Thursday, February 24, 2022

Cooking With Fernet Branca














tags: cooking, dark humor, Italy, satire
⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads
Gerald Samper, an effete English snob, has his own private hilltop in Tuscany where he whiles away his time working as a ghostwriter for celebrities and inventing wholly original culinary concoctions--including ice cream made with garlic and the bitter, herb-based liqueur known as Fernet Branca. But Gerald's idyll is about to be shattered by the arrival of Marta, on the run from a crime-riddled former Soviet republic, as a series of misunderstandings brings this odd couple into ever closer and more disastrous proximity . . .
After reading while laughing out loud the funny Cookbook For Deplorables, I suddenly remembered the hilarious misadventures of Gerree Samper in Cooking With Fernet Branca. I read this book in 2005 and loved his absurd farcical relationship with Marta and vomit-inducing out of this world culinary inventions specially the Liver Ice Cream or Garlic and Fernet Branca Ice Cream. Marta finds the flavor is herb-y but doesn't seem to notice the garlic. She is as weird as Gerald. BTW, Garlic Ice Cream is being sold in California if you want to have a taste. 

I reread it and still love it for its satiric take on travelogues/memoirs such as Peter Mayle's A Year In Provence, which I also loved, BTW. I absolutely agree with Gerald's spot on description of Tuscan bread. I baked the Tuscan-style bread in 2010 for a blogging community baking challenge. Gerald notes:
"There is something radically wrong with Tuscan bread. Frankly it's a disgrace: the one thing to disfigure an otherwise classic cuisine. Even Italians from other regions make ribald remarks about it - like for instance that it's the only bread in the world to emerge from the oven already stale."
The second and third books in the trilogy are equally witty with more of Gerald's acerbic humor and odd culinary experiments
Amazing Disgrace
Rancid Pansies (an anagram of Princess Diana)

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

A Train To Moscow














tags: historical fiction, Russia
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads
In post–World War II Russia, a girl must reconcile a tragic past with her hope for the future in this powerful and poignant novel about family secrets, passion and loss, perseverance and ambition. In a small, provincial town behind the Iron Curtain, Sasha lives in a house full of secrets, one of which is her own dream of becoming an actress. When she leaves for Moscow to audition for drama school, she defies her mother and grandparents and abandons her first love, Andrei.
Before she leaves, Sasha discovers the hidden war journal of her uncle Kolya, an artist still missing in action years after the war has ended. His pages expose the official lies and the forbidden truth of Stalin’s brutality. Kolya’s revelations and his tragic love story guide Sasha through drama school and cement her determination to live a thousand lives onstage. After graduation, she begins acting in Leningrad, where Andrei, now a Communist Party apparatchik, becomes a censor of her work. As a past secret comes to light, Sasha’s ambitions converge with Andrei’s duties, and Sasha must decide if her dreams are truly worth the necessary sacrifice and if, as her grandmother likes to say, all will indeed be well.
It's been a while since Amazon offered a worthy First Reads book. A Train To Moscow is one of  2 free First Reads book for March 2022 I downloaded. I hope there will be more quality books in the future.

The novel starts when Sasha was just 6 or 7 years old and ends when she's in her 30s. The precocious girl is strong-willed and defies her mother and grandparents. She sets her mind in becoming an actress after hearing on the radio Anton Chekov's play Three Sisters because she wants to be a thousand characters instead of living as Sasha. I like the author's writing style, the vivid descriptions of Russia and its caste system during that time, and the story. This is the author's first fiction book.

Highly recommended.

Thursday, February 17, 2022

Cookbook For Deplorables














tags: cookbook, humor, non-fiction, political satire
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

from GoodReads
As if fighting an invisible enemy hasn’t been enough of a challenge for everyone, we’ve also had to listen to an inordinate amount of antagonistic political discourse for the last four plus years. To stay sane, we need to take a step back and try to find some humor in these trying situations. It was important for me to laugh again in my everyday life, and I thought many of you might enjoy a little laughter as well. Since we are all confined to our homes now and cooking more, I pulled out some of my old recipes and renamed them to have some fun. You’ll not find diet food in these pages—only comfort food recipes, and if needed, fortifying cocktails to help you deal with the crazies.

For everyone who has been branded as deplorables, irredeemables, ignorant rubes, uneducated, ill-informed, racists, misogynists, populists, apologists, xenophobes, homophobes, selfish, chumps, rednecks, Bible-thumpers, Nazis, Uncle Tom, intolerant, bitter clingers, and blah, blah, blah, I hope you enjoy the recipes and have many laughs in the process.

Remember, laughter is the best revenge. Love, Laugh, Live.
Great simple recipes with funny names and caricatures. One of the funniest but yummy recipes is TRUMP'S SUPERMAN SPAGHETTI WITH EXTRA BALLS (Make them HUGE)

The cookbook triggered so many hate-filled, sense of humor-challenged leftists on Goodreads and Amazon rated the book 1 star, as expected. πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚

Highly recommended for readers and cooks with sense of humor.

Saturday, February 12, 2022

Korean Dramas 2022

2 new Korean dramas started streaming on Netflix. I hope they are both good up to the last episode

Twenty Five Twenty One
Saturday and Sunday

from AsianWiki
Twenty-Five, Twenty-One tells the love story between Na Hee-Do (Kim Tae-Ri) and Baek Yi-Jin (Nam Joo-Hyuk). Na Hee-Do is a member of her high school fencing team. Due to the South Korean financial crisis, the high school fencing team gets disbanded. Getting through all the difficulties, she becomes a member of the sabre fencing national team.
The South Korean financial crisis also causes Baek Yi-Jin’s father's business to go bankrupt. This leads to a life change for Baek Yi-Jin, from living the life of a wealthy person to a poor person. While studying, he works part-time jobs like delivering newspapers. Later, he becomes a sports reporter for a broadcasting network.
31 year old Kim Tae-ri, second from the left on first photo, plays an 18 year old High School student 

Forecasting Love And Weather
Saturday and Sunday

from AsianWiki
A story depicting love and work lives of employees at the Korea Meteorological Administration. Jin Ha-Kyung and Lee Shi-Woo are two people employed there.

It is becoming a trend in Korean dramas always pairing older actresses with younger actors. I'm not liking it but I am a KDrama addict and also I love the lead cast of both dramas. 

Twenty Five Twenty One female lead, Kim Tae-ri is 31 years old playing an 18 year old High School student set in 1998. She looks young and is believable as a teenager, IMHO. Nam Joo-hyuk is almost 27 and playing a 22 year old college student so the age gap is more acceptable. Forecasting Love and Weather female lead, Park Min-young is 35 and the male lead, Song Kang is almost 27, 8 years younger. I liked the first episode of both dramas. I'll ignore the age difference. 

Thursday, February 10, 2022

Razor: Becoming a Hero














tags: fantasy, mystery, supernatural
⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads
A mourning husband can’t live with his guilt… ... he decides to die, not by his own hand, but in heroically helping the vulnerable.
Since the peaceful Cotswold countryside offers limited opportunities for heroism, despite the presence of some weird and dangerous inhabitants, he ventures further afield.
To his annoyance, new and unlikely friends mysteriously appear everywhere he goes, foiling his plans and sending him back to square one.
Will he succeed or will he come to terms with his grief first? Was his wife as blame free and perfect as he thought or will lurking suspicions of infidelity be proved right?
'It was ironic that having nothing left to lose except his life, his life had become interesting again.'
The book is from the same author of Inspector Hobbes. Ray/Razor finds it is not easy to kill oneself specially when odd people start appearing to interrupt him while he is helping other people. He hopes to be murdered instead of the people he tries to rescue. 

The book is equally funny and sad. Ray's misadventures in committing suicide becomes a bit repetitive towards the middle but the story picks up and is still enjoyable. 


Sunday, February 6, 2022

Don't Call It Mystery

tags: comedy, dorama, Japanese, mystery, philosophy, police procedural
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from AsianWiki
Totono Kuno is a university psychology student. He has curly hair, which he has a complex about. He doesn't have any friends or a girlfriend. His memory and observation skills are very good and he is also skilled at making conclusions from a given set of facts. A murder case takes place in a park near Totono Kuno’s home. The victim is a university student that attended the same school and Totono Kuno becomes a suspect in the murder. He is interrogated by detectives at the police station. During the interrogation, Totono Kuno becomes aware of hidden clues behind the student's murder and also the personal worries of the detectives. But a weapon, which contains Totono Kuno’s fingerprints, is found.
This Japanese series is almost perfect IMHO. Only 4 episodes have been aired so far but I am rating it 5 stars because it has the perfect balance of comedy, mystery, and drama with great background music. During police interviews on the first episode, Totono Kuno ends up interviewing the detectives and learns about their personal problems and the same time is able to find the true murderer. He uses philosophy and psychology to solve the mystery. The ongoing joke is he prepares his favorite curry but as soon as he sits down to eat, he gets interrupted by either the door bell or his cellphone. The viewers never get to see him eat his curry dinner.

I can't wait to see the next episodes. Japanese doramas usually have only 10 or 12 episodes which I like as the story is not stretched with unnecessary plot twists.

Friday, February 4, 2022

Through My Window

tags: dramedy, Netflix streaming, Spanish, teen romance
⭐⭐

from IMDB
Raquel's longtime crush on her next-door neighbor turns into something more when he starts developing feelings for her, despite his family's objections.
When I was young, I watched a lot of High School rom-com movies, Molly Ringwald's Sixteen Candles is my all-time favorite. Pretty In Pink is okay too. This movie from Spain based on a Wattpad book has teenage romance and it reminds me a lot of Pretty In Pink. The similarities: the main female character Raquel has a single parent, a mother. Raquel has a male best friend, Yoshi, who is just like Duckie, always declaring his love for her and that they will eventually marry. But just like Andie, Raquel thinks she is in love with the neighbor, Ares. I was waiting for Yoshi to declare "His name is Ares? That is not a name! That's a major appliance! Or something similar. Ares is a wuss just like Blane although in this movie there is no Steff and his rich friends. The people who do not approve of Raquel are Ares's father and older brother. Rich snobby family, ordinary girl. ClichΓ© much? Ah, and there's the prom too where she went alone. 

The script and acting are lame, IMHO. Too contrived and the boy Ares suddenly has a family sob story that makes him even more pathetic. The only difference from Pretty In Pink is there is a lot of teen sex in this movie plus some nudity.

Not recommended.

Saturday, January 29, 2022

Home Team

tags: comedy, Kevin James, little league sports, Netflix streaming, Sean Payton
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Home Team is the latest movie from Adam Sandler's Happy Madison productions for Netflix. Kevin James plays Sean Payton, the New Orleans Saints head coach who was suspended for the 2012 football season, went home to Texas and ended up coaching his preteen son's football team. Taylor Lautner, Rob Schneider, and Jackie Sandler (Adam's wife) co-star. Sean Payton has a cameo as a janitor near the end of the movie.

I'm not a sports fan but love watching little league sports movies, not the actual sports. One of my favorites is The Sandlot and I was hoping Home Team would be as enjoyable. It is but not as much as The Sandlot which has more of the boys' screen time and funny memorable quotes. Home Team even borrows the barfing scene which is overdone and too gross. I still loved the movie. Worth a re-watch.

Tuesday, January 18, 2022

I Am A Cat














tags: humor, Japanese, satire
⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads
Written over the course of 1904-6, Soseki's comic masterpiece, " I Am a Cat," satirizes the follies of upper-middle-class Japanese society during the Meiji era. With acerbic wit and sardonic perspective, it follows the whimsical adventures of a world-weary stray kitten who comments on the follies and foibles of the people around him.
"The New Yorker" called it "a nonchalant string of anecdotes and wisecracks, told by a fellow who doesn't have a name, and has never caught a mouse, and isn't much good for anything except watching human beings in action..."
Reading this novel took me ages to finish which is unusual for me. The book is not bad at all, in fact it is very funny, engaging, and makes the reader wonder about and laugh out loud at people's absurd behavior. The nameless cat sometimes drones on and on but the stories it tells are interesting and sometimes, maybe most of the time, philosophical and political. A rest between reading portions is a must to fully enjoy the book. I like it enough to give it 4 stars.

*******************************************************************************
This video of cats reminds me of the time the kitty takes a bite of rice cake that gets stuck on its teeth. The nameless cat tries to remove it and fails miserably. The humans see him on hind legs spinning around like crazy. Poor kitty but it is hilarious.


Saturday, January 8, 2022

The Real Anthony Fauci














tags: Covid-19 hoax, Fauci, must read by sane people, nonfiction

Dr. Fauci, Bill Gates, and Big Pharma with the assist from WHO, democrats, main stream media, Big Tech, and social media have unleashed a virus plandemic that has resulted in millions of unnecessary deaths and hypnotizing the public resulting in a new disease that Dr. Robert Malone calls Mass Formation Psychosis.

The covid-19 virus, like other covid viruses before it, is easily treatable with cheap medications that have been around for decades - Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin. Their efficacy are well known in Asian and African continents for decades. HCQ treats malaria and Ivermectin treats parasites.

I bought the Kindle book written by Robert Kennedy Jr. - THE REAL ANTHONY FAUCI: BILL GATES, BIG PHARMA, AND THE GLOBAL WAR ON DEMOCRACY AND PUBLIC HEALTH. The atrocities that Fauci and the gang committed against humanity is pure evil all in the name of the mighty dollar.

Robert Kennedy Jr. is an author I would not normally read because he is a democrat and I believe all democrats are scum. But I was willing to spare $3.00 because it is described as thoroughly researched and documented. Although I already know a bit of the Fauci/Bill Gates/Big Pharma evil axis, I didn't know the extent of their criminal activities until I read the book. The unforgivable actions of Fauci and the gang shocked me to the core.

Covid-19 pandemic could have been prevented if HCQ and Ivermectin were given right away as soon as the patient shows symptoms. As of this time, Ivermectin has eliminated Covid-19 in some of the most populous states in India. Japan and Indonesia have also given Ivermectin to their citizens and Indonesia has seen 70% reduction in cases and even lower percentage of deaths.

Doctors have always practiced repurposing medications and found HCQ and Ivermectin both cured Covid-19, those who are in early stages of the flu and those without comorbidities. Fauci prevented the use of HCQ early in 2020 even before President Trump mentioned its efficacy. Fauci removed thousands of pills from manufacturers and dumped them in a warehouse so that nobody will benefit from them including Lupus patients who were in a panic when they were told there was a shortage in early 2020 and didn't know it was Fauci who caused it. He and his evil cohorts then performed fraudulent and questionable clinical studies on HCQ and Ivermectin and ordered their dogs WHO, MSM, democrat politicians and voters, Big Tech, and social networks to keep talking about the failed tests. Their evil dogs gave 1000x more than prescribed dosage to their clinical subjects and naturally the subjects, mostly elderly people, died. They murdered elderly people as if it was the most natural thing to do and without remorse. And so the public was hypnotized and duped that there is no other treatment and prevention but a vaccine.

According to experts in the book, the vaccine is loaded with millions of spike proteins and the vaxxed are now a ticking time bomb for cancer, blood clots, and whatever ailments come up in their bodies.The untested and toxic vaccine has killed more than protected unsuspecting people around the globe specially children, teens, and young adults who are not in danger of getting the flu. They have natural immunity and healthy and they recover quickly from the flu if they get it. Giving them the poison jab is equivalent to murder and many many teens and athletes have died "suddenly" a day, a week, or a few months after getting their first or second jabs. *See below for list of injuries and fatalities. Fauci, CDC,  and democrats try to hide the covid jab injuries and mortality numbers.

The most vaccinated countries in Europe have the highest new cases and only a halfwit will conclude the surge is from the unvaccinated. The new cases come from the vaccinated because the vaccine DOES NOT PREVENT NOR PROTECT from the flu virus. In fact it mutates and creates new viruses. The vaccinated therefore can infect the unvaccinated, not the other way around.

From the book and Dr. Tess Lawrie (MBBCh, PhD), Director of the Evidence-based Medicine Colsultancy Ltd. and CEO of EbMCSquared CIC, an independent not for profit, health focused think tank based in the United Kingdom. She is the founder of the British Ivermectin Recommendation Development Initiative.
Had Ivermectin been employed in 2020 when medical colleagues around the world first alerted authorities to its efficacy, millions of lives could have been saved, and the pandemic with all its associated suffering and loss brought to a rapid and timely end.
HCQ and Ivermectin could have saved 500,000 American lives in 2020 had Fauci and his evil gang did not coordinately prevent their use. They are mass murderers in my eyes and the murderers include all thedemocrat politicians and voters. They can all burn in hell for all eternity.

The jab does not prevent nor cure covid-19 and the psychotics are happy to get a booster shot every 6 months. 90% of new cases in Germany are among the vaccinated, 4% are unjabbed. Do the math. The psychotics are more than happy to get another booster forever and ever and they want us unjabbed to get them too. They cannot fathom the words FREE WILL. Well, they are psychotic and beyond cure. The only thing to do is ignore them.

The one reason I can think of why Dr. Death Fauci and his demonic thugs have insisted on vaccine is $$$$. Big Pharma (Fauci, Bill Gates, MSM execs, Big Tech execs, social networks execss, democrat politicians and their voters all own stocks) earned billions of dollars from millions of people suffering from Mass Formation Psychosis and these psychotics are more than willing, in fact giddy at the prospect of their spouses, children, and parents being incarcerated in Non-Vaccinated internment camps all for their own health and safety. Yes, the unvaccinated are NOT SAFE LIVING WITH THEIR OWN FAMILY. Like the Nazis they will turn you in and cheer for your imprisonment because they have been hypnotized by satanic Fauci and Bill Gates. It is time for normal unvaccinated pure blood citizens around the globe to fight this evil that descended upon us.

***********************************************************************************

As of January 7, 2022
36,257 deaths and 3,244,052 injuries following Covid shots in European Database - Double Vaxxed 13 year old teen dies from heart attack.
Read the list here