Bloggers and foodies win RM12,000 cash and other prizes

The Star Metro

Thursday September 8, 2011

THE WINNERS of the inaugural Selangorlicious! Foodster Blogging Competition went home with a smile as their entries won them cash and other prizes.

Hari Raya is sweeter this year for full-time blogger Eddie Azman Samsuddin, 42, who goes by the identity ‘Cakap Niaga’ as he was crowned the Foodster of Selangor. The first prize winning entry Ayam Kampung Goreng dan Gulai was mouth-wateringly descriptive.

“Honestly, the winning blog entry wasn’t my effort alone. Cakap Niaga is a team effort and I’ve won this with my co-partner, Otai with the help of a few others,” said Eddie.

When asked, the blogger admitted that they never expected to win, much less winning the first prize.

“The winnings will be shared with my partner and I intend to buy a good camera to replace my old but trusty RM100 camera,” he said with happy laugh. Cakap Niaga takes home RM5,000 in cash and two holiday packages at the Sepang Gold Coast Resort and Hotel Grand Dorsett Subang.

The tantalising food images taken by Nigel Low won him the prize for best photography.

The corporate trainer indulged in his passion for photography for about five years now with 70% of the subject matter focused on food.

“I love food. My friends know I go out to find the best food out there and they also want to know where I go. So I write and put up the photographs in my personal blog,” he said.

Low, who owns one camera with three lenses, won RM1,000 and a digital SLR camera.

Other food on the Selangor menu that made the cut included Pantai Seafood, Mee Udang Nakhoda and Nasi Ambeng.

“Food plays a significant role in our lives, especially us Malaysians. Naturally, we engage bloggers to ‘hunt’ for great eateries and help to spread the word around in a relatively short period of time,” said Tourism Selangor general manager Noorul Ashikin Md Din.

Noorul added that the Selangorlicious portal will be a source of valuable information to local and foreign tourists on the best eating places in Selangor and the competition was the perfect platform to promote Selangor’s identity as a food haven.

The competition, which ran throughout May 2011, was mooted by Tourism Selangor and Storm Studio in an effort to identify the best makan places in the state. It was also a great way to get visitors to check out the delectable food places and generally, get to know Selangor better.

The Selangorlicious! Campaign did not end with the prize giving ceremony. A host of activities have been planned until June 2012, which is designated as the official food month for Selangor.

The public can participate in the planned weekly and monthly mini contests that will run soon. In fact, a Mandarin Foodster Blogging Competition will be announced this month. There will also be regular food trips for bloggers to try out new eateries all over Selangor.

Entries will be compiled into a quarterly newsletter and the best ones will be added into an annual directory.

Both the newsletter and annual directory will be distributed in the Klang Valley, Selangor, Penang and at Tourism Selangor foreign missions.

Restaurants, malls, stalls and eateries in Selangor are encouraged to send their promotion items to be disseminated via the Selangorlicious! portal as well as in the Tourism Selangor and Selangor Shines websites, Facebook fan pages and Twitter.

Original article: Link

‘Selangorlicious’ foodsters crowned!

By KomunitiKini on 29 Aug, 2011

Winners of the inaugural Selangorlicious! Foodster Blogging Competition went home with a smile as their entries won them cash and other prizes.

Hari Raya is sweeter this year for full time blogger Eddie Azman Samsuddin, 42, who goes by the identity ‘Cakap Niaga’ as he was crowned the ‘Foodster of Selangor’. The first prize winning entry ‘Ayam Kampung Goreng dan Gulai’ was mouth-wateringly descriptive.

Top winners (from left) – Hungry Female, Eddie, Rahman Zawawi and Nigel Low

“Honestly, the winning blog entry isn’t my effort alone. Cakap Niaga is a team effort and I’ve won this with my co-partner, Otai with the help of a few others,” said Eddie.

When asked, the blogger admitted that they never expected to win, much less winning the first prize. “The winnings will be shared with my partner and I  intend to buy a good camera to replace my old and trusty RM100 camera,” said Eddie with a happy laugh. Cakap Niaga takes home RM5,000 in cash and two holiday packages at the Sepang Gold Coast Resort and Hotel Grand Dorsett Subang.

Bloggers urged to promote Selangor food

(From left) Winners of the Selangorlicious! Foodster Blogging competition — Hungry Female, Eddie, Rahman Zawawi and Nigel Low.

SUBANG JAYA:Winners of the inaugural Selangorlicious! Foodster Blogging competition went home with cash and other prizes recently.

Full-time blogger Eddie Azman Samsuddin, 42, who goes by the moniker Cakap Niaga was crowned the “Foodster of Selangor” with his entry Ayam Kampung Goreng dan Gulai.

“The winning blog entry is a team effort, with the help of my co-partner, Otai, and a few others,” said Eddie.
“The winnings will be shared with my partner. I will be buying a good camera to replace my old RM100 camera.”

Cakap Niaga takes home RM5,000 and holiday packages at the Sepang Gold Coast Resort and Hotel Grand Dorsett Subang.

Tempting food images taken by Nigel Low won him the best photography prize.
The corporate trainer had been taking photographs of food for five years.

“I love food. My friends know it’s my quest to find the best food. They often ask me where to find the best food, so I blog about these outlets.”

Low won RM1,000 and a digital SLR camera.
Other entries which made the cut included Pantai Seafood, Mee Udang Nakhoda and Nasi Ambeng.

The competition, which ran throughout May, was mooted by Tourism Selangor and Storm Studio to identify the best eating places in Selangor.

Tourism Selangor general manager Noorul Ashikin Md Din said the Selangorlicious portal is a source of valuable information on where to find the best eating places in the state and the competition was the perfect platform to promote Selangor as a food haven.

The campaign does not end with the prize-giving ceremony. A host of activities have been planned until June next year. It has been designated the state’s food month.

The public can participate in the weekly and monthly contests.

A Chinese-version of the Foodster Blogging competition will be announced this month.

There will be trips for bloggers to eat at new food outlets.

Entries to the Selangorlicious! competition will be compiled and featured in a quarterly newsletter and some will be added into an annual directory.

The newsletter and directory will be distributed in the Klang Valley, Selangor, Penang and at Tourism Selangor offices overseas.

Restaurants, malls, stalls and eateries are encouraged to send their promotional items to the Selangorlicious! portal, the Tourism Selangor and Selangor Shines websites, Facebook and Twitter.

Read more: Bloggers urged to promote Selangor food

Other bloggers who wrote about the event.

Link 1

Link 2

My journey so far…

It has been a good one half year since I started this blog. It also marks the same time frame that I purchased my Nikon SLR camera.

Some of you may not know that I have an older blog which is now defunct as it was a mishmash of the earlier pictures I took with my first Sony Alpha 200 camera plus a lot of writings about my personal life.

Back then, I had no idea why I bought that camera other than the fact that I wanted to take better food pictures which my camera phone wasn’t able to. I was a trigger happy photographer back then.

Looking back at my photographic journey, I realized how much I have evolved. Instead of merely making snapshots of my surroundings, I have learned what Joe McNally termed as photographer with a purpose.

A photo has to be visually arresting enough to tell a story about the subject. Each picture should eloquently speaks about a theme or a story about the people, the place, the culture in pure visual language.

Admittedly, my ability to express that visual language is still in its infancy stage. I know that to express that language, that vision, I will need to constantly move forward, to learn how to communicate the story as clearly as possible with compelling photography.

This is where I believe MySelangor Story 2011 will be able to provide me with a good platform to chase after that vision. This tourism blogging trip will be an excellent opportunity for me to visually capture the people, places and culture in an all-expense-paid by Selangor Tourism. I hope that I will be one of the lucky participants to capture the many pictures that will inform the mind and move the heart of the people.

This is definitely a trip worth taking. Wish me luck!