Billy Elliot

I watched Billy Elliot last Thursday over spring break. It's pretty funny that the reason that I ended up getting able to watch it was because I told my hairdresser in the Philippines that Billy Elliot the Musical was showing in Chicago, and he told me that I should definitely watch it, especially since it got good reviews and won a lot of awards (even though he hadn't watched it himself).

I thought it was a great musical. I mean, I've watched a lot of musicals over the years and I felt that it had the best choreography out of all of them. The dance sequences combined different genres of dance--rock, tap, ballet--such dance (as a whole) was a subtext on its own that supported and expanded on the main plot of the musical. I felt that for me, the dancing eclipsed the singing component of the play (although this may also be because the songs were all new and unfamiliar to me).

Compared to the movie, which I last watched about 5 years ago, I think that the play focused a lot more on the union strike of the coal workers in Britain (unlike the movie, which depicted the strike as more of a side-story). The change--or I suppose redirection--of focus added a layer of depth to the tension between Billy and his family, because the money that Billy needed to go to ballet school was hard to come by during the time of the strike, and so it was a touching scene when the union workers who were trying to make both ends meet collectively contributed money so that Billy could go to London and audition for the Royal Ballet School.

In any case, I would recommend watching this musical.

Day of Cooking

The day before the last day of Spring Break (yesterday--Saturday), I spent the whoole day cooking, tasting and prepping. Of course, I took some breaks in between, and of course, I did not cook everything by myself (but instead, I cooked with someone else, and mostly did dessert, prepping and toppings). Generally speaking however, I cooked from 10 in the morning to 7 in the evening. It was very...nice (therapeutic in a way even though I was tired when everything was all done). I believe that it was a successful dinner...and there were a LOT of leftovers after. Here's what we had (not actual pictures, these are all stolen from the internet):

1. Horseradish Soup topped with pan-fried pancetta and shallots

-This dish came out pretty well--we cheated a bit because we didn't use lard (instead, olive oil) nor did we use speck (instead, we used normal prosciutto). Also, instead of doing the whole thing for the brown chicken stock, we ended up using canned chicken broth, which we boiled all the vegetables and spices in for 2 hours to come up with a stock.

-The thing that surprised me with this dish was that the horseradish tasted very mild and not at all like how I would have imagined it (like wasabi paste, which is normally made out of horseradish). I think that the potatoes and cream probably tempered the "kick" that you would expect out of it, and the prosciutto added a meatiness that went well with the horseradish taste.

2. Prosciutto-wrapped asparagus topped with candied walnuts

(No recipe but we just wrapped asparagus with prosciutto, brushed them with olive oil, topped them with ground pepper and broiled them in the oven; walnuts were just toasted in a pan and coated with brown sugar and maple syrup)

-The thing with prosciutto is that if you buy it from Costco, you end up eating A LOT OF IT. I mean, we used some in the soup and some for the asparagus, but there was some left (and of course, since you can just eat it right away, it's a nice, gourmet cooking snack--which I used to wrap up some dried plums and walnuts...yumm). I wish I had figs, but plums were a good substitute.

3. South American-style Halibut and Coconut Sauce with a side of plantain

-I guess at first I felt that the halibut tasted really acidic, especially because of the lime and orange in the marinade, which was just a striking contrast to the sweetish coconut milk. If I had to do the recipe again, I would probably not marinade the fish for that long (probably less than an hour as specified by the recipe) and would maybe put some brown sugar into the coconut sauce, or something fruity and sweet (like maybe mangoes) to even out the lime flavors in the fish.

4. Braised Pork Belly

-I thought this dish was really good. The pork was tender and had a nice balance of sweet and salty which to me was reminiscent of Chinese adobo (in the Philippines) or Pata Tim, pork leg which is normally served with steamed buns. Even though this dish took quite a while to make (mostly braising time), I thought that the time was well worth it, because the pork belly was tender and flavorful.

-I had this today with rice and mango and it reminded me of Manila. It was good. :)

...and for dessert:

Tiramisu Pancakes

-Hmm. I feel like this dish probably looks (and sounds) better than it actually was. I mean, these pancakes were good, even though they were a lot of work, but I don't think they captured the "tiramisu feeling," if that term even makes sense at all. For me, part of what makes a good tiramisu is the ladyfingers being drenched with the flavor of the coffee, and I don't think I got this very much from the tiramisu pancakes, which I think tasted a bit off because of the sour cream (even if I know that it was added in to make the pancakes fluffy). In addition, I think most of the taste from these pancakes came from the cream (which I have to admit was really good).

-Bottom line--I would probably find a way to drench the pancakes in flavor, and maybe not take the trouble to follow the pancake recipe (instead I would take a regular pancake recipe and add espresso powder/cocoa powder to it).

...and Guinataan (Yams in Coconut milk and glutinous rice balls)

-This was pretty good I thought, even though it was a bit too sweet for my taste (even though I added less sugar than was called for and diluted it already with water). It ended up pretty thick in consistency so I think everyone was pretty full after dinner to eat a lot of it--understandable.

-When cold, this tastes like taro coconut-milk...paste or something like that. Like ice cream but not creamy. Pretty good.

Kuma's Corner

Kuma's Corner

So I tried going here twice in the past--both times, the wait was for 2+ hours if I'm not mistaken. This time, on a weekday at around 1pm, the wait was 30-45 minutes, which I spent looking at the stuff on the walls (rock-band related), people-watching (there were a lot of semi-hipster-looking people) and observing the grill area (really small and extremely busy). The music was also really loud.

Anyway.

We got the BBQ Pork fries (fries topped with BBQ pork and jack cheese) that looked like this (but we had waffle fries, not regular ones):

We also got the Plague Bringer (Burger with Roasted Garlic Mayo, Tortilla Strips, Chicago CO-OP hot sauce, Fresh Garlic, Pepper Jack, Sliced Jalapenos) that looked like this:

...and the Lair of the Minotaur (with pancetta, brie, caramelized onions, and bourbon smoked pears) that looked like this:

Both burgers were REALLY good. And I don't like burgers that much too. I really liked these burgers because: (1) the meat patty was pretty thick and cooked really well; (2) the toppings were delicious; and (3) the burgers are served on a pretzel bun, which was not only chewy but was sturdy enough to be able to hold up the burger and its toppings pretty well.

Fries were also pretty good (crispy and not too greasy), as was the house salad that we got (basil vinaigrette was nicely acidic and fresh-tasting).

switching things

Yesterday, I decided to switch class sections from one professor to another. I hate to admit it, but I ended up changing sections was because I just got final grades from all my classes and I was a bit shocked at the grade which I received from this particular class. I don't think it was the grade itself that freaked me out--I think it was more of the fact that I didn't believe that my effort was proportionate to my grade. I always find it pretty frustrating when things like this happen, because then I feel that my investment of time and effort has not paid off in the slightest amount.

True, switching class sections may not change anything, but I think that in the end I would want to believe that I tried to do something about my situation instead of having the same thing happen to me again, which would leave me even more annoyed with myself than before because of the knowledge that I had the opportunity to change my situation but did not.

I actually surprised myself with my decision to change things around. Normally, I tend to keep things the way they are because familiarity can become an extremely comfortable environment that is difficult to walk away from. Even though things are not necessarily working in my favor, in familiarity I at least have the advantage of the knowing, and have faint expectations and standards (imposed by myself) that allow me to think and act in a way concurrent with what I already know and expect.

Well, I guess I'll see how my decision plays out.

IASMFIFLAFC*

For the past two days, it's been a rush of grocery shopping, cooking, eating, baking, cooking, eating (in that order, not kidding). Basically, a lot of food. It's been fun though, because when I was in school I missed my kitchen BADLY (spoken like the girl whose favorite room in the house is the kitchen).

So this is what I've made, and what I've eaten (of course, since I didn't bring my camera, my

food did not actually look like this--it looked similar or better):

1. Butter Chicken (made): Chicken with butter, yogurt, half-and-half, garam masala, cayenne pepper, lemon, cumin, tomato puree etc.

I thought this recipe was PRETTY

BAD. AND the recipe said that it was from an Indian restaurant. AND it got 4.5 stars as a review. Anyway, I guess it was not too bad but it was definitely not authentic. I followed it halfway

through and realized that the chicken tasted Italian and not really Indian. More specifically, the sauce tasted like a creamy tomato sauce. In addition, the spices that were mentioned did not

add a depth of flavor and complexity to the dish which I normally associate with Indian food. Given that, I stopped using the recipe and just went off on my own, adding more spices (cumin,

garam masala, pepper) than was called for, and cooking the chicken in garlic-infused oil.

If I had to free-handedly do this dish again, I would maybe cook the ginger and garlic paste first with some of the oil or the butter and then maybe add in some of the spices for flavor then kind of sear the chicken to give it the flavor first. After that I would set the chicken on the side and cook the sauce using crushed tomatoes for some texture and just add a lot more spices to it, then eventually add the chicken back in.

2. Indian Spiced Shrimp (made): Shrimp with turmeric, cayenne pepper, onions, tomatoes, etc.

I was a bit more obedient to the recipe this time (but not really either). Since the request was not to make this too spicy, no jalapeno was added to this recipe, which was ironic because even with that, my heavy-handed and spontaneous spice application (which also included extra garam masala, garlic

powder and

curry powder) put a lot of cayenne pepper into my shrimp, making it pretty spicy...OOPS. But of course I know how to deal with these sorts of mishaps, and I added yogurt, lemon and sugar to the shrimp. Final result? It tasted pretty Indian and not too spicy. I was fairly satisfied.

3. Tonkatsu (eaten): panko-breaded pork with ketchup-based sauce

Thanks to the 99-cent-per-pound pork chops at the supermarket, these were pretty cheap. De-boning and pounding on pork chops really makes them much bigger and extends their...eating life (for lack of a better word). New idea for saving money.

4. Cat Cora's Holiday Spice Cookies (made--not exact picture but looked close to this): cookies with shredded carrots, oats, dates, walnuts, cranberries, raisins, etc.

These were okay and did not taste like guilt (sugar or fat); instead, they tasted like cakey little bites of crunchy carrot cake. Kind of. Pretty easy to make I think, and relatively healthy and high in fiber...not bad in my

opinion.

5. Ingrid Hoffman's Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (made): cookies with NO BUTTER (instead, olive oil and applesauce), chocolate chips, oatmeal, etc.

[DID NOT PUT A PICTURE ON PURPOSE BECAUSE NONE OF THE ONLINE PICTURES LOOKED LIKE MY COOKIES...or vice versa I suppose]

This recipe was "meh" to quote MLIA and a friend, same as the other cookie recipe (in terms of meh-ness). It was pretty cakey but crunchier than the Cat Cora recipe. I feel like with healthy cookie recipes, you lose out a lot on the chewiness of the cookie which is what I look for in my baked goods. I miss the kind of fattening cookies I used to make (and give to a lot of people to... spread the love) which looked more like this (and were chewy, warm, and not that sweet--perfect with milk too):

YUM.

Other things...

Garrett's popcorn

So apparently this place is known for popcorn and there are long lines of people who try to buy this popcorn. I tried it by chance because I was buying a ticket in Downtown for Billy Elliot tomorrow and my aunt parked the car and bought popcorn here because it was next door to the Oriental Theatre. Both of us munched on the Chicago mix (half cheese, half caramel corn) because we hadn't eaten

lunch yet, which was...

Superdawg

This drive-in, which is also a Chicago institution was featured on the Food Network special for hotdogs around the US (Hot Doug's was also featured, which has reaaaaallyyy good and more "out there" hotdogs). They had a pretty good basic hotdog (Superdawg) but I thought their Whoopskidawg was better, since it was bigger and had a different blend of spices.

Anyways, must sleep.

* I ate so much food I feel like a floating cat

Cute animal things

So I was walking in the mall yesterday and there was this dog boutique which had puppies up for adoption that looked like this:

...and they were making cute yipping noises and scratching at the doors of their small cubicles.

SO CUTE.

Other things that elicit the same response as this puppy:

1. French bulldog can't get up: One it's a little French bulldog puppy, two it can't get up so it rolls around on the floor for about a minute. Aah! So adorable!

2. Welsh Corgi puppies running: I just really like Welsh Corgis. They're like little fox dogs that are furry and huggable. These puppies in the video are soo cute, as they are basically little fluff balls with short legs. AND they're running.

3. Husky saying "I Love You": It's a Husky...that talks.

4. Bunny in Bowl: Even though it gets to be repetitive after a while, it's a bunny--in a bowl that nibbles. Hahaha.

And, in honor of my blog name...puppy wearing a sweater:

Food I feel like eating at the moment

So. I had a massive food baby yesterday after eating an inordinate amount of Indian food at an Indian lunch buffet (the naan was so warm and good and chewy, and everything else was good). This post seems really odd given that in mind, but whatever.

Filipino Breakfast

normally consists of fried egg, rice (or garlic rice), a side of tomatoes and one of the following:

-tapa (pictured on the left): marinated sweet/salty beef

-Spanish sardines: sardines in oil with chilis

-longganisa: sweet/salty pork sausage

(variation on this is Vigan longganisa which is smaller and salty instead of big and sweet)

-bangus: milkfish which is sometimes marinated and deep-fried

Spanish Chocolate

Does this even need an explanation? Yes, I guess. Well I like this a LOT better than other hot chocolate because it's creamier, thicker and not as sweet. Perfect for eating with the Filipino breakfast (above) or for dipping pandesal and churros in. I prefer mine slightly bitter and not extremely thick and I end up making my hot chocolate in the microwave for convenience's sake.

I probably desecrate the whole thing by adding soy milk instead of regular milk or cream, now that I think about it...but it works (especially since soy milk is thicker and sweeter than regular milk).

Prosciutto and Fig pizza

I first had this in a restaurant near my house in Manila called Trio, which had a lot of oval-shaped pizza with different toppings. This was probably my favorite out of all of them, because the combination of sweet figs with the saltiness of prosciutto was pretty amazing. Because of this pizza, I love figs and buy them (as dried figs) from the bulk section of the supermarket every so often. Trader Joe's has them as well (buy the black California ones, not the whitish-yellow Kalmyrna figs).

Ok. The elliptical beckons me. Will maybe continue this list later.

movies i've watched over spring break

Since I've watched several movies over this break, I shall try and be really concise and write only 3 sentences about each one. First sentence: summary (get ready for looong sentences); second sentence: what I think of the movie; third sentence: "moral" of the story or what "life lessons" can be taken from the movie. Here we go:

1. Vicky Cristina Barcelona

(1) Two friends (Vicky and Cristina) go to Barcelona and meet Juan Antonio, an artist who invites them to an island and wants both girls to sleep with him (Vicky doesn't because she gets food poisoning but Cristina who is engaged does); after getting back from the island Vicky becomes Juan Antonio's girlfriend

(ALTHOUGH JA's ex-wife Maria Elena comes back, which becomes convenient because they al come to eventually have threesomes--but sadly this comes to an end) and Cristina gets married (but realizes that she still has feelings for Juan Antonio, gets seduced by him, and shot by a jealous Maria Elena).

(2) Woody Allen has an interesting mind and probably wishes (or already believes) that he is like Juan Antonio, who gets to sleep with everyone, basically.

(3) If you go to Barcelona and are a woman, watch out for random people inviting you to islands; if you are a man, invite touristy-looking women to your island.

2. Closer

(1) Dan meets Alice when she gets hit by a car in front of him (they start to have a relationship), but Dan meets Anna, a photographer, and persuades her to have an affair with him, and eventually stalks her and poses as her in a cybersex chatroom, where he talks to Larry and tells him to meet him at the aquarium (he eventually meets her there, and they start to have a relationship and get married)--long story short, Dan and Anna cheat on Alice and Larry, Alice becomes a stripper that Larry gets to see strip, Anna sleeps with Larry to get a divorce from him but Dan finds out and breaks up with Anna, Anna and Larry get back together, and Dan and Alice get back together (but eventually break up when Alice finds out that Dan knows about her and Larry).

(2) Relationship dynamics between the characters was so interesting to watch on screen, especially since all the actors/actresses are all really good.

(3) Seriously, what's the point in cheating if you'll probably end up with the same person in the end anyways after a lot of unnecessary complications.

3. When Harry Met Sally

(1) Harry and Sally drive off from New York from UChicago (yay!) where Harry says that men and women cannot be friends because the sex part gets in the way of friendship, after many years and chance meetings (where they dislike each other), they become close friends who ask each other advice about relationships, even setting each other up with their

respective friends (who eventually get married to each other); after Sally gets really upset when she finds out that her ex-boyfriend is getting married, Harry consoles her and eventually both of them sleep together, which becomes awkward and they drift apart (eventually, Harry realizes that he is in love with Sally and they get together and marry each other).

(2) I love this movie because it's not as sappy as other romantic comedies and the dialogue between the characters is more witty since both characters are a bit neurotic.

(3) It gets awkward when you sleep with one of your really good friends.

4. Let the Right One In

(1) Oskar, a 12-year old boy who gets bullied in school a lot and is a bit of a loner meets a girl named Eli who moves in next door (she also is good with Rubik's cube solving and does not get cold EVER--take note that this is Sweden and she doesn't wear jackets outside); Oskar and Eli eventually become close friends (even though Eli reveals that she is a vampire and kills people in town for their blood) who defend each other and eventually run off together (especially since Eli killed a lot of people already).

(2) A bit weird I have to admit, because of the odd combination between childhood love, murder, vampires and emo-ness, but was overall a really interesting take on the whole vampire movie/horror movie/love story genre (very un-Twilight for sure).

(3) Be careful when you see little children in Sweden who do not get cold--they may be after your blood.

5. The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de sus Ojos)

(1) Benjamin Esposito shows up at his old office after retirement and realizes that he wants closure from a case he worked on about a woman that got raped and murdered--most of the movie is a flashback of what happened during that time, where he was in love with his boss (who was engaged to someone else) and tracking down the murderer of the woman who was raped and murdered--in Benjamin's quest to see what has happened after 25 years, he finds out that the boyfriend of the victim decided to take justice into his own hands and kidnap his wife's murderer (whom he imprisoned in a self-constructed prison shed for 20+ years), and that his boss still loves him (even though it's been a long time and she has a family already).

(2) Aside from the thriller-ish/detective-ish aspect of the whole film, the movie (which has beautiful cinematography and colors as well) has the theme of the passage of time and letting go of the past that is woven through the entire plot, making it less of an action film and more of a drama--I liked the combination that resulted; it was a well-made film.

(3) Dissing suspected rape criminals by saying how un-manly and puny they are is a great way to get them riled up, enough such that they confess to rape.

first post

It's spring break!

...and it is snowing really hard outside.

blizzarding, actually.

...and just when I said that, the snow stopped.

Talk about the power of suggestion.

In any case, this is my blog, or will be my blog where I shall throw all my random thoughts and fling them out to the world at large.

Will I actually keep this blog? Who knows.

Let's see how this goes, shall we?

So, first thing's first. How did I come to name this blog?

"Herro"-funny way of saying hello that also sounds like how a cute little dog (or stereotypical Asian person--not to equate dog and Asian) would say it. Also, I like random funny noises.

"Homesweaters"-in the belief that you can attach the word home to nearly any noun.