I definitely think I’d fall into the category of people known as foodies. I love good food especially food that is beautiful in terms of presentation as well as tasting wonderful. I recently had two very different meals in which the presentation was just perfect.
The first was at my favorite burger place ever, The Counter in Palo Alto. The Counter allows customers to really customize their meal in ways that even places like Burger King, with their famous “Have it your way” slogan, don’t even come close to approaching. The Counter lets customers choose their burger type (beef, chicken, turkey or veggie), then bun type or greens, and finally toppings, cheese and dressing, each with a staggering number of choices. I’m also partial to the sweet potato fries.
While at The Counter I only had my iPhone handy. I know there’s an iPhone App called Best Camera, after the fact that the camera you have with you is the best one for the situation. That being acknowledged, each camera has some limitations, and as far as I know the iPhone one does not have any way of taking great macro shots, yet. I was reasonably happy with its close up work on the burger and I like the shot I was able to get of the whole plate as an overall shot.
The second meal was at a new restaurant and food type for me. While many of the Meetup groups I belong to are for photographers and wedding professionals, a new one I joined, Dining Around the World, is open to anyone who enjoys trying new food. The group only allows a small number of attendees at each so everyone can have a chance to talk with each other. The first one I was able to attend was Maylasian food at Layang Layang.
When I’m at new places I like to really search the menu for something to have. While sometimes I play it conservative and order a dish I’m very familiar with, I decided to order only things I couldn’t easily get at another place to really try out the food culture.
I started with a Kacang Merah, a red bean ice drink. I’ve had red bean ice cream before, so I figured it would be delicious and I was right.
When I photographed the dinner, this time with a Canon Elph point and shoot so I could get more macro details then I had with the iPhone, I photographed it highlighting the top of the drink, and used the fact that the straw would be distorted by the lens shape to make it look as if it were leading into the glass. One of my dinner companions, Stephanie, then took a photo of me with the glass in which you can see the beans better in the bottom. If I had not had this photo taken of me, I would have taken another highlighting the beans in the glass, the way I did with the burger above, however, after I saw the photo (even with the characteristic red eye of point and shoot cameras), I realized it was a great accompanying photo by itself.
Many people at our table ordered fish. It was amazing seeing the differences in colors and textures and how elegantly they were arranged with the entire fish, eyes and all, in both platters.
The group shared a few dishes so I was able to try some fish, shrimp and soft bread with a wonderful exotic dipping sauce. For my own entree I zeroed in on something I’d heard about yet had never even seen outside of a menu: an entree served in a food shaped nest. After I found out I could definitely eat the tarot nest, I ordered this, Sarang Vegetables. It was as flavorful as it was beautiful. As with the other photos, the camera allowed me to get some great details.
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