Tuesday, January 27, 2009

CNY Goodies

To different people, Chinese New Year (marking the start of the year in the lunar calendar) represents many different things.

For some, it is a time to hang out with the family and get back in touch with distant relatives whom they haven’t seen in months; for some, it’s about the preparations, whipping out the dishes and doing springcleaning; for some, it’s about buying new clothes and getting new hairdos; and for others, it’s about collecting the ang-pows.

For me, Chinese New Year (or CNY) is about ALL those but, above all, it’s about the food. Like many Singaporeans, I’m a huge foodie and this is one of those festive seasons where there are loads of foods that we normally don’t get to eat any other time of the year. So, here’re a list of my top five favourite CNY goodies:

#5: Prawn rolls
The ones I’m talking about are those that look like miniature spring rolls, small cigarette-sized crackers filled with sambal belachan and wrapped in a crispy, deep fried skin. They’re (usually) crunchy, just the right amount of spicy (especially for a spicy coward like me) and are unbelievably addictive. I dare you to eat just one without eating another 20 or so more.

#4: Egg rolls
Egg rolls are one of the quintessential goodies to be had for CNY and there’s a good reason why. Thin, crispy, non-filling, drool-inducingly fragrant and packing an eggy gastronomical punch, egg rolls are definitely a must-have for me during the period. I much prefer the more commonly found thin, brown style of egg rolls to the thick, yellow ones though (although those aren’t seen much nowadays anyways). I’m also quite a fan of different permutations of the goodie (including the folded, triangular versions that sometimes come in durian flavours) although, to me, the original is still the best.

#3: Kueh Lapis
Ok so this isn’t technically a CNY goodie since it’s available anytime throughout the year but still, it’s one of the staples in the goodie containers of houses that I visit. Rather pricey due to the amount of hard manual work needed to compile the many layers of the cake by hand, it is nonetheless worth every cent, with a thick, rich taste that is gastro ecstasy and literally makes me stop chewing so fast and try to savour it as long as I can every single time I eat it.

#2: Pineapple tarts
Another very popular item amongst Singaporeans, pineapples are a must for every single house entertaining guests and, with the many different types of it available and what must seem like every single housewife on the island baking their own batches for sale, there’s just no excuse for having at least a tub or two of this goodie around. I mean, what’s not to like? It’s sweet, it’s filling and nobody ever stops at just one. For me, I’m more of a fan of those egg-shaped tarts where the ingredients are hidden inside the flour rather than those where the entire lump of filling is perched on top but, hey, I’ll take whatever I get.

#1: Yu-sheng
Again, this is not technically a goodie but I can’t think of anything else that symbolises CNY food (and that I love) more than yu-sheng. A standard dish that every single family having reunion dinner must have, yu-sheng (which is a Chinese mixed salad of sorts) comes in many different varieties, with many different places dishing out different ingredients. Personally, this is my favourite part of CNY (I could subsist on this dish alone for those few days) and my favourite version of the dish is the one my grandmother makes, a version that requires lots of top-grade ingredients (including salmon, jellyfish slices, pomelo bits, lime juice and all the usual colourful stuff) and even more effort to prepare. But the gastronomical punch that the dish provides, a delightful mix of sweet and sourness, is more than worth the price.

So, these are my top five foods for CNY. What are yours?

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Reaper

Growing up in the 90s, one of my favourite childhood shows, like many others, was Buffy The Vampire Slayer. A teen dramedy with likeable characters, just the right balance of emotional angsty drama and lighthearted moments, interesting storylines (that got slightly too convuluted in later seasons, though) and a script that brimmed with snappy dialogue and biting (pun intended) wit, Buffy kept me glued to the screen once a week.

A recent entry to the same genre, Reaper, reminds me a lot of Buffy, although it pales slightly in comparison.

Like BtVS (as it’s affectionately known to fans), Reaper is a fantasy-in-modern-settings dramedy that comes in an episodic monster-of-the-week format.

Starring a cast of relative unknowns, Reaper tells the story of Sam, a college drop-out working at a home-repair store, who finds out on his 21st birthday that his parents had promised his soul to the Devil (played by Ray Wise) in exchange for restoring Sam’s father, who was gravely ill at that time, back to health.

On that day, the Devil comes to claim Sam, recruiting him to be his “reaper”, a sort of bounty hunter of souls who had escaped from hell. While Sam initially refuses the idea (understandably), he soon decides to go along when he learns that the forfeiture of the deal would mean his mother has to sacrifice her soul.

Each week follows Sam as he attempts to find and catch the soul-of-the-week, with powers given to him by the Devil that are appropriate for the particular job at hand as well as “vessels”, seemingly ordinary everyday items that are used to capture the escaped souls for deportment.

While the premise of the show might not be the most original idea ever, it does provide a breath of fresh air (as does the execution of the show itself) to the complicated, drama-laden fantasies that are on TV nowadays. The show is irreverent and light-hearted, many times not taking itself too seriously.

The soul-fugitives-of-the-week, while none too memorable, all make for decent stories and episodes, amongst them a bug lover who manifests himself as a humanoid made of bugs and an ex-magician looking for his last big act. Plus, it’s always cool to see what the vessels take the form of, ranging from portable vacuum cleaners to lighters, and how they tie into the story.

The characters, while pretty one-dimensional and nowhere near as immensely fan-base-generating as the cast of BtVS, are well acted. Bret Harrison (who previously appeared in That ‘70s Show and Grounded for Life) is decent in his first lead vehicle, pulling off a decent slacker in the form of Sam and the rest of the supporting cast are similarly adequate.

Deserving of special mention, however, are Wise, who portrays the charming, wiley Devil with a pizazz and Tyler Labine, a dead ringer for comedian Jack Black, who is hilarious as Sam’s goofball slacker best pal Bert “Sock” Wysocki.

The visuals of the show, while not mind-blowing, are pretty good for a non-prime-time TV show and actually look pretty cool (especially with all the vessels and their soul sucking).

While most aspects of the show are not very outstanding, they are definitely decent and collectively make for an enjoyable watching experience. Reaper might not be the classic that BtVS was but, like I say, it is a breath of fresh air from the angsty fantasy teen dramas hogging the screen and I’m glad that the show has been picked up for a second season.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Bedtime Stories

Let’s face it, Adam Sandler movies have never been renowned for their seriousness or artistic merit and, what with the fact that his latest movie is a Disney flick, no one is expecting Bedtime Stories to be more than a flash-in-the-pan laugh, the sort of film that parents rent for their kids on a slow Sunday afternoon.

While Bedtime Stories probably won’t be winning any Oscars any time soon, it is a surprisingly well-done kids comedy and merits at least a non-weekend ticket price.

Starring Sandler (who also doubles up as producer, as he has done for his past few films) and Keri Russell (whose biggest role to date has been as the titular lead in TV drama Felicity), Bedtime Stories is a modern day sort-of fairy tale revolving around Skeeter Bronson, who’s a handyman in one of the swankiest hotels in town (the land for which the hotel owner had bought from his father many years earlier to build).

Having been promised the run of the hotel by the owner as a condition of sale for the land (an empty promise fulfilled by letting Bronson “run” the maintenance of the place), Skeeter, a free-spirited affable people’s person, has always dreamed of finally being able to have rein over the hotel.

When his sister (played by Courtney Cox Arquette of FRIENDS fame) begs Skeeter to babysit her two kids while she’s out of town for a job interview, he’s forced to take care of the kids at night (with Russell’s Jill, a friend and colleague of his sister’s, taking the day shift since she teaches at their school), telling them bedtime stories right out of his imagination. To his shock, he discovers that whatever the kids say end up coming true the next day.

So, seeing the opportunity life has given him, he starts to engineer up a plan to make the kids tell the story as he wants it, with him being the lead hero and getting all that he wants (the run of the hotel and the girl of his dreams, in this case the Paris-Hilton-ish daughter of the hotel owner). Of course, along the way, he learns about true heroism, finds his true love (no guesses who that turns out to be) and there’s the usual Hallmark moral of the story about how heroes are made from the inside, not from childrens’ magical words.

While the story is pretty run-of-the-mill, it serves adequately here, moving the movie along. True, there are never really very many surprises and the ending is about as predictable as it gets, the execution is rather well-done. At no time does the pacing of the movie feel slow or beleaguered, the characters are written well and endearingly (although slightly one-dimensional) and the dialogue scripting is pretty realistic. Kudos to the production team for the fantasy reenactments of Skeeter’s stories which, although decidedly low-budget looking, add a touch of extra fun to the show.

The humour, while obviously meant for kids, is actually pretty good at times, providing a light-hearted laugh (or at least a stifled guffaw), including the really random hokey-pokey scene.

The acting is not bad, although the characters really aren’t the sort to be used as litmus tests for thespian abilities, mind you. Sandler revisits just about any and all of his previous roles as the slightly-loser-ish but kind-hearted and friendly goofball, Russell makes a decent (if boring) Jill and Guy Pearce, as the hotel manager and Bronson’s main antagonist, is sufficiently smarmy.

Watch out for the cameos from the likes of Rob Schneider, who’s a scene stealer and Princess Xena herself, Lucy Lawless, who appears unrecognizably here as the receptionist in the hotel and Pearce’s squeeze.

Bedtime Stories is definitely not a tour-de-force of any kind per se but, as Sandler-Disney amalgamations go, it ain’t a half-bad movie.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars