@samsooki CH favorites

Alot of them I absolutely loved and all those scenes are worth mention but the one that stuck out that I remember that was perfectly simple and wonderful was when she dances with his jacket for the first time.
Jo Gook was the first character that made me blush I think so anything with him is utterly wonderful. I especially like the camping scene where he snores so she can sleep.
Thank you for the recaps. With each cap I can tell how much you loved and thought about this show. Its wonderful to have you recapping for us all. Hate to see it end.

Have decided that Wish Upon A Star is going to be my light go-to drama. Its fun and SDW is just too cute to pass up. At first I was a little put off by his weight loss since Soulmate but the kid is cute....what can I do? Hope to finish ep 1 of Chuno today and my drama buddy has me watching Ohitorishima, its a cute Jodorama about a History teacher that falls for a substitute tens yrs younger than her.
I also think that I might marathon IRIS and revisit Story of a Man and Coffee Prince. I don't know why but I miss the energy from SOAM and we all know the rationale behind CP ;) To be honest, to date, I still believe that Han Kyul is one of my favorite male characters in a kdrama. GY was superb in giving raw evolution to that man.

@ samsooki

I dunno, you know how I feel about Lugers, I just chalk it up to the special sauce they put on their beef for why it tastes so good, especially when the methodology is so far from canon. :-P
_________________________________________________________

On the topic of deviating from canon, sorry to all OT peeps for my c-drama fangirling in the last two weeks (it's almost over, I promise), but I'm almost done with Legend of the Condor Heroes 2008 version (omg, so good, so so good, and it probably followed less than 50 percent of the recipe for "how to correctly adapt a Louis Cha/Jin Yong novel" and came out with a kickass product).

And with that, I can safely say this is a mainland drama that I can highly recommend, especially for folks who love TVB adaptations or have never seen a drama of a Louis Cha novel.

Trailers (with great English subs) that pretty much lays out the story, so check it out if you're interested, then go find the drama. [Personally, I should have know I would be toast the second the main lead gets up on horseback, arches upward with his bow and arrow behind his back and shoots 2 condors with one arrow - yeah, awesomesauce.]

Trailer for LoCH 2008 part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C4F3mFwmCc&feature=PlayList&p=0E84EEF9C6E7A493&index=7

Trailer for LoCH 2008 part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1h9VK3Me48&feature=PlayList&p=0E84EEF9C6E7A493&index=8

@ mookie

Now my sister thinks that our loverboy reminds her of Kenny Ho. Now *that* I see, in looks and bearing, but Kenny was always just a mediocre actor buffeted by getting one beyond juicy role as Zhan Zao in Bao Qing Tian that paid his meal ticket for the next ten years. Though his version of Chen Jia-luo in LC's The Book and the Sword was my fave portrayal (in a pretty middling production).

@ 299 momosan : I think I get it. I will try it anyway. I need to buy new connector b/c when I got my MacBook Pro through work the connectors weren't provided. Once I have those, I'll see if I can figure out what "circuit" is being used. I've saved your instructions. Will report back. I'll be thrilled to be back watching the TV instead of laptop screen.

@ samsooki

While normally your highly inquisitive and critically analytical brain provides oodles of joy and amusement and knowledge to me (btw, thank you again for translating that JWS YT video, I know how busy you are, and as always, its much appreciated) - this time, just accept that the combination of the Luger mystique, the fact that they get THE best beef in the tri-state area, plus the special sauce - it makes their steaks taste like what you imagine a steak should taste like. My apologies to our vegetarian and vegan OT friends. ;-)

"Their ovens go up well past 1000 degrees (no way to mimic that with any combination of searing, grilling, broiling, whatever, at home)."

Welllll . . . .there's a way to get pretty close to that using a chimney starter. :D Start up the chimney, put a grate on, and go for the sear. That's 700+ degrees right there.

A much easier alternative is to just sugar the steak. After salting the steak, dust it with sugar. Preferably, put the sugar through the processor to get extra fine grain prior to dusting the steak.

You won't taste the sugar during the grill, but you'll get an awesome crust.

"maybe they brush butter and oil on their steaks before searing… like Ruth’s Chris? no idea…"

They give their steaks the butter bath like Ruth's. And of course they tend to serve their steaks on the rare-ish side of whatever state of done you request .

Really, at the prime level (and Luger's has higher fat content per volume than your average prime steak due to the dry aging), it's not that crucial.

@peter luger,
i suspect their steak was macerated in butter AND lard..... but hmmhmm good. cholesterol is nature's msg.

@ patrick tse ie the ultimate Duan Zhengchun@ DemiGods82,
o u didnt know, wuxia twin? it's hard not to in HK coz the family do parade come lunar new year in saccharine family portraits on HK entertainment mags. it's cool Nic and his sis grew up relatively normal ;) i'm not trying to be mean (the Edison Chen scandal to me was nth more than young women having mindslips) but is there sth called 'filial karma'... coz that will sum up Duan Zhengchun and Duan Yu, and i cant help but extrapolate it to Patrick + Nic in RL.

oh my... Kenny Ho... i need to wiki him to rem. Actually he is forever in the hearts of HK guys in their 30s for the hero in ATV's Blood Sword/ Chinese Hero http://www.spcnet.tv/ATV-TV-Series/The-Blood-Sword-p998.html. He's sooo well casted in the role pl asked the author if he had him in mind when creating the charactor. it's the best known Wuxia Manhua fr the same 'mangaka' Ma Wing Shing behind Wind and Cloud. now, Wuxia Manhua has a very seedy reputation, looked downed as sth very 'blue collar' trash. it's taboo for a highschooler to be seen w/ 1, not that i did not get my hands on some and Wind Cloud is terrific. my fav Chen Jia-luo in LC’s The Chen Jia-luo in LC’s The Book and the Sword is still Adam Cheng, I like that he brought some bourgeois to Chen. maybe it's also a sentimental fact that the adaptation was my very first LC drama.
it's my mom's fav, she told me she was watching it all the time while preggie w/ me. lol (and still rewatching it )

@ mookie

"patrick tse ie the ultimate Duan Zhengchun@ DemiGods82"

Oh, don't get me wrong, I know exactly who Patrick is - playing hands down THE most "you-gotta-be-kidding-me" male character Duan Zheng-chun in Demi-Gods, the very virile father of kinda wimpy Duan Yu. (As a kid, I seriously thought DY was committing mental incest left and right when every girl he met during his wulin travels turned out to be one of his half-sisters - yup, daddy already tapped those beauties like 20 years ealier - and then to find out HE was the sole kid not conceived by his daddy was the best plot twist I had ever seen as a kid, and totally unexpected because I hadn't yet learned to expect the unexpected). DZC was one of the funnest characters to watch, I got excited everytime he showed up. And the final confrontation/love fest with all 7 of his wives and lovers was both bittersweet and very fitting for this sweet lothario daddy prince.

Anyways, I don't really follow HK pop-news, so really had no clue Nicky was Patrick's son, but in hindsight, very evident from their live fast, play hard attitudes (how many car accidents has Nicky had now?). I agree the Edison scandal was ultimately a giant brain fart on the parts of all those girls, but I blame only Edison for doing it in the first place. I'm very blase about it, it is what it is.

I've never seen the Adam Cheng version of either The Book and the Sword or Dragon Sabre (if its made in the 70s, I aint seen it). Definitely will look for clips to see if I would have liked it. AC has really aged very well as an actor.

As for wuxia manhwas, I have no interest in reading them but did find all the love for Wind and Cloud pretty cool (loved the design).

Hmmm, somehow we always end up talking about steak. I think I'm going to have to go out for Korean BBQ this weekend, just to assuage the meat cravings you guys have stirred up, even with that disgusting musing on butter-smothered steak (frankly, ick). I had planned to have salad for dinner tonight...

@ ockoala: hahaha , same here watching DJZ w/ that 'I'm not ur father' reveal. ( way more jaw-dropping than the I'm ur father in starwars), the DemiGods adaptations r like wuxia soaps, loads of makjang yumminess, but the book is in a higher orbit...

I watched our loverboy's bits in Chinese Paladin 3. it's real action DragonballZ + early Stephen Chow drama. i can totally see the branding of the HK crew behind it

@ mookie

"I watched our loverboy’s bits in Chinese Paladin 3. it’s real action DragonballZ + early Stephen Chow drama."

Absolutely, very Wind and Cloud-ish. The whole power of lightning bit. But so kindergarten as compared to the sophistication of LC. But at least they try real hard and put out entertainment and never pretend its anything more than an adaptation of an RPG game.

But doesn't Yuan Hong look half asleep in CP3? Almost he was visiting the set to check up on his BFF Hu Ge and keep in eye on his *wink wink* friend Liu Shishi, and got dragged into costume as Yun Ting for a guest spot that requires him to bare his chest and look very shuai for 3 episodes, and the entire production team is like....score!

Oh, and Yang Mi's overacting is really painful in CP3 esp. after I watched her very nuanced portrayal of Guo Xiang in RoCH 2006 (very 16 year old girlishness mixed with a mage-like understanding of the world). But then CP3 requires overacting (HG, YM and the rest of the bumbling squad) or sleepwalking (YH, LSS, and the other quieter characters).

As for DZC - I just love that guy! Seriously, so freaking unabashed and totally just a happy dude - so what he totally cheats on his wife with his mistress, and his mistress with another mistress, and so on and so forth - he loved them all! And they all loved him, too. (I think Wei Xiao-bao in Duke was the everyone-gets-their-happy-ending version of the DZC story). And then to have his wife cheat on HIM with his cousin, priceless (remember, the reveal came from wifey, and DZC was all like *what?!?").

So Duan Yu ends up *still* the rightful prince of Dali, except his daddy is from the displaced royal line, and when Duan Yu becomes King at the end, it reinstated the rightful line back to the throne. Oh, and DY gets to marry Wang Yu-yan cuz she's not his sister anymore. Win-win. Hehe, LC, you old goat, I love you so much with your brilliant storytelling.

@ hjkomo-sis

Oh, he saw her all right. He saw her, but she didn't see him (yet) - and probably won't until later. So. Good.

@296 momosan @290 nycgirl

So, is it worth upgrading memory to 4GB and hard drive to 320GB. I`m thinking of placing an order on line on the day I`m leaving here and supposedly having it delivered(it says same? next day delivery!) the day after I get home!

Thank you for your advices I`m rereading them all right now and looking up the site.

@ 313 celestialorigin

You might want to think about investing in an external hard drive for back-up purposes... for what you'll probably pay for the laptop hard drive upgrade (I don't know but I suspect $150 or so), you'll be close to a 1T external hard drive. Maybe you already have a good back-up system... I decided to go this way. So my laptop is 250GB internal HD, and I'm getting a 1T ext HD (already have a 100GB ext HD but it's full--it's portable and I'll use it as back-up for basic files when I'm travelling, but have the 1T at home to back the full system and store video files). Anyway, an option to consider.

@ 312 ockoala

Oh, yeeaaaahhhh....good, I wasn't imagining things on 2 hrs sleep & a tiny VOD screen. ;)

@ Samsooki

It just happened I got a few books on the science of cooking yesterday and was especially interested in the grilling section. I'll read it and report back to you.

At school, we were taught to grill the steak at a high temperature and not only salt the meat right before. (b/c the salt draws out the moisture... but I have seen some chefs who like to salt their steaks before... so go figure) I was also taught that steak are suppose to sit for a bit which is never a problem in the restaurant since the whole plating and waiting for the server to come get the plates usually give you plenty of time anyway.

I have never had the pleasure to eat at Lugers yet. There isn't one around here, but I imagine since it is on the hot plate it is cooking the whole time it is traveling from the kitchen to you. My personal opinion is that while the whole letting your steak sit is good practice, when you have:
1. a great cut of steak
2. Not cooked above medium
3. seasoned correctly
4. Seared at a high temperature

You will enjoy that piece of steak even if it didn't quite sit long enough. Also it sounds like they serve it with a great sauce which probably make up for any juices that were lost. Gosh, I think I'll have steak tomorrow.

On a side note. Watched the trailer for Summer's Desire today (Taiwanese? or China? show with Barbie Xu) It seem like a grand sort of romance but is just me or does both male leads seem kinda mentally disturbed. I think it was the male lead that keep saying "You are mine" in a sort of freaky stalker sort of way. I liked Mars which had its share of disturbed characters so maybe this one will turn out alright too.

^ o I read Summer the novel (stylistically a shoujo manga), quite entertaining read... it should be Mars to AC lvl of angst, but lately I have a LOT of suffering watching dramas by HXM ( An Xiang 暗香....brain diarrhea) and Peter Ho (bro4 in Young Yang Clan...sorry, he's so opposite of hot imo...and is he even trying to act at all?)

@ Samsooki
"Of course, i don’t like red wine at all"

O_O
OMG!!!...I may have to disown you as my doppelganger...
o_O

o_O

o_O

That...and "freeze-dried coffee" - ACK!!!

O_o

"a cakebread sauvignon blanc "

Jesus, are you stalking my innards, samsooki? I freaking served that at my wedding, which involved over 200 people getting so drunk I don't think the wedding suite was able to be returned to its normal state.

Anyways, red wine is da bomb, you have to branch out a little, even if Cakebread anything tastes good with everything.

I had dinner at The Dining Room, Michael Voltaggio's restaurant. My GF will probably tweetpic all the pictures she took. MV is the newest sensation, the latest Top Chef winner. I happened upon the media day for the cable stations at the Langham hotel, so it was a melee to say the least. Dinner was great company with good food. A solid one Michelin star, 1 and a half if I'm going to be generous.

Best part of the evening, the waiter coming out as I'm reaching for my wallet and telling me and my best college GFs that "Ladies, I want to let you know that Mr. ___________ has paid for your meal tonight." And all three of us looking very confused, and they all looked at me like some dude had picked me up tonight (me, why is it always me?), and then we realized my hubby called and paid for dinner! Best part of the evening, sweet and totally unexpected. But none of us registered at first who Mr. _______ was (he has a very generic asian last name, plus I don't take his last name, ergo, we were confused, and drunk, which heightened the confusion).

I'm happy and full, so a good night to everyone and back to OT tomorrow.

@ hjkomo-sis

I watched the eppie TWICE! He saw her alright, but because she's not going to see him (yet), she will be able to have a convo with the other him about her first him who she thinks is a dead him. Got that? :-P I also hope its not a figment of my imagination.

@ mookie twin

Please lay off Huang Xiao-ming (blank handsomeness freezes the brain) and Peter Ho (OMG, just awful, his Si Lang rivaled Wu Lang in mindnumbing bad acting).

More loverboy please.

Oh, and I had over 2 hours of conversation with my sister about Bidam today, and I watched a bunch of YT videos about him (I have barely skimmed QSD). She's in Bidam withdrawal, and I love her so I'll help her by saying things like "poor Bidam!" and "KMG is so hot as Bidam!" and so on and so forth.

@ ockoala

Got it. Crystal clear. :D

That's so sweet that your hubby paid for dinner. What was the media event for?

I do agree that Samsooki needs to branch out more - he doesn't know what he's missing!
But "Cakebread anything tastes good with everything."...hm...we'll just have to agree to disagree. ;)

o gosh! Mr Koala is so sweeT! :) and here I'm quality time is watching Conan OBrien tog.... *roar* who am I kidding, my guilty pleasure as well.

see I was checking stuff out with Yang Mi in it... and that HXM vehicle was a grand 2008 production.... I must say Yang Mi is so much better with a melodrama or serious material, she somehow amidst the brain diarrhea writing and everything else...still manages to act her most earnest.

Also I just started 10 min of this: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/The_Prince%27s_Education it's with loverboy and Yang Mi. So far so good... but I doubt it's your thing, it's typical CCTV serious historical stuff, so nth fangirly is happening other than story telling, more CitC (but not as good a quality of coz) than Chuno.

You guys wouldn't think I would miss OT Friday, right??? A big "hello" from HKG...more precisely from Canossa Hospital in HKG. What started as a check up for a inflammed nerve was later accurately assessed as a pinched nerve. My Mom will have a back surgery on Sat am to relieve the problem. I missed you all very much...hope you all are doing well. No...besides my Mom's apartment and the hospital, I have yet gone anywhere else...it's ok since the purpose of this trip is for my Mom and not for pleasure....I'm actually getting used to the crazy Taxi drivers, here ( very comparable to NY's ;) Gotta go

@langdon
I am so sorry to hear about your Mother( I finally read 1/2 of the OT). A belated, but sincere condolence from me to you and your family. Hugs and warm embraces ...I will chat with you more when I return from HKG. Please take care.(cingdoc)

Awwww! Cingdoc! I missed you! I`m still in Japan as well spending some time with my family. So our time differences aren`t that much(two hours? between here and Hong Kong?). Everybody`s asleep back in the States right now. I was just thinking how much I`ll be missing my sisters as well as my mom after leaving here for Tokyo to attend a wedding party tomorrow night, then, off to back home to So. Cal. Too bad, they don`t live any closer...

Trust your mom`s going to be perfectly fine and I`m sure she`s really appriciating you being there . Our time with our loved ones is so precious. Sending my prayers for your mom`s surgery and fast recovery afterwards. Coincidentally, I`m watching Infernal affairs 3, right now, just taking a little break from it sitting with my mom. Seeing Hong Kong in background, I was thinking I sure could use the great foot massage you have there... And the food! there! Actually, tomorrow my girlfriend from Hong Kong and I are meeting up in Harajuku for shoppingfor a wedding gift, sort of last minutes, I`d say. This world is getting smaller than ever.

@momosan
Thanks for all the tips on Apple TV. They will be handy later since my primary motive is to watch kdrama and downloaded movies from Netflix.

@ celestialorigin
I have the 4GB and I'm glad I have considering the dramas I download to watch during business trips. I also have automatic backup as mentioned and an external drive but I don't find I need the external but I'm not subbing files or keeping lots of old dramas either. I watch and delete.

@Winedrinkers
Red over white any day. The only time I prefer white on a hot summer day and I like something like a pinot grigio. I like dry reiselings for a light first course and champagne with oysters just about any day but other than that I drink red especially if your eating something like steak.

@ samsooki, ockoala, etc : I have no idea what Cakebread wine is, but it doesn't sound like steak-accompanying material. Samsooki doesn't like red wine? Maybe try a pinot noir, or, my current fave, malbec. Mmmm. Although I have to say that oddly enough for the middle of winter, I'm going through a white phase and am currently very into a French wine called Les Fumees Blanches. Delicious. Crisp and a little smokey.

@ nycgrl

White burgundy! My favorite is Meursault - the most well-balanced, imo. (I don't like over-acidic whites, especially when they don't have the body to hold it up.)
Forget over-oaked, no-bodied CA chardonnay....go with the folks that truly know how to make chardonnay - the French! :D

And how can anyone drink white wine with a steak?! o_O
Samsooki, an awesome Bordeaux is TEH AWESOMESAUCE when it comes to having steak. ;)

@ reluctantbutaddicted

Cakebread is a Napa Valley winery. I'll say no more...
(actually, their whites aren't too bad...)