First, quick question for camera folks out there…..

As you may know, my main camera is the Nikon D300. So far I’ve got just one lens, the 18-200mm Nikon zoom, which is a splendid lens indeed. But I think I could also do with a wide angle zoom lens. And going to Tokyo and Kyoto in a couple of weeks, I think such a lens might come in awfully handy. I’ve never been to Kyoto and odds are this will be my one and only time to go there.

Nikon makes a 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 zoom that’s been seriously well reviewed but sells in HK for around HK$7,000. Checked around a bit and Tokina has 12-24mm f/4 zoom that’s been well reviewed and sells for around HK$4,200. You don’t get the Nikon Silent Wave motor but the Tokina’s said to be pretty sharp. So, do I look to save $3,000 bucks? Or if I buy the Tokina, will I find myself 3 months down the line selling it off and buying the Nikon anyway?

Anyone?

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Dinner tonight was just plain weird. In Wanchai, in search of someplace different, a friend and I decided to give Trafalgar a try. Trafalgar is a new British style sports pub located on the 5th floor of a building along Lockhart Road. The space used to be the home of an Indonesian restaurant, Dirty Duck aka Bebek Bengil (spelling?).

I know what you’re saying. Wanchai already has Devil’s Advocate, White Stag, Delaney’s, Bull & Bear, Doghouse (Bulldogs is now closed), why would it need another place like that?

For starters, their spot has a huge outdoor balcony. Where you can smoke. And they have a couple of projection TVs aimed at the walls on the buildings on either side, so you can sit there, eat, drink, smoke and get your sports fix. Take a look:

(Oddly, this projector doesn’t seem to have keystone adjustment; the one pointed at the wall behind me does.)

The food though is something else again. Example? We were handed two menus with color photos on the front. My friend pointed at one photo and asked what that dish was. The waitress explained it and then further explained that they don’t have that dish, “it’s a concept dish.” Yeah, that’s right. Their menu has pictures of food on it that they don’t serve.

Also on the front, immediately underneath, were pictures of three daily specials. Thursdays is Pie & Pudding Day, so we asked what the choices for today were. They don’t have that either. They’re revamping the menu, this is the old menu, the new one will be ready soon. Sigh.

I went with an old favorite, shepherd’s pie. I should have guessed I was in trouble when the waitress told my friend which dishes the chef recommends from the menu and she didn’t mention shepherd’s pie. “Mine’s no good?” “Oh, no, that’s good too.” I should have changed my order.

Anyway, my pie came. In an oval bowl, relatively standard. Let’s say the bowl had a height of 1.5 inches. 1.4 inches of that was potato. Good potato. Real potato. Lumpy and fresh. Could have used a bit more salt and definitely in need of more cheese. Under neath that potato, there was about 0.1 inches of meat, sauce and diced carrots. Tasty enough for what little there was of it. On the side? A few sprigs of lettuce. Not terribly inspiring.

I should mention that my friend, much wiser than I, went with one of the dishes the waitress had pointed to. He got liver and onions. And he loved it. He was wiping the plate clean. On the other hand, aside from the liver, onions, gravy and mash, there was no veg at all on the plate, just some lettuce. I suppose that’s British MALE style, no veg. But with my new diet regime, veg is now important to me.

(Last night my gf and I had dinner at Firenze, an Italian restaurant in Sai Kung that’s quite decent even if a bit odd – owned and managed by an Indian family, the chef is Indian as well. I ordered these grilled king prawns and was thrilled that there was lots of roasted veg on the plate – zuccini, eggplant, broccoli, red & yellow peppers. I remarked to my gf how tasty the yellow pepper was. And then I stopped dead in my tracks. Because I used to be the kind of guy who’d push the veg aside and maybe have a little at the end if I still had room. But the new thinner healthier me loves this stuff now.)

Oh, the guy at the table behind us, he’d ordered one of the Indian dishes from the menu. Smelled quite okay. But the menu said it came with naan and when his plate arrived, there was no naan to be seen. The waitress said they don’t have any naan. He said that the menu said it comes with naan. She said they never have any naan but she could bring him a few slices of white bread. And he went with that. Me, I woulda told her to keep the food under the heat lamp and then run downstairs and at least get some pita from Ebeneezer, right next door.

Anyway, you wanna drink, you wanna watch sports, you wanna sit outside and smoke, Trafalgar is a great choice. With the food, it seems to be really hit and miss. Perhaps things will improve once they get their “revamped” menu on the tables.