私のレンズを通して

Sunday, March 10, 2013

The Little Hand Stirred Jam Shop

Strong curiosity grew as I found a pamphlet in Zen Oasis. It's a little jam shop that's quite close to the restaurant, with the pamphlet also comes a free cup of coffee, my sister and I agreed to head there after lunch on the way home. It took us a little over five minutes to get there, it is an old style hand made jam shop. Once inside there was as expected a large assortment of jams, chutneys, butters, chocolates, ice creams, and many other stuff. The place is full of old things, I loved it, when we approached the ice cream and coffee section of the shop, my wife noticed a large old photograph hung on the wall, the lady explained to us, the photo was taken in Milano in 1906, now what's special about this photograph is that it showcased the world's first espresso machine within it, quite astonishing, we just couldn't take our eyes off the photo, she told us that if we ever visit Melbourne you could probably buy a recplica of the photo. I asked if I could take a digital copy of it and she happily agreed. I love this photo because it has that unique espresso machine and also my reflection in it, check it out.

The world's first espresso machine.

My free cuppa.

Zen Oasis

Zen Oasis is a Chinese vegetarian buffet restaurant owned by a Taiwan businessman. It's an hour or two drive out of Sydney. Surrounding the restaurant is a large area of unoccupied land which the owner is slowly landscaping, so far there is a maze made out of stone and a man made pond. It's not a lot but one can see the efforts gone into the landscaping and certainly should be appreciated. The food itself ain't too shabby either, not a bad selection, all vegetarian, drinks dessert the whole lot. It's a nice getaway from the city areas once in a while, good to stretch your legs, recommended day tripper.

Pond.

The Restaurant.

Stone Maze.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Long Exposures

Since our apartment was so close to the waterfront, I waited for a clear night, and walked downstairs to take some long exposures of the scene.

Friday, January 4, 2013

西門町台北 Shi-men Ting Taipei 鵝肉麵

Shortly after settling in our Taipei Garden Hotel, we ventured out to Shi-men Ting. Soon after arriving in the popular shopping district, we stumbled upon this very old small shop in a dark alley selling goose meat noodles, intrigued I asked if everyone would like to try it. We eventually decided to give it a go and were we surprised at the quality of the food, it was simply excellent, it was flavoursome and the goose was cooked surprisingly well also you could have the goose with a variety of different types of noodles, the price was reasonable, we actually came back a second time before the Taipei trip ended, and that says a lot for adventurous travellers.

The place don't look much from the outside, but that was while I took notice, authentic places are usually run down looking.

The cooked gooses for the noodles.

Picked cucumber side dish.

Dried tofu side dish.

The attraction.

Monday, December 31, 2012

禮部尚書

I have no idea how to translate the name into English, but this shop specilising in Chinese suits that was made popular by Sun Yat San 孫中山. This shop doesn't cater to regular walk in customers, it mainly welcomes friends and guests of high ranking Chinese officials, they would be there to chat and have tea while choosing something they fancy within the shop whether it's a full suit, night gown or a silk scarf. The reason why we were able to visit and have tea there was because our cousin had connections with the manager of the place. Everything in the shop is a work of art with one thing in mind, to impress, and to be honest, it is really quite impressive, every detail is the result of meticulous brain storming, they even had a working brand new grammaphone in the shop, they even had a section for Chinese calligraphy if guests were in the mood.