Nepal Through a Plastic Lens

I have put together a couple of my lomo shots of Nepal and Tibet on my Flickr.

Go check out the whole set…

7 Days: Summer Keeps On Sunning

The weather is beautiful and the temperature hasn’t dropped below 30 degrees since May.  Oddly for this time of year there has nothing but brilliant sunshine either.  So seeming that I am sitting at my desk sunburnt and eager to get back out into the heat, I thought I would post the next 7 days…

7 Days: Let’s Push Things Forward

Life is such a busy place to be.  I promised myself I wouldn’t let this drop behind and I need to keep it up. Here are seven more days from Mid-June.

7 Days: Wind Down

7 Days: A Return

Wow, I am still so far behind.  Been real busy and have about 200 unsorted photos from the last month or so on my camera.  This weekend I intend to finally do some bulk uploading and cover the whole of June in one blast but, for now,  here are the dying days of May and our return to Hong Kong.

Strip Steak with Creamy Spinach Topping

Okay, I know this blog has nothing to do with cookery but a contact over at Flickr wanted the recipe for a dish I photographed the other day (above) so I thought I would oblige.  So here it is:  the recipe we sort of stole from some crappy T.V show we were watching the other day fo Strip Steak with a Creamy Spinach topping.

Note: This is nothing like the real recipe the steak chef did on the show, it was just patched together from what we remember of it with added garlic…because it’s the best thing in the world! I don’t do quantities because I never pay attention to them in other people’s recipes anyway, so just use your best judgement.

Ingredients:

• Steak (any will do, the leaner the better)
• Double Cream
• Olive Oil
• Fresh Baby Spinach (not frozen!)
• Baguette
• Butter/Margarine
• Garlic
• Ground Black Pepper
• Lemon
• Beer (or your choice of beverage)

Preperation:

- Open Beer (or other beverage), take a swig.
- Continue on a regular basis until can/bottle/keg is emptied.
- Begin Cooking

The Steak :

- Brush (or in our case…smother) the steak with crushed garlic and olive oil.
- Coat the whole steak in ground black pepper.
- Give it a quick blast in a griddle pan to your liking. (If you like you steak super rare consider giving it an extra minute or two, or it will just make the bread soggy)
- Take it out to cool, then cut it into strips wide/long enough to fit onto sliced french bread (Don’t put it on yet though).

Topping:

- Place double cream in saucer and heat on low/medium
- Add butter, a squeeze of lemon
- Add anything else you feel like throwing in (garlic perhaps?)
- Add spinach (raw, don’t bother boiling it first)
- Continue to heat until it thickens up a little

Then:

- Chop up your baguette into slices
- Put a little strip of steak onto each slice and top with a little bit of the spinach (don’t go too wild with the sauce)
- Use any left over bread to mop up excess creamy sauce from the saucer

Easy as anything! Enjoy!

7 Days: The Best Ever, Ever, Ever!

Definitely the coolest 7 days of my life:

Yes!

Joe

Day 6:Jungle Walking, Jungle Driving (Part 2)

Wow, bit of a delay in posting, but I determined to finish documenting this trip to prove to myself that I can finish things that I start! I was talkin about “the highlight of the whole trip…” that awaited us on the other bank of the river. Well, this was it:

We wanted to stay there all afternoon with our new friend, alas, we had a jeep safari lined up later that afternoon and we were wet, sweaty and covering mud and sand. After a quick shower, lunch and (very) brief sit down we were off into the jungle once again. This time we would be heading deep into the jungle by jeep. This turned out to be a bit of a disaster.

For a start, the jeeps were not run by our lodge, but instead by a far less organised outfit. Every jeep was overloaded and desperately in need of repair. As each seat in the car was taken, the guide took to standing on the back bumper as we trundled off noisily into the jungle. When this eventually broke off the back of the car mid drive, nearlly killing him, the rain decided to make it’s first appearance of the last few weeks. The dilapidated rain cover was in as good condition as the jeep, which meant it was full of holes and everybody in the jeep had to physically hold it up with one hand above their head whilst the guide, devoid of places to stand, relocated to the roof of the jeep. Then the 4WD became a 0WD as some rusty part inside the engine decided to give up the ghost. After hitting a few thing with a hammer we were back on the road (but only driving with 2WD) and we in the jeep decided our best bet would be to abandon anger and just enjoy laughing at the situation and mocking our guide.  Our positive energy must have had an affect as, eventually, the rain subsided and we managed to get a glimpse of the back ends of a few animals as they ran in fear from our roaring (disabled) hulk of a machine.

By the time we got in we were about ready to head back to the lodge. From the child-like joy of bathing elephants to the grumpy grumbling of our ill-fated jeep ride, today, like all of the best days, was a day of extremes.

7 Days: Jungles! Mountains! Buddhas!

7 Day of Nepalese Shenanigans.

Still playing catch-up.  WIll be back on track soon…

Day 6:Jungle Walking, Jungle Driving (Part 1)

We were in bed early on the fist night in Chitwan. Not only because we were tired, but also due to the lack of electricity severely limiting the chance of doing, well, anything but sitting around sweating in the dark or reading by candlelight. By the crack of dawn we were fully slept and reading for some canoeing and a walk in the Jungle.

After a short jeep ride we were back by the river and climbing into carved river canoes for a trip down the Rapti. By 7am Chitwan was already baking hot, so the light breeze across the river was a welcome visitor as our oarsman expertly inched us closer to points of interest or along channels of rapid water.

Click for full size.

Along the way we saw plenty of birds and monkeys alongside the ubiquitous elephants and buffalos bathing in the cool river. We also passed a few crocodiles taking in the morning sun, which our guide insisted on bringing us terrifyingly close to before revealing there were mostly harmless. Needless to say, my camera spent very little time away from my face.



Click any Photos to Enlarge

Eventually our canoe pulled up to a bank of the river inside the park boundaries and we jumped off for a walk through the jungle. After a quick, and hilarious, briefing on what to do if we get attacked by rhinos, bears, tigers or wild elephants (most involve running like a lunatic and climbing trees) we set off into tall elephant grass. Our nerves still a bit raw from the chat about staring out tigers, we disturbed a group of boar who rocketed across our path sending the 12ft high elephant grass rustling in every direction in a scene straight out of the series ‘Lost’. This was fun! Thigns rapidly calmed and despite not seeing many large mammals on the trip we did get poo thrown at us by monkeys, visit some watering holes sporting fresh rhino prints and we even found a few tree trunks that had obviously been used by scratching posts by a rather large tiger. Then there were the insects. Once again, my camera was close at hand:

As we emerged from the jungle, back onto the river bank opposite where the canoes had departed this morning I was about ready to tear off my shirt and jump in the river. In fact, I was more than ready so I handed my bag to Chuda and dragged Samantha in and we swam excitedly across to where we noticed some rather exciting activities taking place. Then came the highlight of the whole trip…