In other news...

New Year's church 'champagne'...I like the real stuff better.

Yummy cherry treats.

The ubiquitous korean tacos (Kogi) taking LA by storm. They're pretty good, not worth waiting in 30 min long lines though.

Fantastic falafel from Elena's Greek-Armenian cuisine in Glendale. YUM.

Burger at The Counter premiere in El Segundo. Lovely lighting.

Food Photography
So I finally used Frank's (enomooshiki) Nikon D90 this last weekend and the lust for such a machine is full on. Damn that camera is amazing! You can see some of work that Frank did this past week with that nifty little camera. I think Nikon's products are definitely the dominant player in the market. If you're an aspiring food photographer, there is no better camera setup than this camera ($900 online) and a decent 50mm prime lens (for portrait like shots) and a low-aperture zoom lens (which is what I use). You can take 99% of your food photography with this setup and utilize the D90's very good ISO capabilities for any potential low light you'll see. Plus the size is diminuitive compared to a Canon 5D, 50D/40D, or even a Nikon D300/D700, which are overkill for food photography, in my opinion. I'm still using my old Nikon D50 + Sigma 24-60mm f2.8, which gives me very good photos, but I need a jolt of technogear for that upper edge in better photos. Plus a D90 is the smallest I can go. A D40 or the Canon equivalents (XTi, XSi) are just too small for my hands. And trust me, I have dinky little hands and I HATE holding these cameras (doesn't mean other parts are small - I have unnaturally large ears, puffy hamster cheeks, and a mean booty that my girlfriend disdains...)

In either event - if you ever want advice about what to get to improve your food photography, please feel free to ask me. By the way, my recent post at Drago was taken with Christine's SD1100 (my anniversary present for her) and it takes excellent photos even in relatively low light. You'll need to fiddle a bit with the settings like bumped up ISO (800 should be fine for internet photography), higher exposure (not more than +1) and keep focal length short to maximize aperture at f2.8. Almost any camera will take good shots in low lighting, so don't feel the need to get an SLR just b/c you think it'll give you food photos. It's not about camera, it's about the person pushing the trigger (shutter)

My counterpart: Folie a Choisauce
So my girlfriend finally caved in a joined the blogosphere last Friday. Mainly it'll be about her personal life with mostly food, God, psychology and (naturally) me in the mix of various topics. I'm obviously psyched (ha) about it, so please keep visiting her site. I've tried to convince Christine to write posts on this blog because her writing is deliciously different than mine. I often try to be brash and off-the-wall in my prose but to no avail. I'm just too prim and proper and when I try to write that way, it's just a front (though in my old blog days of early 2000s, I was pretty vulgar...just check my Xanga...if you can find it). Christine, on the other hand, is not only adorable and exciting in her description, her writing defies convention or MLA-style, but it's hilarious and endearing. I keep telling her how much I love it and she almost doesn't believe my enthusiasm for it. It's almost like the fine diner who loves his In-n-Out burger. One cannot live on high-falutin alone. Note: Folie means madness (who knew the well known La Folie in SF was so uncouth), so Folie a Choisauce is the madness of Choisauce, or Christine's old nickname from grade school. I'll give you more updates and links to her site as the days/weeks/months/years progress (yes, I'm that hopeful :)

5 Salads (plus Subway)
At the begging of my parents, I've started to eat more modestly for the sake of my health. I've gained a nice 10-15 pounds in the last six months and I need to just equalize so I can be healthier and fitter. I honestly don't really care about this sort of stuff, but when clothes (that are already pretty tight-fitting b/c I care about fit) gets difficult to get into, then it's time to start trending backwards on the scales. So my method is not so much a diet but a conscious choice to eat healther foods throughout the week to counteract the otherwise heavy and fat-laden food that I consume. My plan is five salads that replace five meals throughout the week. Trust me, this is no easy feat as I've always believed that salads make crumby meals. Also, I've generally been able to include Subway in the mix since I usually never get any sauces like mayonnaise and always load up on extra vegetables. I figure it's basically a salad wrapped in a massive bun. Foodies don't always struggle with weight issues but it's really starting to catch up on me. I think it's best that we aspire for health (image is another thing altogether, I'm glad my Christine likes me the way I am...though I'm sure a sexy six-pack never hurt anyone...) Anyways, I do plan to address the issue of weight and foodie-dom in an upcoming Food Insights article on FoodGPS. Until then, well, I wonder where my next salad will come from.