June 11, 2007

• No politics…just movies, kids, dogs and frog fallopian tubes (A FEW of my favorite things:-)

  This past weekend, was the first time in about 7 weeks I haven’t had houseguests or friends visiting.  It wasn’t lonely though.  Friday night, I walked the dogs all around West Hollywood.  Saturday morning Carol picked me up at 10, and we went to the Screen Actor’s Guild showing of Pirates of the Caribbean.  The movie was great.  I wasn’t really thrilled with the second one, but I absolutely loved this one.  It was a real popcorn movie, fun and funny.  Implausible yes, but Johnny Depp finally does deserve an Oscar for creating this amazing character.  I won’t ruin it for those who haven’t seen it, but there’s also an great cameo.

  

  That evening Tyson and I met Tim and Julius for dinner at Din Tai Fung.  If you’re not familiar with the restaurant, it’s a legend in Southern California and Taipei.  We gorged ourselves on dumplings and my favorite green beans.  Yummy!

  

  Afterwards, we went for some Chinese dessert.  Tyson and I opted for fruit, while Tim couldn’t decide between eating a real bird’s nest or frog fallopian tubes (Hasma).  He opted for the latter.  We were just fine with our fruit! 

   

  Who in China, hundreds of years ago, figured out the frog fallopian tubes and bird nests tasted good and had medicinal purposes??  Apparently the process to attain these bird nests is quite dangerous.  That’s why they cost up to $10,000 a kilogram.

  Bird’s nest soup is a delicacy^[1] in Chinese cuisine.

  A few species of swift, namely cave swifts, are renowned for building the nests used to produce the soup’s unique texture. Such edible bird’s nests are among the most expensive animal products consumed by humans. The nests have been traditionally consumed in China for over four hundred years, most often as Bird’s Nest Soup.^[2] When dissolved in water, the birds’ nests have a gelatinous texture. Bird’s nest soup can either be served as a savory soup or sweet, as tong sui.

  Hong Kong and the United States are the largest importers of these nests.^[1] In Hong Kong a bowl of Bird Nest Soup would cost $30 to $100 US dollars.^[2][3] A kilogram of white nest can cost up to $2,000, and a kilogram of “red blood” nest can cost up to $10,000. The white nests are commonly treated with a red pigment, but methods have been developed to determine an adulterated nest.

  

  I know none of this is news to anyone who’s Chinese or Taiwanese or even anyone who has been to China.  I’m just pointing it out to many Americans who don’t understand the delicacies of other cultures.

  So between Tyson (an astrophysicist and hedge fund trader), Tim (going to medical school) and Julius (graduated with about 4 majors from Cal Tech.) I kind of felt like the under achiever at the table, LOL.  Tyson was nice enough to share his Rubik’s Cube tips to the others, and all in all it was a fun and geeky night.  

  

  Sunday, the dogs got me up at 6:30 and we went walking down the middle of Santa Monica Blvd.  It was Gay Pride weekend in Los Angeles and they closed one our biggest streets for the parade.  At that hour though, the streets were empty and I figured the dogs would never get another chance to say they walked right down the middle of the busiest street in West Hollywood.  Something to brag to their friends about at least! 

  Later that morning I went Tommy’s 6th Birthday Party.  We surprised him at a bowling alley, and boy was he excited.  He got a Wii and a lot of other nice things.  Here are a few photos:

  

  

  

  

  

  And here are the rest:

  Click here if you have trouble viewing slide show.

   

  After the birthday party I took the dogs to the Pride Celebration, where needless to say they were quite popular.  Since the entire Pacific Design Center was fenced off for the event, we decided to sneak in and make it our own personal dog park.  At one point Ben & Kris came by with their dog Maggie.  They handed Maggie over the fence to me, and Garbo and Maggie had a blast playing together while Ruby just watched.   Again, here are some pics:

   

  

   

  

   

   

   

  

   

   

   

  After that, Amos and I went to see Ocean’s Thirteen which was actually really fun.  You gotta love Brad Pitt and George Clooney.  They are so damn funny and good together.  There’s also another very special cameo in this movie (like in Pirates), but I won’t spoil it for you.  Again the movie was quite implausible, but very entertaining to watch I thought!  (Hated the Ellen Barkin character though!)

   

  

   

  After the movie we went out for sushi and then came back and walked the exhausted dogs yet again.  LOL.

   

  The last thing I want to talk about is the final episode of The Sopranos.  There are no spoilers here, unless you follow the link below.  A lot of people are complaining about the ending today.  Granted it was the “biggest double take in the history of American television”, but to me it was pure genius, though it took me a few minutes to grasp the brilliance and symmetry of it all.  I thought about what I wanted to write about this after I saw it, but Tom Shale said everything I wanted to say and more in his excellent review in the Washington Post, so check it out, if you’ve already seen the show.

   

  Finally, Happy Birthday to my niece Nicole in Chicago, who celebrated her 11th birthday last week!

   

  

  ---

  • 8:44 pm
  • 9 Comments