Bringing Asia Home
It's been a very Asian couple of days - not something I would have thought possible in Texas, but I guess it just shows what you can do with a bit of imagination.
Last night we got a couple of Asian DVDs from Blockbuster - Joseph has been wanting to watch "The Grudge" ever since it first came out, and I'd been keen to see "Infernal Affairs" (a Hong Kong-based action movie) ever since I saw the posters in HK in 2003.
Now, obviously, if you're watching foreign films, you must have foreign beer to accompany it, ne? So we picked up a six of Kirin Ichiban for "The Grudge" and some Tsingtao for the HK flick. (Although "The Grudge" was made in the USA and stars American leads, it is an exact adaptation of a legendary Japanese horror - complete with the same director and setting - so it still qualifies as a foreign film. Just in case you need a justification for buying foreign beer in America. Which we don't. I mean, last Sunday was the Superbowl, and - committing heresy by local standards - we decided that the only suitable accompaniment to chili and nachos was Central American beer. We settled on San Lucas from El Salvador, and I recommend it highly.)
The first beers and the first movie were both better. "The Grudge" is truly horrific and disturbing, but it is very well-made. "Infernal Affairs", however, was a bit disappointing. Great concept, and good performances by the leads, but the storyline was a bit messy and the denoument unsatisfying. I can only assume that it got high acclaim from western reviewers due to their lack of exposure to that style of film, but it really wasn't anything special. Also, Tsingtao is significantly more skunky than Kirin.
Tonight was an experimental culinary adventure. I've spent the past six months driving past a restaurant in McKinney called "China Sun Sushi & Hibachi Grill". Ever suspicious of the competency of Texans to produce any good food other than steaks, I had avoided it until tonight, but in fact it was superb. It was laid out as a sushi grill, with tables consisting of a large flat-top and eight guest seats around each. The chefs were entertaining and dramatic, and the food they produced was magnificent. Of course, there were actually no Japanese people in the restaurant. The owner and most of the staff were Korean, and our chef was Filipino. Joseph and I confused the other guests at our table by making jokes with the chef in a mixture of English, Korean and Tagalog.
And would you believe it? They had 16-oz bottles of Sapporo for four bucks.
Last night we got a couple of Asian DVDs from Blockbuster - Joseph has been wanting to watch "The Grudge" ever since it first came out, and I'd been keen to see "Infernal Affairs" (a Hong Kong-based action movie) ever since I saw the posters in HK in 2003.
Now, obviously, if you're watching foreign films, you must have foreign beer to accompany it, ne? So we picked up a six of Kirin Ichiban for "The Grudge" and some Tsingtao for the HK flick. (Although "The Grudge" was made in the USA and stars American leads, it is an exact adaptation of a legendary Japanese horror - complete with the same director and setting - so it still qualifies as a foreign film. Just in case you need a justification for buying foreign beer in America. Which we don't. I mean, last Sunday was the Superbowl, and - committing heresy by local standards - we decided that the only suitable accompaniment to chili and nachos was Central American beer. We settled on San Lucas from El Salvador, and I recommend it highly.)
The first beers and the first movie were both better. "The Grudge" is truly horrific and disturbing, but it is very well-made. "Infernal Affairs", however, was a bit disappointing. Great concept, and good performances by the leads, but the storyline was a bit messy and the denoument unsatisfying. I can only assume that it got high acclaim from western reviewers due to their lack of exposure to that style of film, but it really wasn't anything special. Also, Tsingtao is significantly more skunky than Kirin.
Tonight was an experimental culinary adventure. I've spent the past six months driving past a restaurant in McKinney called "China Sun Sushi & Hibachi Grill". Ever suspicious of the competency of Texans to produce any good food other than steaks, I had avoided it until tonight, but in fact it was superb. It was laid out as a sushi grill, with tables consisting of a large flat-top and eight guest seats around each. The chefs were entertaining and dramatic, and the food they produced was magnificent. Of course, there were actually no Japanese people in the restaurant. The owner and most of the staff were Korean, and our chef was Filipino. Joseph and I confused the other guests at our table by making jokes with the chef in a mixture of English, Korean and Tagalog.
And would you believe it? They had 16-oz bottles of Sapporo for four bucks.
posted by Sentinel at
5:44 AM
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