Small Wonders Come In Macro Pictures

After purchasing my own achromatic close-up lens filter, I started to take pictures of the wondrous world of small creatures and plants. It’s a wondrous adventure alright as one takes photographs of the world of small creatures (mainly insects) and plants (buds and flower close-ups).

I wouldn’t consider these pictures as true macro shots since I didn’t use a lens that provides true 1:1 imaging (or so I learned from several sources; I’m still a beginner in DSLR photography). One day, I may purchase a true macro lens with excellent focus. In the meantime, I’m enjoying using my lens filter to focus on interesting tiny subjects found in parks, beaches, gardens, and even inside the house.

Plant bud. I’m not sure of the name of the plant where this bud protruded from. This photograph taken inside Labrador Park.

I noticed this tiny reddish spider while trekking on the coastal concrete barrier along Labrador Park beach.

It was slightly raining at the time I revisited the Botanical Gardens. I saw this green plant laced with water droplets floating on a pond.

Could this be some species (or cousin) of a fly? I came across this flying creature while exploring the flower buds along the staircase in the Botanical Gardens.

Lots of black ants gather around this red plant bud in the Botanical Gardens.

A closer look at the petals of a flower wet with water droplets inside the Botanical Gardens.

Meanwhile, these platoon of ants busily foraged on the bark of one of the park trees in Changi Beach park.

A flower head with hairy protrusions similar to dandelions. I’m not sure what this plant is called but there are a lot like this under the trees in Changi Beach.

I had some sambal fried rice lunch in a restaurant nearby when I visited Changi Chapel and Museum one Sunday afternoon. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the tomato to test my macro filter while I waited for my drink to be served.

Tags: flowers, insects, macro photography

06.May.08 Food, Photo Series, Small Things Comments (2)

Adding A Life Year

I had just celebrated my birthday last Thursday. I am more than a month’s day range (as we jokingly say, wala na ako sa kalendaryo). Still, I am within a lotto play card’s range of numbers. I thank my family, friends, and officemates who have gathered in my mini-party and joined me on that special day, wishing me good luck and saying prayers to me. I really appreciated it all.

I prepared, along with another flat mate, a seafood fare of spaghetti with tuna and crab stick Bolognese sauce, tuna lumpias, shrimp with bean sprouts lumpias, squid balls, lobster balls, buttered shrimps, and fried fishes. We decided to serve seafood as to follow the tradition of going meatless during the Holy Week (and since my birthday fell on Maundy Thursday).

Above is the chocolate birthday cake that my flat mate brought later in the evening to add to the food and snacks I prepared for the gathering. Usually we don’t like the cakes made here in Singapore; rather we prefer the taste and creaminess of cakes made from the Philippines. But the cake bought that night tasted nice (as we ate it yesterday). The icing was just right - not too sweet and not too bland.

My guests playfully put too many candles on my cake thus I had to blow the candles three times to extinguish everything.

Through the help of a flat mate, who thankfully supervised me, I cooked the huge batch of buttered prawns pictured above. A followed a recipe that I found from the Internet. I was inspired to prepare this after one of my flat mates deliciously cooked one for his birthday. What made this recipe different from the usual Singaporean and Malaysian recipe of buttered prawns was the use of 7Up or Sprite soft drink to simmer and be absorbed by the shrimps. Because of this my Singaporean guest mentioned to me that the prawns had a hint of sweetness.

Well, here’s the rundown of the buttered prawns recipe we prepared:

2 kilos of shrimp (remove the head and whiskers)
1 and 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter
1 small bottle of 7Up or Sprite
cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
bulbs of onions, peeled and chopped
3-4 sprigs of curry leaves (the more curry leaves used, the better). Remove from stalks and tear some leaves to small pieces
salt and pepper to taste
dash of sugar
three tablespoons of soy sauce (Worcestershire sauce would be better, if desired)

1) On a huge cooking wok, cook the shrimps with 7Up or Sprite. The combination of water from the shrimps and the soft drink will later boil around the shrimps. Let everything simmer until the shrimps are reddish orange in color.
2) Set aside the shrimps. Remove any left-over liquid from the cooking wok.
3) Combine butter and garlic. Use low fire so that the butter will not burn. Stir occasionally.
4) Before the garlic eventually turns brown, add the curry leaves. These leaves are very aromatic and adding them will make the sauce flavorful and smelling well. Cook until the leaves become slightly crunchy. Add the chopped onions.
6) Add salt, pepper, sugar, and the soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce.
7) Add the shrimps into the butter sauce. Stir occasionally to coat the shrimp bodies with the butter sauce. Fry for 3-4 minutes.
8) Serve on a platter or in a big pot. Enjoy the dish.

Tags: birthday, buttered shrimps, Celebration, recipe, seafood

22.Mar.08 Food, Life Events Comments (9)

Mooncake Festival Tonight

Tonight is the celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival or more popularly known as the Mooncake Festival. Most of my Singaporean Chinese co-workers and bosses have left early from work to be together with their family and friends and celebrate this important festivity. In the malls and nearby bakeshops, I see plenty of people buying boxes of mooncakes in bulks and carrying them back to their homes.

I’m already familiar with this festivity even though its sparsely celebrated back in the Philippines (celebrated more in the Chinatown area, I guess, were most of the Filipino Chinese live). I also remember that certain Filipino Chinese fast food restaurants (such as Chowking) sell some of these baked goodies during this festival season. These cakes, shaped commonly like a moon with Chinese characters embedded on top, have some common stuffing of duck egg and some lotus seeds (or the watermelon or butong pakwan seeds).

Here in Singapore, I see many varieties that caught my curiosity. I was tempted and eventually bought two special mooncake boxes from a bakeshop I passed along while walking back to my flat. I bought them for about 30SGD for 8 medium sized mooncakes. Yeah, they’re quite expensive but the salesladies assured me they’re delicious. Of course, no sane salesperson will tell you that their product is bad.

I remember that the mooncakes above have the special red bean paste filling with some nuts inside. Me and and my flatmates haven’t yet tried these. The ones we did taste tonight are shown below.

These don’t look like the commonly baked mooncakes that are brown or golden. These appear puffy or creamy in texture, like cakes wrapped in creamy icings. There is no duck egg inside these cakes, but instead are some (unknown) type of nuts and lotus seeds. The cake itself is quite soft and sticky to the fingers. The brown filling is not too sweet although I find the taste nothing special and nakakasawa (causing one to be fed up with the taste).

* * * *

Last week our office team was treated by my Malaysian Chinese co-worker with his box of special mini mooncakes that he bought at the nearby mall. These have special glazed coatings of cream on top with fillings flavored with walnuts. I tried and bite into one. The cake slightly crumbled in my mouth but it does taste superbly like walnuts. It is delicious. And that led me to get another one that led to a second one and then a third (the last one I sneaked into the box while he was not looking, heck).

Tags: Dining Adventures, Festivals

25.Sep.07 Festivals, Food Comments (2)