Track of the week: Over the Ice - The Field

Call it whatever you like - microhouse, ambient pop, shoegaze, My Bloody Valentine-esque electro, glacial Nordic soundscape ... Whatever it is, Axel Wilner, a.k.a The Field from Stockholm has me reaching for my currency converter to calculate how much 11.99EU is in US dollars. Much hyped by Pitchfork and this glowing review by InFactAh, I am completely unable to resist this. There's something about these Nordic folks and their electronic music... I've also been obsessed with another Nord, Trentemoeller. Check out this paragraph from InFactAh:

This is music for imagining a utopian future to, for dreaming of running through alpine fields with that cute girl on the other side of the dancefloor and for hoping that this tune lasts forever and you never have to open your eyes. Simply stated, it’s truly beautiful music. At this point, words run out... The Field knows some deep magic, the likes of which we probably haven’t seen since the ‘90s heyday of ‘Selected Ambient Works’ or ‘The Brown Album’. Frankly it doesn’t really matter what music you’re normally into, I think you still need this record. It’ll make you a better person.

By the way, the track comes from The Field's new album From Here We Go Sublime and you can preview it here. And on The Field's MySpace page, there's a better track than the one I'm streaming called "Everyday". Damn you kompakt ... I thought I was done with electronic music forever ...

Update: Serene says that I should retitle this post "Release your inner techno beng" :)

Zen and the art of sushi-making...

As if I don't love sushi enough already- tonight, I tapped into the pulsing energies of that mystical universe otherwise known as sushi-making, specifically, maki-rolling. You think well, it's just a ball of rice flattened onto nori, a smear of wasabi, a helping of whatever filling you feel like, and you're good to go.

Erm... no.

I now have even greater respect for sushi chefs. The pictures tell exactly just how hard rolling the perfect maki roll is. I was disastrous until my last one- I'm not even going to go into it... It's hard to find affordable sushi-grade fish in Ann Arbor, so we stuck to making makis instead of nigiri sushi pieces. The fun was really in experimenting with the different fillings people brought with them: bulgogi with cream cheese, tofu with pickled plum and enoki, even artificial crabmeat with ranch dressing!

1. Rick's "Philly" roll, 2. Jinah's super-duper roll, 3. Rick's vegetarian roll, 4. Jude making his first roll, 5. Enoki mushrooms with marinated tofu, 6. Serene's disastrous first roll, 7. Marinated tofu with bulgogi, 8. Sesame marinated tofu, radish and burdock, 9. Serene before attempting her first sushi roll

[mosaic created with Flickr Toys]

My Visual DNA

So my sister sent me this link a couple of days ago and I've been having some fun with it since. It's a personality test/ social networking/ online-shopping site. Basically, it purports to be able to discover your "Visual DNA" by the ways in which you respond to different pictures. Kinda like a Rorschach inkblot test, but without the inkblot...

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

The Gift Finder feature is kinda neat, and pretty darn accurate too. After responding to a series of pictures, it generates a list of gifts that might suit you, a wish-list of some sort. You're supposed to then send that to your loved ones so you don't get another dozen pair of socks or a sad sweater for your birthday. Amongst other things, it predicted that I would like these handmade Danish felt slippers (that I would totally buy if not for the fact that they cost 48 pounds each!...), a hamper of Italian yummies (not too much of a stretch there...), a Marimekko make-up bag (*gasp* my secret Marimekko lust has been exposed...), organic Dark Hot Chocolate (!!! who ARE these people??...), and a Tivoli radio, which believe it or not, we already own! So there, I can do without an apron that costs 18 pounds or an organic wine case (I guess if you had enough money to buy enough wine to want a wine case, you would want it to be organic... *rolls eyes*...), but on the whole, they've made the point- they get my Visual DNA... This is apparently what Visual DNA says about me (what? they figure out what I want for Christmas and now they want to expose the inner workings of my soul too? Right...)

Your choice of colour signifies a sense of intelligence, communication, trust, efficiency, serenity, duty and calm. You are likely to be a very devoted and loyal person that likes things to be in order. You are probably happy to express your emotions and are regarded by your friends as someone that can easily gauge their mood.

Spare time is spent doing the little things in life that keep you going. You like the predictability of routine - but also the random nature of escaping the day to day and dreaming of somewhere else.

Nothing beats spontaneity; fun for you is unpredictable, reckless and a little childish! You have heaps of energy and love to be in the centre of things.

You love to surround yourself with friends - you are generous with your time - and it is a real treat to have a good conversation over a nice long dinner...

Your style is relaxed and approachable, you like things to have character, and posses that handcrafted feel.

When you have extra time you like to spend it enjoying the everyday activities that others ignore. These moments are sometimes snatched, but so important.

You like your holidays to be relaxing, and exotic. You want the basics - just sand and sea. Whether in a hotel or under the stars you love the laid back vibe of life on the beach, life passes so slowly and easily...

What matters to you most is your family, you see them as the backbone of your life.

Giving means doing that little bit extra for those that really matter to you. Shunning grand gestures, you know it is the little things in life that count. You are caring and appreciative, and sometimes a little soppy!

Sonic Youth to perform Daydream Nation in its entirety

So we were really impressed with the Pitchfork Music Festival last year. And although this year's lineup has yet to be fully announced, we've gone ahead and bought our 3-day pass to the event already. And the thing that has gotten me really excited is the fact that Sonic Youth will be performing Daydream Nation, the full album, in all its noisy, dreamy and teen-angsty glory. This performance of Daydream Nation comes as part of All Tomorrow's Parties- Don't Look Back series. Also, the performance comes on the eve of the album's 20th anniversary since its release. It's pretty amazing to think about this album and how far it's come - it was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2005. That's saying something about the cultural significance of this work, let alone the personal significance to thousands of teens growing up in the 80s. But enough of the "incredibly cheesy sentences extolling the album's greatness".

I thought that it'd be a good idea to attach a photo that I managed to take with the band when they performed in Singapore in 1996. Click here for a funny story about that interview. I was working as a freelance journalist then and had the good fortune to be able to interview the band with Lim Cheng Tju. Someday I'll put up the interview that we conducted with Thurston Moore on my personal- and as yet illusory- website :)

But enough about the past, in the meantime, until I lay on the grass in Union Park, Chicago in July, closing my eyes to a live rendition of "Teen Age Riot", I guess watching the video online will just have to do.

Blue eyes vs. brown eyes

Watching the TAL video Jude posted below was both delightful and a little sad at the same time- the artless candor of children on the one hand, but also how vulnerable and impressionable they can be. Which then reminded me of something else that Jude had shared with me recently: this PBS special, A Class Divided is a arresting look at how one Iowa teacher in 1968 taught her third-grade class a devastating lesson on prejudice and discrimination. It won the 1985 Emmy for Outstanding Informational, Cultural, & Historical Programming and is also one of PBS Frontline most requested programs ever.

I won't say much about it except that it's almost like Schindler's List and The Stanford Prison Experiment, but in primary school. I STRONGLY urge that you watch it- everyone should- but make sure you have a box of Kleenex next to you and that you're sitting down. Be cautioned: it's very powerful, very uncomfortable to watch and I wish there was a better way to teach this lesson to children. It also shows you how children are more politically and socially aware than adults give them credit for. Some of the sentiments articulated by these eight-year-olds are more honest and insightful than you'll ever hear from the most learned adult. And the fact that something so fundamental to human existence even has to be taught in the first place makes it even more heartbreaking. I don't think I could bear to watch it another time without breaking down again.

There are originally five parts to this series; here are YouTube links to the first two, and they're also the most powerful ones. You can see the rest of them here.

This American Life ... on TV!!!

Serene and myself are big fans of the National Public Radio Chicago Public Radio program, This American Life. (Check out their official website as well) We love the little memoirs, narratives, interviews and field recordings that emerge each week with this program. Thus, the both of us are greatly anticipating the debut of This American Life (TAL) on the Showtime Channel tomorrow. However, while on Boing Boing today, I was delighted to find out that not only is there a viral teaser out there on the internet, also one of the segments has been entirely illustrated by Chris Ware, a favorite comic artiste of mine. Click on the link above and you'll get to view the entire teaser segment. After watching this, all I can say is that I can't wait to see how they translate what is a very successful radio program on to the boob tube :)

Update:
I should have looked more carefully, but there are a bunch of trailers for TAL on their website. I've embedded them below. Also, I thought that I didn't really articulate why I liked this show so much. I think that it's a combination of things - Ira Glass's superb production and editing, the soundtrack that they use and the little stories that they tell. At the end of the day, I think that TAL presents to us tiny 'ethnographies' of everyday life and continues Studs Turkle's tradition of interviewing everyday people to get a better picture of how society functions.

Update#2:
If you check the comments, WD45 has corrected me that TAL is not produced by NPR but by Chicago Public Radio and distributed by PRI international. My apologies for that mistake. That's what you get for growing up in a country where all radio is owned by the government in one way or another. I must admit that I had the misconception that all public radio in the US was controlled or associated by NPR in some way. My bad :(

St. Paddy's Day

I was a little wary initially when Jude suggested that we "get with the spirit" and do something for St. Paddy's Day. The only thing I actively associate with this Irish holiday is undergrads getting drunk on bad green beer at ten in the morning. Not pleasant. In the first place, can a day really be considered an actual holiday when the primary activity involved is just drinking?...

Anyways, as previously established, in this household, any celebrating of any sort essentially means cooking and eating. So we bought ourselves a slab of corned beef brisket, a head of cabbage and a bag of potatoes, and had Rick & Emilee over for our very first corned beef and cabbage dinner.

I had my reservations about a recipe that calls for just boiling a chunk of meat to death for 3 whole hours. Before coming to the States, the only kind of corned beef I had any idea of is of the canned variety, as is the case in the U.K. Nevertheless, I gamely partook of this American tradition, albeit with a little twist. Instead of just serving it straight after boiling the beef (I can't imagine that being particularly flavorful), I glazed it with a honey-mustard sauce and baked it in the oven for a while after. I think the final product was rather satisfactory for a first-try, and everyone seemed to like it :) On top of that, Rick made some Irish Soda Bread to go with the meal and it was delicious! More cake-like than regular bread, it was warm, dense, and deeply comforting.

Bailey's Irish Creme rounded off the night as we watch The Prestige together (much better than The Illusionist- Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale rock!), and I think everyone was duly satisfied. And that, is probably more the essence of St. Paddy's Day than anything else- a warm home, good food, and great friends :) We couldn't have asked for more...

May love and laughter light your days,
and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
with joy that long endures.
May all life's passing seasons
bring the best to you and yours!
- Old Irish Blessing

Are prevailing notions of developing and third world nations still valid?

Excellant visualization software and presentation by Hans Rosling at the TED conference that suggests we need to revisit the categories of Developing nation and Third World.

Home, sweet home

So the thing about doing my research on something like national identity is that I've been paying a much keener attention to news related to issues like immigration and what it means to "belong" to a nation. Just in the last week alone, I've come across two Singaporean news articles related to this: one was about how the new expatriates who work in Singapore today are no longer the same as the ones who came a generation before (see "For new expats, integration may not really work"); unlike some of our forefathers who were running away from abject poverty and harsh conditions in their homeland, and who intended to remain in Singapore, many expatriates today fully expect to return to their home country after they've made enough money. Singapore may give them incentives to stay- they are after all, "foreign talent"- housing rebates, education rebates for their children, or simply monetary incentives, and these expatriates will gladly accept. Who wouldn't? But they will not stay. For them, Singapore is not a potential home, it is a marketplace. The writer of the article concludes that in this day and age, rather than attempt to integrate these educated foreigners into our fold and hoping that they will help to diversify and expand Singapore's talent pool, we should instead adopt a revolving-door policy with regards to them, and concentrate on "building and growing a core of people who believe in the soul of this nation".

But the other article seems to contradict the lofty ideals of this dear writer. In "Singapore is leaking talent", we find out that Singapore's Senior Minister is well aware of the statistics which show that some of our bestest and brightest citizens are staying away from our fair country, choosing instead to work and make a life for themselves and their families overseas. He laments the loss of this talent and talks about how, "This is a very big problem for us because if we lose the top 0.5 per cent from the next generation, Singapore will have a much lower 'peak'. The world is now competing on human resources and talent."

But our Senior Minister has a solution. To make up for this loss of local talent, Singapore will simply look for workers and citizens elsewhere. We will attract them to Singapore, get them to work here, encourage them to raise their children here, buy property, and magically, we can turn them in Singaporeans. Easy. Q.E.D.

Or is it? I'd like to think that difficult problems like these don't always have such easy solutions. Instead, why not also think about what keeps the Singaporeans who make up the "top peak" from coming home? Admittedly, encouraging steps have been taken to make sure that Singaporeans abroad will always have a tether to home; the Prime Minister's Office set up the Overseas Singaporean Unit specifically for this purpose- to engage and connect with Singaporeans working and studying abroad. In his last National Day Rally speech, the Prime Minister also made sure to talk about the Singaporean diaspora and what the country needs to do to maintain strong links with her citizens overseas.

And yet, the bulk of the rest of the speech as well as much recent public rhetoric suggest that an aggressive immigration policy is still primary when it comes to solving the brain drain issue in Singapore. Yes, we have always been a multicultural nation, a nation built by immigrants, and we're proud of it. I am proud of it. This is what has given us the unique identity few other Asian nations possess. But simply courting more immigrants and hoping that they can be easily transformed into Singaporeans, rather than spending more time thinking about how to bring home the Singaporeans who have been born and bred on our sunny island seems a little myopic. It's easy to pick a couple of thousands of people from faraway lands, give them a bunch of rebates and turn them into one of our own. It's harder to figure out carefully how to inculcate a grounded yet thoughtful notion of citizenship and national belonging in the 4.3 million we presently have.

Consider the reasons why increasing numbers of Singaporeans move overseas completely, why those who are already abroad may not want to return home to raise their families, and then do something about it. Rethink the stifling competitiveness that defines our nation. Take pains to reconsider our education system and how hard it is for so many of our young children. Re-evaluate hallowed notions of power, control and expression. It's not just about playing catch-up and making sure that our economy can compete with the biggest and baddest boys in the game. It's not just about numbers and reaching that tipping point in our population in order to produce a Nobel Prize winner. We need to be guided by principles of rootedness and memory, belonging and identity. We need people- citizens and immigrants alike; they are our resource. But more importantly, we need Singaporeans- they are our soul.

"Where numbers mean nothing..."

It was breathtaking. And watching it in its IMAX version meant that we heard every whizzing arrow, every piercing spear, and every single bellowing Spartan war-cry. And it was awesome.

Critics are going to be divided as to whether 300 as a film is all CG-wizardry and spectacle but no soul, or whether it has any real narrative resonance. Scholars are going to argue over the historical accuracy of the events and characterizations (here's a nice article to put things in perspective a little.) I personally thought that as a story, it was stronger than other ancient epic adaptations like Troy (silly), Alexander (even sillier), or Gladiator (ok, I'm not even going to go there).

Perhaps there is something about the David vs. Goliath nature of that battle at Thermopylae, its purpose, and the whole Spartan myth of the citizen-soldier that just resonates more strongly with me than massive empires rising and falling. It doesn't matter whether the narrative is historically accurate- that's not what myths are. Myths are essentially stories we tell ourselves (or allow ourselves to believe in) that perpetuate a certain vision of history and to some extent, the present. And that got Jude and I talking after the movie about what it means to be patriotic. Spartans believed that to defend their homeland was their destiny from birth, that to die for Sparta was the most honorable death possible. Do Americans/ Singaporeans, or citizens of any nation feel that way today about their country of birth? Do leaders of countries have to tap into or even engineer an imagined myth of their own in order to vitalize these feelings of fervent national belonging and membership?

My dissertation research is moving towards this direction- the role of schools in the political socialization of young children, particularly their development of national identity. Which is why this movie has been on my mind all day. What does it take to develop a citizenry as devoted and committed to a nation that to die in her name is preferable to kneeling in submission? Or perhaps patriotism in its traditional sense has become archaic, a thing of the past in this age of globalization, trans-migration and multicultural populations?

One of my favorite quotes from the film:

...only Spartan women give birth to real men.
-Queen Gorgo

What a weekend...

The collage pretty much captures our entire "oh-boy-the-sun-is-finally-out" weekend: we dug deep into our souls and discovered our closet hard-rocker alter-egos, got in touch with our lost youth by watching the preternaturally youthful Matthew Broderick, and went curling in Windsor, where my head made cracking contact with the ice, which explains my throbbing head and aching neck as we speak.

1) Libby had us over to play Guitar Hero on Friday night. I have to confess that I was initially more than a tad bit wary, but let's just say that whatever skepticism I had dissipated with those first stirring notes of "Sweet Child of Mine" :) I so own Guns 'n Roses!... All I have to do now is to make sure my husband doesn't surreptitiously run out and buy us a set of our own, in which case we can both kiss finishing our dissertations goodbye... (See Libby's photos of us melting faces here.)

2) Instead of doing our taxes as we had planned on Saturday, we ended up watching Ferris Bueller on Bravo instead. It was my first time watching the whole thing from beginning to end, and although it's a little dated (alright, culottes are so not ok...), there's something about the exuberance of the movie and its enduring theme that's still so endearing after all these years. Save Ferris!

3) Rachael and her friends from work organized a trip to Windsor to do some curling (photos here). Until her first email, I had no clue what that was at all. I knew it had nothing to do with hair that's for sure... In a nutshell, it's a cross between ice-hockey, bowling and pool maybe (See Wikipedia entry here.) It was really fun, and definitely harder than it looks. Jude swore to no longer laugh when he sees people play it on TV- it's hard, and a little funny initially when it looked like we were all vigorously spring-cleaning the rink...

What is less funny was when I slipped while chasing a rock. Apparently I landed on my butt, and because all the actions you would have otherwise taken to regain your balance as you fall don't really apply when you're standing on ice (and with one shoe taped no less), I promptly fell backwards and hit my head on the rink hard, as in "the-whole-rink-stopped-playing" hard. It hurt really bad and I wanted to cry, but was too embarrassed to. I did feel bad that everyone had to stop playing and crowd over me. And strangers came up and asked me if I was ok... I was a little nauseous I think and woozy for a while but several ice-packs helped and so did a really strong Cuban coffee at Vincente's (I keep telling you, coffee is the universal elixir people...). The bump on my head's subsided now but the whole base of my neck's all stiff and aching. Jude's worried I might have a mild concussion, so we're going to the doctor's for a check-up tomorrow.

We'll definitely go curling again, except next time, please remind me to wear a hat :)

Smile :)

I drove with the windows down today :) Woo-hoo!

Of traffic jams and free burritos

Free burritos!
Originally uploaded by justlibby.

[Libby's picture]

With the exception of football weekends and those occasions when I stupidly drive onto Washtenaw during peak hours, I have never been caught in a traffic jam within the Ann Arbor city limits. NEVER.

Until today.

It took me a good TEN minutes to get from the junction at the Whole Foods complex to the new Chipotle on Washtenaw. People, that's a 5-minute WALK away. And why did it take me that long to get from said Point A to Point B? Because Chipotle had its official opening today and were giving away free burritos! Thanks to Rick and Emilee, we've come to like Chipotle very much too, but until today, the nearest one had been in Livonia.

So anyway, I brave the insane traffic, get to the Chipotle complex and had to then park at Denny's which is two blocks away because there were just honking cars everywhere! It's by no means warm today but there was still a ridiculous line round the corner outside the restaurant stretching to goodness knows where. I couldn't get in line with Jude and Libby coz they had already made it into the restaurant and there was no way I was going to brave the marauding horde of hoodie-clad undergrads waiting for their burrito fix. I can't imagine what they would have done to anything that got between them and a free meal and soda. Jude and I ended up sharing one burrito because each person was only entitled to one. It was very good and I have a feeling that given enough motivation, my husband would have hopped back in line in a jiffy :)

The real eye-opener was when we were driving home actually. First, the parking lot was swarming with even more cars and people literally running madly towards Chipotle; then, the jam got even worse than when I had been in it. By this time, it had stretched from the junction of Washtenaw and Huron Parkway all the way to the Huron Hills Golf Course. Ok, that's about a mile long folks.

We're going to wait until the madness dies down and the weather gets better. Then we can sit outside in the sun, sipping lemonade and slowly enjoying my soft taco with pork carnitas and guacamole. Mmmmm... :)

Yet another tune of the week: Young Folks

A tune that's gotten stuck in my head after I heard it on the radio last night. Don't you think that the whistling bit sounds a lot like the tune that Darryl Hannah's character, Elle Driver (codename: California Mountain Snake) whistles in the Kill Bill movies? I could be wrong. Also, the laconic style of the animation in the video seems to suit the track quite well. Apparently this video is all the rage on the internet and Peter Bjorn and John are about to embark on a US tour.

Tune of the week: Back to Ypsilanti

I was cruising through my RSS feeds and came across a post by Mark Maynard (of Crimewave USA fame) about an Ypsilanti anthem. In the post he linked to a wonderful track by native Ypsi resident, Lee Osler, called "Back to Ypsilanti". It's a groovy little number that really put a smile on my face this evening. You can read more about the song on the Cousins Vinyl blog.

For those not local to Ann Arbor or Detroit, Ypsilanti (or Ypsi, pronounced ip-see) is the neighboring city to Ann Arbor where we do our groceries and find the restaurants to be cheaper. The city's (it's more of a town really...) a little rough around the edges and suffers somewhat from being the poor cousin next to Ann Arbor. However, there's a growing local-pride movement and the city's attracting a young hipster set who are interested in a DIY, local arts and crafts mindset. Heck, it's the birthplace of Iggy Pop and has one of the best public jazz radio stations I know of.

But whatever it is, the tune's bound to make those familiar with Ypsi smile :)

It's March already, but...

In Celsius:

In Fahrenheit:

Thrown-together breakfast

Straight out of oven- Hash and baked eggs
Originally uploaded by jyew.

[See update below]

So, believe this or not- for the first time in the history of the Yew household, we were almost clean out of breakfast food.

We're talking no bread, no cereal, no yogurt, no oatmeal. Well, we had coffee and milk, but then again, we ALWAYS have coffee and milk... Anyways, the last time we went to the store was before Boston, and we just haven't found the time to shop again since. But we did have 3 eggs and some potatoes, so I adapted this recipe I found on the Food Network for Baked Eggs and Hash. Once again, our nifty new Calphalon skillet came to the rescue (which by the way, Jude had found on Amazon at an obscene 80% discount!)- I love being able to cook something on the stove-top and then finishing it in the oven.

Also, instead of using just oregano on the eggs, I used Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute. It's one my favorite things from one of my favorite stores- it's got a combination of your regular herbs, but also some interesting flavors like orange peel, cayenne pepper and savory. We put it on everything, from our scrambled eggs to roasted veggies.

Breakfast turned out rather yummy for a first attempt :) The eggs were just nice- firm whites and slightly oozy yolks, and extremely tasty too coz of the herbs and Parmesan cheese (don't leave this out!) With a steaming mug of coffee, a late breakfast in front of the TV on another snowy morning was a sweet way to slowly round off what's been an already wonderful spring break :)

Update: We finally went grocery shopping and stocked up on bread, a dozen eggs, TWO kinds of cereal, oranges, strawberries, and a 5lb bag of potato. There will not be a breakfast crisis in this house for a while... :)

How is Jude feeling today?

Total Recall II

Day Three:
- We did a little exploring on our own today, which inevitably turned into hanging out at the Harvard C0-Op and returning to the MIT Press Bookstore. That's the thing about being in a city with one of the highest concentrations of universities- good bookstores are everywhere and with that comes great bargains when it comes to good academic books too :) So yes, we bought more books...
- Jude brought me to Newbury Street, supposedly Boston's shopping strip of sorts. It was cute, kind of like Ste. Laurent in Montreal. But unlike its Québécois counterpart, most of Newbury Street was almost completely unaffordable. Still, it was just nice to walk along the brownstones for a somewhat different shopping experience than let's say in NY or Chicago.
- From the impossibly expensive to the completely free, we headed into the Boston Public Library where they were having a John Adams exhibition. The collection was ok I guess; I was more awed by the architecture of the building more than anything else. While I do appreciate innovative structures like Gehry's Stata Center, there is also something deeply moving about being in the presence of a well-aged dame of a building.
- My friend Julie used to live in Boston and highly recommended Central Kitchen in Central Square for dinner. We met Terence there and we were all pleasantly surprised by how good the food was. It's a little nondescript bistro, dimmed lighting, and a great little menu. My duck confit was meltingly delicious and Jude and Terence both loved their homemade venison sausages with lentils. Definitely worth a second visit if ever!
- We skipped dessert at Central Kitchen so that we could grab gelato at Toscanini's. Anyone who tells you you can't eat ice-cream on a winter night has clearly never been to Toscanini's. The lavender-honey and orange-buttercream gelato were so decadently creamy, you won't believe it were made of milk. Anything lavender always makes me happy, and so does any kind of dessert, so I was one happy girl that cold, frosty Monday night :)

Day Four (a.k.a. Today in History...):
- If you ever find yourself in the Cambridge area and are looking for a place to have breakfast, please look no further and walk straight into Petsi's Pies on Putnam Avenue (Stan and Susan, there is one in Somerville too!). There, you will find the fluffiest, scrummiest ever egg sandwiches, frittata, muffins and scones. See here and here. To make it an even more alluring brekkie site, they play Sigur Ros. Icelandic music during breakfast- enough said... :)
- Dear Stan took some time off work today and played the consummate guide around the outskirts of Boston. It was amazing to be on the same sites as some of the most significant moments of U.S. history, whether it's where the first shot of the Revolutionary Wars was sounded, the bridge of the first battle, or the house of the original Minutemen. It's hard to look at the U.S. now and remember that it had been a British colony just a mere 200 years or so ago...
- The more interesting history however, was that of Stan's himself :) He took us to the house where he used to live in Lexington, his schools when growing up, to Tuft's where he and Susan went to college and met, and finally to their little cozy apartment in the oh-so-cool Davis Square (where I just found out was voted in 1997 as one of the country's 15 hippest places to live- you go guys!).
- After another great recommendation by Terence to have some down-home, stick-to-your-ribs Chinese food in Chinatown, we all bundled into Susan's car and headed for the swanky Finale in Harvard Square for an all-out indulgent dessert extravaganza.
- Words fail to describe the ambrosia that is Finale. Whether it is the warm molten chocolate or a heavenly crème brûlée that actually surpassed what I had thought to be the Platonic crème brûlée in Montreal, everything was simply divine. To top things off, we had wonderful coffee, and even better company- all in all, a really nice treat from our friends :) Thanks guys!
- As if all that copious consumption wasn't enough, Stan and Terence thought that the quintessential Harvard experience would not be complete without visiting Happy-Hour central, John Harvard's Pub. And so after all that dessert and coffee, what did we then go on to have? More carbs, of the brewed variety specifically... ;)
- Needless to say, we kindly declined the ride back to Terence's apartment, gave Stan and Susan huge goodbye hugs and slowly hauled our over-stimulated guts on the road, in the vain hope that the 20-minute walk home would somehow absolve us from the obscene over-consumption of the day...
- It did not.

Day Five:
- The only highlight of our last hours in Boston was finally eating a lobster roll just before boarding the plane. I've been essentially craving for a lobster roll for almost a year, after reading a special on it in the NYTimes last year. I've never tasted one before so I can't say if the one we had was the best, but it sure was good! Huge chunks of fresh lobster, lightly tossed in mayo and served simply on a buttered, toasted roll. Nothing to distract from the main star, clean and yummy :) See here.

Ok, lastly, my burning question for all you Bostonians out there (both present and former): Can someone PLEASE explain to me why Boston is so enamored with Dunkin Donuts???!!

Complete Boston photo album here.

Total Recall I

*Yeech*... Could we come back to worse weather? Just as the skies were turning bluer and the air warmer in Boston, we had to fly home, and to what? Slushy roads, icy rains, and sleet! Yuck! But it does look like things will be getting better next week so I'm definitely looking forward to that :)

So the trip was a blast like I said- Terence, Stan and Susan were the perfect hosts and I think Jude and I saw and learned more about Boston in those 5 days than your regular visitor would in double that time (and probably took more pictures too!...) A thorough breakdown of what we did, bought, and of course, ate... :)

Day One:
- After a horrific check-in process and consequently barely making our 7am flight, we arrived in Boston unscathed and bags intact before 10am.
- We marveled at the ease of Boston's public transportation system that allowed us to get from the airport to Harvard Square in under an hour. Can I please say this again, I lurve public transportation!
- Before we even had lunch, Terence made the unfortunate mistake of introducing us to Harvard Book Store, a lovely bookstore that has the most amazing basement of used books. If not for the gnawing pangs of hunger, I would have set up camp and lived in that basement forever. I bought three books and would later come back to buy even more- it's all Terence's fault! ;)
- Lunch was at Mr. Bartley's Gourmet Burgers. Thick, juicy, and irreverently named- DELICIOUS! See here and here.
- The next couple of hours was a whirlwind tour of Havard. Terence's office is right in the heart of the campus and he showed us around the many notable buildings and places of historical significance. When the school has a preserved model of a water pump from before the Revolutionary Wars, you know it's ooold...
- A skip and a hop away we then went to MIT where Jude practically had to be forcibly removed from the MIT Press Bookstore. If he stayed any longer, he would have grown roots. He was a happy man, who then promptly bought a whole bunch of books :) (Note: It was 3pm on Day One, and between the two of us, we had already bought 6 books.)
- Stan joined us later, and like a school excursion, we then went about exploring MIT. I was the only one unfamiliar with Boston, so it was a mish-mash of the three guys chipping in at various places to construct a semi-coherent picture of what was what around the MIT campus. The one thing that really stood out for us was the new Frank Gehry building- The Ray and Maria Stata Center. Literally, it looked like someone stole a building from a Dr. Seuss book and plopped it in the middle of Cambridge. Whimsical and asymmetrical, it looked radically different depending on the angel you were looking. See here and here.
- We rounded off the long and invigorating day of walking by treating ourselves to the ultimate Asian comfort food- RAMEN! A steaming bowl of luscious noodles in a rich, lip-smacking broth, the ramen at Sapporo Ramen in Porter Square truly hit the spot on that chilly New England night.

Day Two:
- Brunch was tim-sum in Chinatown with Terence, Stan and Susan. I don't think I could ever get sick of tim-sum, and here, we're talking the traditional sort where the ladies still push the carts of steaming, sizzling little morsels of gastronomic delights all over. *Sigh* I miss those things, especially since they don't even have them in Singapore anymore :(
- And it being the middle of the Chinese New Year season, there was a procession on the streets, complete with lion dance, banners, cymbals, drums, and fire crackers!! I had never seen real fire crackers before (they're banned in Singapore) so I made Jude take a picture of the aftermath. Not having been home for Chinese New Year for a while, it was honestly very nice to be in the midst of the celebrations again :)
- After that, we took the Stan & Susan Inc. tour of the city of Boston. We walked through the Boston Public Gardens (where I saw the lovely "Make Way for Ducklings" statuettes), the North End (Mike's Pastry cannolis!!), and Fanueil Hall where I've never been more tempted to spend $10 on a skewer of bacon-wrapped scallops. We didn't quite stick faithfully to the Freedom Trail, but did manage to nonetheless see Paul Revere's house, the Granary Burial Ground (oldest in the country second only to the one in Plymouth Rock), and even the oldest restaurant in America (The Union Oyster House).
- Dinner was fresh seafood at Summer Shack where we witnessed Stan engaging in hand-to-hand combat with a one-half pound lobster. *whack whack* You had to be there... :)

[Total Recall II to come...]

From Beantown

Ok, I'm not even going to spend precious vacation time explaining why for the first time ever, I'm SERIOUSLY considering never watching the Oscars again, or at least pay it as much attention as I have- that's for another post altogether. When I muster my wits about me, you're going to hear me rant about how underwhelming Ellen was, how annoying it is when nominees pretend to be so surprised when their names are called even though they KNOW full well they'll win (Jennifer Hudson, I hope someone tells you to keep the acting to the big screen), and what a travesty it is for Martin Scorsese to win BOTH Best Director and for Best Picture, my personal bias aside. The only salvageable moment last night was when Alan Arkin deservedly won for Little Miss Sunshine- go Grandpa!

On a decidedly happier note, Boston has been a complete blast! :) We'll definitely furnish more details when we get back in the a couple of days. So far, it's just been a wonderful time catching up with Stan, Susan, and of course Terence, who's generously letting us squat in his apartment :) The city is so amazingly rich in history that I'm still trying to take in every historical detail I'm encountering. And it's quaint and pretty, just like Montreal- which means, I LIKE! :)

It's that time of the year again...

I'm upset- the year I finally watched almost all the movies nominated in the major categories (we're only missing The Queen and Pan's Labyrinth) is also the year I can't watch the ceremony 'live'- a first in five years. We're going to be in Boston for spring break and as much as I would love to be plonked in front of the TV between 7pm and midnight on Sunday at our friend, Terence's, I can't bear to squander a night in New England and miss out on fresh seafood and the delights of Beantown.

And I'm all the more upset because it's going to Ellen at the helm this year! I adore the woman... ever since her sitcom more than a decade ago, few people have made me laugh as hard as she has. It was her show that got me hankering after opening a bookstore cum cafe, and one day, I will bring myself to wear Converse sneakers with a business suit :) Another reason why I think this year's Oscars is pretty cool (but this is just me of course), is that almost exactly 10 years after a certain juggernaut of a movie propelled them to international celebrity, Kate and Leo are going to be at the ceremony together, both nominated for best acting awards. I think that's gotta be kind of sweet on some level right?...

Anyways, to the nominees. Okay- that's it; this year, I'm going to go determinedly with my head and pick the nominees most likely to win rather the ones I would like to win (except for one- cross my fingers!). After more than a decade of following this thing EVERY year, you'd think I would have learned by now that it's not about who should win, but who will. I'm not doing the voting so why should my personal opinion count in this decision-making process? Because if I had my way, Ryan Gosling will take home the statuette as the anguished crackhead of a teacher, and in that same perfect world, Brad Pitt would also have been nominated for at least Best Supporting Actor over Mark Wahlberg. Ah well, c'est la vie...

So anyways, ladies and gentlemen, my choices for the year:

Performance by an actor in a leading role
Forest Whitaker - THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Eddie Murphy - DREAMGIRLS
This is definitely one of those head over heart choices people- I would rather see Alan Arkin receive the statuette to the strains of Super Freak than Dr. Doolittle go on stage doing a Norbit impersonation (or is it the other way round?)

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Helen Mirren - THE QUEEN

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Jennifer Hudson - DREAMGIRLS

Best animated feature film of the year
CARS

Achievement in art direction
PAN'S LABYRINTH

Achievement in cinematography
CHILDREN OF MEN

Achievement in costume design
CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER

Achievement in directing
THE DEPARTED
As much as I disliked the film, c'mon, give that man an Oscar!...

Best documentary feature
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

Best documentary short subject
TWO HANDS

Achievement in film editing
BABEL

Best foreign language film of the year
PAN'S LABYRINTH

Achievement in makeup
PAN'S LABYRINTH

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
BABEL
Unless the Academy decides that the same artist (Gustavo Santaolalla) somehow cannot win two years in a row (after the hauntingly exquisite Brokeback Mountain score last year)

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
"Love You I Do" - DREAMGIRLS

Best motion picture of the year
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
This is probably the only choice where I'm going with my heart rather than my head. Like I told my best friend, although Babel is probably the more "winnable" film, I really, really love Little Miss Sunshine, and when it comes down to just pure film narrative and heart, it's honestly the better movie too.

Best animated short film
THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL

Best live action short film
THE SAVIOUR

Achievement in sound editing
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST
Because almost every year, it's the movie that made the most noise and the most money that wins this award... ;)

Achievement in sound mixing
DREAMGIRLS

Achievement in visual effects
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST

Adapted screenplay
THE DEPARTED
"It's who will win, not who should win, who will win, not who should win..." I'm sorry Mr. Borat, that you have no fortunate of great success this night that will make you much fame in your homeland.

Original screenplay
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

Dearly Departed...

Ok, how shall I put this politely without offending legions of Scorsese fans and hundreds of movie critics out there? Ermmm, we finally watched The Departed today and it was kinda, hmm... how shall I put this?... Flabby?...

Really, I promise, I tried to be as open-minded about the movie as I could despite my initial gut reaction when I found out that Scorsese had gone and made a remake of Infernal Affairs. Honestly, I tried. Everyone around us- even those who had watched the original- told us that it was a phenomenal movie in and of itself, Entertainment Weekly talked about it as being "urban noir" and Scorsese's return to his gritty, "Mean Streets" visceral form, and the Academy clearly thought it worthy enough for a Best Picture nod.

Okay, I'm sorry, but I think the Academy has made a mistake.

Maybe I'm a naive audience, maybe I don't know enough about American film-making, or maybe I'm just plain biased, but there is no way The Departed matches up to the original; in the immortal words of Jerry Maguire, it wasn't nearly close to being in the same vicinity as matching up to the original. I think it's a weakness of Hollywood film-making in wanting to always demystify things- to talk about things to death and rationalize characters' every act and sentiment. There must be no ambiguity to anything, all must be resolved, and every loose string must be tied up in the end. If you had watched Infernal Affairs, you'd know what I mean.

Infernal Affairs was crisper, tighter, and ironically, even though you knew less about the characters than in The Departed, more human. Tony Leung was anguish personified- a walking paradox of guilt, anger, righteousness and shame. You could really believe that this man may no longer be able to distinguish the line between good and evil. His character was sent into the streets as a mole right when he was a young police cadet- all of 10 years. That's a lot of time to mess up a man if you ask me... And poor Leonardo's character wasn't given that same opportunity by Mr. Scorsese.

And what's with all the extra contrivances? The common love interest (again, the Hollywood machinery at work), the sad childhood baggage, and Mark Wahlberg. I know, he used to Marky Mark, and he's come a long way, but what's with the inexplicable attitude and bad hair? And am I the only one who thinks that when it comes to the movies, Morse code is way cooler than text messaging? Talk about unsubtle film-making...

Most importantly, Infernal Affairs is ultimately the better movie because it didn't have Jack "I-need-to-steal-every-scene-I'm-in-by-sneering-and-being-slimy" Nicholson. Eric Tsang played the mob boss better coz even though he's dimunitive in stature, his controlled, smiling malevolence made him way creepier than Jack Nicholson's over-the-top deranged antics. Sure, Infernal Affairs isn't flawless (admittedly, Vera Farmiga's character was more developed than either of the two female leads in the original), but in my book, it sure came close.

Ok, I know I'm ranting, and I know many of you are going to disagree with me. But I haven't felt this outraged at a remake since Dangerous Liaisons was remade into Cruel Intentions. I'm not a purist, and I don't feel this way about all remakes, some are good, sometimes even better than the original (see Ocean's 11, Cape Fear- see, Scorsese can make a good remake, even The Lake House). Unfortunately, The Departed is just not one of them.

Remakes in general have the deck stacked against them. We know the original, so the new film treads on that iconography. We also know the story, which makes for no new shakes. Worse, in dealing with this, decisions are often made in the effort to "take a twist" on the old film. Dumb and dumb.

The best remakes have often involved a great talent taking on a role that is better suited for them than the original actor. The worst remakes suffer from the delusion that this is true.
-Dileep Rao, The Voices of Reason

新年快乐!

It was an eclectic Chinese New Year dinner to say the least- there was Cuban mojitos, Mexican guacamole, Asian-American lettuce wraps, Singaporean curry puffs, Polish peirogis and Brazilian cheese bread. Rick, Emilee, Yong-mi and Art came over for our Asian film marathon/ Chinese New Year celebration last night, and with the exception of the food, it was definitely more of the film marathon than a Chinese New Year thing.

I miss being home for Chinese New Year of course (this blustery wind/ snow/ ice/ cold thing doesn't help)- the family gatherings, home-made snacks, a legitimate reason to get new clothes (not that Serene Koh ever needed a reason to go shopping... heehee...), and just the general bustling atmosphere of celebrating a cultural tradition. Ann Arbor doesn't have a Chinatown (although our Asian supermarket was packed to the brim yesterday- I never had to wait so long in line ever before!...) so there isn't even anywhere we can go to soak in any of the festivities even if we wanted to. It's going to be a few years more before we'll be able to be home for Chinese New Year, and till then, we'll just keep having these fusion food parties and watch countless Asian movies :)

Speaking of which- the movies we watched last night:
1) The Exiled (Johnny To, Hong Kong): Violent mobster flick meets playful black comedy meets Mexican-American spaghetti Western, it was rollicking good fun after a rather slow first hour or so. Suitably bloody yet with an almost balletic quality to the violence, Jude and I are now feverishly looking for Election I and II, for which To is better known (see trailer for The Exiled here).

2) Three Times (Hou Hsiao-Hsien): This movie received ecstatic reviews from the NYT but unfortunately, because we watched it after The Exiled, it felt painfully slow and plodding in comparison. A triptych on love, longing and loss, I think I'll have to revisit it on an occasion when I didn't just watch a bunch of men shoot themselves bloody silly...

3) Moving House (Tan Pin Pin, Singapore): I've written about this short film several times (see here and here), and this is probably the 4th or 5th time I've watched it. It never gets old for me though- every time I see it, the sad resignation of the family at having to exhume their parents' grave still always gets to me.

Anyways, Asian movies aside, here's wishing everyone who celebrates the Lunar New Year- whether you're in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Australia, the U.S. or anywhere where the Chinese have managed to find themselves, here's wishing you cherished blessings and a bountiful, joyful Year of the Pig ahead!

The Devil. Really?...

As it is every year, the months leading up to the Oscars are typically packed with serious, brooding films that scream "Look at me, I'm making a profound political/ social/ existential/ environmental statement! This film is deep! Give me an award!" Which is why I'm overjoyed that Little Miss Sunshine is in the running for Best Picture- it's so rare that a happy, little movie gets recognized for the joy and good cheer that it brings.

I'm also thrilled (though not as surprised) that Meryl Streep got nominated for her deliciously wicked performance in The Devil Wears Prada. I finally got round to watching it on video last night and it was just great fun :) The impossibly glamorous outfits aside, I thought Meryl Streep was just an absolute hoot, and so were Stanley Tucci, and Emily Blunt (OMG, talk about overdressed, over made-up, aneroxic, anal co-worker from hell!...). Anne Hathaway, not so much- there's only so far that cute bangs and sparkly eyes can get you, dear.

The thing is, if the film-makers had wanted us to sympathize with the poor little underling and see Meryl Streer's character as the incarnation of evil she's supposed to be, then they clearly cast the wrong person. You're talking about Meryl Streep here, an actress whose every glance, every nuance of emotion conveys a depth of humanness no amount of talking/ whining on Anne Hathaway's part can compare.

I've never read the book, but I suspect that it is immeasurably less sympathetic to the Miranda Priestly character than the movie. You cannot expect to cast someone like Meryl Streep in any role- no matter how hateful, vitriolic, or comic, and not expect facets of human vulnerability to invariably ooze our her every pore. She's probably not going to win the Oscar this year (what with being up against my darling Kate Winslet and the the juggernaut of a contender, Helen Mirren), but she lent a depth to an otherwise fluffy, glossy movie, and she was wonderful.

Valentine breakfast

Dutch babies
Originally uploaded by jyew.

* (17 Feb) Update: Replaced the photo with another one I made again this morning (I know- how much butter can you ingest in a week right?). I think the key is really to make sure that the oven is at 425F and that the pan is searing hot too. This allows the pancake to really rise and achieve that crowning crust. And one more thing, you HAVE to be liberal with the powdered sugar!

One of the drawbacks of watching too much Food Network is that one gets easily caught up by the multitude of foods and cooking methods out there that you lose sight of the wondrous alchemy of simple ingredients. It is almost magical what happens when you bring together eggs, flour, half & half and then allow the oven to do the rest. I really can't claim much credit for today's breakfast except for turning the oven on, whisking the ingredients together, and dressing the pancake in the end.

I made a German Pancake- a.k.a a Dutch Baby Pancake. Honestly, this is one of the simplest things you'll ever make but oh is it glorious! You open the oven door after 25 minutes and all you see is this enormous golden crown of luscious goodness. Dressed with strawberries and powdered sugar, it managed to be sweet, rich, light and fluffy all at the same time. No one would believe it was made with just 3 simple ingredients. See one my favorite food blogs, Orangette for a more delectable description of this wondrous process.

Jimmy’s Dutch Baby Pancakes

For the pancakes:
4 Tbs unsalted butter
4 large eggs
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup half-and-half

For the topping:
4 oz clarified butter (or, if you’re not into clarifying, simple melted butter will do)
Juice of 1 lemon
Powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Divide the 4 Tbs butter between two 6-inch cast-iron skillets, and melt it over low heat.

In a blender, whir together the eggs, flour, and half-and-half.

Pour the batter into the skillets over the melted butter. Slide the skillets into the oven, and bake for 25 minutes.

Remove the puffed pancakes from the oven, transfer them to a plate or shallow bowl, and pour on clarified butter, sprinkle on lemon juice, and dust with powdered sugar. Serve immediately.

Serves two.

The original recipe calls for either two 6-inch cast-iron skillets or one 11-inch one, but we don't have a cast-iron pan so I used a 9-inch pie glass and pre-heated it in the oven. This also meant that I had to cut the ingredients down by about a quarter, which was easy to do. I also topped the pancake with strawberries at the end but you can probably put whatever fruit you like. I do have to warn you though that this recipe involves an almost obscene amount of butter, but what's a little indulgence on Valentine's Day? :)

Happy V-Day everyone!

What's your candy heart?

Awww... this is kinda cute :)

Your Candy Heart Says "Hug Me"

A total sweetheart, you always have a lot of love to give out. Your heart is open to where ever love takes you! Your ideal Valentine's Day date: a surprise romantic evening that you've planned out Your flirting style: lots of listening and talking What turns you off: fighting and conflict Why you're hot: you're fearless about falling in love

What Does Your Candy Heart Say?

Hedonist Artisan Chocolates

To continue the theme of chocolate-related posts this week, we want to give a resounding shout-out to our beloved friends, Zahra & Jennie who have just undertaken a marvelously brave and wonderful endeavor- starting their own handmade chocolate truffles business, Hedonist Artisan Chocolates! We're so excited for them! They've already sold a gift box worth of chocolates and many individual truffle pieces, and even have orders all lined up for Valentine's Day- congrats guys!! See photos of their efforts here and here.

Although they're physically located in upstate New York in Rochester, Zahra's all raring to go to put the store online. Jude and I can't wait for that to happen- we've already told ourselves that we'll definitely be ordering their chocolates, not just for ourselves, but as gifts for our friends and family too. Jennie's a genius in the kitchen (our tummies have benefited much from her delicious cooking), and Zahra's so gifted when it comes to design. Together, we have no doubt that they will make Hedonist a great success :)

Just look at the first batch of Hedonist artisan chocolates on sale- don't you wish they were online NOW? Congrats and all the best, Zahra & Jennie- we're so happy for you!

What have they done to my Nancy Drew?

I can't believe they've gone and done it- as if making a ghastly movie version of Possession wasn't enough, Hollywood has taken another one of my hallowed literary treasures and turned it into a movie, and from the looks of the trailer, an awful one at that... ;( What have they done to my beloved Nancy Drew??! She's not supposed to be a perky, color-coordinated, penny-loafer wearing cutie-pie. Nancy Drew is NOT cute! Oh please... And isn't she a little too young in the movie? I'd always pictured Nancy Drew as someone more like Natalie Portman, or a much younger Mary Stuart Masterson, or maybe Leelee Sobieski -plucky, resourceful, and a little more rough-and-tumble than the squeaky-clean teen queen they got playing the character in the movie. Bleah....

The entire Nancy Drew series was such a defining part of my growing up years. I remember one year in primary school when I was going through my most obsessive Nancy Drew phase; I borrowed every single one of the Nancy Drew books available in the school library over the course of the year, and wrote ALL my book reports that year on them. I also learned all these "new" American words that I'd never heard used before (compared to the British versions)- Nancy's father is an attorney, which I discovered meant "lawyer", and I also remember looking up "sleuth" in the dictionary to find out that it has the same meaning as detective. I wanted to be just like Nancy Drew when I grew up- brave, pretty, kind, and intelligent, slightly proto-feminist too, come to think about it... She was awesome! And I loved her.

And what have they done to her now? Urgh, I don't even want to think about it... Perky? Cute? Some books are just not meant to be made into a movie. Don't they get it? For every Lord of the Rings, there are five Jumanjis or The Scarlett Letters... And a children's book series no less- these are people's cherished memories of how they're favorite characters will always be. If you want to bring them to "life", at least do your homework, and be faithful and respectful to the character, and people's immortalizations of them.

Ok, I know, I'm on a spiel, but these book-to-film things always get to me. If you want to rework a classic, do it right. If not- please, just don't bother ok?

Chocolate Comfort

In anticipation of Valentine's Day, the Food Network has dedicated the whole of this week and next to everything Chocolate. And according to Alton Brown, the most intense form of chocolate after the bean itself is actually ground cocoa, i.e. the powder, since it doesn't have any milk or butter content. Which is why if you want to drink hot chocolate, it's best to add cocoa powder to milk rather than melt chocolate chunks in it. That way, you minimize the amount of milk and maximize the flavor of chocolate.

So when I was outlet shopping with my cousin, I chanced upon this irresistible treat- Dark Chocolate Truffle Hot Cocoa from Godiva. It was the pretty packaging that caught my eye, but c'mon, dark chocolate cocoa? Which girl wouldn't pick it up?... Anyways, in the midst of the frigid cold last night, I made some for Jude and I by heating up some milk and four tablespoons of the truffle powder for each cup of milk. Talk about intense flavor...

People, it is the single most decadent, luxurious mug of hot chocolate you will ever taste...

For those few short moments of visceral chocolate heaven, it's like someone reached into your inner being and covered your heart with a warm fluffy blanket and gave you a loving forehead kiss and a tight hug (ok, mixed-up anatomical analogy I know, but you get what I mean...) Whatever chill we felt just faded away and all was well with the world once more :)

I'm not sure if you can get the hot chocolate in the regular stores and I know that Godiva only released it as part of their holiday collection, but if you ever see it, hoard as many as you can find. These cold frigid nights will never be the same again :)

Graduate Library graffitti

Thought I'd share some inspired graffiti wisdom that I've come across in the graduate library:

"1.0 = 0.9
1 = 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 = 0.3 + 0.3 + 0.3 = 0.9
Crazy world huh"

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet ... constipation."

"97 pages to go. 11:10pm 11/8/06"

I foresee that this may be a rolling list that I'll add to when I come across more ...

Halfway through

Halfway through
Originally uploaded by jyew.

I reached some sort of a milestone today I guess- I submitted Part A of my pre-candidacy exam! :) There are two parts to the exam and *if* I muster enough discipline and self-will to finish the other half by the end of this semester, I should be able to achieve candidacy by the summer, if not fall. After that, it'll just be me and my dissertation for the next 2 years, which honestly, I'm keenly looking forward to. As much as I've loved almost all the classes I've taken and everything I've gained over the years, I honestly think I'm about done "schooling". If I include the year I was in teacher training, I've literally been in school 20 years in total- discounting the years that I taught. Ok, thanks for those years, but I think I'm done now.

The prelim paper wasn't that much of a bear to finish actually- I've virtually spent almost a year and a half on this research. Many of you have seen the study evolve from this, to this, to this, and now this. I think that's enough number-crunching for me for a while. I'm going to take a break from stats at least for the next year or so. My research for the second half of the pre-candidacy exam will be more related to my dissertation in the long run, so I'm looking forward to just sitting back and doing alot of reading for that. I've really really missed reading, even for school.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I've resigned myself to the fact that there's a part of me that will always be a little bit of a dork, and why I've been in school for 20 years... :)

In the bleak midwinter

This is our fourth winter here and I've never said this before- it's very very cold, it's very very windy, and there's much, much snow.

According to the Weather Channel, the Midwest is experiencing some of the coldest temperatures in years, and the lake effect and intense wind shield is not helping. There are severe weather warnings all across Michigan, and wind chill advisories till tomorrow afternoon.

Now that we've moved one of the writing desks to the bedroom just in front of the window, I've been looking at the weather develop throughout the weekend as I work. It is not funny- we're talking blustery winds, snow swirling everywhere, and a deep, intense cold seeping in through every little crack it can find. We have the heat up in the house, a hot drink perpetually by my side, and my woolly socks on so that helps, but I'm not looking forward to walking to the car later when we go to Rick and Emilee's for the Super Bowl game.

Weather report the last time we checked: 5F (-16C)
With wind chill: -5F (-25C)

Bundle up and stay warm everyone! And to you guys on the West Coast, we wish you were here! Heehee... ;)

Of family and winter indulgence

Serene and Jean at the Arboretum
Originally uploaded by jyew.

I think I've consumed more calories these past few days than I usually do in a week, and did more shopping than we typically do in 6 months.... My cousin, Jean is here for a visit from Hong Kong and we have just had the most joyously heady time together! And I mean joy in the most essential sense of the word :) I actually haven't seen her since Jude and I got married, but though it's been three and a half years, it's like that time didn't matter at all. We practically grew up together, and now as we look back, we realize how more we've become alike as we've gotten older. We haven't run out of things to talk about- we never have- and this became acutely apparent to us when on the hour long journey to and fro the outlet mall at Birch Run, we literally did not stop talking! Jude said he never knew it was possible for his wife to talk so much... heehee :) While there was of course much to catch up on with our separate lives, it was also alot of reminiscing about our childhood together, and so much cheer, and much laughing :)

I haven't had so much fun busting my wallet and waistline in a long time- it's been a thoroughly dizzying experience! It was mostly outlet shopping so the bank account hasn't taken that much of a thrashing. I can't say the same for my tummy though...

What I bought in the last two days alone:
- 2 sheer polka-dotted blouses, 1 kimono-style knit sweater, 1 hooded knit tunic, 1 embroidered shirt, and a pair of capri pants from Banana Republic;
- 2 long-sleeved tees, a pair of jeans (on sale at $2.97!!!!), and a pair of corduroys for Jude (also $2.97!!!) from Gap;
- a Brooks Brother dress shirt (complete with cufflinks) for Jude (on sale at $9.99!!!); and
- 2 tins of Dark Chocolate Truffle Cocoa from Godiva.

What I ate in the last two days (all thanks to my equally gastronomically weak-willed cousin...):
- a huge all-American breakfast at Northside Grill- we're talking hash, sausage, bacon, eggs- the works folks...
- a root-beer float, cheese curds and a coney dog at A&W (it was unthinkably indulgent...)
- pork chop (with all the requisite sides) at Grizzly Peak;
- a cardiac arrest-inducing lunch at Zingerman's consisting of a lusciously succulent pastrami sandwich (#11: J.J.'s Pastrami Special), the mushroom, beef and barley soup, a slice of lemon chess pie, and a chocolate-custard eclair;
- a homemade dinner with Jean's finger-licking good garlic herb-rubbed chicken wings, and my good ol' dependable spicy mac & cheese; and
- as if the day's already obscene calorie count wasn't delirious enough , we took it to even greater stratospheric heights by having Stroh's Mackinac Island fudge ice-cream for dessert.

Guess who's heading straight for the gym after dropping Jean off at the airport tomorrow? ;)