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I ate a KFC ‘Double’…and survived

April 15, 2011 in Food, Reviews

I went for a screening of Something Borrowed today (review to come shortly) and proceeded to KFC for lunch.  I hadn’t been to see the Colonel for a long time because the last time I went drive-through I asked for a Zinger meal and an extra Zinger burger (for two people) and they gave us around 20 pieces of chicken, four burgers and four large fries, amongst other things (and we didn’t realise until we got home).  We ate it for three days straight and for the rest of the week I felt like a lump of lard oozing oil from all pores.

But today was a special occasion because they had the notorious ‘Double’ on the menu (called the ‘Double Down’ in the US).  It’s essentially a burger with two chicken fillets as the buns, and cheese and bacon as the filling.  It was available in two formats — Original and Zinger (which is even unhealthier).  I went with the Zinger, of course, which contains 2515 kilojoules (or 601 calories), 35.7 grams of fat (17.2 grams saturated), 21.5 grams of carbs, and a whopping 2058 mg of sodium per serve.  I also got a fries and Mountain Dew to wash everything down.

The Down has been slammed by health experts as a coronary waiting to happen.  But hey, I’m healthy (at least before I had the burger) and I’m of a healthy weight (ditto), and most importantly, the Double looked sensational.  One is not going to kill me….I hope.

It was given to me in a cardboard box that had to be ripped open at its belly and flipped open.  I looked inside and was actually surprised by how small it looked.  And it fitted the description perfectly — two chicken fillets, melted cheese and bacon (which looked more like ham) in the middle.  I thought there was some kind of special sauce in there (the post looked like there may have been BBQ sauce) but I didn’t taste any.

The verdict?  The Double is not that bad for you (health wise), but it’s not that good either (taste wise).

If you want to talk about damage to health, the Hungry Jack’s (Burger King) Whopper is actually worse in terms of kilojoules (2882) and fat (40.2 grams).  The Double, however, contains a lot more sodium (I believe its nearest rival is HJ’s Spicy Cheesy Bacon Tendercrisp (2001 mg).  And you know what?  It was obvious that the Double contained a lot of salt because you can taste it.  It’s an unnaturally salty burger.  While the crisp of the chicken fillet was nice, the filling was inexplicably ordinary.  I wanted there to be more flavour, but it was mostly just salt, salt and more salt.  It badly needed a tangy sauce of some kind — even a touch of mayo would have been good.

So yeah, I’m glad I tried it but I won’t be having it again.

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Observations on ‘New China’: Part III – Spitting

April 14, 2011 in China, Misc, Social/Political Commentary, Travel

Strangely I did not see any such signs in China while I was there

I mean this in the nicest possible way, but China is a land of phlegm throwers.  If there’s one sound that I heard more than any other during my short trip to Shanghai and Hangzhou, it’s the sound of someone clearing their throats and hocking and spitting phlegm.

The strange thing is that this type of behaviour is completely acceptable.  It’s become so common over the years and so engrained into the culture that no one thinks much of it anymore.  After all, having a clogged throat is an awfully uncomfortable feeling.

Ordinarily, the act of hocking and spitting phlegm is only seen and heard at homes and in public toilets (at least in my experience), but in China, it’s everywhere you go.  Not just on the streets but also at touristy places such as temples and museums, and even in the lobbies of five-star hotels.

Once I was waiting for a lift in a hotel and a man just walked by, generated some phlegm, and spat it right into the corner against the wall.  I was the only one that cringed.  Everyone else just pretended it was normal behaviour.  Another time, when we were at the top area of this Buddhist temple, a guy hocked for a good twenty seconds, then launched a massive ball of phlegm (I’d say almost golf ball sized) over the railings — and into a sea of people below.  I could almost visualise someone getting concussed after getting hit by one of those bombs.

(It also reminded me of when I went to Macau a year or so ago and stayed at the Venetian, which was overrun by Chinese tourists.  We took a gondola ride in the fake canal and my mother tried to put her hand in the water, only to be stopped by our guide, who reminded us that the Chinese tourists have a tendency to spit in them.  Sure enough, a second later, a massive loogey comes floating along.)

I was actually kind of fascinated by it all in a bizarre way — why do people have so much phlegm in China?  And why is it, judging from what I can see sprinkled all over the footpaths, is it so thick and creamy?  Is it the pollution?  The diet?  Shouldn’t someone conduct a study into this?

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Game Review: God of War: Ghost of Sparta (PSP)

April 13, 2011 in Game Reviews, Reviews

My recent trip to China allowed me to rekindle my long lost relationship with my Sony PSP (which had sadly been relegated to second fiddle after getting an iPad).  I had been playing the same old games and needed something new to bring some spice back into the relationship, so I went with a can’t-miss game — God of War: Ghost of Sparta.

This is the second GOW game on the PSP, the first being the very solid, albeit slightly too short GOW: Chains of Olympus.  Having played the sensational GOWIII on the PS3 last year (review here) — which was probably one of the best games I’ve ever played on the PS3 — I knew it was going to be difficult for the handheld Ghosts of Sparta to compete.

Of course, it is not exactly fair to compare a PS3 game to a PSP game, but in any case my concerns were unfounded.  Ghost of Sparta is a marvellous game, a significant improvement on Chains of Olympus, and when all is said and done, will probably go down as one of the best PSP games of all time.

I believe Ghost of Sparta is set after the original God of War game, and even though I didn’t really follow the story closely, I understand it is about Kratos’s search for his younger brother Deimos.  But let’s be honest here — no one plays GOW for the story.

In keeping up with tradition, Ghost of Sparta is an all out action adventure that is bloody, brutal, exciting and incredibly immersive.  Visually, it is by far the best PSP game I have ever seen, and is at least on par with the PS2, if not better.  The developers of the game have clearly learned something from their creation of GOWIII, as evidenced by the bigger, meaner monster battles and the epic boss fights.

The one thing that always impressed me about the GOW series was the variety in its gameplay.  While other similar games might feel repetitive after a while, Ghost of Sparta keeps gamers engaged by making a conscious effort to mix it up — either by alternating terrain, throwing in a few mini-puzzles or enemies that require different combat styles to overcome.  Rarely does it feel like you are simply doing the same thing over and over.

In all, this was a top-notch production that deserves to be owned by every PSP gamer.  Everything from the graphics, sound (including the voice acting), the gameplay to the replay value (the game itself is longer than Chains of Olympus and there are several post-game challenges to take on which will no doubt keep you tapping away at the buttons long after your first walkthrough), Ghost of Sparta oozes class.

If only they made more games like Ghost of Sparta — I would never leave my PSP behind.

10 out of 10

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Beautiful Writing vs Storytelling

April 12, 2011 in Misc, Novel, On Writing, Study

My creative writing class regularly features workshopping of pieces written by my fellow classmates, and it’s always interesting to see the range of writing that gets churned out.  Even more interesting for me is the reactions they have to the work of their fellow writers.

I am someone that can certainly appreciate good writing at the sentence level.  Sentences that touch on the senses and evoke vivid imagery.  Sentences with a strong voice, with realistic dialogue.  Sentences that are rhythmic and lyrical, maybe even poetic.  You know, the type of stuff you see in award-winning literary fiction.

I have classmates that can write bloody good sentences, and I have other classmates that gush over those sentences.  But to me, writing is much more than just putting together beautiful sentences.  I get impressed by them as much as the next person, but to be honest they can have the tendency to bore me sometimes.

That’s where good storytelling comes in.  I know in writing we are taught to show, not tell, but it’s actually more complicated than that.  If all you do is show, all you end up with is a list of descriptions and the pace sags.  If all you do is tell, you don’t get any visual images and the narrative loses its allure.

I think sometimes beautiful writing is overrated and masterful storytelling is underrated.  Guys like John Grisham are considered good ‘storytellers’ rather than good ‘writers’, but is that really a fair label?  They’re all good writers to me as long as they create enjoyable stories.

I’ve been struggling lately with the beautiful writing vs storytelling conundrum.  Perhaps it’s because I’ve been too focused on writing pretty sentences, but recently it feels like my writing goes nowhere.  It’s nowhere near as fast-paced as I want it to be and significantly slower than what I used to write.

The last couple of days I told myself to forget about the bloody sentences and just write whatever came to mind.  Forget about the descriptions and just focus on telling a story.  To my surprise, it worked well.  I now have around 4000 words of almost pure storytelling, which feels good but is still problematic.

The next step is to try and find a balance between the two.

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Movie Review: Sucker Punch (2011)

April 10, 2011 in Movie Reviews, Reviews

In a nutshell, Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch is the one of the most visually impressive but intellectually and emotionally empty films I’ve ever seen.

I’m really stuck on this review right now because I don’t know how to go about it.  The film started off unbelievably well, with virtually zero dialogue and a kick ass soundtrack — but most importantly it told a story, and an interesting one: a deceased mother, a dead sister, an evil stepfather and a girl in a mental institution where she will be lobotomised in five days.

At this point I thought I was in for one of the best films of the year.  I loved the look of the film (in my opinion it exceeded both 300 and Watchmen), I loved the sound (something I don’t usually notice) and I loved where it was heading.  It had a terrific (at least looking) cast led by two sensational Aussies (Emily Browning and Abbie Cornish), plus Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung.

Then, as expected, the film took a turn into fantasy, and from there, the story just went downhill (though I will say it redeemed itself a little towards the end).  I didn’t have a problem with the turn itself, but I disliked the way it was executed.

The effects and fight scenes were amazing to watch, but because you knew it was all ridiculous fantasy, nothing was at stake and as a result there was no genuine excitement.  Incredible to look at (it was like a freaking video game or the best live-action anime of all time) but it left me feeling strangely hollow.  And without giving away anything more about the plot, I also found the progression to be predictable and plodding.  The devices used were, for lack of a better term, lame.

And so I have very mixed feelings about Sucker Punch.  On the one hand the geek inside me was utterly impressed by the super cool visuals, martial arts moves and blazing guns.  There was a scenario for every nerd — war, fantasy, sci-fi.  But on the other, the sane movie-goer in me was disappointed by the lack of a compelling narrative and a complete failure to generate any emotional connection.  It smelt of a lazy film, one that was too focused on the aesthetics and not nearly enough on the heart and soul.  It’s a real shame because with a stronger script, Sucker Punch could have been something quite special.

2.5 stars out of 5

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