Ramen Redux and Random Movies
A couple of months ago, I reviewed Samyang Spicy Chicken Curry based off of a sort of half-assed attempt at making it. Basically, the cooking instructions were just ever slightly more complex than the typical ramen (dump everything in one pot, boil, eat). So instead of following the extra step in the instructions, we cooked it our lazy way.
Product packaging, for reference.
Basically, the added step we were too lazy to take was to boil the noodles first, dump out all but 8 spoonfuls of water, then mix in the curry/spice seasoning. Too much work, right!?! This time, I figured we'll do the right thing and it maybe took me an extra minute to prepare.
In the middle of prepping.
The finished product (which doesn't look that different than what's in the pot).
The result is a less soupy noodle and it's super spicy. I eat a lot of spicy food with no issues but this left me finishing a whole cup of water plus my bottle of beer and then I think I ate something else afterwards to basically not die. But I enjoyed it a lot more than our first half-assed attempt at making it. Who knew following cooking instructions was important?
My previous rating was a 4 for this ramen. But after following cooking instructions, I give it a 5. Based on how good this ramen was, we bought another flavor of the Samyang brand and will try it at some point.
My (Very Asian) Ranking:
5 - Very good, and will eat again and pay money for it (even if it is not on sale)
4 - Not bad, and will eat if someone gave it to me for cheap and I need variety in my life
3 - Just okay, and will eat it if it's free
2 - A little bad, but will eat it if I'm starving and there's nothing else to be had for free
1 - Very bad, and will not eat it even if it was free and it's the zombie apocalypse (though may feed it to my hanger-oners to keep them alive as zombie fodder)
My movie-watching had gone down a bit since I've been watching The King's Woman so these movies are actually what I watched weeks ago but forgot to post about:
This is a fairly standard and cute Taiwanese romantic comedy written by Giddens Ko, the same guy that wrote You Are the Apple of My Eye (the "guys masturbating in class together" movie). It's about a girl (Vivian Sung) trying to find the courage to profess her love for some guy, only to realize at the end that the guy she loves and that loves her back is the dopey guy (Bruce Hung) that's been hanging out at her side the whole time. Her story is intercut with other characters' stories, including the owner of Cafe.Waiting.Love and the barista (Megan Lai).
The story, even though set in real life, is fairly fantastical for the sake of comedy. Gangsters are amusing rather than being fearsome, the male lead carries a cabbage handcuffed to him at all times, the girl's roommate continuously smashes her head with a brick to practice iron head kung fu, *spoilers* the girl was seeing dead people the whole time but it's not a horror movie. So it's not the story for someone looking for realism.
In general, I think most Taiwanese romantic comedies are the answer to those days when I just want to plop down pantsless in front of the TV and turn off my brain. They tend to be super sweet and cute and this one is no exception. I have never been so emotional over sausages, like when the dopey guy confessed his love to the girl and notices her head smoking...
...so he reached behind her head, hoping to pull out a bowl of tofu fa...
...but it's just sausage.
Crushed Ralph Wiggum look.
And I have never been so emotional over tofu fa when, later on, the girl rides to the airport after realizing that she loves dopey guy after all...
...only to encounter people staring at her oddly and it's not just because she's crying hysterically...
...she reaches up...
...to find a bowl of tofu fa on her head.
True love, man. True love.
This is the movie we called "Deadpool in space with Aliens". And it's essentially that. The movie is generally "meh" even though it has Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and real Jake Gyllenhaal (man, that's how his name is spelled?). But I guess it's just the movie they make to fill in time between their various more successful careers. If one cares about Deadpool, watch Deadpool. If one cares about Jake Gyllenhaal, go watch whatever arty thing he's done. And for an aliens movie, probably watch Alien, Aliens, or Alien: Resurrection.
This is the movie that money-making Thor (Chris Hemsworth) made, probably to make more money. It inexplicably also stars Sean Bean (of course, half dead by the end of the movie). In general, the movie is a mess because it couldn't decide if it's a comedy or a thriller but fails to be either. I've still yet to find a Chris Hemsworth movie that's not Marvel that didn't suck. But at least he's got that Marvel money!
Strangely, for a movie with Ariel Lin, Vic Chou, and Bolin Chen, three of Taiwan's hottest actors and three people I generally like, I wasn't overly fond of this movie. I blame it on being a Chinese production and also one with the annoying premise of a 30-something woman that desperately needs to get married. The main character admits as much in her opening monologue that she's not trying to be a woman with a career. She just wants to be the girl that's proposed to and taken care of. Blerg!
That said, I like all three actors and they all do a fine job with the material they're given, which is basically a "which guy will she end up with?" story. Would it be scruffy rich guy Bolin Chen?
Better dressed and clean-shaven though ever-slightly poorer Vic Chou?
Or would there be a twist where Bolin Chen and Vic Chou end up together?
NaBro, it ends with a very public proposal that's very cringe-worthy to me instead of it being romantic. Maybe Chinese writers need to watch more Taiwanese romantic comedies because the ending would have been much better had Vic Chou ended up pulling tofu fa out from behind Ariel Lin's head. Bolin Chen just gets sausage on a stick.
And that's it, until probably tomorrow, when I finished another drama and talk about that!
Product packaging, for reference.
Basically, the added step we were too lazy to take was to boil the noodles first, dump out all but 8 spoonfuls of water, then mix in the curry/spice seasoning. Too much work, right!?! This time, I figured we'll do the right thing and it maybe took me an extra minute to prepare.
In the middle of prepping.
The finished product (which doesn't look that different than what's in the pot).
The result is a less soupy noodle and it's super spicy. I eat a lot of spicy food with no issues but this left me finishing a whole cup of water plus my bottle of beer and then I think I ate something else afterwards to basically not die. But I enjoyed it a lot more than our first half-assed attempt at making it. Who knew following cooking instructions was important?
My previous rating was a 4 for this ramen. But after following cooking instructions, I give it a 5. Based on how good this ramen was, we bought another flavor of the Samyang brand and will try it at some point.
My (Very Asian) Ranking:
5 - Very good, and will eat again and pay money for it (even if it is not on sale)
4 - Not bad, and will eat if someone gave it to me for cheap and I need variety in my life
3 - Just okay, and will eat it if it's free
2 - A little bad, but will eat it if I'm starving and there's nothing else to be had for free
1 - Very bad, and will not eat it even if it was free and it's the zombie apocalypse (though may feed it to my hanger-oners to keep them alive as zombie fodder)
My movie-watching had gone down a bit since I've been watching The King's Woman so these movies are actually what I watched weeks ago but forgot to post about:
This is a fairly standard and cute Taiwanese romantic comedy written by Giddens Ko, the same guy that wrote You Are the Apple of My Eye (the "guys masturbating in class together" movie). It's about a girl (Vivian Sung) trying to find the courage to profess her love for some guy, only to realize at the end that the guy she loves and that loves her back is the dopey guy (Bruce Hung) that's been hanging out at her side the whole time. Her story is intercut with other characters' stories, including the owner of Cafe.Waiting.Love and the barista (Megan Lai).
The story, even though set in real life, is fairly fantastical for the sake of comedy. Gangsters are amusing rather than being fearsome, the male lead carries a cabbage handcuffed to him at all times, the girl's roommate continuously smashes her head with a brick to practice iron head kung fu, *spoilers* the girl was seeing dead people the whole time but it's not a horror movie. So it's not the story for someone looking for realism.
In general, I think most Taiwanese romantic comedies are the answer to those days when I just want to plop down pantsless in front of the TV and turn off my brain. They tend to be super sweet and cute and this one is no exception. I have never been so emotional over sausages, like when the dopey guy confessed his love to the girl and notices her head smoking...
...so he reached behind her head, hoping to pull out a bowl of tofu fa...
...but it's just sausage.
Crushed Ralph Wiggum look.
And I have never been so emotional over tofu fa when, later on, the girl rides to the airport after realizing that she loves dopey guy after all...
...only to encounter people staring at her oddly and it's not just because she's crying hysterically...
...she reaches up...
...to find a bowl of tofu fa on her head.
True love, man. True love.
This is the movie we called "Deadpool in space with Aliens". And it's essentially that. The movie is generally "meh" even though it has Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and real Jake Gyllenhaal (man, that's how his name is spelled?). But I guess it's just the movie they make to fill in time between their various more successful careers. If one cares about Deadpool, watch Deadpool. If one cares about Jake Gyllenhaal, go watch whatever arty thing he's done. And for an aliens movie, probably watch Alien, Aliens, or Alien: Resurrection.
This is the movie that money-making Thor (Chris Hemsworth) made, probably to make more money. It inexplicably also stars Sean Bean (of course, half dead by the end of the movie). In general, the movie is a mess because it couldn't decide if it's a comedy or a thriller but fails to be either. I've still yet to find a Chris Hemsworth movie that's not Marvel that didn't suck. But at least he's got that Marvel money!
Strangely, for a movie with Ariel Lin, Vic Chou, and Bolin Chen, three of Taiwan's hottest actors and three people I generally like, I wasn't overly fond of this movie. I blame it on being a Chinese production and also one with the annoying premise of a 30-something woman that desperately needs to get married. The main character admits as much in her opening monologue that she's not trying to be a woman with a career. She just wants to be the girl that's proposed to and taken care of. Blerg!
That said, I like all three actors and they all do a fine job with the material they're given, which is basically a "which guy will she end up with?" story. Would it be scruffy rich guy Bolin Chen?
Better dressed and clean-shaven though ever-slightly poorer Vic Chou?
Or would there be a twist where Bolin Chen and Vic Chou end up together?
NaBro, it ends with a very public proposal that's very cringe-worthy to me instead of it being romantic. Maybe Chinese writers need to watch more Taiwanese romantic comedies because the ending would have been much better had Vic Chou ended up pulling tofu fa out from behind Ariel Lin's head. Bolin Chen just gets sausage on a stick.
And that's it, until probably tomorrow, when I finished another drama and talk about that!