I Say Selfie, You Say Wefie… Let’s Do It The Samsung NX Mini Way!

Loving My Selfies and Wefies with Samsung NX Mini!

Selfie… I don’t think I have to explain what it means because by now, the whole world accepts this new power word with much excitement as the latest ‘In’ thing to do. Just for fun, I tried to Google the word ‘Selfie’ and Google came back with 47 million results! This powerful word has also been inducted into all the dictionaries of the world and Wikipedia. Yes, many have really brought up this word to a whole new ball game… especially for those who love seeing themselves so much… wink wink!

My lovable niece and her awesome expression when I told her to take selfies of herself with my Samsung NX Mini… priceless!

I will admit, I for one was never into that word. Much to my own thoughts, I always thought it was difficult to take a photo of myself. Come on… it’s already so difficult to take an awesome portrait photo of someone much less take a nice one of myself. Well here’s where new technology comes in and our mobile phones with camera started this power phrase of selfies. Many beautiful people obviously took on the skill of selfies and mastered them well. Don’t get me wrong but selfies are no easy task. Ask those who have mastered it and they will tell you it’s about lighting, angles, length, focal and so forth. Some even mastered the art of selfie without even having to look at any screen and come out with amazing photos of themselves… kudos to you! You know who you are…

Ellen DeGeneres taking the spotlight with her megastars wefie at the recent Oscar! *photo from Ellen DeGeneres of course…

Then there’s the Wefie, not yet as famous as its relative but catching up pretty fast. Wefies are group selfies. Brilliant innovation if you ask me because everyone wants to be in the photo and no one wants to be left standing behind the lens. With all the recent movie stars and politicians (remember seeing Obama wefie with our PM?) taking on their own wefies, it’s time to jump on the bandwagon of selfies and wefies if you still haven’t…

In the recent weeks, I have taken on a different side of this word. Involved in the recent Samsung NX Mini expedition, I must say, I have been enlighten to a whole new world of selfie. Though I have used my phone to take a selfie once or twice, I was never as enthusiast as I am now. Reason is simple, it was never as much fun or as easy as it is with the Samsung NX Mini.

From my previous post where I went a little city hopping here with the coolest and slimmest camera equipped with lots of SMART functions to now learning and getting a grip on taking selfies and wefies, I confessed, I am a little hooked to both. Yes, I am also getting vain… ha ha ha… but oh what fun it is… don’t judge me till you tried it for yourselves. And yes, for this post, I handed over my Samsung NX Mini to many and they too had fun… the above collage has a few of those happy selfies and wefies…

I love wefie more than anything. Most of the time, I am always behind the lens. I love being there but I also realize I don’t have much photos of me and my family or friends. Especially with my little one, I find my own albums of him and my other half but never much of me. Now with the Samsung NX Mini, I love how I can take photos of me and my family or friends anytime, anywhere and anyhow.

I have lots of fun with my little one now because I can have precious moments captured with him. Even my little one can do a selfie now of himself! *proud parent mode on*

The Samsung NX Mini is currently holds the title for the world’s slimmest interchangeable lens camera. It comes with the 9mm f/3.5 lens or one can purchase the kit lens with 9-27mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS lens.The modern svelte design of the Samsung NX Mini has garnered quite a fan club. Available in pastel colors of pink and mint, brown, black and white, Samsung tries to cater its appearance to everyone. The Samsung NX Mini has a 3-inch touchscreen that flips up 180 degrees that takes one to selfie or wefie paradise. Once the screen is flip up, the SMART camera automatically takes on the ‘Self Shot’ mode. Just touch the screen to focus and let the timer do its magic countdown before it shoots!

Piece of cake right?

In addition to that, the Samsung NX Mini has many SMART functions and other DSLR functions. One can opt to shoot at Auto or Manual, use its Wi-fi function or the 17 SMART features that best fit your situation. For selfie or wefie, I recommend the Beauty Face SMART feature to beautify your portraits. It does wonders and turns your skin porcelain and glowing minus any acne or marks. If I am going to share my face to the world, I might as well be looking my very best right?

Of course there more features for selfies and wefies… you may want to check out the face detection where there are three modes – Normal, Smile Shot and Wink Shot. Normal mode countdowns like a timer while the Smile and Wink mode actives a shot with its actions respectively. Recording video is also made easier.

Well there you go… it’s my take on how easy and fun it can be to now take a selfie or wefie the Samsung NX Mini way! Honestly, if you were to tell me I would be hook on selfie or wefie before this, I would be laughing at you but now the laughter is on Me… loving my selfies and wefies!

So what do you think… are you into selfies or wefies yet? Maybe it’s time to own a Samsung NX Mini and find out…

For more information about Samsung NX Mini, visit www.samsung.com/my/

*All photos of selfies and wefies are taken with Samsung NX Mini.

The Shepherdoo, Sky Park @ One City: Latin American Soul Food

From Nachos to Tacos, It’s Latin American at The Shepherdoo!

In pursuit of its successful outlet in Centro Mall, Klang, The Shepherdoo opens its second outlet at Sky Park in One City recently. This outlet screams Latin American all the way from the moment one walks into the restaurant cum lounge. The six of us was here for a magazine shoot as The Shepherdoo is gorgeously decorated with a Latin American ambience to match its menu.

There are two levels at The Shepherdoo. Enjoy your meal at the dining area below or simply head up to the next level for more privacy and comfort. There is also the casual bar area that has a huge mural of bodacious sceneries in Latin America. The stairs leading up to the next level is brightly painted a sunny yellow to mimic the colorful houses in that region. Choose your dining in the restaurant or al fresco on both levels.

The upper level has a large sofa area for chilling while dart machines will keep many busy. A large wall covered in a beautiful poster of houses from a certain area in the region provides the backdrop for the ambience. Its’ all about bold colors to create a happy and easy-going ambience that makes diners want to hang out there.

Enough about the ambience, let’s see what the menu has to offer! The Shepherdoo team takes their food and drink list and amps it up with loads of fun flavors. We were recommended some of their signature cocktails and mocktails that evening to unwind the day. The Shepherdoo’s mixologist makes pretty cool drinks.

I love the Passion Fruit Heineken. It’s a beer smoothie! Pretty fresh and delicious… and I don’t even like beer. We also had their Classic Mojito, Mango Margarita and Afrutado. The Mango Margarita is lovely too but it’s more of a ladies cocktail because of its fruity sweetness.

The team at this restaurant takes their drink list seriously… there’s about 10 pages of drink list alone! From Freezing Smoothies, Hot Sun Coolers, Coffee, Tea, Mocktails and Cocktails to Beers, Shooters, Wines, Champagnes and Liquors, there’s plenty of giggle juice to keep everyone pretty happy. Happy hours are even better… with Buy 1 Free 1 deals and more.

The menu is filled with lots of choices too. There are plenty of appetizers, snacks and tapas while mains are plentiful as well. We had Pollo Nachos, Mexican Buffalo Wings and Quesadilla de Hongo.

Even Nachos alone, the menu has several options. Our Pollo Nachos is a pile of crispy tortilla chips covered with a beautiful mess of cheese sauce, sour cream, jalapenos, pico de gallo and crowned with a scoop of housemade guacamole. This version has grilled chicken pieces for that extra protein. It’s a mount of flavors and textures and a great one to be shared!

The Mexican Buffalo Wings is really awesome. Ticking off the essential checkmark of crispiness, kicking tang and spicy flavors and the meaty wings, this one disappeared pretty fast off the plate.

Quesadilla de Hongo has sautéed garlicky mushrooms and cheese as a filling before it’s sandwiched with tortilla and chargrilled for a toasty texture and finished off with a drizzle of balsamic reduction. It makes a nice snack when shared or one can even have this as a main course if you are going meatless.

Our mains had us starting off with Pizza de Mexicana. It’s a fairly simple pizza made with tortilla topped with sauteed sweet and soft bell pepper, sweet onions with a light red sauce and plenty of cheese. This one makes a great bite with cold beer. I like the light and crispiness of the tortilla pizza.

We also had Taco-Taco, The Shepherdoo’s rendition of crispy tortilla shells stuffed with fish and the standard taco filling of shredded greens, pico de gallo, guacamole, chipotle aioli, cheese and sour cream. We had three orders here as each order has two tacos. This is very flavorful as one gets a burst of sour, creamy, savory and a little heat together with its various textures of the tortilla and fish. I daresay it’s a little messy to eat but hey… it’s a beautiful mess!

We were told that their fajitas is a popular choice and we must their Combo Fajita which had wild mushrooms, chicken and beef all piled up into one sizzling plate! The fajitas had mixed peppers and onions for sweetness while the spices in it jazzed up the flavors. Simply take the accompanied soft flour tortilla, heaped on the fajita and dressed it with salsa, guacamole and sour cream. I usually piled on a lot of the condiments since I love them. It’s a hearty taste of Mexican cuisine. These are also the heart of the street food in Mexico and one can literally see them on every nook and corner in the country.

I am no Gringo but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try The Shepherdoo’s Gringo Burger! Thick beef patty has a blanket of melted cheddar cheese and is dressed with turkey bacon, sunny side up egg, lemon mayo and greens with a sesame seed bun. This one was tasted decent and the fact that the sunny side up egg had runny egg yolk makes the burger better than other regular ones.

We also settled for Chicken Parmigiana ala Mexicano, a breaded chicken breast baked and sauced up with a spiced tomato sauce and topped with melted cheese. This one comes with curly fries and side salad. Despite it being a breast, the chicken is really moist and flavorful. The sauce is tangy and tomatoey with a good dose of spice undernotes. Not usually a chicken parmigiana fan, I seemed to enjoy this a lot as the chicken is really juicy and tender.

The next dish was my favorite of the night. Pasta ala Pollo features a French cut Mexican rubbed chicken breast nicely chargrilled. It lies on a bed of pesto sauced pasta and is crowned with a chargrilled caramelized pineapple. The aroma and flavors are simple marvelous. The pesto sauce has such great depths of herb and cheese flavors that make it so scrumptious. The chicken again is utterly juicy and tender while the spice rub makes it very flavorful. What seals the dish had to be the caramelized pineapple, adding a little fruity sweetness to the chicken to remind us of its Latin American flavors. A Must-Order!

Pierna Rojo Vivo is also top in my list of Must-Order. Spicy marinated chicken thigh is beautifully chargrilled and comes with a fruity and tangy papaya salsa with potato salad and greens. The flavor combination worked really well. A squeeze of orange juice from the orange wedge does more wonders for the chicken.

The Shepherdoo does have some desserts and we had their signature Cinnamon Wafer Tortilla. It has crispy golden tortilla chips served with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream and whipped cream before being drizzled with lots of caramel sauce. Sweet and crispy, it’s really easy to enjoy, especially when I am such a fan of vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.

It’s fun all the way at The Shepherdoo. The ambience is groovy and colorful while the food and drink is as bold as the ambience. Prices are decent too for the food and drinks. It’s perfect for hanging out with family or friends and definitely a great place to unwind…

THE SHEPHERDOO RESTAURANT AND LOUNGE

A-GF-07, Sky Park, Ground Floor,

One City, Jalan USJ25/1A,

47640 Subang Jaya

Tel: +6018 337 8828 / 6018 656 8828

Website: www.theshepherdoo.com/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/theshepherdoo

Kuching Noodle House, Garden Shoppe @ One City: Homemade Sarawak Street Food

Home Cook Sarawak Noodles and Hakka Delights!

Two best friends put their talents in the heart of Kuching Noodle House with their recipes. Located at Garden Shoppe at One City, Kuching Noodle House serves up Sarawak street food and Hakka dishes fit for daily enjoyment. Opened from less than half a year, looks like words has gotten out as the café was packed for lunch when I visited during the weekend with my family.

My niece and my family visited one Sunday lunch since she lives very near this café. Although it was after 1pm, the café was packed and people kept walking in. The crowd can only mean one thing, good food with value for money. We check out its simple but sufficient menu which consists of Sarawak street food noodles, some rice meals and some side snacks. After our orders were taken, I was pretty happy to notice that there were plenty of staff and so service was very efficient.

The café is really pretty and comfortable at sight. Lots of space, and the mix of wood, white washed walls and ceilings and cement is further enhanced by its creative lights hide in rows of bubus. Bubu is an Asian traditional fish trap basket that is shaped like a long barrel and is made from bamboo and rattan. The kitchen is partially open and so diners can get some kitchen action if you are seated at the back area of the dining room. The ambience is bright and clean and I was particularly fond of the old school rattan and bamboo stools.

We took on the recommendation of the staff for our food and drinks since it was our first visit. Kuching Noodle House imports their coffee and other ingredients from Sarawak frequently. So we opted to try their Ice Sarawak Coffee White, Home Recipe Pineapple Drink and Cucumber Lime Juice. The Sarawak Coffee White is decent and sufficient for non-coffee drinkers like me. Maybe I should enjoyed it hot because it certainly tasted better with my partner’s hot Sarawak Coffee Black as it has more aroma and body to the coffee. For me, I really enjoyed the boiled Home Recipe Pineapple Drink and Cucumber Lime Juice simply for its freshness and fruity flavors.

We ordered some side snacks simply because we were starving. The two-piece Cai Kueh came with a side chili sauce. It’s delicious and even more so because that little side of chili sauce is super appetizing. The Cai Kueh has soft rice flour skin encasing cooked sweet jicama and carrot. It is very simple fare but that chili sauce rocks for sure because we asked for more…

Nyonya Lobak came next and this one fare decent as well. It came with the same yummy chili sauce and some pickled radish and cucumber. The lobak was more sweet than savory due to the vegetables in the roll. It was soft and not as firm as my mother’s recipe. The lobak still fared pleasant as its flavors matches well with the awesome chili sauce.

Hakka Stuffed Bittergourd fared better than the lobak as the stuffed bittergourd had all the authentic flavors in it. Two pieces of beautifully stuffed bittergourd is cooked till soft and remains juicy and savory. As my mother-in-law is Hakka, this dish is pretty close to her recipe when she makes it. Hakka clan uses more minced pork in their stuffed Yong Tau Foo rather that others who uses more fish paste for a bouncy textures. This one also had more minced meat hence it had a softer and sweeter texture and flavor to the dish.

I barely tasted Kuching Noodle House’s signature of Kolo Mee Char Siew. My little one loved it so much, he polished it off happily and in fact asked for more. With my one bite, the noodles are really delectable as it had a lovely bouncy texture and the minced meat and char siew was pretty flavorful. The fried shallots added an oniony aroma and some crispy lettuce accompanied the noodles. There are other variations with prawns and smoked duck if char siew if not your thing. There are two sizes for the noodles and these are priced between RM6.90 to RM8.90 depending on the variation and sizes.

I was told that Kuching Noodle House makes their noodles from scratch every day. When I had walked to the back of the café, I did spy a little enclosed room with some noodle machines. This is another good sign as it can only mean no preservatives in the noodles. I almost wanted to order this again but we decided to try other dishes.

The reason that had me walking into Kuching Noodle House was Sarawak Laksa. I have developed a crush on the unique Sarawak Laksa broth from my other food escapades and was craving for a bowl of piping hot and spicy Sarawak Laksa. The café’s Sarawak Laksa was pretty decent and satisfying. The laksa broth had sufficient spices, lending a full bodied taste of spices in a thin broth. The only difference here is that this is a healthier version as milk was used instead of coconut milk. For a healthier version, its definitely very enjoyable without the guilt. The laksa comes with chicken, prawns, egg omelette and coriander. Add the dried chili paste with a squeeze of lime on the side to add more oomph!

My other niece and other half enjoyed the Ginger Wine Chicken with Mee Suah. A traditional Hakka dish, this one uses the yellow ginger wine as its base for the broth. It’s a warming dish as the yellow ginger wine is not overwhelming here but sufficient enough to make its presence. The overall flavors are earthy, a little tang with lots of ginger essence. The soft mee sua noodle has chunks of chicken and shredded wood ear fungus with wolfberries. I think it’s perfect when you want some comfort food.

The Steamed 10 Grain Rice with Minced Meat and Salted Fish is very value for money. For RM9.90, one gets a big bowl of nutritious steamed 10 grain rice topped with blanched greens and fried shallots, a side of clear consommé and a scrumptious patty of steamed minced pork with salted fish. It’s a complete dish where you get your carb, veggie and protein. The steamed minced pork with salted fish is absolutely yummy, so much so we all ended up fighting for this dish. My little one also had some of this and love it’s too!

Kuching Noodle House appeals to those who misses home cook food and wishes for comfort dishes like these. Prices are very decent and those seeking value for money meals at any time of the day will find this café suitable. The owners were present that day and were very friendly and approachable. Both happen to be named Helen and they were seen scurrying around to assist their staff in ensuring diners is well taken care off. We talked to them a bit and found them to be very passionate about their recipes by making sure that everything is homemade as much as possible and as fresh as possible. If you looking for Sarawak Laksa and Kolo Mee, do head over and give Kuching Noodle House a try!

KUCHING NOODLE HOUSE

B-08-GF, Ground Floor, Garden Shoppe @ One City,
Jalan USJ 25/1A, Klang Valley

47650 Selangor

Tel: 019 378 6933

GPS: 3.0438738, 101.5817349