Hope you all enjoyed your Labor Day weekend. If you were like me, you probably roasted or grilled some vegetables. When I cut into this red bell pepper, I got a surprise with all the little -- and colorful -- things growing inside.
I've never had a pepper like this. It looked like it was a mom pepper with lots of babies inside. Unfortunately, I just dug them out and threw them away. But not before I took a picture of them.
I'm not a fan of onions, but I saw them everywhere at the farmers market last weekend. And while I don't really like to cook with them, I find them quite beautiful, from the pearly white bulbs to the intense purple.
What's interesting about the onions I saw at the farmers market was that many of them still had the green stalks on them, some almost a foot long. Some of the smaller bulbs with the long stalks could be green onions on steroids, but others had a huge bulb that looked like a full-sized onion. With the warmer weather approaching (one can dream, OK?), I bet some of these onions would be amazing on the grill. So how have you been enjoying your spring onions?
I've talked about watermelon radishes before, noting their beautiful interior that explodes like fireworks in a brilliant fuschia. I spotted them recently at the farmers' market and knew they would make a great photo subject.
I loved the interesting patterns inside, as expected. But I was also mesmerized by the lovely roots, that offered a peak of the beautiful color inside. One particular radish had such interesting roots, they reminded me of the coral found in my native Hawaii.
Watermelon radishes can taste sharp (nothing sweet like watermelons) and they always offer a splash of color to your dish.
It's no secret that I love photographing figs. They're so seductive and exotic. I was surprised to find a farmer's stand with Black Mission Figs recently at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, mostly because I always thought figs were more of a fall fruit. But I'm not complaining getting an early look at them.
Cooking with figs:
Braised Duck Legs with Figs recipe
Figs with Puff Pastry recipe
Figs in a Blanket recipe
This morning shopping early at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco was local celebrity chef Mourad Lahlou of Aziza restaurant. (He's the guy on the right.) His tattoos always give him away. Lahlou is a star on the rise (nationally speaking) after appearing on Iron Chef America last year and soon to be star of his own PBS food series on Moroccan food in San Francisco.
As you can see, he's just starting his shopping trip for fresh produce for his restaurant. But he apparently takes his shopping seriously because look at that big flatbed cart his colleague is pushing. Most chefs shop with just a plastic wheelie cart, but Lahlou goes for the big gun. I also think it was cool how the truck with the graffiti was passing by in the back, creating a cool background for the photo that totally matches the chef's persona. :)
Previous sightings:
Elizabeth Falkner
Brett Emerson
Chris Cosentino
It’s no secret that I love taking pictures of food. But I cringe whenever people lump me in with the food paparazzi — a growing movement of so-called serious foodies documenting everything they eat in pictures, as portrayed in a recent Los Angeles Times feature.
Sure, for fun I have a “food paparazzi” feature on my blog, but that’s when I pretend to be a paparazzo after I spot a celebrity chef or famous food person in public. But the people featured in the Times article, and a similar one in the New York Times, are those who are almost obsessed with photographing their food, taking minutes to set up a shot, leaving a reservation if they don’t have the right lens, or blasting the dreaded flash in the middle of the dining room.
What I found interesting were some of the comments from chefs, a couple who were offended by people taking more time to photograph their food than eating it. Chef/Owner Grant Achatz of the famous Alinea restaurant in Chicago has vented — in the article and elsewhere — about how people photographing the food has affected the restaurant’s operations, causing an already long tasting dinner to stretch out longer because the food paparazzi has thrown off the service’s pacing.
Chef Ludo Lefebvre of Los Angeles (who also appeared on “Top Chef Masters”) originally welcomed food bloggers, even inviting them to a special tasting and setting up a portable light box for them to take their photos with the right light, but then turned on them when they took so much time taking pictures and letting their food turn cold.
I know some chefs are artists and feel their food needs to be served at the right time and temperature, but I’m of the camp that believes “I paid for that food and if I end up eating it cold, that’s my own fault.” Some chefs have now recognized that food bloggers and our ilk are a necessity of life because every time we post a photo of their food, we give them free publicity and buzz.
However, I don’t believe it’s fair for the chef, the restaurant, and other patrons when food photographers slow down the pacing of the service because they spend so much time setting up their shots.
The emergence of the food paparazzi is a mixed bag for me. On the plus side, the more people taking pictures during dinner the less I stand out when I’m doing it too. On the flip side, there’s a possibility of a backlash and I don’t like how some people stare at me wondering if I’m going to set off a flash. (And I really hate it when a server or diner next to me sees my camera and say “is that for Yelp?” Ugh, puh-leaze. I do not Yelp.)
While the media is putting the spotlight on food photographers, they’re also guilty of encouraging it. The San Francisco Chronicle, for example, has joined up with Foodspotting to see who can photograph the Top 100 list and win a dinner with its restaurant critic Michael Bauer. And 7x7 Magazine has also teamed up with Foodspotting (slut) for the magazine’s “The Big Eat” list.
In today’s world, there’s no avoiding the food paparazzi. But I do believe there should be some etiquette when it comes to photographing food. So I’ve come up with this list of rules on how to photograph your food at a restaurant that hopefully will make you less the food paparazzi and more the welcomed fooderati:
Rule No. 1: No flash. This is what gives food bloggers a bad name. The blinding white light not only turns into a washed out photo, it’s inconsiderate to those around you. The only time I’ve used a flash is when I’m traveling and I’m sitting far away from guests such as when I took this picture at a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I was sitting in the garden at night and was two tables away from the nearest diner. If you’re worried about lighting, try changing the ISO setting on your camera, which affects the camera’s film speed. For dark lighting, you want a film speed around 800. (The result might be grainier images but that’s fine if you’re only using it for the Web.)
Rule No. 2: Turn off your shutter sound. You can fly under the radar if you don’t make that snapping sound. When I carry my digital SLR camera, I unfortunately can’t turn off the sound. But when I use my smaller point-and-shoot camera, I put it on mute mode so that it won’t make a snapping sound.
Rule No. 3: Two’s the limit. When I take pictures of my friends’ dish, they always ask me if that was it because I typically take just one shot — at the most two — because I don’t want them waiting any longer to dig into their food. My rule is if you can’t get the shot in two takes, then don’t bother.
Rule No. 4: Leave the tripod at home. I can’t believe anyone would even bother carrying around a tripod to dinner along with the camera. But some people have gotten so serious about this that I’ve heard that’s what some people do. Don’t. There are other ways to steady your camera, such as placing it on top of a vase or salt shaker, but don’t bust out a tripod at the table no matter how small. It just says “geek” in so many languages.
Rule No. 5: Don’t stop the server. At some restaurants, the server will prepare some food at the tableside or do things like pour a soup or drizzle some sauce at the table. I always think that’s a nice touch, but when it happens, do not stop them so you can turn on your camera and take a photo. If you want to take this “action” shot, then have your camera turned on and ready. (This means planning ahead and thinking about your shots after you’ve ordered.) Telling them to stop just throws off their rhythm and pacing of the courses, as well as make them more self-conscious.
Rule No. 6: Ask first. When I’m dining with friends, especially for the first time, I ask them if it’s all right if I photograph their food instead of just pulling out the camera and snapping away. It’s just a way to respect their personal space and put them at ease when I do bust out my camera. But after they’ve dined with me a couple of times, then they just expect me to take a picture.
Visiting my blog you can probably tell that I really love to take pictures. I've been taking pictures for years, and since I started this blog I've been specializing in food photography. And now I no longer do it just for love.
I recently started a side business as a food photographer. What I do is take pictures of food for people like restaurants and other food-related businesses that they can use for their Web site or publicity shots. The following is one of the shoots I did for the Summer Kitchen Bake Shop of Berkeley. I took some photos for their Web site, and below is a series of shots I did in black and white.
You can check out the color food shots on my photography site. And please send anyone who need some food shots done to my site. I don't have a referral fee, but you'll get lots of good karma. :)
I don't know why, but I was mesmerized by the brilliant orange color of these tiny kumquats at the farmers market. But really when you think about it, that orange wouldn't look as spectacular if it was blown up to the size of, say, an orange. Then it looks normal.
So it must be something about these miniature citrus that makes them look so photogenic, which is why I made this series of shots. Kumquats are originally from China, and the name is actually the Chinese pronunciation of the fruit and literally means "golden seed." Looks like a prosperous new year in the Single Guy household this year of the tiger. ;-)
For my first post in 2010, I thought it would be appropriate to focus on a new food adventure. And this is an adventure that I’ve been trying to do since I visited Vietnam nearly three years ago.
One of the most exotic fruits from that part of the world is called the mangosteen. Walking the streets in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City, I would see old women balancing baskets filled with these fruits on a bamboo pole. But I never bought one because even in Vietnam these tiny fruits were pretty pricey.
Back in the States, the mangosteen was touted as the new fruit to try. And a couple of years ago, it was approved to be imported into the United States for the first time. Of course, it was still pricey because it was still rare to find.
I think because not too many people have rushed to buy the mangosteen, the price is beginning to inch down a bit. So this past week when I was shopping at Ranch 99, I saw the mangosteen being sold for $5.99 per pound. And their bags had just a handful of mangosteens to keep the price down.
I grabbed the lightest bag with about six mangosteens in it and that still cost me about $7. Still, that’s not too bad of an investment to try a new food experience, especially one that I’ve been waiting to do for a few years.
Now the trick about eating the mangosteen is that it’s one hard nut to crack. What I mean by that is the mangosteen’s shell is as hard as a nut. And to open it, I had to use a serrated knife and slowly saw my way around the fruit.
It took awhile to saw my way deep enough so that I could split the fruit in half and get to the pearly white flesh in the center. The fruit looks a bit like membrane or a brain. It has a soft texture, and is segmented like a tangerine. After carefully removing it from its protective shell, the mangosteen fruit was almost like a lychee but not as sweet. It had almost a banana essence to it, and reminded me a lot of other tropical fruits from Asia.
While the flavor is something unique and different, it’s not something that I would travel far to taste once again. Nor is it something I would spend minutes sawing away at just to get rewarded with a tiny fleshy fruit. If someone cracked it for me and handed it over, I wouldn’t object to eating it. But to do it yourself, you really have to love the fruit. And I can’t say that I love the mangosteen.
What’s worse is that my bag of mangosteens included a few rotten ones. So imagine after minutes of tirelessly sawing at the tough shell, I crack it open to fine a rotten fruit. Talk about a downer.
Despite all the work to taste a mangosteen, I did find it to be a wonderful model like other of my favorite fruits. It was also really interesting that every mangosteen had a natural embossed bottom in the shape of a flower. It was almost like a manufacturer's brand, but this was something that naturally occurred when the mangosteen develops.
So while I didn’t get a whole lot of satisfaction from my bag of mangosteens, I did get some pretty pictures out of it, don’t you think? And at least I’m living up to my New Year’s resolution of discovering new tastes. Now I can scratch the mangosteen off my list.
Food Gallery of other fruits:
Persimmons
Shinko Asian Pears
I'm a big fan of corn, in general, but it's a summer crop. Except in the fall when you see Indian corn at the markets. They are perfect for that Indian-greets-the-pilgrims-decorated table. I just love their deep, rich fall colors, sometimes just a mix of jewels. So here's my photo showcase of some Indian corn I bought to decorate the table. (BTW, does anyone actually cook these?)
Programming note: Tomorrow I will actually be cooking my very first turkey. I know, you're thinking, "Single Guy, you've never cooked a turkey?" Yes, that's because it's obvious why I've never made turkey. As the Single Guy at Thanksgiving, I'm generally the guest at other people's table, so I've never had to make my own turkey. And when there were those many Thanksgivings when I was by myself, I either just cooked a turkey breast or ate chicken instead.
But this Thanksgiving my nephew is visiting from college and I'm making a turkey dinner for him and his girlfriend. It's just the three of us squeezed into my little studio apartment. And if you're curious and have nothing else to do tomorrow, you can follow along my cooking adventure as I live blog on Thanksgiving day. Yes, you can see how my first turkey turns out. I don't really have a roasting pan that's big and my oven only has one rack, so it'll be a mystery on how I'll get everything done. Tune in tomorrow to see.
