of candied orange (or something like that) at the bottom of the chocolate cake!

Eve got herself waffles with ice cream, and isn't the presentation special too? They got the waffles cut and "elevated" the whole look of it!

How to score for coursework practical?

As the title suggests, scoring high marks for your coursework is very important especially in Food & Nurtrition, as coursework contributes to a very high percentage (60%) to the total score. Thus, during the exexcution part of the exam you don't only cook, the appearance (garnish, serving wares, serving sizes) is very important!

Today during lesson, Miss Chin prepared 9 different samples for us to evaluate on, some are presented really well and some the other wise. Look through the samples below and we will discuss on the issues on the presentation.

(Presentation of donut for teenages)

Sample 1: Donut is well 'elevated' at an angle (not flat on the plate) with suitable garnishing which improves the overall colour of the product.

Sample 2: No garnishing, furthermore, the plate is a cartooned plate, like Bob the Builder for a teenager? I seriously don't think the teenager can take it!

Sample 3: Leaf shaped plate of an appropriate size with a cherry and kiwi slices to improve the overall colour of the whole dish.

Sample 4: Makes an effort to garnish, colourful jelly beans to make the overall attractive. But dishes should not be served on melamine plates, which looks not professional. Porcelain plates are good as it is white (usually).

Sample 5: Makes an effort for garnishing; but please remember the dish will be placed in the open for quite some time and what will happen? Enzymatic browning, the fruit is still edible, but it is just unsightly for presentation. & is the serving plate a little too big?

Sample 6: The first and biggest mistake is that no food (even garnishes) should be out of the plate! When serving, serve it on a porcelain plate instead of a melamine plate (looks more professional) and preferably white ones. Raisins for the garnish? Isn't it lacking some colours?

Sample 7: The weirdest garnish I had ever came across, tomatoes with donut. A big NO. Having no garnish is certainly better than wrong garnish! It is just like using strawberries to garnish clam chowder!

Sample 8: Using the dolly paper for donuts are appropriate, but try to not use it on a white plate. Next on, 2 donuts for 1 serving is certainly too much! (*note, if you are making muffins/ cupcakes, etc, pick ONE best looking piece and present! DO NOT present everything that you prepared, especially when it is for ONE SERVING)

Sample 9: Without any garnishing, this doesn't look very right isn't it? For these types of food (cinnamon roll), icing sugar can be dusted onto the surface and garnishes which are green, yellow and red can be used to improve the overall appearance of the food.

With these 9 samples, I hope you can see what is the purpose of garnishes and what difference you can make to different dishes and also the proper use of garnishes.