Doesn't TaZte Like Chicken

Author: My Husband

By simply going through two or three pages worth of posts on doesnttaZtelikechicken, it is immediately apparent that the quality of our photos runs the gamut from reasonably good to pretty lousy. The good shots resulted from a confluence of good lighting, interesting subject matter, steady hands, and a good photographic tool. Remove any combination of these, and bad shots resulted.

Lately, some of our friends as well as readers have been asking about the camera used for some of the better shots, and I thought it may be illuminating (heh heh) to write a short post about the tools we use for taking photos. Since this article isn’t directly related to food, we thought it would be appropriate to come up with a new category for this post. After throwing around several ideas, we’ve decided on “Life & Style”. We envision this as a category for us to post non-food articles that are nevertheless still related, directly or indirectly, to all matters culinary.

Our Sony DSC-T3 is the camera that produces most of the photos on the website.

Two examples of photos taken with this camera include (i) the images in this post and (ii) the images in this post. The T3 is a great camera in good light, with a sharp lens and an imaging engine that produces pleasing colors. However, its lack of image stabilization, coupled with a slow lens (f3.5 at the short end), means it is not very good in low-light situations. With this camera, we have to use the flash when taking photos in restaurants, which produces images that look very harsh. Still, this little camera is very well built and very portable. Its size makes it unobtrusive when snuck out for quick shots, which makes it a very people-friendly camera. We’ll most likely be using this for quite a while to come.

The Nikon D70 is the tool that can consistently produce the best-quality images.

So far, we have only used it to take photos for one post. The kit lens (18 – 70mm, f3.5 – f4.5) is not fast but it is quite sharp. The camera also produces decent images up to ISO 800 (and up to ISO 1600 if resized for the web), so it is flexible even in challenging lighting situations. This is our travel camera, but it isn’t one we bring to restaurants. It is just too big (we like to travel light when eating out), too unwieldy, and too attention-grabbing. Thus, we take our hats off to Ben@Chowtimes and Kim@imonlyhereforthefood for having the persistance to document their dining adventures with their respective DSLRs.

This isn’t a camera obviously; it is my personal cell phone, a Samsung U900 Soul.

Aside from being a global phone (I plug in a local SIM when I’m in Europe or Asia and I’m good to go), it is also equipped with a 5 megapixel camera. This is the tool I use to capture images when I’m away on business, or when we don’t have our other cameras handy. Some decent examples of photos taken with this can be found in this post and some subpar examples in this one . It isn’t the best photographic tool by far, but it is also the one that is constantly by my side, and in a pinch, it can be called upon to do the job.

And finally, here is the latest addition to our kit bag – the Canon G10.

Equipped with a relatively fast lens (f2.8 at the short end), image stabilization, and usable ISO 400/800, this camera is quite capable of taking photos in low(ish) light situations. We’ve only had it for a week, so we haven’t gotten it completely dialed in yet. The first three photos in this post, as well as the first and last photos in this post were taken with this camera. We were comparing this camera with the Panasonic LX3, which has an even faster lens, but the lack of availability and higher price of the LX3 meant we bought the G10. We are looking forward to taking more photos with this camera. Hopefully, you, our gentle reader, will find them pleasant to look at.

Location: My tiny kitchen

Although sharing half of the name with the corkscrew shaped pasta, this pasta does not look anything like a fusilli at all. While I strolled down the pasta aisle at a local Italian grocery store, this unique shape of this pasta caught my eye. I usually use fettucine in this pasta recipe with portabella mushroom and tomato, but my newly discovered pasta tasted just as good.

This recipe makes two servings.

The first part of this recipe involves making a portabella mushroom ragout. You will need two large or 3 medium portabella mushrooms. Remove the stem from the mushrooms and slice them thinly.

Mince 6 cloves of garlic.

Mince 1 shallot.

In a skillet, put in 3 tbsp of olive oil and 1 tbsp of butter. Put the garlic and shallot into the pan when the butter has melted. Saute the garlic and shallot over high heat until they are soft. Put in the sliced mushrooms, 1 tsp of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cook the mushrooms until all liquid has been reduced. Lower the heat if necessary. Cooking all the liquid out of the mushrooms is the secret to give the mushrooms an intense flavour.

Cook any pasta of your choice with an amount enough for two people. Follow the instructions on the package and cook the pasta until al dente. I find that the foolproof way to cook pasta is:

- Always use a lot of water
- Always put the pasta into boiling water
- After putting in the pasta, put in a few heaping tablespoons of salt
- Check if the pasta is cooked by eating one – this is the only accurate way for me

Once the pasta has been cooked, drain them and save one cup of pasta water for use later.

In the same skillet which the mushrooms were cooked, put in 1 tbsp of olive oil. Heat the pan and put in the pasta. Saute the pasta for 1/2 minute. Put in the mushroom ragout and half a can of diced tomato (about 3/4 of a cup). Put in 1 tbsp of oregano.

Continue to cook the pasta. If the pasta is starting to stick to the pan, add in 1/4 cup of pasta water. Try not to add too much pasta water because too much water will dilute the flavour in the pasta. However, you don’t want to end up with pasta that is too dry. When the pasta is done, there should be a small amount of sauce. Cook the pasta for a few minutes or until the mushrooms and tomato are mixed well into the pasta. Turn off the heat and mix in 3 tbsp of heavy cream.

Sprinkle with freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano and parsley.

Location: My tiny kitchen

Watching the melted cheese oozing out of the sandwich is always fun – who says grilled cheese sandwiches are only for kids?

ET does quite a bit of business travel and when he’s out of town, I like to prepare simple and quick dinners that could be conveniently eaten while I read a good book or magazine on the couch. Grilled cheese sandwich is one of my favourite quick dinner choices. It’s almost impossible to make a bad grilled cheese sandwich. The combination of melted cheese, crusty bread and tasty ham always promises successful results.

I use Canadian bacon in my grilled cheese sandwich because I like the meaty texture of Canadian bacons. Because Canadian bacons usually have a milder flavour than regular ham, I picked a 2-year aged white cheddar that has a very nice and strong flavour.

Place the bacon and cheese on a slice of bread. The thickness of the slice is a personal preference. For me, I prefer thinner slices rather than thick because I can taste more the bacon and cheese than just the bread. If you are like me who likes to stuff up a sandwich, then make sure the cheese and bacon are covering the entire slice (if they are not hovering over the bread!). And yes, this means there are no white corners.

Butter the top and bottom of the sandwich. As a tiny effort to be healthy, I used margarine instead of butter this time.

Heat a non stick pan. Place the sandwich into the pan by placing side with cheese into the pan first. Turn the heat to low and cover the pan, grill one side until golden brown, about 1 minute. Gently flip the sandwich to the other side and grill with the pan uncovered for another minute.

Cut the sandwich in half, watch the cheese oozes out, and eat!