HAN (韩) Korea BBQ Restaurant at Taman Molek, Johor Bahru.

HAN Korea BBQ Restaurant (韩) (N1.53038 E103.79330) is located along Jalan Molek 2/2 of Taman Molek, Johor Bahru, which is just next to Standard Chartered Bank Taman Molek Branch. We had a bad experienced with the other outlet at Jalan Molek 1/28 (behind OCBC Bank Taman Molek) which was smoky and stuffy on our visit months ago, so we decided to give a try in this outlet on one of the evening...

HAN Korea BBQ Restaurant, Taman Molek

Heard from friends that this outlet was took over from another restaurant not too long ago, and the design also different from the traditional Korea restaurant...no tatami.

It was quiet and not many customers on that evening, therefore it was nice and cooling...for me, the environment is better and spacious than the other outlet which I mentioned above...

The interior design of HAN Korea BBQ Restaurant

As usual, we ordered the one of the set in the menu for 2-3 person, the set include marinated Pork (五花肉), chicken, beef and a choice of soy bean or kimchi soup. We took the kimchi soup...

There were 15 different types of refillable side dishes (as appetizers) served on table before the main dishes serve where you experience in all Korean restaurant...

side dishes served by the restaurant

The friendly waiter preparing the BBQ at the next table while we enjoyed the side dishes...

Every table has the flexible vaccum to avoid smoky condition, common in all Korean restaurant. The waiter patiently barbeque the meats till perfection...under the smokeless environment. Great!

The raw beef...

The BBQ pork in process...

About less than 5 minutes, the BBQ pork served...

Korean BBQ pork with onion...

Follow by the BBQ beef...

BBQ Beef...

While we enjoyed the pork and beef, he (waiter) continue preparing the chicken immeditely...

BBQ chicken in process...

BBQ chicken with mushroom...

After all done, the Kimchi soup presented on our table...served with a steam egg...

Korean Kimchi soup...

The pork, chicken and beef were tasteful! All were well marinated and tender! The chewy moment of the pork was unforgotten.
There were vermicellis, korean rice cakes and others in the Kimchi soup, and it was slightly 'special' compare with others, not very sour...we like the soup very much! I don't really like too sour and spicy Kimchi soup, that it kill the original taste of it (personal preference).
The texture of the steam eggs was nice, just melted in our mouth...
Delicious!

The Damage : RM118.00 for 2 adults and 1 kid included a jug of Korean tea.
The quantity of the foods enough to serve at least 3 adults, so we were overloaded again! We will be back and of course with more friends...:)

韩 HAN Korea BBQ Restaurant

84, Jalan Molek 2/2,

Taman Molek, 81100 Johor Bahru.

Tel : +607-3539002

Location map of HAN Korea BBQ Restaurant at Taman Molek, Johor Bahru.

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POV: I Just Couldn't Do It....

Photo Iwan Baan for New York Magazine

I tried but my heart wasn't in it. It's that simple. It might surprise many of my readers and peers...but that's the truth.

I didn't want to photograph "my" New York City neighborhood suffering in the aftermath of Sandy...I'm not that kind of photographer. I never photograph the homeless...the down and out...the infirm...who frequently walk the streets of New York City...or  anywhere else in the world.

I don't have that type of photography in me. It doesn't appeal to me. I recall going to lower Manhattan two or three days after 9.11, and returning home not having made a single frame. I just couldn't do it.

Sebastiao Salgado is quoted as having said "If you take a picture of a human that does not make him noble, there is no reason to take this picture. That is my way of seeing things." Perhaps the word 'noble' in his statement is a little too much, but documenting misery, human misfortunes and other disasters, just doesn't appeal to me.

And I felt that photographing my neighborhood, its restaurants, its stores and its people in the storm's immediate aftermath was an intrusion...why would I document its pain and discomfort? That's not what I do.

Now that it is recovering, and there's a smile on the faces of its residents, I might return to my neighborhood's streets.

I did photograph in the past few days, but I looked for the quotidien, the commonplace...and I found it north of 30th Street.

Of course, no such thing as quotidien exists in New York City...but you know what I mean.

POV: Much Ado About An Instagram Cover Photo?

"If there was still any debate about whether serious photojournalism can take place in the context of camera phones and cutesy retro filters, it’s over now." - Jeff Bercovici, Forbes

Er, no. Not really. Mr Bercovici's pontification notwithstanding, the debate will still go on....simply because there always will be some photojournalists (plus photo editors and their ilk) who will remain wedded to their ways.

I occasionally use my iPhone's Instagram and Hipstamatic for my travel photography, as well as for my street photography efforts in New York City...and I enjoy snapping (and that's what it really is...snapping) a few pictures here and there using these apps, and having fun applying its various filters to the resultant images. I have Snapseed and Camera+ as well, and use these to apply further filters.

In my opinion TIME magazine used a photographer's Instagram snap for one of its covers not because of its particular aesthetics or its compositional values, but because of expediency. Apert from being a crop, the image itself is mundane and nondescript. The Forbes article refers to the expediency factor in very explicit terms, saying that the magazine's director of photography chose to use the Instagram was motivated by the necessity for speed. After all, Instagram has 'insta" in its name, as did Kodak's Instamatic...both implying simplicity, speed and ease.

Oh, did I mention that it's also cheap? No post processing software to buy...no fiddling with levels and layers...nothing.

And that's the reason why Google has bought Nik Software, and Twitter will introduce photo filters in an effort to bypass Instagram.

As I'm fond of saying to anyone who'll half-listen...what you use to make a photograph is really irrelevant. It could be a DSLR, a medium format Hasselblad,a rangefinder or an iPhone...it doesn't matter. They're just tools. And if the photo buyers/editors accept the images...that's all that matters.

Usamos el 10 porciento de nuestro cerebro. ¿Mito o realidad?

Si el cerebro humano tuviera una reserva sin explotar del 90 porciento se podría utilizar para tener poderes psíquicos o recordar nombres de familiares en reuniones!

Por desgracia, no es así.

Para bien o para mal, el cerebro de la mayoría de las personas se están ejecutando al cien porciento.

El origen de este mito no es clara, pero la investigación si lo es. Los escáneres cerebrales muestran claramente que la gran mayoría del cerebro se utiliza, aunque al igual a veces la gente no utiliza todos sus grupos musculares al mismo tiempo, también  puede usar todo su cerebro en un momento dado.

La afirmación tampoco tiene sentido desde un punto de vista evolutivo: Nosotros no usamos sólo el 10 porciento de nuestros otros órganos (como el corazón, el hígado o los pulmones), así que ¿por qué el cerebro tiene que ser diferente?

Cedric Arnold: Yangon Awakening

Photo © Cedric Arnold-All Rights Reserved

I'm really delighted to have stumbled on Newsweek's Picture Dept which features the lovely new work by Cedric Arnold in Myanmar's capital. More photographs are featured on The Daily Beast. I'm a fan of this type of photography, and of Cedric's work which I featured on this blog earlier this year.

The much better laid out gallery on Cedric Arnold's own website is titled Yangon's Awakening, and consists of large format Polaroids of an artist, a poet, a teacher, a student, an office worker, a punk rocker, a forest monk (above)... photographed in front the old and neglected walls of this city, showing the diversity of people, and juxtaposing the traditional and modern Burmese against the peeling paint and masonry of these old walls.

I chose to feature the Polaroid of this forest monk because I came across some of these monks when I walked up and down the path to Kyaiktiyo Pagoda during a photo excursion to Myanmar some 10 years ago, and I recall that they were very reserved, and shy when photographed...perhaps because they were in the midst of a pilgrimage to that sacred site.

These are real Polaroids...not Instagrams and not digital images processed with Alien Skin software and the like.

Lovely work.

A small fishing village at Johor - Kong Kong

Out of the curiosity, we drove to the Kong Kong Fishing Village (N1.51836 E103.99752) for nothing on one of the cloudy Saturday afternoon...

I found one of the special of this small village is the road direct us until 'The End'!...Well, it stop next to Johor River...

The end of the road at Kong Kong, Johor.

Peaceful!
Was the first impression of the village, I felt...
So we strolled around the very small jetty and also the surrounding...accompany with nice cool breeze from the Johor River...where the Johor civilaization began...

One 0f the 'Kelong' floating on Johor River...

We found a simple and Classic kopitiam situated along the river, without the second thought...we ordered our coffee and continue enjoy the scenic view of the village.
Kind of strange, I like this area very much! No doubt it's a nice photography area, but I didn't bring my digital camera, just wanted a simple visit of it...

Kedai Kopi Kim Lee - A 70s kopitiam...

The kopitiam was not crowded during our visit, the calm atmosphere really made us enjoy the nice aroma coffee on our table.

The washroom of the coffee shop is another unique to me...it has the 60s design where I only saw it at my grandfather house those days many years ago. It's really brought back my childhood memory when I discovered this!
That was the reason I had a second cups of coffee again in the shop...

The traditional design of the washroom during the 60s...

The well next to the toilet...

Have you experience this type of toilet before?!

Beside that, I found a clinic, school, mosque and the famous Tai Son Seafood Restaurant in the village. Still many more to explore...this was the second fishing village I like in Johor state, the first one was Kampung Pendas nearby the Second Link.

I promise myself that I will definitely have another visit to this village and make sure I bring my digital camera!

It's a nice place to calm down and relax when you have a continuous hectic days of city life!

*  Photos were taken by Nokia phone E71, apologies for the poor quality.

Location map of Kong Kong small village at Johor.

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Encuentran pruebas del abominable hombre de las nieves.

Los resultados de múltiples pruebas de ADN  supuestamente indican que pelos encontrados en una cueva son de una especie de primate desconocido.

Las muestras de cabello fueron recuperados en el interior de una cueva por el Dr. Igor Birtsev durante una expedición en Siberia, una región reconocida por sus avistamientos del abominable hombre de las nieves.

Las pruebas se llevaron a cabo en varias universidades y parecen indicar que los pelos "provienen de una criatura parecida a un humano, pero que no es un Homo sapiens pero está más estrechamente relacionado con el hombre que con un mono."

"Teníamos diez muestras de cabello para estudiar, y se ha concluido que pertenecen a un mamífero, pero no son de un ser humano, y tampoco de los animales conocidos en el área donde fueron encontrados, como un oso o lobo, caprinos, o cualquier otro animal ", dijo el Profesor Valentin Sapunov.

"Las pruebas se realizaron por el laboratorio de microscopía electrónica y de laboratorio de clasificación genealógica molecular".

Las pruebas de ADN mostraron que el cabello encontrado supuestamente puede probar la existencia del hombre de las nieves.