Film Culture Commentary: Asian Leading Men

Looky here, Buzzfeed has finally discovered that there are some cuties and hotties in Asian cinema.  Welcome to the party.  At least Takeshi Kaneshiro is in the top 10.  But no Shin Koyamada? No Ian Anthony Dale or Russell Wong?  At least the delightful Ken Watanabe on the list, but he's only #24?  Shame, Buzzfeed!  Dishonor on you!  Dishonor on your cow!

WTTPWS: The Glories of Pork Floss

I haven't done a WTTPWS ("Welcome to the Party, Western Slowpokes") in a while, so it's high time for another entry.  This time it's a food blog going all fanboy for pork floss.  Welcome to the party, people: the Cine-Sib and I grew up on this stuff!  Pork floss + rice porridge = absolutely awesome breakfast.

MM in the Kitchen: Bittersweet Chocolate Five-Spice Cupcakes

Here is an intriguing recipe of East (five-spice powder) meets West (chocolate). But will it be any good, I wonder?

Oh, as for Westerners finally discovering the joys of five-spice powder, WTTPWS. ;-)

Kitchen Notes: Los Angeles Times Rhapsodizes About Kimchi

The latest addition to the WTTPWS Files, this new ode to kimchi.

I've enjoyed kimchi ever since I was small. It's great stuff, though if you're not careful, you can burn your taste buds clean off!

Kitchen Notes: Miso Madness

Here is a little primer. Oh, and WTTPWS!

MM in the Kitchen: Baby Bok Choy

I love baby bok choy. LOVE it. It's probably my favorite Asian vegetable. In Taiwanese, it has a funny, evocative name. It translates literally into English as "spoon vegetables" because if you look at one of the leaves, it resembles a Chinese ceramic soup spoon. Clever, no?

Here's a great photographic lesson in my favorite way to cook these lovely leaves. Sesame oil optional, and you don't have to use both garlic and ginger. One or the other will do just fine. Baby bok choy is easy and delicious! Serve with anything.

By the way, there are several sorts of vegetables that are called "baby bok choy" by Western grocers. I prefer the ones with the green stems, not those with the white stems, which are a miniature version of bok choy proper.

Oh, and I found this little piece about baby bok choy in the WaPo from a while back. WTTPWS!

Kitchen Notes: the New York Times Rhapsodizes About Rice Cookers--WTTPWS!

Well, OOOOOOOOOOOOOO, the New York Times is gushing about rice cookers, so they must be some new hot thing, right? Some awesome new invention for the kitchen? Some incredibly splendid innovation in culinary appliances?

Not remotely, fool. Every single Asian I know has been using these things since . . . well, forever. I can't remember a single moment in my life when I didn't have a rice cooker in the house or apartment.

WTTPWS!

(Do you need a reminder of "WTTPWS"?)

By the way, I'm pretty sure that the Japanese will soon have artificially-intelligent robot rice cookers that will cook, clean, grocery-shop, wash and fold laundry, walk the dog, and go back in time to hunt down Sarah Connor.

Kitchen Notes: the Silkie Chicken -- Plus, "Welcome to the Party, Western Slowpokes"

You know, I'm seriously going to start a new category on this blog and call it "Welcome to the Party, Western Slowpokes" -- WTTPWS, maybe.

I keep running into blog posts or books or articles or whatever media in which some expert or enthusiast presents an item and gushes about how new and awesome it is. The item is usually something that's been used/eaten/enjoyed in Asia since Buddha was a baby. But since it took the expert/enthusiast until 2008 to figure it out, the thing is shiny new! An exciting discovery! Oooooooooooo!

Meanwhile, I'm sitting on the couch, rolling my eyes. The first time this happened was when I heard somebody on TV absolutely GUSH about the newly discovered wonders of green tea. I snorted and said to a friend, "New? Well, it took you long enough. My peeps have been drinking tea for freakin' 4000 years."

Anyway, look, somebody somewhere is probably going to be offended by this post or the new category or whatever. So here's a caveat: it's partially done for fun, and I don't mean every single Westerner is a slowpoke, and I know "Westerner" isn't really a good or accurate label anyway, blah blah blah, and if you didn't have a sense of humor you probably wouldn't be reading this blog anyhow.

So here is today's entry in the WTTPWS: the silkie chicken. The Kitchn blog has a whole "oooo, looky here!" post about this particular kind of chicken. Silkie chicken -- exciting and new, come aboard, we're expecting yooooooooou! Oops, sorry.

Yeah, so it's that old black-bone chicken. Big fat whoopty-doo. It's hard to get all rah-rah about a "new" thing if you've known about it all your life.

FYI, the Taiwanese name for the little clucker (I said CLucker, not the other thing, so calm down) does literally translate as "black-bone chicken." Yes, the entire chicken is dark, right down to the bones. Skin, flesh, bones, everything about it is black, everything except the external feathers, which are usually white. Ummm, yeah. Somehow the color composition of the animal is like a racial slur or something. I expect Al Sharpton to complain any minute now.

So, enough already. What do you DO with a black-bone chicken? I had some the last time I was in Taiwan, actually. The bird is best cooked as soup (UPDATE -- wheeeeeeee, the NY Times says so too, so it must be true . . .HA). At the end of the process, you have a gorgeous, rich chicken soup that's like molten gold. Some folks even think it's medicinal (but isn't all chicken soup kind of medicinal?). The meat ends up being "meh, so-so," but it's the soup you really want.

WTTPWS!