Today is the last day of the Malaysia kitchen Blogger Summit and I would like to thank all of you for the amazing support you showed me; at the same time I'd like to take the chance to congratulate the 3 winners and wish them a fantastic trip to Malaysia. I gave it my best shot and this is enough to make me proud, regardless of the placement in the contest ( of course winning the 5 days trip would have been awesomeâ?¦. ) ; furthermore I have discovered a whole new world of flavours, stuffed my face with it, met some interesting people and I have enjoyed every minute of it.

To celebrate the end of this month long challenge and as a sign of appreciation for your constant encouragement, I'd like to share this smashing recipe I've become addicted to :

â?¦.continue reading

AYAM GORENG ( NYONYA FRIED CHICKEN )

Make a paste with : 2 stems of lemon grass, 8-10 french shallots, 12 curry leaves, 1 tbsp of chilli powder, 10-15 gr fresh ginger, 5 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp of turmeric powder.

Mix the paste with 700-800 gr of chicken drumsticks and wings; add 1-2 tbsp of thick soy sauce, 1/2 spoon of sugar and 1/2 spoon of salt.

Marinate the chicken for at least 4 hours or overnight ( covered and refrigerated ).

Add 1 tbsp of cornflour to the mix and then deep fry the chicken pieces in vegetable oil until golden and crunchy ( 170 - 180 celsius degrees ).

Enjoy!

A last thank goes to the staff over at Malaysia Kitchen Australia for giving me the opportunity to participate in the blogger summit.

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This image was submitted by Pamela Rodriguez author of the culinary blog Uno de dos from Bilbao, Spain.

It is titled " helado de cerezas " : cherries ice cream; its colours and brightness speak of summer to me, the mood is peaceful and joyful - I feel like I'm on holiday just by looking at it, and I really wanna reach out and bite into it.

Only question is: â?¦.

where are the cherries? I see blueberries and raspberries, but no cherries; if you head over to the original post on Pamela's blog you'll find the cherries and they are gorgeous too - so, in that contest, I don't have a problem with this " cherry-less " pic, but as a standalone image titled cherries ice cream, it does get me a little confused; I am looking for the cherries and I loose the concentration on all the good qualities of the photograph.

But that's about the only negative critique to this image, to be honest; maybe I would have focused on the ice cream in the centre of the frame, since the one in the foreground is partially cropped, but the composition is working nonetheless and the ice cream is clearly the hero of the shot.

I like how the depth of field allows the texture of the wooden table to emerge in the foreground, but then it smoothens it out in the background to lighten up the composition.

Lighting wise, the sidelight ( kinda 2.30 o'clock ) is soft and well diffused, yet the transition shadows / highlights reveals very well the tridimensionality of the ice cream.

And, from a prop styling - food styling point of view, the checked pink & white paper cups are a nice touch, the mint leaves complement the warm tones of the other ingredients, and the white ceramic bowls counterbalance the very textured background.

All in all a happy and balanced image, this is great food photography.

Camera and camera settings : Canon EOS 350D; 1/125; f 5.6; ISO 400.

Want to submit an image? email it to me at dario@foodpixels.com

From Sydney.

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Congratulations to Nandita and Smita for winning the " Fruit as a core ingredient contest" ; this is the second time we have a double winner . Let's hear from them about the inspiration behind their photographs and how they went about lighting and camera settings.

After the jump, also the theme for the new contest and an important decision about the voting system.

Nandita

" It was an impromptu shot. I saw my little one walking around  with an apple in her hand and I thought it kind of looked very cute. I shot a couple of frames and then I asked my maid to pour some water from the top so that it would like she was washing the apple.

The picture was taken at around 12:00 pm with a 50mm lens with natural light coming from the window. I did not use any reflectors and neither did I diffuse the light. The only other "equipment" that was used was  a tub which was placed at the bottom to catch the water. This shot was taken at an aperture f/2, shutter speed 1/160s and ISO400. The post processing included cropping, adjusting the contrast as well as the sharpness and some noise reduction".

Smita Srivastava

" Before clicking the picture i had roughly  in mind that i wanted to give it an early morning & freshly picked feel. Shot at around 10.30 am , the light that enters my makeshift studio table is quite harsh & bright  so to diffuse it and  create a soft morning light effect I covered the windows with a thin white  bedcover .To highlight the texture and the transparency of the slices I opted for a 2 'o clock angle setup.

For miles & miles there aren't any citrus trees near my place so of course I couldn't get any tangerine leaves , instead got some fresh green leaves of an evergreen plant & kept it in the backdrop to create the feel of tangerine leaves & hence used a shallow depth of field ( f-  3.5 ,ISO400, 50 mm lens) . Used a distressed wooden plank, a green ramekin & the lid of a small wicker box for props".

Coming to the theme for the next contest, the title is " HERBS AND SPLASH " ; Nandita suggested " splash " and Smita " herbs " so you gonna have to take a picture featuring some herbs ( any fresh or dried herbs, including salads ) and a splash ~ this could be in water, milk, oil, tomato sauce or any other liquid.

Be creative and keep it real; some rosemary in the foreground and a strawberry diving into a bowl of yogurth wouldn't cut it this time.

The aim of these contests is to push the contestants to reach out of their comfort zone and fulfil a specific brief, learning from their mistakes and learning from each other.

We want to create and enlarge this community, sharing our work and encouraging a constructive discussion on the images we share.

And, also with this regard, comes into play the decision to change the contests voting system : so from now on no more emails from me, and everybody can vote by hitting the LIKE button next to each image; it will be faster, more transparent and it will surely get more exposure for everybody's work.

I know someone has expressed the concern this could become a sort of popularity contest and not necessarily choose the best image, but I disagree: yes your friends will probably give you their unconditional votes, but there are thousands of other people who will just LIKE more than one image, balancing things up at the end of the day.

And remember one other thing: there is nothing to be won here, other than some extra knowledge; so why not embracing the real spirit of the contest and let the community give its feedback?

The deadline for " Herbs & Splash " is the 12th of September, midnight wherever you are.

Send your images to dario@foodpixels.com - one image per person only

Have fun.

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