Fat Spoon

Once in a while it is quite fun to take pictures and not know what you going to get until many months later. With the advances of digital cameras it is pretty easy to preview what you shoot 2 seconds after you shoot a picture and correct any mistakes you make. However with film once you shoot it it is imprinted forever in the film and you will never know what is the result until it is developed.

Close to a year ago, my colleague gave me a roll of Fuji Superia ISO100 film which has expired since 2002. It was kept in my room for close to a year and finally I decided to take it out for some shooting. One day we went out with Wen Way's and Shalin to a nice little cafe called fat spoon. It is located at the back part of PJ Uptown at the shops facing the houses. They serve pretty decent food and they have pretty cool looking decor. 

The exterior decor of the place has a almost kampung feel to it. The walls are bare concentrate without plastering or paint and also the tables and chairs are a mix match of things that do not belong to the same set. This almost simulates a shop or house in the kampung. 

The interior matches the exterior...

The combination of odd shaped and mismatch tables and chairs adds to the ambiance. The walls are also non painted and non plastered. The A/C ducting were "concealed" using zinc roofing, one wall was "painted" using newspaper and the toilets had old school Spy Vs Spy comic decorating the walls.

They even took the effort to decorate the entrance door with a Fat Spoon as the door handle and they also got a really cool, old looking door as the entrance.

The food was decent but I completely forgot what we ordered since I didn't take any picture of it. Bare in mind we went to Fat Spoon almost 2 months ago and that was how long it took me to shoot all 36 exposure in the roll, get it developed and ask my colleague to scan the films.

Since the film was also 8 years expired and kept in terrible conditions, all the shot was horribly underexposed and lucky with the miracles of new technology I was able to restore and pic some photos.

By the way while in Fat Spoon I created a big hoohaa and it was series of very unfortunate events that contributed to it. My camera bag was on the floor and as I was reaching down to pick up my lens, it slipped my hand and fell onto the floor. First time I ever drop any of my lens ever. I was so "kan chiong" with my lens that while trying to save the lens from the floor, I pushed the table a little to hard and the 2 tables separated. Unfortunately, there was a glass cup in the middle of the 2 tables and it dropped and disintegrated into a million pieces. Once of the million pieces got horny and decided to give Amy a over bit. It actually flew and stabbed Amy in the feet.

Lucky it was just a small injury and Fat Spoon gave her a plaster, swept all the glass away and didn't even ask me to pay for the glass. Highly recommended to head to this place :)

From photography to Makan

It has been a while since I went out for a photography trip, this weekend when Amy was in Singapore, De Way invited me to go KL walk-a-bout and I said yes. Woke up at around 715am and first indication that it wasn't going to be a good day for photography was when it was really cold. I looked out the windows and it was a very very gloomy day. It wasn't raining but it was super clouded over.

Unfortunately at around 745am it started to rain which ruined our plans to go for a photography trip, so we did what all Malaysians will do. We turned a bombed out photography trip to a makan trip. The night before while discussing about where to go for breakfast, De Way said he will bring me go and eat the famous Roti Babi at Dang Wangi.

This place has been open since 1928 which makes is 88 years old now. Apparently they started out somewhere on the Karak Highway and then the place we went is the second outlet. The shop they are in really looks like they have been opened for a long time now.

The menu is the old style menu board where it is a white board and they can easily rub the price in case there is a price change. The interior of the shop reminds me of coffee shops in my hometown as well. It is the original thing and not those kopitiam trying to looks like old coffee shops.

They have 2 big mirrors on each side of the coffee shop that is very common in coffee shops in the yesteryears. Now enough about the deco, the whole reason we came to Yut Kee was for the roti babi.

When people mention roti babi, the first thing that I think about is the roti with bakwa and pork floss. However the roti babi we had was completely different. The roti babi at Yut Kee is basically a piece of pork meat stewed and then wrapped in bread. The bread is then dipped in egg and then deep fried. It taste pretty good but it is very very oily. The egg and the bread soaked up all the oil. De Way also ordered the Hainanese Chicken Chop and also a portion of roti bakar.

 

The Hainanese Chicken Chop was really nice, the sauce is light and the chicken chop was nicely fried. In my opinion, the Hainanese Chicken Chop is much better then the roti babi. The roti bakar was also pretty good as the kaya was nice and tasty. De Way told me the other famous food from the shop is the Swiss Roll.

In my opinion the Swiss Roll tasted just like normal Swiss Roll only. The special thing about this swiss roll is that instead of using cream in the middle, they use Kaya. It was pretty good.

Just before heading off, I caught sight of a cute little baby having his breakfast as well.

The coffee they have here is also pretty decent. One of the better hot cuppa local coffee you can get. Nice and creamy as they use both evaporate and condensed milk and with all that still got the kick of the coffee. Just beside our table there is a notice.

What I do not get is why only after 11am they do not allow people to  bring in external bought food.

Kimchi's 29th Birthday

Another year has arrived and the first birthday of 2011 has come and gone. This time around we celebrated Michelle aka Kimchi's Birthday on Michelle Day itself. She couldn't decide between all the suggestion I provided to her but in the end settled for Kinpachi in SS17 Subang Jaya.

Kinpachi is a nice Japanese restaurant situated away from the busy areas and hence getting parking is a breeze. They server pretty good food as well so there is nothing much to complain. Amy and myself got there first and while waiting for the rest, we did nothing other then cam whore.

Just in case you are wondering, H24B means Happy 24th Birthday. The shirt I am wearing is the first birthday present I got from Amy. We got together about 9 days before my birthday but I celebrated my birthday over in Taiwan.

The next couple to arrive was none other then Kimchi and Kel. They sat down and yes proceeded to cam whore.

I like the 3rd picture where Kel is holding the Kinpachi menu up. It is so playful and their expression is priceless. At that point of time we got some hot towels to refresh ourselves but Amy and Kimchi started playing with it.

We were soon joined by EV where I won 100 bucks from kimchi for guessing correctly who was walking down the corridor.

Followed shortly after EV was Aileen Khoo and we got the complete group for the night.

Shortly after Aileen came the food started arriving and I ordered my usual which is the wakayama ramen.

Kimchi and Kel ordered the Kinpachi bento which is Kimchi's standard order as well.

EV and Amy ordered the Saba Shioki with Cawan Mushi

Aileen ordered the cold Soba mee. I was enjoying my ramen so much, I didn't take a picture of the Soba. Sorry Aileen. We ate, laughed and enjoyed each other's company. After our tummies were satisfied, started the group picture session.

They always complain that I take group pictures of them but I am not included in the picture. So while I setting up the camera, the gang was patiently waiting for me and getting bored, I couldn't help myself but to take a picture of them stoning.

This were their reaction when I told them what I just did.

I already had the timer all set and everything was ready, when I took the stone picture the timer was enabled and I had to cancel it and then enable normal shooting to get the stone picture face. We got interrupted half way by dessert.

Kinpachi didn't have any desserts other then ice cream so we ordered 3 macha ice cream and added a candle for effect.

Once the birthday song was sung, the wishes wished and the candle blown, we went back to taking group pictures with me inside. Had to setup the camera again and this time before enabling the timer, did some candid shots.

and finally I get my silly mug in the shot.

Normal picture first and then of course must have funny picture...

The girls continued to cam whore like there was no tomorrow.

Now starting from this part onwards things started to get really weird. I think they must have spiked the green with tea with some sake or something. Usually as you know, I am seldom in the pictures. However Kimchi wanted some pictures with me and usually when I get infront of the camera things just go seriously crazy.

Out of all the shots up there, there is only one normal picture of me and it was because I accidentally pressed the shutter while the camera was pointing at me. Not to be out done, the girls started to also join in.

Finally just before we called it a night took some couple shots of Kimchi and Kel. At least we managed to keep the first few shots serious. Then again it went slightly weird.

All in all it was a fun night out with some good friends, good food and my Canon 5D.