recent distractions

Culinary Class Wars! It's a Korean cooking contest featuring well-known Michelin starred chefs facing off against unknown, nicknamed "black spoon" chefs who don't reveal their names unless they make it to the top two. We just finished season 2 and it was so much fun, a really wild ride. The food is a lot more interesting than on American cooking contests, especially because there's just, generally, a lot more variety in ingredients, especially vegetable-wise, and everybody on the show has very broad tastes. I want to learn more about Korean temple cuisine - it looks so good, even though the rule of no garlic or onions feels so wrong! More than no meat. My only complaint is that they need more diversity on the types of chefs - the majority are focused on Korean, Chinese, or Japanese cuisine, and among the Western chefs, it's mostly Italian and French. I think season 3 should include some Middle Eastern chefs and maybe Mexican chefs too. 

Latest episode of Accented Cinema is about cinematic depictions of the Butterfly Lovers, which is one of my favorite Chinese folktales. It's got cross-dressing and a tragic love story, and gorgeous music. 

Watch on YouTube