Entry #7: Irk

Couple things irk me in my life. Okay, I'm being overly humble, many things irk me, but I am only going to discuss a few here:

(1) People who doesn't eat Chinese food but claim they do.

Look, there's no shame in it. I've never had Polynesian food or Moroccan food. I'm not ashame to admit to that. And when and if opportunity arise, I'd love to try it. Only until recently have I tried Mediterranean food. I've had Cuban a few times, not my cup of tea. Again, no shame in that. Even if you are the kind of people who likes to stick with what you like and never try anything out of your comfort zone, I can respect that. Just don't say you do when you don't.

"But how do I know (that it's not real Chinese food)?" was a common defense from these folks. Well, let me share a few tips:

- if you walk into the hole in the wall Chinese restaurant where most patrons are caucasian, and in extreme cases, the only Asian looking guy is the waiter, it's probably not authentic.
- if they serve lunch combo with fried rice or chow mein with fried wonton or egg rolls as appetizer, it's probably not authentic.
- if they serve chicken dishes with white meat, it's probably not authentic.
- Panda Inn is to Chinese food like Taco Bell is to Mexican food (Yes, Taco Bell is not authentic Mexican food, what a shocker. But I'm not Mexican, I'll leave the critique up to some real Mexicans).
- PF Chang is a fusion place at best, you are paying for it ambience, not authenticity. More expensive doesn't mean more authentic.

(2) Which is really quite similar to point (1). People who watches only kung fu and maybe even ghost movies and claim that they "like Chinese movies."

Ugh. Will you say you like Hollywood if you only watch Western? Kung fu is a genre. And frankly, most kung fu movie that made it to US has US audience in mind. They use an exobitant amount of wire work to please the American audience. The entire movie has practically no content but people flying all over the place thoughout the entire movie. They should just produce a Chinese Peter Pan.

Ghost movies are another genre. People who watches ghost movies in additon to (or instead of) kung fu movies are better than those who only watches kung fu. At least Asian ghost movies are not yet produced specifically for the American taste. Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with those folks who enjoy only kung fu. It's a genre and to each their own. But don't claim that "I like Chinese movies." Shocking, there's actually more than these two genres in Chinese movies!! Folks in Asia no longer live in the dark age portrayed in kung fu movies (in fact, directors don't even bother researching proper outfits for kung fu films catered towards American taste. The costumes are more fantasy than historic).

Matrix's choreography/action was done by a Hong Kong crew, do most fans know that? I think not. Yet over 80% of those who owns DVD own a copy of Matrix. "The Departed" was borrowed from a Hong Kong movie "The Infernal Affair." The director was honest about this movie being borrowed from the get-go. Again, do people know that? I think not. God forbid us Asian have movie genres other than kung fu and horror.

This ignorance is no different than assuming folks in Asia still live in the dark ages wearing bizarre costumes and being very uncivilized. No, look at that Asian women that you work with everyday. "Submissive Asian women" is already a thing in the past. So please try to keep up with the progress of the rest of the world. Thank you.

Entry #6 - From Scratch, The OTHER Sister Blog

So my rekindling of my blogging spirit has further inspired S to start a blog of her own -- From Scratch. And since we never defined what exactly qualifies as a "sister blog," I am going to call S's blog my other sister blog. LOL

S is, by the way, the girl who enlighted me of what dough hooks are. I was debating long and hard as to whether to refer to her as DHG (for Dough Hook Girl) or GWTMWADHI (for Girl Who Told Me What A Dough Hook Is), but since she is posting her real name on her blog, I guess I can just conveniently referred to her as S.

Unlike Em & S, I like my perceived anonimity when blogging. Had Em not already referred to me as L on her blog, I was going to pick S (for Scarlett) as my alias. No reason, just the first name that pops into my head. :)

Entry #5 - Jing Jing

Em! I request that you post a picture of Jing Jing on your blog!

(Yes, this count as a blog entry. Speaking of a cop out entry. :D)

Entry #4 - Sister Blog II

TWO days pre-dated. I'm SO much ahead of Em in this blogging game (competition, see what I mean?).

***

When I said I was going to start a sister blog, Em asked me, "What is a sister blog?"

Frankly, I had no idea. I just meant I'll have a blog concurrent to hers. Now I think I'll just randomly mention her in my blog and call this her sister blog. LOL How'd you like that, Em? ;)

Entry #3 - Bread Mix

Even though this entry is also done on 4/25, but in an effort to fulfill (compete with?) Em's goal of one blog a day, I am going to pre-date this for tomorrow. And going forward, any extra blog entries of a day will automatically increment in one day interval. :D

***

So once upon a time I bought two boxes of bread machine mix for my husband ("Hubby"). But because Hubby is such a big admirer of the greatest American hero, he decided to lost the instruction manual that came with the bread machine. And since we couldn't figure out whether it is a 1 lb or 1.5 lb bread machine, the two bread mix just sat in the kitchen pantry and endured at least two moves with us. Finally I said to myself one day, "Screw it! I am just going to proceed as if it's a 1.5 lb bread machine" and made these what I think was God awful tasting bread. Hey, don't judge me. I'm Asian. I'm more the rice kind of gal if you know what I mean. ;) Regardless, Hubby just loved it. Then he turned into Belle (in Disney's rendition of Beauty & the Beast), "But daddy (wifey in this case), all I want is just a rose (bread mix)." And for reasons beyond understand, bread machine mix is obviously a rare commodity in my area. :O

So yesterday I surfed to this wonderful website that offers some 50+ kinds of bread machine mix -- The Prepared Pantry. I absolutely refused to pay shipping and handling that cost more than the item I purchase. That's just ludicrous. BUT the wonderful The Prepared Pantry offers free shipping with $60 worth of purchase. Here comes the quandry, do I really want to buy 20 boxes of bread mix... from a place that I have never tried before? I tossed and I turned and started filling out my shopping cart with stuff (typical woman). After I hit "purchase," I had second thought about $60 with free S&H versus <$25 + $5.95 S&H. So I idled on that page went about doing other stuff (typical procastination personality). Low and behold, an hour later I received an email from Dennis from The Prepared Pantry whom I assumed is the owner... or a VERY loyal employee cause this was 10:35 at night. Dennis said to me "We can see your order, can we help you?" LOL

I imagine that must be like dangling a piece of meat in front of some animals. :D "Oh c'mon, are you going to do it or not." LOL

I emailed him back to inform him of my situation: "Dear Dennis, I was debating long and hard about $60 w/ free S&H v. <$25 + $5.95 S&H. Then I got distracted by the stainless steel egg timer." Translation: "Somehow I don't think you can quite help me with my ADD, Dennis."

This one:



Isn't that just a perfect addition to my kitchen collection? I almost need to purchase a stainless fridge to go with my stainless steel egg timer. WHO doesn't need a cute STAINLESS STEEL egg timer?

Dennis, the loyal employee, wasn't going to let this big fish get away. In Chinese we call that "fat meat at the mouth" (yes, in the old days, fat meat was very precious). He emailed me back a link to inform me that I qualify for a FREE GIFT with my purchase. Little did he know, ADD L already had a new page open and had the free-with-$25-purchase egg timer in my shopping cart. :D

Long story short. We closed the $60 deal without further ado... mostly because of the stainless steel egg timer... and the extra free gift, my dear, loyal, readers, is my sixth cutting board. :D

Entry #2 - Competitiveness

If you are not familiar with the Asian culture, let me clue you in some. As a culture in a whole, we are highly competitive. EVERYTHING is a competition.

So Em read my entry on my three lovely waffle makers and six cutting boards and all of a sudden our respectively collection of kitchenware is now a competition. :O Here's my list:

• a blooming onion cutter
  
• a creme brulee set (courtsey of Em Em)
  
• a kitchen (flour) scale
  
• a hand mixer
  
• an indoor grill
  
• a little stove for eating shabu shabu
  
• a breadmaker (hubby brought into the marriage, in the process of being upgraded)
  
• a vacuum sealer (more hubby's than mine)
  
• a cutter for the vacuum sealer bags (also hubby's)
  
• a deep frier (definitely hubby's)

And if that's not impressive enough for you, here's courtsey from my lovely mother-in-law:

• a crock pot (used once)
  
• roasting pan for turkey
  
• a stand-alone-industrial-grade-weights-about-a-ton uber mixer with dough hooks
• (only recently found out what they are called and what they are used for)

A list of what I am going to get (in the foreseeable future):

• a blender (so I can make pina colada)
  
• a panini grill

What's on my wish list (pipe dream):

• a quesadilla maker
  
• a margarita maker (comes in a set :D)

So, Em, what you got?

Entry #1 - Self Introduction

I am a crazy woman who owns three waffle makers. :D

Why would anyone need three waffle makers, E asked me. Well, here goes, I have a Hello Kitty waffle maker. It's sooo cute:



And who couldn't use a Mickey Mouse waffle maker?



And then, let's be honest, in the end of the day, all I need is just a plan, regular, round quadrant waffle maker:



In addition to three waffle makers, I also have six cutting boards.

Sister Blog

My friend Em finally started blogging and has been pestering me to start blogging again so I decided to start this blog to entertain her. Little does she know that "blogging" to me consist of using a lot of pictures as fillers. :D