The iPhone 4 & Food Photography: How a Cellphone is Helping This Food Blogger Lighten Up...Literally.

8oz Burger Bar Chorizo Mac & Cheese

So I finally broke down and traded my stone-age "regular" cell phone for an iPhone 4 a couple of months ago. It was life-changing in that, amongst other things, I can get directions to practically anywhere without printing out directions beforehand, and I can show the world what I'm eating or doing with Twitter or Facebook instead of waiting until I get home to blog about it. You know cell phone cameras and blogging in general have come a long way when the photo quality of pictures taken with my phone kick the asses of those taken by my point & shoot when I first started blogging. My how things have changed in 5 years.

The phone's certainly no match for my D300 especially in low light conditions, but it's nice to know that I don't always have to lug a brick around to document my food-capades. Plus my shoulders and arms thank me whenever I leave the DSLR at home. IPhone 4 shooting my meal = no SalonPas later.

I think the iPhone4 takes pretty cool looking pics both au naturel and with apps that give a more vintage feel. All of the following photos were shot using the iPhone 4's 5 megapixel camera with any post-processing done on the phone itself. Not bad for a cell phone camera, right?

Pluots

Tasty Garden Hong Kong Style Waffle

Same Tasty Garden Hong Kong Style Waffle

Tasty Garden Vermicelli with Shredded Duck & Preserved Vegetable

"Santouka Number 1" shot with Hipstamatic

Heirloom LA Jidori Chicken Salad Sandwich and Green Bean Salad at Intelligentsia Pasadena

Intelligentsia iced latte shot with Hipstamatic

Mikawaya Suama shot in low lighting with TiltShift Generator

Mitsuwa West LA packaged bento section shot with TiltShift Generator

Mei Long Village Xiu Long Bao and Bean Curd Sheets w/ Preserved Vegetables edited with CrossProcess

The same Chorizo Mac & Cheese as above edited with CrossProcess

I can also use the nifty front camera to take artsy-fartsy photos of myself with a fork in my mouth. This is the photo that I lost Twitter followers over when I switched out my cupcake-atop-preggo-belly avatar with this for oh, 3 days or so. Like I said earlier, food blogging's certainly come a long way.

Me with fork in mouth shot with IncrediBooth

What's In Morrissey's Trader Joes Bag?

A cashier at my local Trader Joes in South Pasadena saw my Smiths "The Queen Is Dead" shirt yesterday and proceeded to tell me that the Pope of Mope sometimes shops at their Pasadena Lake Avenue store. Now although I'm not as big of a fan of solo Morrissey as I am the OG Smiths (my favorite band of all time, by the way), I still got the teeniest bit excited and couldn't help but wonder what the Moz leaves with in his reusable canvas tote (if he uses one, that is, which I'm sure he does) Inspired by fellow food tweeter TriceraPops who thinks our favorite pompadoured wailer loves their Frozen Chocolate Lava Cakes, I think it'd be so much fun if we turned this into a game/poll/brainstorming session of sorts. So what do you think Morrissey buys at Trader Joes? My money is on Two Buck Chuck, frozen Meatless Meatballs and Joes-O's.

Sunomono: Another Foodie-On-A-Diet-Friendly Food

So what do you know, I've lost almost nine pounds since starting this Biggest Loser challenge! Not bad for a food blogger on a diet, eh?

I guess trying to lose weight while being a food enthusiast has its disadvantages as well as its advantages. It's pretty clear what the disadvantages are. It's even worse when you're so tied in to what other food perverts are up to; it takes a lot of self control not to want to eat everything in sight after reading about every one else's food adventures via blogs or Twitter. The advantage of being a food enthusiast trying to lose weight is that I can use my knowledge of food to come up with a wider variety of healthy yet delicious things to shove down my gullet.

Take that salad that I featured in the last post, for example. Now you just bought all this wakame seaweed and shaved bonito, but as tasty as it is, you're not going to eat that salad everyday, right? So what to do with all those ingredients? Luckily, this food lover can tell you right away that you can use both to make sunomono--a light, refreshing Japanese cucumber salad that (you guessed it!) tastes good and is good for you!

The best cucumbers to use for sunomono are Japanese cucumbers because of their minimal seeds and thinner and less watery makeup. Japanese cucumbers can be found at Japanese or other Asian markets, but if you can't find these, you can always substitute English or Persian cucumbers; just keep in mind that your salad may turn out a little less crisp.

For a little extra protein and pizazz, I added some octopus/tako (available already boiled at most Japanese markets) to my sunomono, but if you can't get your hands on any or if tentacles gross you out, the salad is just as good without.



Sunomono
(makes about 4 servings)

-4-5 Japanese cucumbers (use 2 English or Persian ones if you can't find Japanese ones, but really, Japanese ones are the way to go; find them at a Japanese or other Asian market)
-A few pinches of salt
-2 teaspoons dried wakame seaweed
-1/2 cup rice vinegar
-1/2 cup dashi (see below) or water
-2 tablespoons soy sauce
-1 tablespoon sugar
-A few slices of boiled octopus or other seafood (optional)
-Sliced lemon wedges for garnish (optional)
-A pinch of sesame seeds (optional)

*Use a mandoline or knife to cut the cucumber into ultra thin slices.
*Toss with a couple of pinches of salt and let sit for about 15 minutes.
*Soak the dried wakame seaweed in enough hot water to cover. Let sit a few minutes to rehydrate.
*Meanwhile, mix rice vinegar, dashi, soy sauce and sugar together until well blended.
*Quickly rinse cucumbers and wakame with cold water and squeeze out excess water.
*Arrange cucumbers and wakame in small bowl or dish, add octopus if using.
*Spoon a couple spoonfuls of vinegar dressing onto the salad, adjusting quantity to your liking.
*Garnish with lemon & sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Enjoy!

*Since this post isn't about making dashi (a post for another day), here's a quick down and dirty version with no pics. Put a 4" square of kombu/kelp in 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil and remove kelp as soon as water boils. Remove from heat. Now remember that shaved bonito you used for your tofu salad? Well take a cup of that and put it in the kelp water and wait until it sinks. Strain, and you've got yourself some dashi stock! (You can also buy the instant kind, but you needed something to make with that leftover bonito, right?)

Jon and Vinny Had A Farm, E-I-E-I-O. Animal, Fairfax District

And on that farm they had some pig. E-I-E-I-O.

Is it wrong that every time I try and teach farm animals to my kid, visions of meat and offals dance in my head?

With an oink-oink here.
And an oink-oink there.
Here an oink.
There an oink.
Everywhere an oink-oink.

On a recent girls' night out, my friends J and C and I had dinner at Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo's restaurant Animal, which in my mind pays homage to our favorite creatures in much the same way that the See and Say did when we were young. "How so?" you ask.

Their purpose is to show us that animals are fucking awesome.

Especially when they come in the form of luscious, fatty cubes of pork belly with the spicy-tangy kick of kimchi, peanuts, chili soy sauce and scallion.

Or when that same pork belly shows off its versatility by being transformed into a dish that's completely different yet just as delicious. This time it's barbecued to such tenderness that a sandwich of it, a mini brioche bun, and some cool cabbage slaw can be eaten in a couple of clean bites. (With some welcomed finger licking to follow of course)

Or when crunchy strips of pig ear are tossed in spicy chili and lime and topped with a gift from our feathered chicken pals.

Or when dollops of hearty braised oxtail gravy can be scooped up with crispy french fries in a most naughty poutine.

Or when a perfectly seared, velvety hunk of foie gras sits atop a flaky biscuit smothered in rich maple sausage gravy.

Or God forbid, when salty bits of bacon dot the top of a bittersweet chocolate bar in a combination that people should just stop being curious about and just shut up and taste already because it works.

Or even in a tribute to our lactating furry friends in a tres leches, dulce de leche cake.

Chef Shook's and Dotolo's creations left such an impression on me that my post-dinner tweet that night read: Dinner at Animal so farking good that I'm gonna go floss my teeth just so I can have pork belly and foie gras "leftovers." 'Nuff said.

And to think that I considered becoming a vegetarian almost 20 years ago. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!)

Animal
435 N. Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 782-9225
www.animalrestaurant.com

Tweeting My Way To Taipei Golden Pork Chop, Rowland Heights

Just got out of painfully boring meeting. (10:59 AM April 17th from web)

Have to pee. (11:01 AM April 17th from web)

Am tweeting whilst on toilet. (11:03 AM April 17th from twitterific)

@yomama No I said PEE (11:05 AM April 17th from web)

Am wondering what to eat for lunch. (11:07 AM April 17th from web)

Acting busy; boss thinks I'm still working on a project which I already finished this AM (11:08 AM April 17th from web)

Reading food blogs via browser window in corner that i shrunk to midget size (11:11 AM April 17th from web)

Just read @kungfupanda post about Taipei Golden Pork Chop in Rowland Heights. Only half mile away think I'll go there. (11:22 AM April 17th from web)

Fuck just got email someone needs analysis done by noon. FML (11:24 AM April 17th from web)

Going into data warehouse to shop for data (11:26 AM April 17th from web)

Maybe I should be working instead of twittering, I really need to get this done (11:30 AM April 17th from web)

Can't help it, I am addicted to twitter (11:31 AM April 17th from web)

Slicing, dicing, and cooking up these numbers 1-2-3 I'm done! (11:51 AM April 17th from web)

@yomama My excel skillz are like the most agile hooker's. I can bend my data any way u want LOL (11:54 AM April 17th from web)

Just emailed analysis out (11:56 AM April 17th from web)

Getting ready to leave 4 lunch, drank 2 much coffee earlier, have 2 pee again (11:59 AM April 17th from web)

Twittering on the can again (12:03 PM April 17th from twitterific)

Walking out to car (12:05 PM April 17th from twitterific)

Am at stoplight so it is OK to tweet right? (12:08 PM April 17th from twitterific)

Just got to Diamond Plaza, address 4 this place points to Brochette??? Where is TGPC??? (12:08 PM April 17th from twitterific)

@randomfoodie Thx, I wouldve never known it is inside Brochette. (12:10 PM April 17th from twitterific)

Found table near window and sat down. Place looks like a Japanese pub (12:11 PM April 17th from twitterific)

Lady just asked: R U alone? "By yourself" would have been better, "alone" makes me sound like a freakin loser. (12:13 PM April 17th from twitterific)

Got handed the menu slip & pencil and got asked if I read Chinese which I don't. Got "the" look. (12:16 PM April 17th from twitterific)

Noticed that they have prune juice on the menu (12:17 PM April 17th from twitterific)

What should I get? Hmm, think I must get fried porkchop but w/ rice or noodles? (12:18 PM April 17th from twitterific)

Wondering why no one is stalking me if my twitter followers know I'm here (12:20 PM April 17th from twitterific)

Oh well someone could still show up (12:25 PM April 17th from twitterific)

Yay lunch is here: fried pork chop, rice w pork sauce, veggies and soup..I'm starving! (12:31 PM April 17th from twitterific)

Took a few aerial shots of my dishes as well as closeup food porno shots of the porkchop (12:35 PM April 17th from twitterific)

Soup has seaweed cabbage and some bonito flakes bland but I guess supposed 2 B simple (12:37 PM April 17th from twitterific)

Porkchop fried 2 nice golden brown; sauce is good too (12:39 PM April 17th from twitterific)

Am chewing and swallowing (12:40 PM April 17th from twitterific)

Rice w/ pork sauce tasty but veggies very bland; love the soy infused egg tho (12:43 PM April 17th from twitterific)

BC of decor & nite yakitori menu, asked lady if this is Japanese izakaya by nite she gave me look and just answered "Taiwanese." Oops (12:45 PM April 17th from twitterific)

Paid my bill, its cash only BTW, and left very full (12:55 PM April 17th from twitterific)

Verdict is that food is OK for a lunch spot service is quick & straightforward would return coz its so close (12:58 PM April 17th from twitterific)

Back at office still wondering why no one stalked me (1:07 PM April 17th from web)

Have to pee again (1:09 PM April 17th from web)


***
OK, enough. The purpose of this post? To stop myself from regular twittering/tweeting because I am *this* close to doing it. I know, I know, you're probably thinking what's the big fucking deal, just give in and do it, right? But see, it's a matter of principle to me. On one hand, it's straight up kind of fun. My friends are funny people and I like when my funny friends write funny things. I also think it would be kind of cool to look back upon in the same way a journal or diary would. If I were a business, I could see how Twitter could be a powerful marketing tool, a la Kogi BBQ.

But on the other, much bigger, you-have-man-hands hand, I just don't get how much people are up in other people's business nowadays, and I feel like Twitter is taking social-stalking to a whole new level. I know because I'm guilty of being web-sessive too. Between blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, and various special-interest forums that I participate in, I feel like the concept of privacy and any "me" time is long gone. I also wonder how people have time to do anything anymore being that we are all so caught up in updating the world with our every move. Do people really give that much of a rat's ass what I am doing right now that they would send an Invitation To Join Twitter to a complete stranger? Does our society have that much A.D.D. that we no longer have the stamina to read/write an entire paragraph from start to finish and would much rather read/write "sentences" of 140 words-or-less? Since Twitter seems to be an important networking tool within our current foodblogging community, do we think that Twitter is enhancing or taking away from blogging? Could it be that food writing, or heck, even writing in general is evolving and that Twitter or something similar will eventually replace blogging? Gosh I hope not. I happen to like paragraphs.

To Tweet or Not To Tweet? That is the question.

Taipei Golden Pork Chop Noodle and Rice
1380 Fullerton Road, suite 106
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
(626) 810-5570
Open from 11am to 2:30 pm, cash only.