law school.
08 Feb 2012 1 Comment
Every new semester, I wonder how I ever got through the last.
It’s so easy to get snowed under by all the readings and all the cases – loosen up for one weekend and you have dropped the ball. And it’s so impossible to do the tutorials without having done the readings. And these days, unfortunately, the textbook may as well be a roll of toilet paper – everything you need to know is somewhere else. And I don’t know why nobody has thought to compile everything important in a casebook yet. And between manually sourcing out the material and actually getting down to reading them, I think if you want to stay on top of your work, you’ll have to spend all your free time working.
…And, well, whatever.
I keep telling myself that these are the best days of our lives and are too precious to waste on school.
top chef!
05 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
Those of you who follow me on twitter will know that I am currently completely hooked on Top Chef. Like, I’ve watched all the available episodes from the current season already and I just need to know what happens next. And if I cannot, then the next best thing I can settle for is a season of Top Chef Masters. Except that Top Chef Masters isn’t half as exciting (so far anyway) because nothing goes wrong. And everybody’s too reverent of each other and too professional and too…civilized. Everybody knows that the essence of a successful reality TV show is when contestants are driven to pure barbarism.
I have learned two things of myself from glutting out on Top Chef episodes – the first is that I am absolutely a victim of confirmation bias. But I am also a pretty happy victim. I get some sort of weird satisfaction picking out big cliches and stereotypes. Like, one episode, this Asian guy got cut and blood was spurting out all over the place but he was all like “I’ll be freaking damned if I let a mere flesh wound stop me from cookin’!” and he pulled a plastic glove over his hand and continued cooking! But of course, the medic wouldn’t let him go unattended – so Asian guy just stuck out his cut hand for tending to and didn’t stop cooking with the arm that was alright! “He can cut off my torso and I will continue cooking with my feet if I have to!” That’s the spirit, Asian guy! I totally felt a “Cooking Level: Asian” meme treatment was in order but of course, 9gaggers watch How I Met Your Mother (totally overrated) exclusively.
The second is that I will never stop secretly kicking myself for being a snob about taking food pictures. I mean, sorry, but I really just think it’s kind of cheesy when a whole table of Asians start snapping away at their food at the same time. But obviously, I understand where this is coming from – since I just said there are moments I regret not being more fastidious about preserving nice memories! What will I have left of all the amazing flavours I’ve ever had the good fortune to taste? The Burrata-stuffed Squash Blossoms at Pizzeria Mozza, the Kumamoto Oyster Corn Soup at Sho Shaun Hergatt, the Baby Octopus and Bone Marrow Fusilli at Marea, Crack Pie from Momofuku Milk Bar, the Sharks Fin and Birds Nest Soup at Tong Le Private Dining (eurgh, ‘bit guilty for loving this one)…NOTHING, OMG!
Anyway, stray observation that will interest nobody who isn’t similarly interested in cooking shows – I really do hate it when an Asian contestant goes on a cooking competition and wins everything cooking Asian food. I just can’t help but feel skeptical that a Western judge would be able to judge Asian food properly on its merits. Maybe any slightly-better-than-average fare will do just because a Western tongue isn’t typically used to good Asian food and if all you’ve ever had is too-greasy, too-sweet Chinese food then of course a half-decent kimchi is going to seem like the pinnacle of Asian cuisine.
And Asian contestants always seem to have a go-to sauce that goes with basically every protein and it feels like such a cop-out. Because, you’re just doing that one curry or that one marinade or else you’re throwing some amazing kimchi into every dish and everything is going to taste great because you do that one thing really, really well. Such a buzzkill.
