Monthly Archives: February 2015

Triumph in the Skies 衝上雲霄

Finally found time away from work to watch this movie – 衝上雲霄. Of course, the theatre was only with Chinese people and mostly girls. It’s been awhile since I watched a Chinese movie in an English theatre. The movie was not the greatest, it’s a so-so movie in terms of HK movie standards. Not much of a story line, mainly just about love story of 3 different pilots and really no interaction between the 3 pilots to link it altogether. I guess they tried to have a big cast but with only 1.5 hrs, there is no time to develop a good story line for everyone so only short stories. There was also a lot of different advertisement that they had in the movie, they got a lot of sponsors!

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But of course, I mainly watched the movie for Captain Branson – 古天樂. He is still very “man” and handsome as the captain. I was hoping they had more settings in London England, but the main shoots are at Brighton.

DIY: Taro Cake 芋頭糕

After the salty turnip cake, time to make a sweet taro cake. Compared to the turnip cake, it is much simpler process.

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  1. Dice up the taro into cubes.
  2. Boil the taro cubes in a wok until it is tendered
  3. In another pot, boil a cup of water with a cup of rock sugar until melted and let it cool.
  4. In a bowl, start mixing the bag of rice flour with a cup of water, add the cool sugar water into the flour as well until blend and no clumps. 2 cups of water in total.
  5. Mix in the soft taro into the rice flour paste into the steaming pan.
  6. In the wok, boil water and put the taro mixture and steam for about 40 minutes until cooked.

It turned out pretty good, it wasn’t that sweet so if you prefer sweeter, add more rock sugar. Now I’m all ready for Chinese new year!

Is it a sign of getting old?

Is it a sign that you are getting old when you are reminiscing back the music / TV shows from your teenage years? It is also triggered because there have been many reunions lately.

Last night, there were reliable rumours that NSYNC was going to reunited and perform at the SNL 40th anniversary show. There were tweets from the official NSYNC twitter account “together again … gee, it’s good to be together again #SNL 40”. I know Justin Timberlake was going to be on the SNL show with Jimmy Fallon so having NSYNC on was probable. And many entertainment news feed had articles that they can’t wait for it. Their last reunion was back in 2013 for the MTV Video Music Awards.  So I sat there in front of the TV watching the 3.5 hrs SNL anniversary show … when 11:30pm was coming close and still no sign, I was like WTF??? But I was not the only angry one, there were twitter feed of many angry fans waiting and waiting with disappointment.  I wanted the 3.5 hrs back of my life back!

The SNL show itself was ok, I thought it was going to be all live skits but it was a mix of replaying old skits and some new live ones. The majority of the old clips they played were back from the 70’s – 90’s – way before my time so I didn’t know any of them and wasn’t that funny.  The new ones … I liked Celebrity Jeopardy and Wayne’s World, the rest … was meh.

Back to the reminiscing … lately, I’ve been listening to songs of boy bands from back in the days … NSYNC, BSB, NKOTB, 98 Degrees … because the new songs now just don’t hold up. I don’t know if this is a stage that everyone goes through, but the music now days are not that great in quality. Some are catchy, but not long lasting, like listening to the same song 15 years later, will it still be that good? Or is it because those were the happy days that make the song better. Will the fans of One Direction now have the same feeling as me in 15 years as I do with NSYNC music? When I listen back to these songs, it brings back happy memories from high school.  I’m a fan of JT still right now but his songs makes me cry because of the things that have happened when I listen to the songs.

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This isn’t just the same with English music, same goes for HK Chinese songs. The songs from the four heavenly kings (四大天王) are long lasting, better song melody and lyrics, listening to them now, they are still really good songs. Vs. the songs now, they are just not good. I mean, I hardly listen to HK pop now, don’t know the names of the new singers. I only listen to the songs that are the theme songs of the TVB series that I watch, that is as much of my HK music exposure.

As for TV shows, they actually have the opposite effect. I’ve catching episodes here and there of my favourite shows back in the days … Friends, Saved by the Bell, Full House. I used to love them and find it very funny. But re-watching it, don’t find them funny anymore, it must have been funny back then, now that we are in a different era, the jokes don’t work anymore.

Does anyone feel the same way? Music? TV shows?

DIY: Turnip cake 蘿蔔糕

Chinese new year is coming, so time to make some traditional new year food. One of my favourites are the turnip cake (蘿蔔糕). Store brought ones are expensive and they are small and majority is dough. So I decided to try to make my own for the first time.

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  1. Soak the dried 8-10 mushrooms (冬菇) and dried shrimps (蝦米) for a few hours so it is tender.
  2. Chop up 2 preserved pork sausages (臘腸) into small chunks.
  3. In a pan, add some oil to the hot pan and stir-fry the mushrooms, dried shrimps and pork sausages until cooked, add some oyster sauce, 1 teaspoon of sugar. Once cooked, set it aside.
  4. Grate 1 large turnip into a bowl, there will be juices flowing out as well. If you like more turnip, grate more.
  5. Drain the turnip water in a bowl, and stir-fry the grated turnip in the pan until cook. Season with some pepper, sugar and oyster sauce. Once it is cooked through, add the other ingredients (mushrooms, shrimp, pork sausage) into the pan and continue to cook together.
  6. In a bowl, mix the bag of rice flour with the turnip water and water (about 2 cups of water in total). Make sure there are no clumps from the flour and it is a smooth mixture.
  7. Pour the flour mixture into the pan with the turnip mix and stir in low heat until combined.
  8. In a steaming pan, grease the bottom with oil (so the turnip cake will come out easier).
  9. Pour the turnip mixture into the steaming pan, press down with spoon so there are not air bubbles in the bottom.
  10. In the wok, heat up some boiling water and put the container into the wok to steam in high heat. Make sure you have enough water so it doesn’t dry out. Steam for about 40 minutes until it is all cooked.
  11. Cut into slices and pan-fry until it is crispy on both sides and serve.

It’s actually not that hard to make, just a little time consuming to cut up everything and cook. It probably took me about 2 hours to make (with distractions here and there). It turned out pretty good for my first time. I’m already at 1/3 of it from the batch because I couldn’t stop myself from eating it. Love it!