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Movie Review: Seeking Justice (2011)

December 9, 2011 in Movie Reviews, Reviews

Nicholas Cage is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get.  Whenever he makes a movie, it (and he) could be fantastic, or it (and he) could be complete garbage.

Considering his recent history and his well-publicised financial troubles, I would have bet that his latest film, Seeking Justice, falls in the latter category.  The film had little promotion and had generated less buzz, but on the other hand it did have an A-list cast featuring Cage, January Jones and Australia’s most underappreciated Hollywood star (now that Joel Edgerton seems to have finally broken through), Guy Pearce.  It also has a couple of TV stars, Harold Perrineau (from Lost) and Jennifer Carpenter (from Dexter), is co-produced by Tobey Maguire, and is directed Roger Donaldson (not exactly a slouch with films such as The Bank Job, Thirteen Days, Dante’s Peak, Species, The Getaway, Cadillac Mac, Cocktail, No Way Out and Bounty under his belt).  I was intrigued.

As it turned out, Seeking Justice is somewhere in the middle — neither great nor trash.  It tells the story of Will Gerard (Cage), who, after a violent crime, becomes unwittingly involved with a sinister underground organisation that is into dishing out vigilante justice — with a hefty personal price.  Jones plays his wife and Pearce is one of the leaders of the association.

It’s the type of film that probably would have gone straight to DVD had the big names not been attached to it (perhaps some might still think it probably should have gone straight to DVD).  It is aptly handled, with decent performances (with the exception of Jones, whom for some reason keeps getting these ‘young wife to middle aged dudes’ roles — she can’t act) and some genuine tension stemming from a cleverly crafted illusion that there is more of a mystery than there actually is.  It also avoids (and I think this was the right decision) any real intellectual debate on the merits of vigilante justice, which helps prevent viewers from being misled into thinking that Seeking Justice is anything more than light entertainment.

And ultimately, that’s exactly what Seeking Justice is — a passable action-thriller that is occasionally entertaining but nothing special and, when it’s all said and done, extremely forgettable.  Sad that’s considered pretty good for Nicholas Cage these days.

3 out of 5

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Eat Eat Pasta (Taipei)

December 8, 2011 in Food, Reviews, Taiwan, Travel

Italian restaurants are a dime a dozen in Taipei, and to be honest, most of them look fairly alike, making it difficult to tell the good from the bad and the great from the good.

Eat Eat Pasta is a ‘healthy’ Italian restaurant about a 10-minute walk from the Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT station.  Tucked away in a small lane off one of the busier streets behind the old Sogo (next to a Rabbit Rabbit burger chain), it is a fairly new joint that has menu with an emphasis on fresh vegetables and seafood, and is part owned by some local celebrity.

The layout is pretty nice — simple but chic, with an outside courtyard and a bar on the inside where they make fresh coffees and icy beverages.  The menu is varied but the selection is limited — there are a couple of soups, three salads, and a handful of appetizers, pizzas and risottos, with a wider selection of pastas.  They also have an afternoon tea section, which is only available between 14:30 and 17:00, and a ‘Tea Time’, which allows you to order a small cake or biscuit for NT$60 when you purchase a beverage.

The prices are not overly expensive, but perhaps slightly on the dearer side compared to some of the less authentic Italian joints scattered all over Taipei.  You’re looking at around NT$90-120 for soups and salads,  NT$120-160 for appetizers, and about NT$160-250 for pizzas, risottos and pastas.  For three people you could easily top NT$1000.

In terms of value sets, Eat Eat Pasta offers two: the ‘A’ set, which allows you to add a soup or salad and a drink for NT$90, and the ‘B’ set, which offers a soup AND a salad and drink for NT$140.  We got an ‘A’ set with a salad.

The salad was good — lots of lettuce, alfalfa, corn, tomato, corn and cucumber, topped off with a creamy yoghurty sauce.

For the mains we ordered a risotto, a pasta and a pizza.

The risotto was a tomato chicken risotto with lots of vegetables.  The flavour was just right — not too strong and not too weak, with a touch of spice — but the texture of the rice was a little on the mushy side.  The serving didn’t look particularly big, especially at NT$240, but it’s deceptively filling.

For the pasta we got the pesto seafood fettucine (NT$250) — it was very green and packed with vegetables, which I love, but perhaps there might have been too much cream.

As for the pizza, we also got a seafood one (NT$250), and it was quite different to what I expected.  The pizza was quite small and very thin, but packed with loads and loads of cheese, covering the seafood and broccoli toppings underneath.  The flavour was agreeable but the thin crust was not as crispy as I expected and the cheese made it quite heavy.

The verdict?  Eat Eat Pasta is a nice place to try, especially for group meals, but it’s not the type of place I’d personally go back for repeat visits.  The flavours are good but nothing extraordinary; the menu is interesting but not necessarily for everyone.  And while the food is supposed to be healthier, it actually struck me as kind of heavy in cream and cheese.  Accordingly, taking into account the price and location, Eat Eat Pasta probably lies somewhere in the middle in the Italian restaurant hierarchy in Taipei.

7 out of 10!

Details

Eat Eat Pasta

Address: No. 37, Lane 31, Section 1, Da An Road, Taipei

Phone: (02) 2721-1636

Price: approx. NT$250-400 per person

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Movie Review: The Ides of March (2011)

December 4, 2011 in Movie Reviews, Reviews

I really need to get a move on.  It’s almost the end of 2011 and there are too many potentially good movies to be watched before 2012.  And so I began my (hopeful) end-of-year movie blitz with a 2012 Oscar frontrunner, The Ides of March, directed by, co-written by and starring George Clooney.

I’m a sucker for political dramas (I thought the 1998 John Travolta film Primary Colors was fantastic), and so I had high hopes for this film, which also stars some of my favourite actors, including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti and Marisa Tomei.  However, The Ides of March really belongs to Ryan Gosling, who continues to impress with a controlled, Oscar-worthy performance as Stephen Meyers, a junior campaign manager for Clooney’s (potential) Democratic presidential candidate, Mike Morris.

Without giving away too much, the film follows the young, bright and extremely capable Meyers as he tries to assist Pennsylvania Governor Morris in securing the state of Ohio in the Democrat’s presidential candidate race against an Arkansas Senator.  Securing Ohio effectively clinches the nomination (and essentially the White House), so it’s a big deal, but both Meyers and Morris are idealists who want to run the race with integrity and without compromising their values.  However, as they both find out throughout the course of the film, politics is a dirty game where the lines and boundaries and continually being pushed and blurred.  To what extremes will they go in order to get what they want?

I won’t divulge more than that except to say that The Ides of March is, at its core, a somewhat cynical political tale about the loss of innocence.  It begins slowly and is what some would call a slow burner, so it won’t be for everyone.  But I enjoyed every minute of it.  Apart from giving viewers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look into the shady deals, compromises and grey areas in these political processes — daily battles with competitors, internal power struggles, schmoozing journalists and smoothing out scandals — the stylish intensity that underlies the film from start to finish really elevates this otherwise unremarkable story (if you think about it)  to one of the best dramas of the year.

The perfect performances from the awesome cast must receive a significant chunk of the credit.  Gosling has already been nominated once (for Half Nelson in 2006), and this could be the year he takes out Best Actor at the Oscars.  Clooney (Syriana), Hoffman (Capote) and Tomei (My Cousin Vinny) are all Oscar winners and Giamatti is a multiple nominee, and each brings a touch of class to their character — all of whom possess a different side to what is originally presented.  And Evan Rachel Wood, who has a key role as a Morris campaign intern, is surprisingly good and steals a lot of scenes (no mean feat considering the company).

The Ides of March is a clever, well-executed drama with impeccable performances.  It’s probably not for the casual filmgoer looking for light, fast-paced thrills, but I think lovers of (American) politics and serious dramas will thoroughly enjoy it.

4.5 stars out of 5

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Pepper Pastry at Longshan Temple (Taipei)

December 3, 2011 in Food, Reviews, Taiwan, Travel

One of my favourite snacks in the world is the Pepper Pastry (胡椒餅), otherwise known as the ‘Pepper Biscuit’ or ‘Pepper Cake’ (which are both so wrong because it in no way resembles a biscuit or a cake).  It is a savoury flour-based, thick-skinned bun pastry stuffed with pork meat and lots and lots of shallots (spring onions) and black pepper, sprinkled with sesame seeds on top.  The raw buns are stuck on the inside of a cylindrical oven until cooked to perfection.

On the first bite, your teeth with crush through the thin, crispy pastry layered on the outside, the thick, doughy skin beneath, before hitting the hot, spicy, juicy explosion awaiting on the inside.  At the good places, the marinated is tender, fiery and slightly sweet, and the shallots and pepper give it a real kick.  I simply love ‘em.

There used to be lots of these stalls around Taipei, but for some reason they are harder to find now.  I last wrote about them in my post about the Raohe Night Markets, which has a particularly famous Pepper Pastry stall.

Another very famous one is located in a tiny side alley near Exit 1 of the Longshan Temple MRT station called ‘Fuzhou Original Pepper Pastry’ (福州元祖椒餅).  It is actually a proper store as opposed to a stall, but considering how inconspicuous the place is, it’s a minor miracle that they not only have very good business, they often have extremely long lines that go all the way out of the alley.

The pepper pastries are created in batches.  If you get there before a batch is done, you can place your order first and grab a number.  A certain portion of a new batch is reserved for pre-orders, and the remainder are for those who rock up on the spot and line up.  It’s a bit of a gamble sometimes because some people might order 10-20 each, meaning the batch can disappear in a hurry.  I got there in between batches and had to wait 20 minutes.

But trust me, it’s worth it.  Of all the pepper pastries I have tried, the ones here must be either number one or two.  The sesame on the outside is roasted and extremely fragrant.  The skin is not overly thick and you can taste the layers as you bite into it.  The meat is succulent and bursting with flavour.  They are particularly generous with the ingredients so you don’t feel like you’re being short changed (at NT$45 each, it’s hard to feel short changed anyway).

In Taiwan, lots of places have long lines for no good reason, but at this tiny little store near Longshan Temple, a place tucked away in an alley so narrow that you’d never even know it existed, it makes perfect sense.  The pepper pastries are that good.

Details

Fuzhou Original Pepper Pastry (福州元祖椒餅)

No. 5, Alley 2, Lane 89, Section 3 Heping West Road, Wanhua District, Taipei

Nearest MRT Station: Longshan Temple (Exit 1)

(02) 2308-3075

Open 9am-7pm

Directions: Take the MRT blue line to Longshan Temple station and come out of Exit 1.  Turn left and you should be able to see a tiny alley.  If you can see lots of people inside then it’s probably the right one.

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Pin Tian Japanese Style Katsu and Curry (Taipei)

December 1, 2011 in Food, Reviews, Taiwan, Travel

Nothing gets me going like a plate of crunchy Japanese katsu (fried meat covered with bread crumb batter) and some fat, fluffy Japanese rice.

There are plenty of Japanese style katsu and curry places in Taiwan, but you never really know what you’re going to get because they all look the same from the outside.  Having tried a fair share of katsu over the years, including in Japan (where it’s just heavenly), I feel like I am in a position to determine what is good katsu and what isn’t.

Recently we tried a popular chain called Pin Tian (品田牧場), which is part of the same group as Yuan Shao, Ju Hokkaido Help Hotpot and Tasty (click on the names for my reviews).  All of these are quality restaurants (though I’d rate some higher than others), which naturally raised my expectation of Pin Tian.

In the tradition of those other restaurants, Pin Tian is nicely fitted, clean and dimly lit, with overly-polite, well-trained waiters and menu sets that offer several courses, guaranteed to make you feel absolutely stuffed by the time you finish your dessert.

Pin Tian has two types of sets.  The discount ‘Koofuku’ set is NT$239 (+10% service charge) and is only available for lunch on weekdays.  It includes an appetiser and the choice of a main (tonkatsu or chicken katsu or curries, as well as some more ‘creative choices’, such as takoyaki (octopus) katsu, katsu rolls with egg, bacon, tomato, etc, ginger pork, tempura prawn and salted fish).  Each set also comes with unlimited shredded cabbage, unlimited rice, miso soup, chawan mushi (egg custard), pickles and apple vinegar (to ‘cleanse the palette’).

The regular ‘Genki’ set is NT$299 (+10% service charge), and is essentially the same except you also get a dessert (sesame ice cream, mousse and milk pudding) and a beverage (tea, coffee or special Japanese drinks).

Perhaps to imitate Japanese katsu restaurants, Pin Tian also starts off by giving everyone a bowl with some sesame seeds which you crush yourself and mix with the special katsu sauce (Japanese Worcestershire) on your table.  I don’t know why but I always like it.  Maybe it’s because the sesame smells so good.

The other thing I love about Pin Tian is their sesame sauce which goes with the cabbage, also readily available on your table.  It’s freaking awesome and I had about four refills of the cabbage because of it.

On this day, we ordered three sets (one Genki set).  The appetiser was two small rice paper rolls with a vinegary dressing.  Light, tangy and fresh.

The mains were the pork waist fillet tonkatsu (less fatty), the tonkatsu curry and the crispy chicken curry.  Check them out below.

The Tonkatsu Set

The Curry Tonkatsu Set

Here's a close up of the Chicken Curry Set

For the dessert from the Genki set, we got the black sesame ice cream, and for the beverage, a Japanese genmai black bean green tea.

Now for the evaluation.  Pin Tian is pretty good from an overall perspective.  For a very reasonable price you get an appetising appetiser, a katsu main course, unlimited cabbage (with that superb sesame dressing) and rice, soup and other stuff.  The katsu itself is decent — better than the average non-Japanese katsu joints but not in the same league as a ‘true’ tonkatsu restaurant.  The curry is better than expected and goes very well with the fried meats.  For the average meal seeker it is more than good enough, though if you are specifically after top notch katsu there should be better options available.

8 out of 10!

Details

Pian Tian: Japanese Style Katsu and Curry (品田牧場)

Website: http://www.pintian.com.tw/index.htm (Chinese)

Opening Hours: 11:30-14:30, 17:30-22:00, 7 days a week

Price: NT$239-299 (+10% service charge)

Stores: http://www.pintian.com.tw/about.htm (Chinese)

Taipei locations:

Nanjing East Store
Level 2, 146 Section 2 Nanjing East Road, Taipei (02 – 2507-7279)
Nearest MRT: Songjian Nanjing (Exit 4)

Mingshen East Store
Level B1, 45 Section 4 Mingshen East Road, Taipei (02-2718-6566)
Nearest MRT: Songshan Airport (Exit 3)

Banqiao Store
Level 2, 7 Section 1  Zhongshan Road, Banqiao (02-2964-2661)
Nearest MRT: Fuzhong (Exit 1)

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