Eating and Clicking

Eating and taking pictures of what you’re eating: is there anything happier?  Maybe there is, but this belongs right up there in the hierarchy of feel-good moments.

So it’s a joy to be in the merry company of photo and food enthusiasts at Click, Eat and Gimick to the Max’s! A basic food photography and styling workshop.  For P1000, it’s where you learn to style and shoot your own food under a studio setting AND eat a buffet meal as well.

Rembrandt Vocalan, professional photographer, musician and owner of the Balaw-Balaw Restaurant and Art Gallery in Rizal whetted the appetite of his avid audience in more than just one level.

At first, he set up his lighting equipment to simulate the basic atmosphere in a studio.  Then he placed the now beatific Max’s fried chicken in its mouthwatering, hunger-inducing spotlight.

It was like waving a red flag.  The participants were only too happy to whip up their cameras and “eat” the chicken with their eyes.  Rhem taught them hands-on about shooting and angling techniques.  It was such fun that I couldn’t help but join in the fray.

My turn came next, which involved delving into the basics of food styling.  Food styling allows anyone armed with a camera to highlight the best angles of their food subject.  It’s the same as framing shots for people and finding the best angles for faces.  :)

Usually, people see the result of a good food photograph and not what happens behind the scenes.  So it was also fun regaling them with tales of what really happened while showing the yummy shots I’ve been privileged to have been part of.

At that point Max’s signature dishes were warmly welcomed into our function room.  Aside from even more helpings of fried chicken, there were Sinigang na Hipon (Shrimp and Vegetables cooked in Tamarind Soup Base), Kare-Kare at Bagoong (Oxtail and Vegetables stewed in Peanut Sauce and sided with salty Shrimp Paste), Daing na Bangus (Smoked Milk Fish sided with Cane Vinegar) as well as Buko Pandan (Coconut strips, Pandan-flavored gelatin and white tapioca mixed in sweet cream) for dessert.

But before we could eat all That, the challenge was to first arrange the food nicely on plates and shoot.  I really loved how everyone put their energies into it, despite the rumbling stomachs and twitching noses.  Ahem.

Then, and only then, did we have a FEAST.

To see the participants’ pictures on Facebook, click here.

 

Comfort Food

There is always something about comfort food that stirs more than the palate.  Today was one of those dog-days for me where I was thinking that I was too tired to eat.  I was even feeling that perhaps, any fond thinking of food was misplaced at that moment.

If you knew me dear reader, you would be gasping and wondering if I was having a crisis of unheard of proportions.  Because quite frankly, the worst problems may limit my enthusiasm and romance with food, but it has never snuffed my fond regard of it.   At any time.  Not even for a few seconds.

The fact that people were painting the town red before the long weekend sharply contrasted with my mood, but it was also a boon.  Because after passing by first and second food options with their full parking slots and waiting lists, me and mine were somehow led to the deep-fried chicken king of restaurants.  Max’s.

And with that first bite, lo and behold, my tongue and my spirits felt a rebirth, the likes of which Anthony Bourdain has been waxing poetic about for years.  There is no standard by which to compare, no sufficient words to describe it.

The spell woven by comfort food is High Magic.

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Photo courtesy of Max’s Restaurant.