Balinese Cacao

In the hills of Bali you can find many farms growing cocoa, vanilla and coffee plants. Cocoa bean (also cacao bean, often simply cocoa and cacao) is the dried and fully fermented fatty seed of Theobroma cacao, from which cocoa solids and cocoa butter are extracted. They are the basis of chocolate, as well as many Mesoamerican foods such as mole sauce and tejate.

A cocoa pod (fruit) has a rough leathery rind about 3 cm thick (this varies with the origin and variety of pod). It is filled with sweet, mucilaginous pulp (called 'baba de cacao' in South America) enclosing 30 to 50 large seeds that are fairly soft and white to pale lavender in color. While seeds are usually white, they become violet or reddish brown during the drying process. The exception is rare varieties of white cacao, in which the seeds remain white.

Balinese Coffee

Balinese coffee is found mainly in the mountain areas of Bali. I shot this image at a small farm on the road up to the Mount Batur volcano and you can see the coffee beans being roasted in the traditional way over a log fire. There are two types of coffee grown in Bali; Arabica Coffee and Robusta Coffee. Many people living in the countryside in Bali will have a small coffee plantation in their back yard and make the coffee powder in the traditional way as you see here. Sometimes they mix the coffee powder with their rice.

The Chocolate Corner

Every street, side street or back lane in Brugge seems to have numerous cafes and of course little chocolate shops with delightful temptations .... ideal for the weary tourist to stop, relax and succumb to temptation.

Slow Coffee

This was my first experiment with a new Casio EX-FH100 camera I recently picked up. This camera is a small 10 megapixel compact camera but with the really intriguing feature of high speed video capability with video rates of 120fps, 240fps, 420fps and even 1000fps. These high speed video rates allows you to easily shoot ultra slow-motion movies at speeds that were only previously available on super expensive, pro-level cameras. The effect of slow motion video is hypnotic and should be able to add some interesting effects into my future slideshows. I tracked down this camera after seeing some of the work done by Trey Ratcliff who used an earlier version of this camera. This video was shot at 420fps which is a bit small being only 224px x 168px, so I will be looking at using the 120fps (640px x 480px) and 240fps (448px x 336px) in my next trials.

Morning Coffee

I don't know about you, but I cannot function until I've had that first cup of coffee in the morning. The cup of coffee in this picture is by far the best cup of coffee ever served to me in an an airport, Rotorua Airport in the north island of New Zealand - complete with a New Zealand feather design!

Kedai Makanan Yut Kee

There's nothing to beat a Sunday visit to one of KL's old-style kopitiams (coffee shops) such as the renowned Kedia Makanan Yut Kee on Jalan Dang Wangi. Take in the local atmosphere as you dine on traditional staples such as noodles, fried rice, curries, french toast and that curious holdover from colonial days, 'chop'. Chicken chop, lamb chop, beef chop, pork chop, fish chop - this plate of pan-fried protein doused with a thick gravy and served with potatoes, peas, and carrots, is one of Yut Kee's most popular items.

The area also has some interesting old shophouses some of which have been renovated into offices, others like this just left to ruin as the modern KL grows up around them.

You can also still see some traditional old Malay style houses down close to the river.

Cap Square is a new development in this area comprising up-scale apartment residences and a new shopping centre with restaurants.