Pages

Monday 19 August 2013

Travel and food - Clay Pot Chicken, Singapore

 Hi all, I decided to talk some more about food photography and travel as a follow up to my earlier post - Food photography is not just a bowl of cherries

Travel and food go hand in hand. Whenever we travel overseas I love to try different types of typical food. And it helps to be able to know a little about food photography to get a good pic to remember what you ate. I always have good intentions, but sometimes I have half eaten the food before I remember to take a pic!  And sometimes the lighting is not the best either.

A macro lens is a great lens to use for food photography, but I don't like carrying around my good macro lens, especially overseas, and anyway it gets too heavy after a while, and screams "photographer" ! On our recent trip to Singapore I took my great little Canon G11 - a go everywhere, light camera that has lots of SLR features and takes great pics.  Really it is not the camera that it is important, any camera and lens will do - it is you the photographer that takes the pic. 

You wouldn't want to get too close to this clay pot chicken cooking - a macro lens would be no good in this instance (although a 100mm would probably be ok) - those pots are hot!  Lucky there was a glass wall between the pots and the buyers and browsers.

We tried clay pot chicken at the hawkers food market at Sentosa in Singapore. It is great to take pics of not only the food, but the cooking, the cooks, the people, the location, to get the whole story. I take pics of information signs later as a way of collecting background info.


 From Wikipedia  - Claypot chicken rice (Chinese: 砂煲鸡饭, 瓦煲鸡饭 or 煲仔鸡饭) is usually a dinner dish in the southern regions of China, Malaysia and Singapore. It is typically served with Chinese sausage and vegetables. More often than not, the rice is cooked in the claypot first and cooked ingredients like diced chicken and Chinese sausage are added in later. Traditionally, the cooking is done over a charcoal stove, giving the dish a distinctive flavour. Some places serve it with dark soya sauce and also dried salted fish. Salted fish enhances the taste of the claypot chicken rice, depending on the diner's preference. Due to the time-consuming method of preparation and slow-cooking in a claypot, customers might have to wait a period of time (typically 15-30 minutes) before the dish is ready.


Thanks for stopping by. Do you take photos of food when you travel?

To find out more about food photography please go to my last blog post - by clicking here - Food photography is not just a bowl of cherries

I am linking up to Travel Photos Monday and Travel Photo Thursday, and Oh the Places I've Been, Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

Travel Photo Mondays
Travel Photo Thursday
 Oh The Places I've Been

You might also like - Travel photography and camera settings

19 comments:

  1. Oh, Jill, you made my mouth water on this one. Would love to have that dish, in that very setting!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Life Images by Jill21 August 2013 at 13:35

      I love hawker food markets and trying all the different local foods.

      Delete
  2. This looks delicious to me, Jill.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well that looks incredibly delicious esp since it's my lunch time now...how do I get a cyber sample?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I can just about smell that Claypot Chicken! I would really love to be in a street like that in Singapore and about to have lunch right now instead of four ryvita with cottage cheese!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LIfe Images by Jill21 August 2013 at 13:25

      I agree! it was certianly great to be trying different foods in Singapore - and a great thing about travel

      Delete
  5. I find the preparation method for Claypot Chicken rather intriguing. Other than that, the dish does look really delectable, and I was practically drooling the whole time while reading this post. Thanks for sharing the lovely post Jill. Looking forward to more of your food photography posts!
    Fon

    ReplyDelete
  6. The chicken looks lucious, even after dinner:-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am guilty of sometimes eating before I remember to take a photo. I just tell myself I'm showing people the INSIDE of the dish. That Claypot Chicken looks delicious. Anyways, I just wanted to let you know that your last few posts have really gotten to me. I booked flights to Singapore next month so that we can do that great Aquarium and the Gardens by the Bay that you blogged about. Thanks for the travel inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Life Images by Jill21 August 2013 at 13:29

      Oh wow - it is great to know that I have inspired you to travel to Singapore. I hope you have a wonderful time, and yes, do visit Gardens on the Bay and the Aquarium at Sentosa. You can try the Claypot Children at the hawkers food market over there. Also try Makansutra Glutton's Bay for some great hawker food.
      Enjoy!

      Delete
  8. Great tips on food photography and those chicken made me hungry. I'm with you...I also forget to take pictures of food sometimes. But, I do like trying out new food and like taking pictures of them. I think I need to invest in a macro lens though.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi! Thanks for your comment :)
    So beautiful photos you create, I like <3 all of them!!
    Greetings Linnea

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Jill, so true that travel and food go hand in hand. Great food photography tips. As food is a big part of the culture, I also love taking food photos of my travel. Your photos are lovely as usual.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am reading this before breakfast and as I am never one for breakfast food I would really like to be eating this now. Great photos that really set the scene.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I like to take dishes of food that I eat so that I can remember, too! That clay pot cooking looks in interesting!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Only too true Jill that it's not the camera nor lens, but the photographer and his eye for capturing 'the' shot. I just looked back over some ancient prints from the early noughties and found a good few great photos I and my husband took pre dslr, when we were in Sicily. A poor workman blames the tools they say, so it's the skills and eye that count whatever one uses. Love your tips and that chicken in a clay pot dish is very tempting. How lucky you are to have the diversity of Asian food on your doorstep - well, a few thousand Kms away (and within the Aus restaurant scene too).

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thank you all lovely readers for stopping by and commenting. I am glad you enjoyed this little taste of Clay Pot Chicken.

    ReplyDelete
  15. That chicken is making my mouth water. Off to check out the food photography.

    ReplyDelete

I hope you have enjoyed your visit to my blog. Thank you for stopping by and for taking the time to comment. I read and very much appreciate every comment and love hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return.