Category Archives: Personal

Recipe: Cabbage and Chicken Salad

Being from a Vietnamese background, it is of no wonder that I would love to keep the recipes that I loved. So when my mother emailed me the recipe to a cabbage / chicken salad… to say that I was thrilled was an understatement.

In Vietnamese this is known as Gỏi Gà aka Vietnamese Chicken and Cabbage Salad. Looking at my mother’s recipe I knew it was a more simplistic version of a salad I knew well in restaurants. So searching online I found a more appropriate recipe that you guys could latch onto:

INGREDIENTS
1/2 kg cooked shredded chicken (or use the chicken meat from making the congee)
1/4 cabbage, finely sliced
1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced matchsticks
1/2 onion (red or brown)
1 cup herbs (Vietnamese mint, mint and coriander)
3 tablespoons roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons fried shallots
1/2 lemon juice
4 tablespoon of white vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons sugar
1 cup fish sauce dipping sauce

METHOD
Step 1. In a small bowl, combine, lemon juice, vinegar, salt and sugar. Stir until sugar and salt dissolves.

Step 2. In a large bowl, add cabbage, carrot, onion, herbs, chicken and vinegar mixture. Gently toss to well combined.

Step 3. Turn salad to a serving platter and sprinkle roasted peanuts, fried shallots and serve with fish sauce dipping sauce.

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Recipe: Butterbeer Cupcakes

Once upon a time, I really wanted to try my hand at cupcake baking. I came across this new fangled idea when I was surfing Mugglenet.com and came across a recipe for Butterbeer Cupcakes by the Collegiate Baker. When reading up on what the Collegiate Baker did I realized that she actually adapted her recipe from that of another blog from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen.

When perusing the recipe I realized that I am not exactly a fan of butterscotch to begin with, but Butterbeer is a popular beverage that is described by JK Rowling as

a little bit like less-sickly butterscotch

Ok, so now I’m tempted… I am really really tempted, especially since the homemade frosting became a major draw for me.

INGREDIENTS
For the Cake:
1 box yellow cake mix
1 cup cream soda
3 eggs
1 stick of butter, melted
1/2 cup melted butterscotch chips 		For the FROSTING:
1 stick of butter, softened
3 tablespoons of cream soda
3 cups of powdered sugar
2 tablespoons of butterscotch ice cream topping
butterscotch chips for topping

DIRECTIONS:
Step 1: (Starting with the cake portion): Mix the yellow cake mix, cream soda, eggs, melted butter, and melted butterscotch chips (in that order) in a medium/large mixing bowl.

Step 2: Mix on medium speed for two minutes.

Step 3: Follow the temperature and time directions as instructed on the yellow cake mix box.

Step 4: (Now for the frosting): cream the butter and cream soda by mixing on medium speed for approximately two minutes.

Step 5: Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time for easy mixing.

Step 6: Then mix in butterscotch topping.

Step 7: When cupcakes are cooled, cover each with frosting and top with butterscotch chips.

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Entertainment: Ignorance – England descended from America???

While going through my Facebook feed, this popped up via The Nerd Code.

I went to England and they spoke American??? Why is this?
Also they copied our city names like Boston, (New) York, Birmingham and the state of (New) Hampshire!!! Why do they copy us!!! Also why Do they say david beckham is English when he’s American???

Christopher Columbus, under the commission of King Washington sailed from Boston Harbor seeking a new trade route to Spain when he accidentally discovered the British Isles. He named the place England after the New England states in the USA. People in England are the direct descendants of American sailors and therefore speak American. David Beckham became an American citizen when he married his Posh Spice who is a direct descendant of Pochantas, a native American.

The United States has a rich heritage. Americans have migrated all over the world and populated all of Europe. Europeans are all descendants of the American peoples.

Considering some of the people I have run into in my past… this just doesn’t surprise me anymore…

Though the above is really really tempting to adapt into a short play.

Recipe: Corned Beef Hash… on Rice

While grocery shopping a few weeks ago, I came across a bit of corned beef and decided to purchase it on a whim. Coming from an Asian family, corned beef isn’t exactly a common meat in the household, though we all have had a bit of a corned beef as a deli meat and as sandwiches.

So why did I decide to get a slab of corned beef? Who knows… and it took well over a week before I figured out what to do with it… Corned Beef Hash!

Well duh, why didn’t I think of this before? The recipe would be similar to that of the Vietnamese dish: Bo Luc Lac aka Vietnamese Shaking Beef. Over at RasaMalaysia the Ravenous Couple were asked to write a guest post blog about the dish as well as their recipe:

INGREDIENTS:
Beef Marinade
1.5 lbs beef sirloin (or any cut you like) cut into 1″ cubes
2 tbs minced garlic
1.5 tbs sugar
2 tbs oyster sauce
1 tbs fish sauce
1 tbs sesame oil
1 ts thick soy sauce

Vinaigrette
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1.5 tbs sugar
1/2 tbs salt

Dipping Sauce
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 ts kosher salt
1/2 ts fresh cracked pepper

1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 bunches of watercress, long stems trimmed
2 tomatoes, thinly sliced

Cooking oil for frying

METHOD:
Prepare marinade by combining garlic, oyster sauce, sugar, fish sauce, thick soy sauce and sesame oil with the beef for at least half an hour, preferably 1-2 hrs.
Prepare vinaigrette by mixing rice vinegar with salt and sugar. It should be a balance of sour, salty and sweet.

Thinly slice the red onion and use about 3-4 tbs of the vinaigrette to pickle and set aside covered in fridge for about 10 minutes. Prepare bed of watercress and tomatoes in a serving platter and set aside.

Heat a large wok or pan over high heat. Add about 2 tbs cooking oil and when it begins to smoke, add an even layer of beef and allow to sear for about 2 minutes, before “shaking” to sear the opposite sides for about another 1-2 minute more to brown all the sides. Do this in batches to cook all the beef if necessary.

Transfer beef to bed of watercress and tomatoes. Drizzle another 3-4 tbs of vinaigrette over the beef and greens and top with pickled red onions. Lastly, squeeze lime juice over salt and pepper in a small ramekin.

Enjoy!

COOK’S NOTE:
We like our beef medium rare and test the meat by touch and sight–it will plump up slightly and be bouncy to the touch with a spatula.

Granted, at home we had a much more simplistic version of the above recipe, but this is very good nonetheless. But, instead of adapting the above recipe for the corned beef, I figured I would go with my original idea of making Corned Beef Hash to test for taste and texture before seeing if I could create an adaptation of the above with the Corned Beef.
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Fleeting: Life’s Greatest Irony – Death

Over the weekend I finally sat down and watched: Dirty Step Upstage, a mockumentary about an aspiring actress who finds herself sucked into a world of intrigue and fame that threatens to devour her if she gets in too deep.

I was just in a ‘blink and you miss it’ moment, but essentially I died in the movie.

Later in the weekend I sat down and wrote a few ten minute plays, one of the plays involves a character meeting her end in a car accident… Well technically she is in a coma, still able to breath and beat on her own, but the moment she stops breathing and her heart beat stops when the doctors go to attempt resuscitation it is then realized that she has a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) on file.

Ironically, the ten minute play was in a way a re-imaging of a particular scene I wrote at Currents, the online soap opera… except there was no DNR in that case, but some of the storyline is rather similar, the fight, the aftermath, but not the cause. When showing the first draft to a couple of friends one of the things that came out was that they were not able to sympathize with the male lead. He had a chance to make amends and yet he continuously pulls himself away to the point that when he finally figures out what he wanted in his life he loses his chance due to death.

In fact one of those beta readers went so far as to ask: why use death as a final result when you could achieve the same kind of emotional turnout with the ex-girlfriend dating someone else. To be honest, that would have been the most realistic way to work through things… however to me killing off the ex-girlfriend was far more definitive than having her move on. To me keeping someone alive and moved on to someone else only invites the possibility that she and him could get back together further down the road. Whileas when you kill off the character (as long as the story is still realistic) that ends any possibility of a reconciliation for anyone and the living have to live with any regrets they may end up having.

That kind of got me thinking… Why do we fear death? What is it about the concept of death that forces us to ignore its existence.
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Review: Fanaticly Website and App for SYTYCD

About a month and a half ago I was approached to review a website and corresponding app for iPhone. Interesting proposition to be sure, but something I don’t usually do… I can be harsh with my reviews, blunt and to the point. I have no qualms in exposing what I do not like about something, but at the same time I will acknowledge when something is done right.

This is no different, there are some aspects of either the website or the app that I dislike, but there are also some aspects of the website or app that I truly liked…

So beyond the break I will provide my impressions in regards to the app and the website. After my impressions there will be a quick line or two for the positives, negatives and the bottom line for both the app and the website. At the end of this post will be my final thoughts and what I would love to see down the road… preferably sooner than later.
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Fleeting: Weathering the Storms

Earlier this summer, I was conversing with an old friend of mine (old for me meaning close to seven years now), about my current emotional situation… She proposed a scenario that immediately reminded me of two other instances where friends intervened to mediate.

Before I go on, here is a bit of what my friend said:

[…] I’m starting to think he doesn’t have the balls to talk to you or pursue you whether it be in terms of a friendship or relationship. And the fact that you spoke your mind to him is a good thing. If he can’t handle a little fire, he needs to get out of the kitchen. Cause anyone in a relationship knows that if there aren’t a few fires or conflicts to overcome, I’m not so sure it’s worth being in that relationship. If anything, [overcoming conflicts] shows just how strong the bond is between friends or lovers.

Now, normally I would agree… but I can’t help but think about his past, or mine… and how difficult it can be to open and trust someone in such a way that you know you are doing nothing but leaving your heart open for someone to simply stab through with a sword. Especially knowing that it has been stabbed, repeatedly before.

Though he’s been burned, it’s up to him to muster up his courage and take the chance of getting burned again for that one chance to find something real with a person who he can open up to. He’s got to try.

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Reflection: US Men’s Olympic Gymnastics in Beijing 2008

For anyone that remembers what happened back in 2008… after the U.S. Olympics Trials the following Men’s Olympic Team was announced for the Beijing Olympics that year:
– Paul Hamm
– Morgan Hamm
– Joe Hagerty
– Jonathan Horton
– Justin Spring
– Kai Wen Tan

Though Paul did not compete, he did however did enough to earn a spot on the Olympic team. Eventually though Paul had to drop out of the games due to his injuries unable to heal enough in time for the games and the first alternate was called up to the plate: Raj Bhavsar. Just to give a quick recap: Raj was an alternate on the 2004 U.S. Mens Gymnastics Olympics Team and was originally once again the alternate in 2008, but due to Paul’s withdrawal he was called up to fill the spot. He grew between the two Olympics, not only as a gymnast but also as a person, taking that “devastation” of being an alternate in 2004 and learning how to come to terms with it in 2008.

Originally with the Hamm brothers, the United States Gymnastics Team was expected to contend for the gold medal, and though with Raj the gold was a possibility it wasn’t nearly as strong as it were with Paul Hamm. They, after all still had the other Hamm brother: Morgan, who heard questions only about his brother who was considering a trip to Beijing.

Then the unthinkable happened: Morgan Hamm had to withdraw having injured during training at Beijing. Suddenly the idea of the United States Mens Gymnastics Team capturing a medal at Beijing seemed more like a pipe dream… still the United States moved forward, trying to decide whom to bring up to the plate David Durante or Alexander Artemev. Knowing that they needed help on pommel horse they went to the one guy who had the talent and skill set to fill that void: Alexander Artemev.

Now back during the United States Olympic Trials, Alexander placed fifth in the all-around and was passed over for the Olympic Team due to consistency issues, even though he is largely known to have the most pure talent of any of the Olympians. However, what he is capable to bring onto to the table didn’t just give him the chance to put his magic on his apparatus of choice: the pommel horse, he is expected to put his talented magic to good use on all six apparatus giving him the chance to qualify for the individual all-around. Who knew?

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Entertainment: Final Fantasy in Concert 25th Anniversary

Yes I am a geek… I am a full fledged geek. I LOVE the Final Fantasy series, but not for the gaming aspect of it, but for the graphics and the music. Oh. Em. Gee. the music… I am so in love with the music. In fact I am such a lover of music that I have been to almost every Final Fantasy Concert that have come through Chicago. Now that there is a 25th Anniversary Concert of the Final Fantasy Concert Series coming to Chicago in December…? Let’s just say I was so excited that I got my ticket already.

The first concert to come through Chicago was aptly named: Dear Friends – Music from Final Fantasy. In fact it was the second Final Fantasy related concert to grace North America, and it was a big deal… the biggest ticket in town for those of us who were major fans of the series. So in 2005 on February 19th, out in the Rosemont Theatre (now the Akoo Theatre) the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra perform the following pieces from the Final Fantasy repetoire:

SET ORDER SONG TITLE FINAL FANTASY GAME
1. “Liberi Fatali” Final Fantasy VIII
2. “At Zanarkand” Final Fantasy X
3. “Terra” Final Fantasy VI
4. “Theme of Love” Final Fantasy IV
5. “Dear Friends” Final Fantasy V
6. “Vamo’ Alla Flamenco” Final Fantasy IX
7. “Love Grows” Final Fantasy VIII
INTERMISSION
8. “Aerith’s Theme” Final Fantasy VII
9. “You are not Alone” Final Fantasy IX
10. “Ronfaure” Final Fantasy XI
11. “Medley” Final Fantasy I, II, III
12. “Cloud Smiles” Final Fantasy VII Advent Children
13. “Final Fantasy Theme” Final Fantasy series
ENCORE
14. “One-Winged Angel” Final Fantasy VII

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Personal Endeavors: Working Backstage

As much as I love the arts, I grew up with a problem solving, mathematics, theoretical mindset… so during the last show that I participated in as ensemble I grew to truly appreciate the stage management, the sound design/engineering and lighting design/engineering.

I never really had a chance to truly work behind the scenes, mainly because I prefer being on stage as opposed to behind the scenes… but when I spent some time with the Sound Designer in learning what goes into determining the pieces of equipment, microphones, antennas etc needless to say I was hooked… or rather hooked enough.

Eventually I would love to learn about lighting design/engineering as well… but without working with someone with not only the love and passion of lighting design but also an engineering mindset, well then… that’s a no go. I much prefer to be the kind of designer/engineer that not only understands the technical side of the spectrum but also the artistic side and marrying those two sides would, hopefully, allow me to be a much more valuable player behind the scenes than the average person. But we’ll see.

So I’ve been researching around and looking to see if perhaps I could find a suitable apprenticeship or internship in the city theatres that I could work with in the interim years, but with so many things on my plate currently… who knows how that would work.

But there has got to be some way to marry what I learned in college and my otherworldly pursuits so I don’t feel terribly overwhelmed.

One step at a time.

Entertainment: New Sailor Moon Anime Debuts Summer 2013

Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about this. I love the original comic/manga series from Japan, was glad that as bad the original English translation was it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as how the Americanized translation treated the Japanese animation. Ugh.

In fact it was so bad that I don’t think I ever really watched many of the individual episodes, however, I really liked the films/movies that came out of the series… to the point that I actually have the original VHS/DVDs somewhere.

So is it with some amount of cautious optimism that I will look at this theoretical Sailor Moon Anime series. I mean, the updated Sailor Moon manga series I am very glad to see… so yeah, we’ll see.

Conventions: FablesCon aka Fabletown and Beyond

A lover of fairytales, folklore, mythology, etc I found it rather interesting that I didn’t pick up this series sooner. In fact if you head on over to the Entertainment link in the upper right hand corner and on the drop down menu click on Literary you’ll see that the Fables series is one of the book series that I highly recommend reading.

Fables
For anyone that really enjoys fairytales and nursery rhymes and are open minded to the seeing them in a new light would really pick up this series. Taking many of the beloved fairytale characters and re-imaging them while staying true to their roots (roots as in the original Grimm stories and those from Hans Christian Anderson, etc… none of the Disnified versions).

A very strong example of this is the story of Snow White, while everyone knows of the tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves the tale of Snow White and Rose Red. Bill Willingham masterfully combines the two “Snow Whites” and created a full and colorful backstory that not only is unique, colorful, and truthful.

The Fables world eventually expanded into Jack of Fables, The Literals and the Great Fables Crossover, the Cinderella mini-series which includes: From Fabletown with Love and Fables are Forever and most recently Fairest.

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Entertainment: Michael Phelps at the London 2012 Olympics

Just as a fair warning the below is just a quick post about Michael Phelps’ individual events in the Olympics thus far, there will be another post that would focus on the relays that he has participated in the past as well as which he is expected to participate in the upcoming Olympics.

With Michael Phelps choosing to drop the 200m freestyle from his swimming card for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, I thought it would be interesting to go back in time and watch his progression from the first Olympic Trials that he participated in: the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia:

During the 2000 US Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, Michael competed in three events and how he fared:

EVENT PRELIM SEMIS FINALS
200 Meter Butterfly 1:58.61 (Q) 1:58.24 (Q) 1:57.48 (Q)
200 Meter Individual Medley 2:06.91
400 Meter Individual Medley 4:25.97

So way back when, Michael only qualified for one events in the Olympics, but considering he was only 15 at the time… well what would you expect? He was making his mark on the scene and the world wasn’t going to forget Michael in the years to come.

Since then Michael has expanded his swimming dance card to the point that he was able to compete up to eight events per Olympics. Below is a table of all the events (individual only) he has competed in during the past three Olympic Trials (2000, 2004 and 2008) broken down by event.

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Entertainment: The Avengers – Sailor Moon style!

Since The Avengers opened in theatres a several weeks ago there’s been a plethora of fan art throughout internet. Heck even the Hulk flinging Loki like a ragdoll was recreated in some capacity or another in various YouTube videos.

So when going through Fashionably Geek, I geeked out on the following image.

Yes, you’re seeing that right, it’s The Avengers redrawn into the image of a Sailor Soldiers. Looking more into detail it turns out that the above was drawn by Ann Marcellino, which prints are available.

Reflection: Pottermore Wand and House Selection(s)

So almost a year ago I was lucky enough to be able to test Pottermore and play around with the website. As it was for everyone that has read the Harry Potter books, any fan of the series would be interested to find out what their wand would be and which house they would be placed in. I was no different…

THE WAND CHOOSES THE WIZARD
So when I went through the questions that would lead towards the wand that would choose me I was kind of curious to know what the individuals pieces of the wand signified.

What I really enjoy about Pottermore is that it goes into more detail of the significance of the wood used, the three cores used in Ollivander’s wands, how is length of wand determined, and the flexibility of the wand.

For my wand I was given:
– Wood: Fir
– Length: 10-3/4 inches
– Core: Unicorn hair
– Flexibility: unbending

Based on what was explained on Pottermore:
WAND WOOD – Fir
My august grandfather, Gerbold Octavius Ollivander, always called wands of this wood ‘the survivor’s wand,’ because he had sold it to three wizards who subsequently passed through mortal peril unscathed. There is no doubt that this wood, coming as it does from the most resilient of trees, produces wands that demand staying power and strength of purpose in their true owners, and that they are poor tools in the hands of the changeable and indecisive. Fir wands are particularly suited to Transfiguration, and favour owners of focused, strong-minded and, occasionally, intimidating demeanour.

WAND CORE – Unicorn Hair
Unicorn hair generally produces the most consistent magic, and is least subject to fluctuations and blockages. Wands with unicorn cores are generally the most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts. They are the most faithful of all wands, and usually remain strongly attached to their first owner, irrespective of whether he or she was an accomplished witch or wizard.

Minor disadvantages of unicorn hair are that they do not make the most powerful wands (although the wand wood may compensate) and that they are prone to melancholy if seriously mishandled, meaning that the hair may ‘die’ and need replacing.

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