A Rose By Any Other Name

My awesome rose tea from that mee tarik place. I am not much of a tea drinker but it looks like some dried rose buds or rose hips were used. The spoon was to stir the little sugar added and not to eat the buds, I think. It should be labelled as rose bud drink and not rose tea. Smells as sweet.

#meetarik #rosetea #rose

Calamansi Juice With Sour Plums

The refreshing drink or local Chinese cocktail at Chinese coffee shops is known as Kat Chye Shin Mui. It is yellow lime or Calamondin with preserved sour and salty plums. I found it a bit too salty and ordered another without the sugar and salt coated dried plums. There was only one solitary dried plum in the drink, anyway.

The preserved plums are usually imported from China are like a magic elixir for people who feel car sickness or suffer from motion sickness. I remember going up Cameron Highlands when I was a kid and every passenger in the bus was clinging to a packet of sour plums or were chewing it to combat the ill effects of the dizzying, winding roads.

I dont suffer from motion sickness normally, so I want to know if the effectiveness of the home remedy is true. Anyone?

The very nice Indonesian waitress at 168 Restaurant tried to discourage me from opting out of the plums as she claimed the drink wont be as tasty without the plums. The new drink came. It was still too salty. Maybe they add salt to the lime juice to contain the strong tangy taste, I suspect.

Chilled with plenty of ice cubes, it is a refreshing drink on a hot day with or without shin mui. In Malay restaurants the drink is known as asam boi with limau kasturi.

#restaurant168 #pudu #katchaishinmui #colddrink #calamansi #asamboi #streetphotography #cocktail #limaukasturi

Honey Honey – A Look At Selective Focus Selection

Also an opportunity to discuss a little known post-production technique for photographers.

I was using a wide angle lens and too much background was in focus. What do I do? Many may not be aware but Photoshop has a select by focus function.

You can let it choose the focus area and then use Gaussian blur to defocus a zone. Only disadvantage is that a huge image such as the 36 MP image from the A7R can be back breaking for the PC.

Sometimes the auto selection if off target and you may need to trim the depth manually.

A slowed down processor can be frustrating as it is hard to fine tune, A smaller GM-1 image was manageable. A glass object is tricky for the algo and much time was spent cleaning up garbage matte leftover. Don’t do it when you are in a hurry. It is not yet a perfect solution for blurring backgrounds and it cannot be applied to all subjects. Use it sparingly.

Panasonic Lumix GM-1, ISO 200, f6.3, 1/320 sec

#farmville #cafe #sekinchan #honeylemon #lemon #drink #focus #blur #foodphotography

MMMBop

Funny how an almost 20 year old song stays fresh in your mind. Fresh like mint. I ordered a Mint Soda at the popular Korean casual cafe and they brought a glass of raw mint leaves and a can of Schweppes soda.

Plant a seed, plant a flower, plant a rose
You can plant any one of those
Keep planting to find out which one grows
It’s a secret no one knows
It’s a secret no one knows
Oh, no one knows
Mmmbop, ba duba dop

Asus Zenphone3, ISO 368, f2, 1/60 sec.

#foodphotography #bebap #nusentral #mall #lunch #drink #korean