Yep, it's Take That, bitches! lol - Gary Barlow rules. If Robbie would just rejoin the band, it would be perfect - like 1995 all over again! haha
If you don't want me to spoil anything for you, or if you simply don't watch this show and don't care, then stop reading right now. That's your warning.....
Why is it that the person who should win Top Chef never winds up winning? They choke, they make bad decisions, whatever it is, it always winds up with the winner being the person that makes you say, Ugh.
So it was down to Hosea, Carla, and Stefan. I, like many people, were rooting for Carla. She's warm, funny, genuine - and the woman can cook! I kind of wrote her off in the beginning, but she kept getting better and better. She really hit her stride over the last 4 or 5 episodes and I was hoping she'd win it. Stefan is the cocky chef from Europe (Finland, I think) and there's no doubt he's good. Very consistent all the way, but his attitude is off-putting. Hosea seems like a pretty good chef too, but he was totally obsessed with beating Stefan the whole time. It got annoying.
They wound up bringing back 3 losers (former contestests who were 2nd or 3rd place) to be their sous chefs. Hosea had Richard, Stefan had Marcelle, and Carla had Casey. This was the beginning of the end for Carla, and I blame Casey for it! She talked Carla out of doing the food she was originally intending to do. Carla's a comfort food kind of chef but Casey talked her into preparing a steak sous-vide style. WTF? Who does steak sous vide?! Seafood or poultry might work sous vide, but not steak. Steak, you need the smoke and char from a grill to give it the right flavour and texture. Plus, Carla had never done it before. Why would you do it if you've never tried it before? sigh.
And then on her dessert plate, Casey talked her out of a tarte and into doing a blue cheese souffle. As soon as I heard souffle, I was like, nooooo!!! Why do the things that will fail miserably if not the perfect, perfect conditions? Oh Carla, what were you thinking? She's not a sous vide or a souffle girl, yet that meddling Casey tried to comanndeer her menu. Though of course, it's not really Casey's fault, is it? No one put a gun to Carla's head and she could've just said, no, I'm going to do my food my way. So that was the end for Carla.
Hosea's food looked okay, except for the sashimi. I don't really get the deal with that, but maybe it just tasted really good. His venison dish just looked too simple. His appy looked good though. I've just never been convinced that he's a top chef, at any point during the season. It's too bad Fabio got booted out last week instead.
Stefan's stuff looked alright too, but they were really trashing his dessert, saying it was very 1982. Really? It didn't look that way to me. If I were presented with that plate, I'd have been quite happy with it! But obviously, these are food snobs, so you've got to impress them.
I think the problem with how they determine winners is that they judge solely on this one meal, not taking into consideration the previous work or consistency throughout the competition. Also, I don't like how they make them rush the cooking. If you're going to judge who makes the best food, then let them take their time to prepare something amazing. Don't turn it into "who can make the best food in a short amount of time with ingredients they don't know (like alligator)." What's the point of that? That should've been one of the challenges, not the finale.
So anyway, Carla screwed herself out of the competition by following Casey's meddling suggestions. And so it was down to Stefan and Hosea. I don't particularly like either of them, but I would say that at least Stefan was consistent the entire competition and won most of the challenges. Unfortunately, Hosea won Top Chef. UGH. Again, the undeserving chef won the competition. (I still think that Marcelle was robbed in season 2.) He basically squeaked by the whole competition and then got lucky that others made mistakes. Would you rather win because others made mistakes, or would you rather that everyone put out the best, and that yours really was the best of the best?
Just saying.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love this show. I don't care what the ratings are, I don't care what other people say. This is a kick-ass show and I love it. I'm a total Lost geek. If they had a convention, I'd go.
I'm not going to write up any details about the episode I just watched, because I don't want to spoil it if you haven't seen it. But really, all I wanted to say was, "bravo, writers, bravo." I applaud every episode I've seen this season. They've answered so many questions that were raised in previous seasons - the questions that confused the hell out of us - the ones that made a lot of people give up and stop watching. If you were one of those people who gave up, then you're an idiot. You should've had faith.
That's all I had to say!
Sometimes when I walk past these tiny asian people here on campus, I feel like a friggin giant. Seriously. I'm only 5'5 1/2" but I tower over some of these people - especially if I wear heels! And of course, I'm like 10 times bigger than their size 0 asses. I'm like a Cabbage Patch Kid, and they're like Polly Pocket. I could totally hang them on my keychain. Just an observation.
So for those of you who've never seen my workplace, I happen to sit in a cubicle area where there are no windows. I have to walk out to a different area to see anything outside. The girl who sat here before me said that she had nicknamed it "the cave". I can certainly see why.
But I just got the greatest news ever - they're going to put up 3 windows in front of where I sit. OMFG - NATURAL LIGHT!!! Glory hallelujah, I never thought this day would come! Woohooooo!!!!! How exciting!
Of course, knocking a giant hole in the wall to build a window isn't exactly something that they can do with me sitting here, so apparently we'll be moving out temporarily. Yay! I'm excited for that too. I need a change of scenery, even if just temporarily. Change is good.
Which means, however, that I have a couple of months to clear out all my junk. Oh god, de-cluttering at work in addition to de-cluttering at home. *sigh* Though nothing feels better than throwing out stuff. Out with the old and in with the new.
Can't wait for my lovely windows. :)
Was sorting out some photos I had and came across these. I meant to write up a post about this, but I guess I forgot. I don't think I did anyway.
This is Motomachi Shokudo, the fancy organic, posh ramen place that's a few doors down from Kintaro Ramen on Denman Street. It's the same owner, but this place uses organic chicken broth instead of the traditional rich pork broth. Veggies and all ingredients are organic as well, so of course the cost is $1-2 higher than Kintaro. But it's worth it.
very modern interior. this is the "o"-shaped communal table
I think these pics are from last summer or fall, so I really don't remember which soup this was, but I'm pretty sure it's the shio broth. I asked for no green onions (as usual), and the waitress asked if I was okay with the angelhair leeks it came with as well. I thought I'd try it. Turns out, no. Not a leek fan either.
But it was a good bowl of ramen. The pork was lean and of course the soft boiled egg was awesome. If you haven't tried it yet, then you should.
The Killers, Bono, Coldplay!!!
This is from the other night at Coldplay's War Child concert in London. The Killers, Bono, and even Gary Barlow from Take That (yeah baby!) joined Coldplay to sing The Killers' song, All These Things That I've Done. Pretty cool!
So this Friday is Jay Leno's last day at The Tonight Show, and Conan O'Brien's last day at Late Night. I wonder how Conan will work out on The Tonight Show. One hour earlier - will that make a difference? I think I read that Max Weinberg won't go with him, because of obligations on the east coast. So I'm curious to know if they're going to totally revamp the show and change everything around. I guess we'll just have to find out.
I can't believe they're giving Jay Leno a 10pm show. What was the point in that? The guy said he wanted to retire, then he changed his mind. Now they have to appease him because he's their ratings bread and butter. Yeah, I'm not a huge Jay fan. It's not my kind of humour. I'm a Conan girl. (Actually, I'm a Craig Ferguson girl too. He's awesome.) But I can't believe that NBC is going to fill up their 10pm slot every night with Jay. If it works, then the whole thing about Conan taking over the Tonight Show will be pointless, as it's still Conan following Jay, everything's just shifted up an hour earlier. What's the point?
However, the real test will be for Jimmy Fallon. I loved him on SNL but I'm not sure how he'll do as a talk show host. But I'm glad to see him on tv again. Seriously, what has he done since SNL? And why did he leave anyway? I wonder if he was trying to pull a David Caruso? Anyway, I hope he does well. He's so damn likeable.
Carson Daly must be pissed though. He probably thought that after however many years he's been doing his late late show, that he'd automatically get to move into Conan's timeslot. But they screwed him over for Jimmy. Wise choice, if you ask me. Carson's really annoying. I still remember him from his MTV days. What a tool. He was sort of on track to being this big media guy, but then Ryan Seacrest swooped in and stole his thunder! Seriously, once Ryan came, that was it for Carson.
Anyway, yay for Conan and Jimmy. Whatever about the rest.
A friend and I were talking about how when we're on long flights (at least 4 hours or longer), we feel like we have to watch as many movies as possible to feel like we got our money's worth. haha - apparently we're cheap!
What I do is I figure out how long long the flight is, and at what time do they actually start letting us use the screens to watch stuff. Then I quickly scan through the movie list to see which ones I want to see, and I look at the movie length time.
On a flight to NYC from Vancouver, I can always squeeze in two movies in a row if I choose carefully based on time. Meaning you can't watch two 2-hour movies, because as I've learned the hard way, you will never get to the see the end of the second film, because they shut off the stuff before the plane descends. So I can usually fit in a 90 minute film with one that's 1 hr 45. That's how you maximize what you can watch, without getting screwed over on missing the ending.
What do the rest of you like to do? Let's hear it.
I've had many awkward silences in my lifetime, too many to name. But today, I ran into a guy I know, who I haven't talked to or seen in a long time, and it was painful. PAINFUL! It felt like the longest 20 seconds of my life. Hey, how are you? Good. How's everyone? Good. *SILENCE* Crickets chirp. Can't think of anything else to say, at all. Neither can he. More silence. More crickets chirping. Oh god, neither of us has anything to say and the silence is more excruciating. Oh no, he's walking my way. I can't walk with him in silence the whole way. Omg, why do I not have one word to say?! Oh - thank god, he spots a friend in the distance. Yes! Okay, I'll see you later. See ya. End of most painful 20 seconds of the last few years. *sigh*
Man, I hate that guy.
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