I saw, I shot, I ate

MANILA, Philippines - There are not a lot of food trips that I take. That’s because I have been a vegetarian for over 20 years now. Although through the years being vegetarian has become a little more mainstream — still I prefer not to stick out like a sore thumb when people are enjoying their steaks and burgers.

But, when I got the invite to join the Nokia 6700 classic Food Tour recently I found it hard to resist. After all, the three restos on our itenerary made it to the elite list of the Best Restaurants' Guide 2009.

It was the techie-lover in me that could not pass up the opportunity to eat a good veggie meal (appetizers in Kai, main meal in Lusso and dessert in Sala Bistro) and get a chance to use the 5 megapixel camera of the Nokia 6700 classic to shoot the food.

The Nokia 6700 Magic

The Nokia 6700 classic is a Series S40 phone that comes with some pretty high-end phone features — but the most special of it being the five-megapixel camera.

This candy bar of a cell phone was the perfect for my food trip day. It fit perfectly into the pocket of my jeans. Its classic design and chrome finish make it compact. I really like that it is simple — and does not call any attention to itself. But, more than that it’s loaded with some serious top tech. whether it’s the GPS, Bluetooth or easy to use interface.

In a situation where you might have only one hand free, the Nokia 6700 classic is just perfect. And, when you are eating food for the stomach that tastes great – more often than not I have both hands on the food — and no hands free. But there was a task-at-hand that needed to be completed and shooting the food before devouring it was a must — a hard thing to do for me at lunchtime. Since, lunch and breakfast are my biggest meals of the day.

Let The Meal Begin

The meal began at Kai with an appetizer of pako salad which is loaded with pako, lots of other green leaves, salted egg. The dressing was a light honey-onion vinaigrette. The combination was a perfect start to a yummy lunch. My second appetizer was tofu teppanyaki with mushrooms. I just loved the light soy sauce flavor, which did not drown the taste of the tofu nor the mushrooms.

The Nokia 6700 classic was just perfect. On the right-hand side there is a dedicated capture button, as well as zoom buttons, which also double as volume control for the media player. The buttons are small and discrete.

I knew that I would be taking photos, so I made sure to personalize my homescreen with the camera as one of the main icons. Although, it was easy enough just to press the capture button on the side of the phone.

Looking at food through the lens of a cell phone camera made my mouth water even more. I had to concentrate, concentrate, concentrate. I have often said that I really suck at photography — but, perhaps taking food shots with a Nokia 6700 classic is yummier than I had even imagined.

It was on this day that I truly appreciated the view images option, which gave me a chance to see what kind of photos I got. But, not being one to trust my photography skills, I just shot and shot.

Tech Time

As I sat and waited for the food to be served at Lusso, I took a short tour of the cell phone. The Nokia 6700 classic is heir apparent to one of the most successful models of Nokia yet to date, the 6300. It is a beauty made in the same style, but with a lot more class. The 6700 runs on the 6th edition of the S40 interface. It sports a tri-band 3G functionality and integrated A-GPS accelerometer.

It has a metal body which comes in two classic colors — silver or black. When the phone was in my hands I got the feeling of holding Nokia Arte lineup model.

The D-pad itself has pretty thin direction keys and there is so much free space around the keys which help make it easier to press the buttons when texting or calling.  And the large confirmation center button is just great.  I like how solid the 6700 feels in the hand.

Inside Lusso the signal reception is great and in-call sound is very clear with the Nokia 6700 classic.

The Luxe mac & cheese came in a hot plate. I had to stop myself from diggin in until I took the photo of the food. I was successful.

The mac & cheese was light and the macaroni was cooked al dente (just the way I like it). I also loved that it was not loaded up with cheese, and that the tiny cruttons gave the dish a crunchy bite.

As we made our way to the last stop — Sala Bistro for dessert. I spent the time takeing taking a good look at the editor function of the phone which is intuitive and organized in a practical manner. You enter a few letters of a contact’s name and then click match. This brings up a list of matching contacts and selecting one prompts you to choose either a mobile number or an e-mail address, then it will shift to the message body automatically where you can start typing. The e-mail works with POP3, SMTP, and IMAP4 protocols and supports multiple e-mail accounts. Setting up an account with the email client is extremely easy. It just requires an email address and entering and confirming the password, and the 6700 classic takes care of the rest. I was surprised to find things like Facebook and MySpace in the collection folder in Applications. But they, like the YouTube icon, are just links that load a mobile version of the intended site in the built-in browser.

I like that . . .

1. It has a great camera for taking yummy photos of great food.

2. I was able to text in a flash, take a photo — all before my food got cold.

3. It fit perfectly into my pocket.

4. It is simple and so classy and classic

5. It was a great foodie companion for a great meal.

Just as is like me I save the best for last. I must say I had my best time at Sala Bistro where I ordered the bee keeper. The photo I took will attest to the fact that I was rushing to take it — because I just couldn’t wait to dig in.

Chocolate and vanilla ice cream with honey drizzle, whipped cream and honeycomb chunk — stuff like these are what heaven is filled with.

And of course, we can’t wait to get there, right.

Just make sure, you take the Nokia 6700 classic to heaven with you — you never know what shots you might need, or who you might need to call or text.