Shrimp Scampi, Hock-style

The word "scampi" commonly refers to an Italian-American shrimp dish that is served with pasta, usually linguine. One can usually find some variation of this dish in most restaurants. In most popular applications, "scampi" also refers to a method of preparation and the shrimp can sometimes be substituted with chicken. I've had customers at the restaurant ask for chicken scampi instead of the regular shrimp scampi that we serve. Scampi dishes are almost always made up of ingredients like white wine, garlic butter and lemon juice.

For this shrimp scampi dish, I chose to use whole shrimp with the shell and head still intact. The shrimp that you find in most grocery stores are P&D, an industry term that stands for "peeled and de-veined." Shrimp like the ones I have here are actually more expensive but inherently more delicious! The natural flavor of the shrimp is derived mainly from the head and the shell. Leaving them on while cooking adds plenty of flavor to your dishes.

Before we start, let's cook the pasta first--we are using linguine. Bring a pot of salted water to boil and add the pasta. Keep stirring the pasta so that it would not clump up and stick together. The pasta is done when there is just a little crunch in the center when you bite on it. This is also known as "al dente."

Instead of sautéeing the shrimp like one would normally do, I poach them in garlic butter, fresh lemon juice and dry white wine. For extra flavoring, I added pureed basil to the poaching liquid. Shrimp cook quickly and don't really need high heat. A slow poaching approach will infuse a lot of the lemon, butter and garlic flavor into the shrimp and vice-versa--the succulent flavor of the shrimp will also flow into the poaching medium. When the shrimp turn bright red or orange (take your pick), they are cooked. Remove them from the pan and you can add vegetables like asparagus and carrots, which is what I did here. Cook them for a little while and then add the cooked linguine. Sauté the pasta with the vegetables and make sure that everything gets tossed properly. Add the shrimp last to heat them up and you are all set to serve. For garnishing, sprinkle some finely chopped parsley and lemon rind on top of the dish.

Jamaican Jerk Chicken with a Fruit Salad

Alright, cue Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds": "Don't worry about a thing....'Cause every little thing's gonna be all right."

It's sunny out and the weather's perfect for a taste of the Caribbean islands--specifically Jamaican jerk style cooking, which uses a special blend of hot spices. Typically, Jamaican jerk spice is made up of ingredients like allspice, peppers, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, thyme and garlic. Admittedly, this is a strong blend of spices but believe me, it is absolutely delicious! Jerk seasoning can be applied to various proteins like poultry, fish, beef, pork or even vegetables, depending on one's taste and preference. The most common and popular application of jerk seasoning is on chicken and is best cooked over a charcoal grill that is flavored with pimento wood. If you are thinking about using fish, try to use it on hardier, grillable fish like mahi-mahi, swordfish or wahoo (or "ono" in Hawaiian) and not flaky white fish like haddock or flounder. Also, taste-wise, jerk seasoning is not very good on those white fish.


Anyway, you can easily obtain jerk seasoning from your local grocery store's spice rack. All you need to do after that is to marinade the chicken with some oil and jerk seasoning. Do not add salt because the seasoning is already pretty salty. Leave the marinated chicken in your refrigerator for a couple of hours in order to permeate the flavor of the seasoning into the meat. For this application, I use wooden skewers to hold the meat and vegetables in place while grilling. It also looks kinda cool when you serve it to your guests this way! One thing to note is to soak the wooden skewers in water for a few hours before using them, so that they would not catch on fire on the grill. For vegetables, I would recommend red onions, zucchini and summer squash, as they are perfect for grilling. Some people might also like grilled tomatoes and potatoes as well. Just remember to cut them thick and oil and season them before grilling. For good measure, I also grilled some fresh pineapple slices as well.

As a side dish to the jerk chicken and also in keeping with the island theme, I added a fruit salad that is made up of spring mix as the leafy vegetable, red onions, fresh pineapple, strawberries, blackberries, peaches and mandarin oranges. The sweetness of the fruits balance out the tartness of the balsamic vinaigrette that I used on this salad.

Hope you will enjoy making this easy dish as much as I did!

"'Cause every little thing's gonna be all right!"

Gosh! I just love listening to reggae while grilling!

Springtime in New England

Living in New England, we've come to expect the weather to turn in a blink of an eye. Even when the calendar turned the page into April, in the back of our minds, most of us are still dreading the impending arrival of that last snowstorm (sort of a last hurrah by Mother Nature to close out a sometimes-difficult winter season). So it was with a sigh of relief that we finally hit 80F on the thermometer scale today. Even as the TV weathermen try to inform us that winter is finally over and to welcome the new spring season, in the back of the minds of us New Englanders, it's never over until we hit that magical 8-0 number on the thermometer.

And today, we finally crossed over that proverbial threshold. Goodbye Old Man Winter! It's now time to put the snowblower away for the season and to bring out the lawnmower. The changing of the guard, if you will. All I can say is, it's about time!


With spring also comes the in-season fruits and vegetables. Among the more popular ones include asparagus, artichoke, vidalia onions, arugula, chards, peas, radishes, strawberries, grapefruit and apricots. Incorporating these various ingredients into our daily meals is a rite of spring for most chefs and avid home cooks. Nowadays, most of these fruits and vegetables are available year round due to the ease of transporting them anywhere in the world. However, it's always a great feeling to be able to obtain these ingredients locally.

In the next few weeks, I'll be trying to incorporate these spring favorites into my dishes. So watch out for them. As a preview, I'll start off this Monday by making Caribbean Jerk Chicken with a refreshing fruit salad. See you then!

Popeye Would Be Proud of This Florentine

When I was a kid, I used to watch the cartoon, "Popeye" and marveled at how the salty sailor obtained superhuman strength whenever he consumed a can of spinach. "Hmmm...must be a ploy to get kids to eat their vegetables," I thought (yes, I was a pretty cynical 10-year old!). Well, long story short, Popeye and his heroic exploits never did enticed me to eat my vegetables. Only much later in life did I start eating and surprisingly (to me at least), enjoying my vegetables.

Spinach, like most vegetables, has high nutritional value and is rich in antioxidants and vitamins. Cooking it is easy but making sure that it is cooked right is the tricky part. A big handful of spinach leaves, when cooked too long, will wilt into barely anything. In general, the flavor profile of spinach matches very well with garlic, mushrooms, cheese and cream, which, for all intents and purposes, are all present and accounted for in this particular dish that we are cooking.

Let's start with a salmon fillet with the skin removed. Season both sides of the fish with salt and pepper and pan fry it on a hot, well-oiled skillet. The best result is to get some browning on either side, creating an irresistibly delicious crust on the flesh. Remove the fish from the pan and finish cooking it in the oven. Check for doneness frequently so as not to overcook the salmon.


Now with the pan still hot, add in some chopped onions and garlic and mushrooms (shiitake is the best choice but domestic ones are OK as well). Sauté these ingredients and then deglaze with some white wine and season with salt and pepper. Add heavy cream and parmesan cheese to the pan and turn off the heat. Do not add the spinach yet as it will overcook and wilt too much. Wait for the salmon to finish cooking first. When you are sure that the fish is done, turn the heat back on and add the spinach to the pan. Sauté the spinach with the rest of the ingredients to wilt it just little. Now the dish is ready to be served. Garnish with extra parmesan cheese by sprinkling it on the fish and the vegetable as well. Dishes made with spinach are often given the moniker "Florentine." So it's only fitting that this dish be called "Salmon Florentine."

If only Popeye could see me now!

You Can Tune a Piano But You Can't Tun-a Fish!

Synonymous with sushi and sashimi delicacies, the ahi (in Hawaiian) or yellowfin tuna is fast becoming an able and delicious replacement for the severely depleted and over-fished bluefin tuna species. Often served rare to medium rare, sashimi-grade tuna steaks are much sought after and a whole fish could go for thousands of dollars in auction in Japan. In fact, the highest price ever paid for a bluefin tuna was 20 million yen (or a little over US$173,000) back in 2001! Japan is the largest consumer of tuna and prices for the "perfect" tuna can fetch astronomical numbers. According to a recent news report from January 5th, 2009, two sushi bar owners shared the cost of a 282 lb. bluefin tuna. The price? A whopping $104,700!

This is a tuna appetizer that I created based on the many sushi dishes I've had over the years. Start with a sashimi-grade ahi tuna steak. As this is a pepper-seared tuna appetizer, season the steak with a little salt and plenty of fresh ground pepper. In fact, coat the entire surface of the tuna with plenty of pepper. Trust me, it'll be delicious! Heat up oil in a skillet and sear all four sides of the tuna steak ever so slightly--about a minute or less on each side. We are looking for a rare to medium-rare temperature. No sense in wasting such a nice piece of tuna, right? Use a sharp knife to slice the tuna steak, revealing its beautiful rare center.


Accompanying the tuna, I made some sushi rice and placed it on top of a piece of "nori" or roasted seaweed. Sprinkle some sesame seeds for taste and presentation. To add some color to the dish, I julienned some carrots and soaked them in a mixture of sugar and rice wine vinegar to just slightly pickle them. As a sauce, I made some wasabi and cucumber mayonnaise, topped with bits of chopped up parsley. Also provide some ponzu (citrus soy sauce) as a dip.


Going one step further, I also made miso soup to go along with this appetizer. I actually made a silly mistake in this picture. One does not drink miso soup with chopsticks unless they are hollow and can be used as straws! So, just ignore the chopsticks and replace it with a spoon in your imagination. LOL!

"Mi-so" Delicious!

Miso, the traditional ingredient in Japanese cuisine is hardly an obscure curiosity in our world of global cuisine interactivity. Yet, it is not a type of seasoning that gets much attention from most chefs outside of Asia--which is a shame, really. High in protein and rich in vitamins and minerals, miso is a healthy alternative to most sodium-laden seasonings. Produced by fermenting rice and/or soybeans with salt and a type of fungus, miso is available in a thick, pasty form. Most people would most likely recognize miso as the default soup of choice in all Japanese restaurants. However, there are other ways to use miso to flavor other types of ingredients as well.

Here, I created a miso glaze by mixing miso paste, rice wine vinegar, sugar, ponzu (Japanese citrus soy sauce), sake (Japanese rice wine) and water in a sauce pot and bringing these ingredients to a boil. Turn down the heat to continue heating until the resulting sauce is reduced slightly, creating a somewhat thick, glossy glaze. Seafood is a big part of the Japanese diet and miso can be used to coat fish like ahi (yellowfin) tuna and salmon. For this application, I'm using salmon as the protein.

Before you start, you must be aware that the glaze will burn quickly in the oven. So pre-cooking the fish is imperative. Start by seasoning the salmon fillet with salt and pepper and baking it in the oven until it is about 80% cooked. Remove the fish from the oven and slather it generously with the miso glaze. Add water to the cooking pan to reduce the chances of the glaze burning on the pan. Put it back into the oven for a few minutes to cook the salmon further with the glaze on it. Remove the fish from the oven and glaze the fish with the miso one more time before finishing it off again in the oven. Be careful not to overcook the salmon and drying it out. There's nothing worse than dry salmon (a well-done fillet mignon or overcooked calamari comes close).

As an accompaniment to the salmon, I made lemon-lime flavored sushi rice and a refreshing but mild cucumber and wasabi mayonnaise. Add a vegetable (in this case, broccoli) and you have yourself a balanced meal.

As you can see, this dish screams Japanese cuisine very loudly (miso, sushi and wasabi) but there are added minutiae like the mayonnaise-based sauce and the lemon and lime flavor in the sushi rice that provide some extra dimensionality to the overall flavor profile. Also, you can have fun with the types of flavor that you can put on the sushi rice. I've used cilantro, mango and pineapple before. Just be sure to use an ingredient that has a unique and strong taste to obtain that punch that you would need to bowl your diners over.

Bromance Hour

"That young man fills me with hope. And some other emotions that are weird and deeply confusing."

Zapp Brannigan, Futurama

It's a tale as old as time. Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Girl likes boy. Boy and girl hook up. Boy meets boy. Become firm friends. Boys form slightly homoerotic relationship. Girl looks on sort of disapprovingly.

This is dubbed a "bromance", and it's a phenomenon widely undocumented in Hollywood films until recently. The first real explicit bromance in broadcast media is really between JD and Turk from Scrubs, a pair so (possibly) gay that they even broke into rapturous song about their guy love in the musical episode of that show. With the recent rash of Apatow comedies covering real emotion and the like, and Superbad touching upon bromances briefly, the bromance has generally become a character device more frequently in use by producers, one way or the other. That's not to say homoeroticism hasn't always existed in these manly relationships in cinema- it's just been unintentional at times. There's a longstanding school of thought that any pair of buddies in a Western basically represents a homoerotic relationship. Western fans predictably respond tho this kind of talk with a speedy "GTFO" and started covering their eyes and screaming bloody murder when Brokeback Mountain rolled around. And that's outside Texas...

I'm not a homosexual man myself, but it occurs to me that there were two major bromance movies over the Easter break and that someone, for the sake of cinematic science, should compare the two critically. One of which is deliberately focused on a bromantic relationship, and the other being seemingly unaware of the fact that its central characters are engaged in a bromance, verging on actual homosexual tension. Either that or the producers are intentionally playing a big joke on every guy who's happy to see a big macho and totally "straight" movie on the screen.

The first is of course, I Love You, Man. This film stars Paul Rudd- the one who's in... well just about every film like this one- as Peter Klaven, a man who's never really made a guy friend and thus is naturally out of sorts attempting to find a best man for his wedding. Enter Jason Segel as Sydney Fife, who's more or less perfect for him. Not in a soulmatey, let's-start-a-family kind of way, more in the Rush-is-freakin'-awesome-so-let's-jam sense of the word.

Now, the screening I went to was somewhat marred by the presence of one of those loud young women right behind me, (wow, I actually felt like that sentence aged me). Fair enough, it's a comedy- you're expected to laugh. On the other hand, there's laughing hysterically at bits that are, at best, chuckleworthy. I'm pretty sure she orgasmed twice during the film. Not to mention all the random exclamations of "ohmyGod". I mention this mostly because it gives you an idea of how funny this film was. Paul Rudd is in danger of overexposure at the best of times, so it's nice to see him mixing it up here rather than doing the aloof, sarcastic bloke that he usually brings to the table in these buddy comedies. His klutzy, awkward performance is charming enough to differentiate itself from say... Role Models or Knocked Up. Jason Segel steals the show of course, and is just as brilliant as he was in Forgetting Sarah Marshall- seriously can't wait to see this guy's take on a Muppet movie, because it'll be frigging awesome.

The two leads aside though, everyone else is fairly bland. The script doesn't accomodate much for Rashida Jones as Peter's oft-fellated fiancee (it'll make sense when you see it, and how often will I get to use that as a description?), and the always-brilliant JK Simmons is more or less wasted as Peter's dad. Being as it is a bromance though, it's more or less essential that this film hinges on the two lead performances. They both acquit themselves marvellously, and the script is very, very funny. Judd Apatow wasn't involved in the making of this film (incredible for any American comedy film post-2004), but it draws on all the best observational parts of his films and makes for a very funny night out at the cinema.

I LOVE YOU, MAN-

And now we move onto the other big bromance in cinemas over the Easter break. It is of course the "whole-gang's-back" money grabbing sequel- the third sequel, no less- Fast and Furious. I've already mentioned that Seth Rogen's Superbad covers a bromance in some ways, so it's saying something that even he thought this was gay enough to parody on Saturday Night Live with a sketch called The Fast and the Bi-Curious.

If you've watched that video, that's more or less the whole story element of the film.


You can taste the longing... :s

Before we get into the review side of things, I should point out that I'm not a homophobe, and I certainly didn't hate the film because of the homoerotic element. I hated it because it was vapid, silly and about eight years too late to even be relevant. For those who don't know, this is the first time that heterosexual life-partners Brian O'Connor and Dom Toretto have reunited on-screen since 2001. They did appear in one sequel each since then though, with Toretto popping up at the end of the third one for a cameo. Besides the obvious realisation on both actors' parts that they didn't quite rocket to fame like they expected when they turned down that first sequel, I found it hilarious that the first film was called The Fast and the Furious- were we supposed to believe this one is more stream-lined or something because of eradication of "the" from the title? Presumably we'll see a reunion Narnia film in eight years' time called Lion, Witch and Wardrobe.

So yeah, my main objection with this film is that it's pointless. Whatever I rank this, you should add a star out of five if you're a fan. Because fans of the series to date might enjoy it, but that doesn't make it any less a money-making exercise for the producers. Generally, movies are made with the aim of making money, but the vast majority of them end up being entertaining. Instead there was a good opening five minutes or so, and a fun final minute. There's 90 minutes or so of rubbish in between, and given how a condensed version of that opening was basically released as a trailer, I'd feel a little ripped off if I'd paid to see this, especially in these troubled times for the economy. So there's only that last minute and then an hour and a half of unintentionally hilarious dialogue like "Do you ever feel like you're pretending to be someone you're not?". There are a couple of good action sequences/chases in the middle, but nothing we haven't seen before in better films, lending to the general feeling that Fast and Furious is just derivative of what's come before.

FAST AND FURIOUS-
--------------------------------------------------

That's the end of the Bromance Hour here on the ol' blog. Normal service will resume with individual reviews from the next post. All those films I mentioned at the end of the last post really. To sum up, see I Love You, Man rather than Fast and Furious. To play us out, the song that might as well have played over the credits of Fast and Furious...



Until next time, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch,
Mark

Pan Seared Sea Scallops Herbs a L'Orange, served with Asparagus

Without a doubt, sea scallops are one of my favorite seafood items. When done right and paired with the right ingredients, the inherent sweetness of the scallops will shine through. When choosing scallops at your local grocery store, make sure that what you are getting is not previously frozen or chemically treated. The taste and how the scallops cook would be vastly different from fresh scallops. Also, it is good to choose big and plump scallops, preferably the U10s or U12s (10 or 12 scallops to a lb.), as they are easier to handle when cooking and won't tear off as easily as the smaller ones.

Presentation-wise, scallops look best when just lightly pan seared to get some browning of the flesh on both sides. Start off with a hot skillet and melt some butter for searing the scallops. For the more health conscious, the butter can be substituted with vegetable oil. After lightly searing the scallops on both sides, remove them and finish them up in the oven. Most of the time, scallops of the size that we are using would not cook through all the way on the skillet without burning. It is always a good idea to finish them off in the oven for a few minutes.


Now, for the sauce. After removing the scallops, with the pan still hot, cook up some chopped garlic, fresh rosemary and thyme and then deglaze the skillet with the juice of an orange, freshly squeezed if possible. To add more citrus flavor to the sauce, add a shot of Grand Marnier (or Triple Sec) and reduce the liquid until it thickens to a saucy consistency. The strong aroma from the fresh rosemary and thyme will blend very well with the citrus of the orange, tickling one's nose and taste buds as well.

As for the asparagus, simply bring a pot of salted water to a boil and blanch the vegetable for a few minutes. Be careful not to overcook the asparagus. As soon as the asparagus becomes slightly soft, take them out and put them in cold ice water to immediately halt the carryover cooking. I like my asparagus a little crunchy, so I only boil them for less than 3 minutes. Before serving, drizzle some butter on the asparagus for taste and seasoning.

As you can see from the pictures above, arrange the asparagus and scallops in this fashion and pour the sauce on top of the scallops. You can garnish the dish with either a slice of orange or a sprig of thyme or rosemary.

However you do it, have fun and bon appetit!

Herb-Crusted Halibut with Shiitake Mushroom Broth

Among the members of the flatfish species, the halibut is not only the largest but also one of the most-sought after items on restaurant menus. Other notable members of this species include flounder, sole and turbot. Flatfish are weird, if not extraordinary creatures. When first born, they have eyes on both sides of their head, just like any regular fish. As they mature, flatfish start swimming sideways and one eye would migrate to the other side of the head (left or right depends on the species)! Together with the Dover sole, halibuts are much prized by seafood diners for its delicate and flaky flesh. The taste is somewhat sweet, much sweeter than most white fish, like the ubiquitous haddock. Still, it is almost always the most simple preparation of halibut that would appeal to most diners.


Here, I am taking it a notch higher and pairing the halibut with herbs and mushrooms. Not only would this dish be delicious, it is also healthy and a treat for halibut aficionados. Mixing fresh rosemary, thyme and oregano with flavored breadcrumbs, I apply a generous coat of this aromatic mixture to the entire top surface of the halibut fillet. One can either remove the skin before cooking or after. Leaving the skin on while cooking would better hold the delicate flesh of this fish together but either way, the skin should be removed before serving. If you leave the skin on, use a flat spatula to scoop the fish up while leaving the skin on the cooking surface. The skin should easily slip off when the fish is cooked. Bake it in the oven at 450F but make sure not to overcook it. Halibut cook relatively fast and one can easily overcook this fish if one is not paying attention.


For the mushroom broth, I boil fresh shiitake and domestic mushrooms together with julienned carrots and scallion stalks to wring the most flavor out of all the ingredients. Finish it by adding a little salt and pepper to taste. This broth should be light and flavorful without much tinkering or seasoning.

Pretty delish if you ask me!

The Reel Deal: The "Holy Crap, I'm Behind" Update

Yes, faithful readers, I've been neglecting you. My sincerest apologies. In this little update, I'll be reviewing (some in more depth than others)...
The Damned United
Gran Torino
Knowing
Monsters vs. Aliens
Watchmen
... with more to follow in the next post.
As ever, reviews may contain some mild spoilers, but where I can, I try to avoid telling you everything that happens in the movie. So instead, sit back and read as I tell you what to watch!

THE DAMNED UNITED



Who's in it? Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon), Timothy Spall (Sweeney Todd), and Colm Meaney (Layer Cake)

What's it all about? England's top young football manager, Brian Clough (Sheen), has a score to settle at the beginning of this film. His longstanding rivalry with fellow manager Don Revie (Meaney), has led him to take charge of Revie's old club, Leeds United, and made him determined to outshine his predecessor. As his short stint in the job begins to go badly wrong, Clough remembers better days as manager of Derby County.

Any good? Faithful readers, you may well have a sense of my personality from my writing and interests. If you're imagining the "last picked for the football team" stereotype, you're probably about right, and now I'm no longer at school and thus don't have to play the game at all, I'm left with a general indifference for the sport as a whole. So bearing in mind that I really don't care about football, it's remarkable how much this film made me care about Brian Clough. I, like Clough, hail from Middlesbrough, and found the man absolutely fascinating- the clips are up on YouTube from his interviews, and he's something of a local legend anyway in these parts. There was a wonderful marriage of egotism and charm about him, something which Michael "If He Was Real, I've Played Him" Sheen brings to life on screen with innate skill in The Damned United.

First and foremost in what I enjoyed about this film was how likeable Sheen's Clough was, and it's the performance that the entire film hinges upon. I don't mean to undersell the superb supporting cast, but they are underused in comparison to Sheen's overwhelming presence, as a character and as an actor. Timothy Spall and Colm Meaney are somewhat underused, but then it is a film about Clough in the end. While The Damned United didn't quite match the other Sheen-Morgan collaboration this year, Frost/Nixon, it's still an enjoyable film that doesn't rely on its audience's knowledge or enjoyment of football. I have neither and I thought it was a blast.



GRAN TORINO



Who's in it? Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby), Christopher Carley (Lions for Lambs), and an otherwise largely unknown cast.

What's it all about? After the recent death of his wife, embittered veteran Walt Kowalski (Eastwood), lives alone in a neighbourhood now predominantly populated by minorities. When his young Hmong neighbour attempts to steal his prized '72 Gran Torino, he reluctantly sets out to reform the boy. Over time, Walt has his eyes opened to the virtues of the community and finally sees past his deeply rooted prejudice.

Any good? All the reviews have made note of the fact that Gran Torino is apparently Clint Eastwood's last as an actor. Presumably he will continue directing either way, but if this is his swansong in front of the camera, it's very fitting indeed. The film has been described as "Dirty Harry meets Victor Meldrew", but that's putting it too simply. It is in fact a stunning character study as Eastwood presents the audience with this grouchy, patriotic old racist, and we absolutely love him. Some of Walt's epithets in this film would be stunningly offensive, but his ignorance is played for laughs by Eastwood. That's not to say that Walt isn't seen as a rather sad figure- he's almost a relic of times gone by, but he's not going out without getting a few good shots at society as it is now, first. A recurring shot is of Eastwood staring at some symptom of the world having changed and letting out a disgruntled, Rorschach-like "Hurrrrrm".

My review of Eastwood's direction is of course just as flattering as that of his acting. As with his other effort of the last year, Changeling, this film is beautifully shot. It's a grey pallete, and there's not an awful lot of scope for visual bedazzlement in a suburban area of America, but as always with Eastwood, the film looks terrific. On the other hand, I feel bound to criticise one decision he's made- to cast unexperienced actors as the members of the Hmong community. These actors were actively encouraged to ad-lib in the Hmong language in order to achieve a sense of realism, but unfortunately, their lack of acting experience is evident. Extremely so. There are a couple of moments with Thao, Walt's protege of sorts (played by Bee Vang), that come across as uncomfortable, and those moments did take me out of the film at vital points. Their delivery of lines is perhaps not as natural as it should be, and this is where the film falls down slightly. Their inexperience is made particularly prominent in comparison to Eastwood's strong performance.

I'd be a little hesitant to call this the performace of Clint Eastwood's whole career, long and varied as it is, but it's certainly his best in a long time. In the end, Gran Torino is slightly let down in places by the lack of experience that the supporting cast has, but the slack is picked up by the stunning lead performance and by a script that is both witty and poignant by equal measures. That it was ignored at the Oscars this year was nothing short of criminal.



KNOWING



Who's in it? Nicolas Cage (Bangkok Dangerous), Rose Byrne (Sunshine), and Chandler Canterbury (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

What's it all about? A class of children in 1959 draw their visions of the future for a school time-capsule project. Fifty years later, John Koestler (Cage), is the college professor whose son brings home one student's work- a sheet of paper filled with seemingly random numbers. When studied more thoroughly, Koestler realises they somehow predict every major global disaster since the day they were first written. With just three dates left that have yet to come true, finding the meaning behind these predictions becomes a matter of life and death.

Any good? I really tried hard to make the above section sound interesting. This is a disservice to you, the reader, if you've been enticed to see it as you may well have been by the copiously repeated trailers for the film that also make it look interesting. To compensate, you have a photo of Nick Cage looking a bit silly to go with this review, as Knowing is a front-runner for the worst film I'll see this year. While not utterly boring, the best thing it has going for it is the special effects, which in this day and age isn't an awful lot to distinguish it from any other blockbuster. This is certainly no Jurassic Park, and it's only in a couple of sequences that the CGI is well-used. While the other instances look good, they're needless and in the case of the ending, downright silly. Without explicitly spoiling the ending, it's oddly reminiscent of a certain blockbuster sequel released last summer, the ending of which was panned by fans and critics alike. Why director Alex Proyas thought it was a good idea to ape this ending, but make it even more out of the blue and jarring than it was in the Nameless Blockbuster Sequel, is beyond me. The other notable incidence of CGI silliness is a burning moose, which is rather more chucklesome than the direction of the scene it appears in should suggest.

And then there's Nicolas Cage, a man who used to have a career made up of hits and misses but now seems to have utterly discarded any attempt at the former in order to make such "classics" as Next and that remake of The Wicker Man. Knowing is cut from the same cloth as the former of those films, but it has all the unintentional hilarity of the latter, which was one of the funniest horror films I've ever seen. Cage phones in his performance and has here changed my mind about him- to me, he's no longer a good actor making bad choices like some performing equivalent of Flint Marko in Spider-Man 3, but instead has become outright annoying. After two hours of this tripe, I just felt that it was unfortunate that I had no way of knowing (pun intended, but it feels hollow), just how bad this film was going to be beforehand, or I might have gone to see The Haunting in Connecticut instead (review coming in a later post). If you must see Knowing, I advise you to wait and rent the DVD rather than fork out more to see it in the cinema. Equally, I advise you to reconsider and do something more fun like seeing how many numbers you can write on a bit of paper before you want to kill Nicolas Cage for influencing the advice that led you down that road. You'll find the main date missing from the list is the release date of this film.



MONSTERS VS. ALIENS



Who's in it? Lending their voices here, in true Dreamworks big-name hunting fashion, are Reese Witherspoon (Four Christmases), Seth Rogen (Zach and Miri Make A Porno), and Hugh Laurie (Street Kings)

What's it all about? Susan Murphy (Witherspoon) is hit by a meteorite on her wedding day and enlarged to fifty-feet tall by an irradiated chemical therein. As a result, she's imprisoned by the US government with a small team of other monsters captured by the state in order to protect ordinary people. However, an incoming alien invasion puts her and her fellow monsters in the frame to prevent humanity's destruction by a mad tyrant.

Any good? Monsters vs Aliens is more or less on the crest of the 3D wave that's sweeping through cinemas of late. Gone are the red-and-blue glasses of old to be replaced with digital projection and a 3D experience that's more immersive as opposed to just pointing things out of the screen at the audience. This means I'm obliged to mention the 3D factor in the review, so here's getting it out of the way quickly. It's in 3D. And it looks very good in that format. Now we can get down to the business of pointing out that this is a Dreamworks film. As far as I'm concerned, Dreamworks hadn't made a really good animated film since Shrek, and I hoped that last year's rather excellent Kung Fu Panda was indicative of an upturn in quality. One lame Madagascar sequel later and my optimism had dwindled a little. The key problem with Dreamworks is that the voice talents it employs usually aren't all that vocally talented, and are instead bankable box office names in live-action films. This was most abhorrently exhibited in Shark Tale, the most bizarre Will Smith vehicle ever. Plus, Finding Nemo had already done the fish thing much better. But let's be honest, who is saying they want to take their kids to "the new Reese Witherspoon film" as opposed to "the 3D film with monsters and aliens"?

This is a trend in animated films that was really kicked off by Robin Williams being by far the most brilliant thing about Disney's Aladdin, and seems to have been bucked by Dreamworks' main competitors, the general animation-extraordinaires at Pixar, but continues to see animated films built on the star appeal of the voice actors. Don't get me wrong, Reese Witherspoon isn't miscast here and actually does alright, and Seth Rogen, Will Arnett and Hugh Laurie are all brilliant for this kind of thing anyway. But Stephen Colbert, one of my favourite comedians going, plays the US President here for all of five minutes. Yeah, it works as an in-joke as he was at one point running to be President at the end of 2008, but it's what I call "Monkey Syndrome" (named for Jackie Chan's three lines as that character in Kung Fu Panda), in that he's a relatively big name who doesn't really contribute an awful lot. His few scant moments are actually amongst the film's highlights though, as is the general imagination on show.

Anyone thinking "But Mark! No good Dreamworks films since Shrek? What about the Shrek sequels?", I'm about to answer you. What the first film did very endearingly was to gently and subtly parody Disney fairytales, whereas every Dreamworks film since has referenced pop-culture and movies with sledgehammer-subtlety. While that's worked in some cases, and indeed been quite funny, only Kung Fu Panda and this film have really successfully got belly-laughs from originality as opposed to a reference to Star Wars or something. Although the movie references come back a couple of times here, Monsters vs Aliens is widely very imaginative and very funny. One of the aforementioned monsters that Susan befriends is Insectosaurus, a 350-foot tall grub who's manouvered via his sensitivity to light- arguably the best of the monsters and employed to great effect in the first big fight scene. To conclude though, while Monsters vs Aliens isn't quite the film I expected, it's a funny and innovative homage to B-movies that's definitely worth catching in 3D.



WATCHMEN



Who's in it? Billy Crudup (Mission: Impossible 3), Malin Akerman (The Heartbreak Kid), and Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children)

What's it all about? It's a labyrinthine plot, but here's my best attempt at condensing it. It's 1985, and the Cold War is staved off only by the existence of Dr. Manhattan (Crudup), a god-like being who serves as a walking nuclear deterrent. This is a world where masked heroes are outlawed, and when one of them is murdered, his former teammates are drawn into a conspiracy that could lead to the end of the world. With me? Good.

Any good? The word that's been bandied around in every review (or at least every review that wasn't so obsessed with a certain dangling blue appendage) of this adaptation is "unfilmable". Part of me agrees with that, having finally seen Watchmen. Admittedly I was waiting for a much shorter time than those who first read the book years ago, but I firmly insist that the graphic novel is one of the truly great works of literature. Ever. And its intricacies and hidden depths are what makes me think an adaptation would best serve the source material as a high-budget TV miniseries of some sort. But that's a post for another day. This is the film version of Watchmen and it is the best adaptation of the book that we're ever likely to see. Director Zack Snyder, if nothing else, has a massive appreciation for the book. Shots are sometimes taken directly from frames in the comic book, and the music is well-chosen and tactfully deployed to evoke the moods of times gone by. However, watching as a filmgoer rather than a fan of the book, his reverence for the story is almost the film's downfall. The running time is north of two and a half hours, and much of that is given over to exposition and flashbacks. While this is fine in comic format, it's a little more jarring on the big screen.

Casual audiences have given the film mixed reviews, and I believe it's for the very reason that it's more of a love-letter to fans of the source material, at the expense of those unfamiliar with the story. It would be patronising to say that these audiences don't understand the film, but in fairness, some may understandably be confused. For those who can keep up however, Watchmen is utterly epic. Snyder's previous film, 300 is sometimes given this label on account of it being a sword-and-sandals type film. But where 300 is a collection of fight scenes first and a story second, Watchmen is as introspective and as thought-provoking as it gets. That said, some of the fight scenes and violence from the comic is unnecessarily exacerbated by the addition of gore in scenes that had a more cerebral bent to begin with. This is perhaps Snyder's forte and doesn't detract from the narrative enough to call it a major problem, just an unnecessary addition. However, some of the changes installed by Snyder that other fans seem to be up in arms about are actually pluses as far as I'm concerned. Where a giant squid was instrumental as the means to the ending of the graphic novel, Snyder recognises how this would not translate to screen as well and actually improves upon the ending ultimately.

However, the most remarkable part of Watchmen is its cast. They bring the characters to life, both as drawn/written on the page and as people the audience can believe in. Or not believe in, given the harsh nature of some of them, particularly Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays the Comedian's cynical sadism with gusto, and Jackie Earle Haley, who gives one of the best performances of the year so far as Rorschach. Patrick Wilson and Billy Crudup are just as engaging to watch, but that makes the somewhat weaker performances by Malin Akerman and Matthew Goode slightly more prominent. On the whole though, Watchmen has the advantage of being released in a year when the only other major superhero film being released is X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and thus it's likely to retain the place it deserves in the filmgoing public's memory as a thought-provoking (if just a little unwieldy), and well-made comic book epic.


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Right, the next post will have, at the very least, reviews of The Boat That Rocked, Crank: High Voltage, The Haunting in Connecticut and Race to Witch Mountain. Also coming up is a comparative review between what I saw as the two big "bromance" films of the last week or so- I Love You, Man and Fast and Furious.

Until next time, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch.
Mark

Appetizer idea: Mushrooms & Shrimp

Here's an idea for a delicious appetizer using portobello mushrooms. The caps of the portobello mushroom are very suitable for holding delicious ingredients in place.

For this particular appetizer, take shrimp, carrots, scallions, onions and garlic and puree them all in a blender. Season the resulting puree with salt and pepper. Now, in order to determine if the seasoning is enough, you would need to cook a bit of the puree in oil and taste it. Repeat this step until you are satisfied with the seasoning. Next, you need to clean the portobello mushroom caps by removing the gills with a spoon. After doing that, you can now take some of that puree and slather it on the cap, essentially using the cap as an edible container.

Cook the mushroom with the puree by baking it in an oven at 420F. Brush some melted butter on top of the puree and add some water to the pan that holds the appetizers. This is to prevent the mushroom caps from drying out. Bake for approximately 30 minutes and you will have yourself some yummy mushroom and shrimp appetizers as pictured above.

Enjoy!

Easter Dinner with Cornish Game Hens

Well, Easter just came and went. For the special day, here's a nice poultry recipe to try.

This is an Oven Roasted Cornish Game Hen stuffed with a special stuffing made up of apples, raisins, baby bello mushrooms, celery, carrots, sage, cinnamon, shallots and garlic. Also added a touch of white port or red wine for some extra zip. Of course, add some bread crumbs (I use whole wheat bread plus some Ritz crackers) to soak up the liquid and bind the ingredients together. Game birds are usually stuffed with a collection of fruits like berries. Despite its name, the Cornish game hen is actually not a game bird but a chicken slaughtered at a young age. For this particular application, I am using apples and raisins as the fruits. It all depends on your own preference. Also, instead of using bread crumbs, you can also use wild rice, which is equally delicious.


For the sauce, I made the classic Saltimbocca application. It consists of cream, fresh sage, Madeira wine, shallots, garlic and salt and pepper to taste. This particular sauce complements chicken, steak and veal dishes very well.

It's a Lobstrosity!

Here are 2 great lobster dishes that I cooked in the past few months. Very easy to make and of course, very delicious. If you love lobsters, you should love these dishes!

The first is a pan roasted lobster cooked in its own yummy juices with garlic, lemon and sherry wine. Here's a picture:

The lobster is first split in half down the middle and pan roasted in oil. Add garlic, fresh-squeezed lemon juice and sherry wine and cover the pan so that the lobster will cook. You can also add scallops and shrimp for added flavor. Very simple and very delicious. When the lobster is cooked, just dig in!

The second dish has an Asian influence. The lobster is also pan roasted the same way as the above dish but without the lemon juice. Add some Chinese cooking wine instead of sherry. This time, add ginger, carrots, shallots or onions together with the garlic. Sweat out the ginger and onions. After the lobster cooks, add snow peas plus a touch of soy sauce and oyster sauce to add more layers of flavor to the dish. In order for the snow peas not to wilt and become limp, add that ingredient last, just a few minutes before serving. For garnish, chop up some scallions and sprinkle on top. Here's a picture of how the dish turned out:


NOTE: You can also add a touch of corn starch slurry in order to thicken up the sauce. It is a matter of preference more than anything else.

One Year On......

Wow! Just Wow!

It's been more than a year since I last posted on this blog. Time sure flies....literally!

Let me start off by updating my dear readers on what's been going on in the year since I last posted. I graduated from the Culinary Certificate Program (CCP) at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts last May with honors in academics and lab. Yippee!! Since then, I've been working full time at Fishbones restaurant in Chelmsford in order to gain experience for my next venture in the culinary world.

Winter was pretty bad, had lots of snow storms and that big ice storm that knocked power out everywhere in the state for a while. The hotly contested general election is finally over and things are again moving in the right direction. Well, it's spring again and the new regular MLB season has just started. The BoSox are off to a bad start, so let's hope the hitting picks up soon. The Celts are again the mix for the NBA post-season. My fav band, U2 just released an excellent album, "No Line on the Horizon" and I've been listening to it almost non-stop (actually listening to it right now as I'm writing this! Magnificent......).


Ahhhhh......I love spring! The warmer temps, bright sunshine, new flowers start to bloom and inevitably, a fresh start to the year.

And best of all, I'm back blogging again!