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| English Breakfast at Zipp Bar |
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| Zipp Bar and Restaurant |
We all decided to take it
a bit easy today as the heat (over 30C all the time) and humidity are taking
their toll. After a quite substantial breakfast at Zipp Bar, Frances, Tamar and I
all had swims while John rode back to Hotel Gili Air (by bicycle, which is a
bit challenging on the sandy paths) to pick up their washing. Unfortunately
Tamar and I are suffering from some bites which are incredibly itchy and seem
to be exacerbated by the ocean water and John has been having trouble with his hearing. Tamar and John went to the health
clinic in the morning to have their problems looked at. Tamar's (and my) itchy rash was
attributed to a reaction to jellyfish stings and John had a build-up of wax in his ear,
easily fixed by a warm water flush. I am sparing you the intimate details of these experiences.
While here, I might as well mention the flies. They are not covered in the travel guides, but are absolute pests. You can be sitting comfortably anywhere and it's quite peaceful, but as soon as any food arrives (and I mean any) they descend, and proceed to land on, walk over and dive into anything on the table. The Australian Salute has got nothing on the Gili Grab!
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Combined lunch at the Zipp Bar
with Beef Kebabs, Urap Urap and
Cha Khan Khun
(Peanut sauce already heavily sampled) |
For lunch, we settled on
Zipp Bar again - they have a good menu - and they also agreed to set up a table in the shade (instead
of loungy cushions). Frances and I decided to share a combination of two local
dishes, Mixed Beef and Fish Kebabs, Urap Urap (chopped boiled vegetables topped with shredded coconut and chilli, garlic onion and spices) and Cha Khan Khun (Sauteed local spinach,chilli, garlic and onion) and steamed rice. It
was a very delicious combination.
Part of the reason or
setting up a shady table was so that we could play cards -
Five Hundred (an extension of Euchre) being the game of choice. The setting
was ideal, a gentle breeze, in the open shade, icy cold Bintangs close to hand
and some serious distraction. It even aroused the interest of the bar staff, especially during some very animated hands during the game.
The hours dragged on, and after a dip in the ocean, and showers, it was time for dinner again. It sounds boring, but we decided to return to the Zipp Bar as Happy Hour was fast approaching. Also, we wanted to try more of the local dishes.
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| Pepes Ikan |
Tonight Frances tried Pepes Ikan -fish with Indonesian spices and herbs wrapped in a banana leaf and grilled on the BBQ, and accompanied by the usual vegetables and steamed rice. Tamar and Frances (the keen fish eaters of the group) gave the dish two thumbs up. I felt like something vegetarian, and ordered the Gado-Gado. It should have been fine, except that either the peanut sauce or vegetables had an overpowering burnt flavour that completely spoiled the dish - the first bad one so far.
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The two light source photo
technique |
Photographing food at night can be quite difficult. If you use flash, it creates an unreal light with very bright areas and deep shadows. If you don't use flash, the photo will be evenly lit, but is often too dark or blurred because of the slow exposure. So I thought I share a little technique that I developed for photographing food at night.
The technique is to use the torch function of a phone to shine light from the opposite direction onto the plate, then use the flash on the camera - this sometimes requires the use of a willing assistant. What this technique does, is to fill the shadows and reduce the overall contrast, giving a better result - see the Pepes Ikan photo above which has multiple shadows because of the 2 light sources but even lighting on the food. Mind you, you can look pretty ridiculous doing this in a restaurant full of people, and sitting with a group of hungry friends eager to start eating!
