tzeko.m

once upon a time in Guangzhou, China

i’m back!

while i sort out the thousands of pics i took throughout the 5 days, i’ll leave you with a snapshot of all the pics i posted on instagram while im there (except the bottom two on the right). enjoy! 

facebook is block in china, twitter is block in china, youtube is block in china, blogspot is block in china, wordpress is block in china… god knows what else they block there… but thank god i can still access instagram to keep me sane. 

off for a short vacay

i am very excited to be back in China for a short break. 

story and photos soon. 

life in a 800sq ft cubicle

this is singapore (& a lil bit of optical illusion to perk up your monday)

Old Time Charm - Cafe Batavia, Jakarta

Overall a classy and beautiful restaurant in this colonial building dated more than 200 years old. The interior of this restaurant is nicely ‘put-up’ and decorated to look like old colonial house with dark teak furniture and surrounded with huge window panels to allow more natural light in the dining hall. The first floor is dedicated more to light snacks and after work meetup place with live band on selected nights of the week, while the second floor is a restaurant.

I was here for a quick breakfast after my trip to Sunda Kelapa that morning. The egg benedict wasn’t too bad afterall. What’s interesting is that instead of focacia bread or muffin, the perfectly poached eggs were seated on a what I suspect to be a tuna and potato croquette. It was kind of a perfect combination. The crunchiness of the croquette paired well with the soft and runny egg and it makes this rather small dish very fulfilling.

This place is not cheap. Be prepared to pay touristy price since the restaurant is right at the corner of Jakarta’s main atrraction - Al-Fatalihah Square. Given a chance, I would definitely come back and explore more of their lunch/dinner menu. From what I heard, the cocktail bar serves some pretty good aperitif.

Sounds very tempting already, no?

Of Beans and Brew Part III

Part I

Part II

I heard a lot about this place from my Indonesian friends after they read about my article on Noah’s Barn, Coffee Bandung - that I must make a trip to this place whenever I’m in Jakarta, which according to them, is one of the best coffee shops in town. The menu is very simple, they will show you what beans and its origin are currently brewing (or in stock) and if you are confuse (like myself), it is best you ask the very experience barista your preference. I can’t take anything too acidic, so he recommended single origin Costa Rican beans on chemex.

I remembered the minute he took out the Costa Rican beans and ground it in the mini grinder, the aroma immediately filled the room even before hot water was poured onto the freshly ground coffee powder in chemex. The black coffee was light, bitter and has a citrus-y end to it. Because i was very a little hungry, I ordered churros with dark chocolate dip to go with the coffee. A perfect combination, I must say.

Upon finishing my first round of coffee, I decided to go for the second round. This time - mocha, my favorite and the safest bet. It was a house blend and that cup of mocha was good, almost comparable to the one I had in Noah’s Barn and Penny University in Singapore (we will leave the review some other time). A few sips later and halfway through reading the current issue of Monocle magazine, I realized it was already 11am and I need to head back to my hotel, check out and off to the airport.

Before I go, I took the opportunity of the rather quiet atmosphere for some photography where I shoot with both my leica and iphone.

….and will you just look at the space and available light here - amazing. Sorry for the hipster-like- editing theme. All these shots were taken from iphone and I kinda like how it turned out - grainy and all.

Do yourself a favor and drop by this place by any chance if you’re in Jakarta (before hitting another shopping mall nearby!)

official website here // tumblr here

the local gourmand

It has been a while since I last post any food photo or do a proper write up on anything food related. I have had the opportunity to eat at some pretty decent restaurants lately while travelling for work in Jakarta as well as back home in Singapore BUT most of the time, it’s either too dark in the restaurant or I forgot to bring my D-lux 4 with me, hence the lack of inspiration to write. If I ate anything phenomenal, it will be iphone camera to the rescue and I have to say, the camera has been performing pretty darn well up to expectations. I am rather active in instagram when it comes to posting food photos. It is much easier. Snap, edit, geotag, post! Four simple steps.    

Being a food blogger is not as glamorous as what we thought (I have a few food blogger friends and they told me the sh*t they have to go through). Of course you get free invites, free food and drinks, but don’t forget; you too, have to deliver. Else the sponsors wouldn’t be too happy, right? Besides that, you have to deal with harsh criticism and comments from your readers if they don’t agree with you. Food is very subjective and always an arguable topic. What is good to your taste buds might be utter rubbish to others, what is inspiring to you might be too sophisticated for some to understand. You get what I mean?

Apart from a good write up (no one wants to read a review describing the food with “oh the food is yums!” – like wtf right?), readers can pick up on your photography skills and of course your knowledge of food as whole. I came across this site while flog (food+blog) surfing recently and got instant hooked to it:

• Islandmenu – a Tasmanian based food and photography blog by two friends, Sam and Catherine. Perusing their pages and pages of photography and food porn makes me want to buy the next available ticket to Tasmania right away.

There are a few good ones that i bookmarked but I will save the recommendations in the upcoming posts.

Anyway, this post is getting too verbose and I’ll leave you a photo of my lunch in Bandung, Indonesia taken months back – nasi campur and sup buntut goreng (typical Indonesian mixed rice with fried oxtail soup).

they were yums!  good and satisfying nevertheless. 

flash back - portsdown, singapore

cider anyone? 

blenheim or corunna

both sound like names of beer or cider to me… 

ladder to bokehistan, part ii

part i here 

of course my version is no where near his (taken with Contax 645 - just look at that silky smooth as butter bokeh, damn it). i still have a version from my Mamiya645. the roll is sitting at home while im too busy to get the basic film developing kit. let’s hope i won’t screwed up the entire roll during processing - which i’m 90% positive i will

monochrome wonderland

i don’t need that much color and i don’t mind staying here at all

discoveries off the beaten path

many weekends back, i met up with my friend, Ernest, for a photo walk around the quaint Portsdown / Wessex estate neighborhood. it was my first time there and i was completely surprised that these beautiful colonial houses were still around in modern Singapore.

It was fun exploring the area but too bad the weather wasn’t corporating as it rained 30 mins after we started. nevertheless, we got the shots we wanted and since we’re stuck in the rain, we checked out Colbar, an old school restaurant tuck inside the estate. what’s great about this place? - their wide selection of ciders.

i’m in heaven.

last but not least..

and with that, we’ve come to the end of my lil adventure in this vibrant city - Jakarta. i hope you like the way i arrange the flow of the photos this time around - a diptych of street photography and textures in every post, as i try to connect both photos to tell a story. here

Jakarta is interesting simply because it’s an old city rich in history and every nooks and corners you turn to, there are things to see and learn. With more than 10 million inhabitants, the super rich elites will continue to prosper while the poorer majority of the society will continue to strive to make a living in this metropolis.

++

I am excited to be going back to Yogyakarta for work the first week of May. The last time i was there, i took almost 1,500 photos throughout my two week’s stay. After Yogyakarta, I will be flying to Guangzhou, China for a short break.

May will be one hell of a crazy month. but the good kind of crazy that is.

lost in translation, lost in location