TIME

Found out some old digital photos and got curious to check what camera took these photos. The below 2 were taken with a Canon 20D. This party was very impressing to me. If I was not asked for holding this party on 24th Dec., 2004, I would have stuck to my original flying plan to Phuket. I still recalled 2 days later around noon time when I was about to leave home for CX751 to Bangkok on 26th Dec., 2004, the TV suddenly had a breaking news about a tsunami hitting Phuket. The name tsunami was pulled back in my primary text book memory.

It turned out after 10am of 26th Dec., 2004, the whole phuket and part of the south west Thai/Malay peninsula moved one inch westward due to the Earth's crust drifting and the Earth's axel had a derivation angle of just a few mm variance. We may think it's not that significant, but in the past study, due to the Earth's axel moving 1cm, the trade winds and monsoon winds were changed. That turned a big wide inland lake in the Central Africa into the nowadays famous dessert Sahara. That also told why Egypt arose due to massive migration from a dying lake.

1/2. these kids were then just 4-10 years old. Canon 20D captured every innocent moment of them. The above left one simply shows their bright bright smile.

3. 6 years later, one of the kids held a Canon 550D which was just bought by his father. I took my 550D to take this 550D. When he looked back, a photo was taken on him with a 20D. This is TIME.

First wife beef noodle shop 大婆牛肉麵, Wanchai, HK

Tried this shop several years ago and wasn't impressed. Passed by it and on a second thought, I gave it a try.

1. the menu, but one interesting thing the typical Taiwanese pickled needs to have an extra HK$3. That means, this beef noodle is really on its name "beef + noodle only" with complimentary soup. In checking at this small thing, you would know how conservative they are. HK$3 for some pickled? 2. cucumber HK$20.

3. Beef noodle HK$38. The beef was boiled in the soup base and therefore it was too mashy and almost like some fiber that it looks like beef only. Interesting the soup wasn't in much of a beef flavour after such boiling. The soup color looks very tasty but it's just some color. However, the good thing about this soup is that it's boiling hot. The noodle is so so. 4. Deep fried pork chop HK$20. The frying oil is not good and it's very oily and wet.

The Feast, the East, Tai koo shing, Hong Kong

Out of curiosity again, I went in the cafe of The East (hotel) and my eyes got caught up with a spectacular array of cold dishes. The waiter told me they offer the antipasti and dessert on buffet and a main course chosen from the menu at HK$340 (for weekend) with a 20% discount on DBS card.

1. Very fresh oysters and you can pick them on the plate and let the attendant open them for you. 100% guaranteed fresh. Tips - pick up those with a rounder and thicker body and avoid those with a slightly open shell. 2. I love the way they have the various authentic dressing and the veggie are very selected.

3/4. So eye catching! Note all these dishes are pretty European. Please don't expect a BBQ pork noodle or sweet and sour pork.

5/6. more to go. Note: they use cantaloupe, not the common rock melon.

7. Lovely cold cut including some very melty and aromatic parma ham. Check on the left bottom. These are imported organic cherry tomatoes. Very tomato and dense and thick in texture. Very different from the ordinary cherry tomatoes. 8. Sweet section.

9. more cakes. 10. I found my gazpacho again. Yummy and this one is a bit zesty with a light touch of olive oil.

11. see my harvest! Very rich and fat ones. I took one dozen and my friend took 1.5 dozens. So remember my tips for picking the oysters. 12. bread is so good!

13/14. I cleaned the plates. BTW, the beet root salad (a bit top right) and artichoke (mid. bottom) are awesome!

15. more tomatoes and veggie. 16. The couscous (top mid. left) is surprisingly good.

17. Pan seared seabass on a bed of beans and beat root. yummy! 18. Charcoal grilled rib eye steak. Though I was quite full, I finished this big cut of rib eye steak. What's more, the french fried is very good. Some very new potatoes were used. Very potato aroma.

19. iced decaf. coffee. 20. dessert time. Again the cakes are not too sweet. I like the dark choco. cookie (on the right bottom). It's actually 30% sweet as compared to a common cookie's sweet. It's very risky if the dark choco. is not of a good quality when the sugar is not much to cover up.

21. Cup cake. 22. more to go.

Thai Basil, Admiralty, HK

So today some very close business friends asked where I should go for lunch and dinner. I chose Crystal Jade for lunch and Thai Basil for dinner. They asked further if I should try something more authentic. These 2 restaurants may not be the best on my list but they are my regular visits and provide consistent food quality.

1/2. Got a table at the entrance corner. The restaurant is always very busy. This is the only few ones I don't mind lining up.

3. OK, something new and I decided to order more spicy food tonight. This one is called Chiang Mai platter. Quite unexpected that among all these the prawn cracker is the best. Frying prawn cracker is of a very high technique from the oil quality to oil temperature control. Thai Basil made it perfect. Evenly fried and very dried out, and extra light and crispy. Of course, very aromatic. 4. At first I thought it's a Tom Yam soup, but it's not. It reminded me of a nice Thai restaurant called Methavali Sorndaeng TC brought me to 1.5 years ago. TC ordered a Kiang Lieung. This one is 90% of that one I tried. Some shallot, and galangal and mushroom and some longer green (I forgot the name) were used. This one is very hot and spicy. I felt like I was back to Bangkok.

5. The hot didn't stop. This one is green curry prawn fried risotto. I really like the way the Chef first steamed the risotto and quick stir fried it like Thai fried rice. The original way of cooking risotto would have a sticky texture due to frequent stirring to cause the friction of the rosotto. So this one is less sticky and yet very aromatic from the powerful quick stir fried. This is the way about stir frying. Gotta stir fry the ingredients to be done quickly to seal the juice of the ingredients. The green curry is very nice and I was quite surprised some kafir leaves were put in it to even bring out the green curry aroma. One more remark - the lime was lightly grilled. Very clever as this way the lime's dry taste would be taken away. Remember in Brazilian BBQ, pineapple is also grilled. You wouldn't get the dry taste of pineapple. 6. Stir fried veggie in shrimp paste. Unexpectedly hot too but very good stir frying.

7. Grilled chicken. Nicely grilled and pretty juicy inside. 8. Banana pudding with ginger comb ice cream on top. Still so good. Check the brown tiny bits. They are caramelised brown sugar. Very aromatic and crunchy.

9. my favourite ice cream. From left, ginger, raspberry and rum raisin. Thai Basil made it very nice. Not sweet but very melty and chilled. Ginger is very ginger and rum raisin is rum! This is the nice thing about Thai Basil.

Cafe Le Must, Causeway Bay, HK

My family brought me to a very warm dinner and the place is really cozy with very good services. Food quality is pretty nice in general. The pork chop and rye eye steak are imported and selected. The Ginger cream soup is very surprising.

1. The entrance. 2. the table setting.

3. the shop and it's 6pm. After 7pm, it's full house. 4. Salmon with boiled egg and black truffle.

5. Pan seared scallop with veggie in balsamic vinegar. 6. Tomato and Chicken soup.

7. Ginger cream soup. 8. Lobster bisque.

9. Gazpacho. 10. Scallop risotto.

11. Grilled pork chop. 12. Grilled rye eye steak.

13. Pear marinated in red wine sauce. 14. Apple tart.

15. Coffee cake. 16. Tiramisu.
17. This is not from the shop. Green tea ice cream cake from Hagen Daz.