Blog Archive

March 27, 2014

Cultural Night: Korean, Chinese, American

Like my period, I'm so late with my Cultural Night blog entries (LOL) so I'm making it a quarterly instead of a monthly update this time. Anubayan, pa-"low-key" ng pa-"low-key" mga dates namin..transitioning to parenthood ba itech? :))

Korean
We planned to have this last December when we went to east coast but we forgot with all the other kinds of food and activities already provided to us so it was moved to January when we were back in Tucson.

We almost forgot the name of this restaurant if it weren't for the pictures that Pop took. I was telling him that it's just sad that it meant that our date nights were becoming less and less memorable but then he reminded me that he chose this restaurant because it seemed more appropriate as he will be dining with his Seoul-mate...acheche! sige na nga, pasado na!
Let's see... we had some kind of korean pancake made of vegetables and tempura for appetizer. The pancake looks like okoy but with vegetables so it was kind of oily and I'm not really a fan of the vegetables used. The tempura is not really that Korean-y...we just ordered it because Popy was craving for it. For the main course, I ordered Kalbi Tang and Pop ordered Beef Bulgogi. They came with miso soup, rice and kimchi. Needless to say, we were so full afterwards and still had enough for take-away. I tried the kimchi for the first time but I didn't like it, maybe because it is an acquired taste or it's made of vegetables (Sorry, baby!) but everything else was satisfying. In terms of ambiance, it was casual dining and there was a TV playing what looks like a Korean reality show with no sounds. It looks dramatic but we couldn't take it seriously because of the man's blond hair. :))

Bean Dae Deok: Korean Style Pancake

Movie: 작업의 정석 The Art of Seduction
We were initially planning to do a Korean TV series marathon but things got busy and I'm too lazy to read the subtitles. Being our anniversary month, we decided to watch this light romantic comedy. Like most romantic movies, it does not make sense but it is good for entertainment. :))

Chinese
With all the chaos of transferring homes, we squeezed this in February.

Food/Activity: siopao and siomai
Since we were already planning on making siopao and siomai, we counted it as our chinese food (and activity). I know that it is really more Filipino-Chinese than Chinese but we didn't want to spend after our biggest purchase yet (aka house) so that will have to do. For siopao, we made asado. Admittedly, this was the shortcut version: using McCormick asado mix for the filling and Panlasang Pinoy's recipe for the dough and siopao sauce. It turned out ok though I remember the Goldilocks bake book we did before was tastier and had better texture. Oh well, I guess that's the price we pay for time and effort or beginner's luck. For the siomai, we made pork (with some shrimp) siomai. For the filling, I used the usual recipe from PanlasangPinoy but bought the wrapper from Walmart instead of our local Asian supermarket (Leelee). Since Pop is the master wrapper for the dimsums ("Intcheck it out, y'all!":p) and I'm the official mixer, I'll leave to him to review which wrapper is better.

Movie: Man of Tai Chi
Damn, another movie with subtitles! Pop thought that there weren't that much subtitles, since Keanu Reeves is in it, but apparently not, so I'm out of luck. There were A LOT of fight scenes... I guess Pop is taking advantage of watching all those violence while baby is not yet out.

American 
Monthsary Date for March

Food: Red Lobster
Since I was craving for some seafood and I felt the baby was not getting enough omega-3 due to lack of fresh seafood in Arizona, this was our choice of restaurant. We took advantage of the Lobsterfest promo and coupon. Pop got the Dueling Lobster Tails (A roasted Maine lobster tail topped with tender shrimp in a creamy garlic sauce paired with a golden-baked Maine lobster tail with crab-and-seafood stuffing. Served over mashed potatoes, roasted tomatoes and green beans.) and I got the Lobster Lover's Dream (A succulent rock lobster tail and sweet split Maine lobster tail, roasted and served with lobster-and-shrimp linguini Alfredo.). Both came with biscuits, salad, and a choice of side dish which I wasn't aware of until our waiter took our order (which I wish I read somewhere in their menu so I could have planned for a more balanced plate). Also, I couldn't choose among the salad dressing options because the only vinaigrette they have is red wine vinaigrette. Anyway, fishy ambiance smell, unbalanced plate and limited salad dressing aside, my craving was satisfied.


Movies: Academy Award movies
This made a perfect excuse to watch a couple of movies that won in the Academy Awards which was held at the start of the month. The first movie on our playlist was Dallas Buyers Club. Matthew McConaughey is so freaking thin in this movie so I guess he really deserved the best actor award for doing that to himself.
The second movies was 12 Years a Slave. Pinagma-"Lupita"n ng todo si Lupita dito. Wakoko! I guess the pattern now is to have a tortured movie role to win an academy award.:p 
Lastly we watched The Wolf of Wall Street, we got to learn some loop holes in the stock market that we could use if there is a readily available DeLorean that actually travels back through time. DiCaprio was good but was outshined by McConaughey in Dallas Buyes Club.
There was not much to add to our playlist because we have already watched the other winning (and nominated) movies before namely:
  • The Great Gatsby: We watched this last October, I think. It was our drinking game movie with "Gatsby" as the trigger word. Needless to say, we got drunk and wasn't able to finish the movie.::))
  • Frozen: We watched this in the cinema on our trip to Long Beach last Thanksgiving. I haven't seen the trailer before I watched it so when I heard the title and knowing the people who invited us to watch it were Pop's guy friends, I thought it was some sort of suspense (like Taken) in a snowstorm filled place. Little did I know that it was a Disney movie.:)) Given the raves and different covers done by other people, the movie and music were obviously a hit.
  • Gravity: We watched this the previous month if I remember correctly. Yung feeling ni Sandra Bullock nung mauubos na yung oxygen sa helmet nya pareho siguro ng feeling pagbarado ilong at tenga ko due to pregnancy. :p
  • American Hustle (nominated): Naumay kami ni Pop sa dibdib ni Amy Adams dito so no props for costume design for this.:)) Di ko rin mashado gets yung con at entrapment na nangyari...kala ko parang Leverage lang. Hindi rin bagay kay Jennifer Lawrence yung pang-nanay na role kasi mukha pa siyang may baby fats.
  • Captain Philips (nominated): Nainip ako sa tagal nila mahuli yung hijackers. In fairness, thriller nga talaga sha. Tapos di ko ma-differentiate yung itsura nung mga hijackers kaya ni-labelan ni Pop para sa kin: si ipin (ung leader), si tangkad, si bata at yung drayber. Sana po hindi ko mapaglihian ang mga to.


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