The RRR Movie on Netflix-A Movie for Action Lovers

I just finished watching the RRR movie on Netflix. Needless to say, I enjoyed it very much. Here's a recent article and review of this Hindi movie.

"Netflix users are finally discovering RRR – and calling it the "greatest action film ever made"

By Amy West published June 16, 2022

The Indian movie is taking the internet by storm

(Image credit: Variance Films and Sarigama Cinemas)

Netflix users all over the world are finally discovering RRR, a new action epic that is taking cinema and the internet by storm – and it's safe to say, people cannot stop raving about the flick.

Directed by S. S. Rajamouli, the Telugu-language movie takes place in the 1920s and centers on two revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (N. T. Rama Rao Jr.), in their explosive challenge of the British Raj. It's lengthy at 182 minutes, but doesn't waste a second, cramming in everything from fiery bow and arrow battles and motorcycle chases to men fighting alongside bloodied tigers. If none of that tickles your fancy, firstly, what more do you want? Secondly, fear not, it also features a romantic subplot, a sweet bromance, and a couple of musical numbers, too.

RRR was initially released in cinemas on March 25, before heading to video-on-demand platform ZEE5 on May 20. That same day, the Hindi version dropped on Netflix, and swiftly became the first Indian film to trend at #1 for three consecutive weeks in the Non-English Films category on the streamer's global chart. Since then, subscribers have been rushing to social media in droves to champion the flick.

"RRR is over-the-top ridiculous insanity and it is AMAZING. It's like Michael Bay and Baz Luhrmann and Stephen Chow teamed up to make a movie. It was 3 hours long but it could have been 4 hours and I would've still enjoyed it," one fan tweeted (opens in new tab).

RRR is not only one of the best action movies of all time, it is also one of the best movie musicals of all time," another added (opens in new tab), highlighting the film's genre-bending appeal.

RRR is fucking amazing. From a Western perspective, it’s like Avengers, Top Hat, Indiana Jones, Lawrence of Arabia, Lord of the Rings, Rocky, Grease and Michael Collins were all thrown together in an Indian washing machine with settings to 100 degree AWESOME pic.twitter.com/zFQEGjuvRdJune 11, 2022

You guys, RRR on Netflix is the real deal. One of the best action-adventure films I’ve seen in years. It’s got drama, romance, comedy, suspense, tigers, musical numbers, you name it. pic.twitter.com/Cj41m1rGweMay 24, 2022

#RRR made me say “that’s the best set piece I’ve ever seen” about 10 times pic.twitter.com/vsk9HaY22DJune 13, 2022

10 Movies recommended by Netflix

 https://top10.netflix.com/

 

The Best Tasting and Popular Crabs to Eat

European Brown Crab- Photo Credit: Cuisineryfoodmarket.com

I was reading an advertisement in FaceBook about European Brown Crabs. I am thinking of buying/ordering on line since the price is reasonable. However, I am not sure of the taste/quality (contamination) of these crabs, so I posted a question on my FB page. However, I did not get any response except for my American-Italian neighbor. Here's the ad from FB.

European Brown Crab Cooked

These female crabs are cooked and ready to be cracked and eaten. One large crab will feed up to 2 person. You can also use the crab meat for your recipes. The white claw meat that comes from these crabs rivals the one from king crab.

Brown crab is a crab species found in the North Sea and North Atlantic Ocean with a brown smooth, oval carapace, wider than it is long, which makes it stand out perfectly. Like the rest of other similar species, females have a larger abdomen than males.

• Fully cooked, free of preservatives or additives.
• 1 whole crab per pack.
• The crab weighs 14 to 21 oz (400g/600g), which is a perfectly generous portion for one to two people.

Full Description

$13.89 Special Price $11.09

I have not tasted this specie of Crabs, so I posted in FB asking if anyone knows its taste compared to the top best tasting crabs listed below.  

Top 5 Best Crabs To Eat

Maryland Blue Crab. .

Soft-Shell Crab. ...

Dungeness Crab. ...

Snow Crab. ...

Florida Stone Crab. ...

 

My Italian-American neighbor is familiar with these brown crabs. She said its taste is inferior to the Dungeness or Maryland Blue Crabs.  For those of you who are not crab enthusiasts here are the photos of the popular types of crabs used for cooking. There are more than 4500 species of crabs, but they are not all edible.

I have enjoyed the delicious taste of the Blue, Dungeness and Soft Shell Crabs as well as the Alaskan King Crab, but not the Snow or Florida Stone crabs. How about you? How many types of Crab meat have you enjoyed? They are not cheap!! 

Here's an article last year, on the high concentration of Cadmium in the brown meat ( body meat) of the European Brown Crabs. 

 

https://www.elgalabwater.com/blog/it-safe-eat-brown-crab

 

Here's another article on Eating Brown Crabs!!

Everything But the Shell: A Guide to Eating Brown Crab

Posted on April 26, 2016 by wizard Klaw

After a bit of a howler of a winter, it looks like the weather’s turned around and is becoming a bit friendlier. The lads on the crab boats will be out at Lambay Island (a spit of land in Dublin Bay where the crab like to party) pulling up pots of beautiful Brown Crabs. They know how to find them and catch them, we know how to cook them, so all that’s left is for you to know is how to eat them. It can be a bit intimidating to take on a whole crab and get the best out of it but once you know how it’s a great feed and a lot of fun.

Of the whole weight of these heavily armoured critters, about a third of it is edible meat. With sweet white meat in the claws and lower body and rich brown meat in the head, there’s a great range of flavours in a Brown Crab. When we prepare a crab in Klaw, we pull off the claws and separate the top shell and the lower body. On the lower body are the “dead man’s fingers” as they’re known. These are the crab’s gills through which water is filtered. These are removed; despite the enticing name they’re neither tasty nor visually appealing. We then split the body down the middle to make the meat more accessible and we crack the claws. This leaves the top shell or carapace. We remove the sandbox and a membrane that covers the meat. The meat in the top shell is often overlooked in favour of the sweet claw meat but for many this meat is the highlight of eating a crab. The soft meat has a distinct flavour and is stunning when spread on toast and sprinkled with a bit of the Old Bay seasoning and the yuzu that we love in Klaw.

 

A Pictorial Collection of the Popular Filipino Dishes

While reading My E-mail last month, I found this article on Quora.com describing Filipino Dishes versus Thai and other Asian dishes. I am posting the answer below and photos of some mouth-watering Pinoy Dishes. I hope looking at the pictures will me you hungry and order a Filipino Dish today from your local favorite Pinoy restaurant or on line through Shef.com (Referral code Davidk35). Bon Apetit!     

Traditional Filipino desserts

• Rice Cakes

• ‘Ginataang Bilo-Bilo’, this actually looks similar to the Thai dessert ‘Bua Loi’.

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Examples of Thai food for visual comparison.

Source: Quora.com (Digest)

Why is Filipino food not popular overseas apart from in places where there are workers from the Philippines?

Personally I think that Filipino cuisine lacks promotion… but I also know that some people have professed their hatred of Filipino cuisine. As a Filipino I love Filipino cuisine, but if other people don’t like it, then who cares?… let them be, as long as they’re not spreading misinformation.

Dayang Marikit

Philippine History Professor

Is Filipino cuisine similar to Thai cuisine?

As a Filipino who had been to Thailand, I’d say that visually speaking they could generally look “quite similar” to each other because both cultures love stews, broth soups, noodles, rice, rice cakes, spring rolls, etc… however I’d say that the main difference is in the flavor, Filipino cuisine has a lot of "umami flavor" but it's generally “milder” and less spicy and less herby than Thai cuisine, they use a lot of aromatics like cilantro, which Filipino don’t typically use. Though I must say that some of the flavors are quite familiar to me.

My Korean and Japanese friends tend to say that Filipino food is very flavorful to their palates but still “tolerable” unlike Thai cuisine. Many Koreans could tolerate the spiciness of Thai cuisine, but not its strong herbal flavor… I think that makes sense because comparatively speaking, Korean and Japanese cuisine generally tends to be “blander” than Southeast Asian cuisine, in my opinion.

Do you have a favorite in this pictorial? Let me Know!

Do You Get Goosebumps When You Listened to Your Favorite Music?

Photo Credit: Getty

Last week, while listening to a medley of Filipino folk songs popular during my teenager years in the Philippines in FaceBook, I noticed I had goosebumps and a little chills while listening to the music. Besides these songs, classical guitar music such as Concierto de Aranjuez also aroused similar response in my brain. The reason why Concierto de Aranjuez is one of my favorite piece of music is detailed in my blog as follows:

https://theintellectualmigrants.blogspot.com/2022/05/music-appreciation-day-personal-stories.html

Today, I found the following article by Maddy Shaw Roberts published on classicfm.com explaining why some ( only 50% of us) experienced goosebumps or chills when we listened to our favorite music. Here's the article for your reading pleasure. 

"Scientists say they have discovered why the melodies we love give us goosebumps.

A team of French researchers found that when we listen to our favorite music, the areas of the brain which handle emotion, movement, and processing music and sound work together to create a surge in dopamine levels – our ‘feel good’ chemical.

According to the study, our brains also try to anticipate what happens next in the song. And when we guess correctly, we get a reward.

Thibault Chabin, a PhD student at the University Burgundy Franche-Comté who led the study, said: “What is most intriguing is that music seems to have no biological benefit to us. However, the implication of dopamine and of the reward system in processing of musical pleasure suggests an ancestral function for music.

“This ancestral function may lie in the period of time we spend in anticipation of the ‘chill-inducing’ part of the music. As we wait, our brains are busy predicting the future and release dopamine.

“Evolutionarily speaking, being able to predict what will happen next is essential for survival.”

The team of researchers, whose study was published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, carried out the experiment on 18 music-lovers with a range of musical abilities, who had all experienced chills when listening to music.

“Participants of our study were able to precisely indicate ‘chill-producing’ moments in the songs, but most musical chills occurred in many parts of the extracts and not only in the predicted moments,” says Chabin.

Side note, interestingly – or tragically, depending on your take! – only about half of people get chills when listening to music. Those who do, are considered to have an “enhanced ability to experience intense emotions”.

For Chabin’s study, the participants were hooked up to machines that record electrical activity in the brain, and they were played 90-second clips of their favorite songs.

While they were listening, the scientists watched what happened in their brains whenever the music gave them ‘chills’.

They spotted specific electrical activity in the region responsible for emotional processing; the region involved in movement control; and the area which handles music and sound appreciation.

These regions work together to process music and release the ‘feel-good’ hormone, dopamine. Combined with the anticipation that triggers those pleasurable ‘reward systems’, this produces the tingly chill participants felt while listening.

“This represents a good perspective for musical emotion research,” Chabin said.

“Musical pleasure is a very interesting phenomenon that deserves to be investigated further, in order to understand why music is rewarding and unlock why music is essential in human lives.” For complete details read:

https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/scientists-find-why-favourite-music-gives-you-chills/

Meanwhile enjoy this photo from my album:

My Okra on a Planter Box- survived extreme heat and attack from squirrels and jay birds

 

My Red Crape Myrtle ( Banaba) Now in Full Bloom

 

In spite of the extreme heat, my red crape myrtle is in full bloom. Notice the brown grass( dormant lawn), because I only water once a week to conserve. The grass will turn green next year when the rains start. Most of the lawns in this neighborhood are brown with exception of a few green lawn lunatics and those house-lawns with water-resistant ground covers. It is patriotic and wise to conserve water in this drought.

Crape Myrtle is known as Banaba in the Philippines. There are several color varieties ranging from white, light pink, dark pink, purple to dark red.   

Banaba, or Lagerstroemia speciosa, is a tree native to tropical Southeast Asia. It belongs to the genus Lagerstroemia, also known as Crape Myrtle .

The tree is widely distributed in India, Malaysia, and the Philippines, where it’s known as Jarul, Pride of India, or Giant Crape Myrtle.

Almost every part of the tree offers medicinal properties. For example, the bark is often used to treat diarrhea, while its root and fruit extracts are believed to have an analgesic, or pain-relieving, effect.

The leaves contain over 40 beneficial compounds, of which corosolic acid and ellagic acid stand out. Though the leaves offer a variety of benefits, their ability to lower blood sugar levels appears the most potent and sought after For Health Benefits of Banaba leaves read:

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/banaba-leaf 

I have no pineapple fruit this season. The photo below was my pineapple plant last year in the pot in my front patio.

 

My Potted Pineapple this Year- No Fruit-just new growth 

The Third Party Movie on Netflix ( Filipino Movie with English Subtitles)

 

It had been almost a decade since I watched a Filipino movie. Last week I was tempted to a Filipino movie that have had financial success in the International Market. 

The film touches on the subject of same sex partner adoption, abortion, bisexuality, sexual fluidity, homosexuality and parental problems, Philippine immigration,  Filipino street food, childhood abandonment but is a comedy. 

I enjoyed the movie very much and recommend to all movie lovers of comedy with LGBT themes.  There are no mouth to mouth same sex kissing scenes but a number of moments of same sex tenderness, so it is not rated R. If you are craving for Philippines scenery and culture watch this movie.

Here's a summary from Wikipedia. 

The Third Party is a 2016 Filipino romantic comedy drama film starring Angel Locsin, Sam Milby and Zanjoe Marudo. It is directed by Jason Paul Laxamana from a screenplay written by Charlene Sawit-Esguerra and Patrick John Valencia.

The film was produced by ABS-CBN Film Productions and was theatrically released in Philippine cinemas on October 12, 2016, by Star Cinema.

The film marks Angel Locsin's second movie this year after Everything About Her, and serves a reunion for her and Zanjoe Marudo who both starred in the 2012 film One More Try; both films were also released by Star Cinema.

The story revolves between exes Andi, an events manager who aspires to be a fashion designer (portrayed by Angel) and Max, a cosmetic surgeon (portrayed by Sam) who both find ways to keep their relation intact after a breakup. But later on, Max finds new love with a gay Pediatrician, Christian (portrayed by Zanjoe). Andi gets pregnant (by Iñigo, portrayed by Paolo Paraiso, who abandons her) and the trio (Andi, Max, and Christian) forms a family. The film also tackles friendship and how a person gets to know more about himself. 

The film grossed ₱10 million on its first day. The film has been successful nationwide and worldwide, despite its genre, giving a boost to the LGBT community. The Third Party reached the 100 Million mark in its 3rd week of showing, joining other successful films that reached 100 Million.

As of April 2019, the movie is available in the United States and elsewhere on Netflix.

Awards

Award Giving Body	Recipient	Award	Result
19th Gawad PASADO Awards	Zanjoe Marudo	PinakaPASADOng Katuwang na Aktor	Won
33rd PMPC Star Awards for Movies	Zanjoe Marudo	Movie Actor of the Year	Nominated

Meanwhile here's a list of 18 popular movies with LGBT theme on Netflix. 

https://www.lifewire.com/best-lgbt-movies-on-netflix-right-now-5069913

 

The Ten-Types of the Most Popular Sauces

Tzatziki Sauce- Photo Credit- menuprice.com

Last week, I posted the three sauces that I recently used for my empanadas and dumplings. This article is on the 10-types of the most popular sauces. If you are a Food enthusiast you are probably familiar with all of them. 

The list below are the 10 most popular sauces according to the menuprice.com

How many of these sauces are you using? I have used all nine of them. The only sauce I have not tried is #4-Tzatziki*. This is the first time I heard of the sauce. The following article from the blog of menuprice.com is very informative.

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Sauces are liquid or semi-liquid forms of food served with various food dishes in different cuisines. It's also used while making food recipes that give taste, flavor and textures to the final food products. Some of the sauces are an essential ingredient in some food recipes to bring the specific taste and flavor. Soy sauce is predominantly used in Japanese cuisines. In addition, they’re also used in salad dressing as well as side dishes. Commonly used sauces include hot sauce, sriracha sauce, tomato sauce and ketchup.

1. Hot Sauce
2. Sriracha Sauce
3. BBQ Sauce
4. Tzatziki Sauce
5. Buffalo Sauce
6. Tomato Sauce
7. Bolognese Sauce
8. Hoisin Sauce
9. Worcestershire Sauce
10. Garlic Sauce
11.  *Tzatziki Sauce is an Ottoman origin sauce made from salted strained yogurt mixed with olive oil, salt, garlic, cucumbers and herbs. It is also served as a cold appetizer and side dish. With its long history of evolution, different varieties of Tzatziki Sauce are seen from Turkish cacik to Balkan Tartar and jajeez in Middle East countries.
12. Not included in the List are my favorites,- Picante ( Medium), A-1 for Steaks and Hollandaise Sauce. 
    

For complete details read:  

 https://menuprice.co/blog/top-10-types-of-popular-sauces

For a List of Common Seasonings and Flavoring Ingredients read:

https://www.johnnyskitchen.us/professional-cooking/common-seasoning-and-flavoring-ingredients.html 

Meanwhile enjoy this photo of my Pompano Fish

 

Looking Forward for My First Okra Harvest this Year

 You either Love or Hate Okra! Are you a Lover or a Hater?

My First Red Okra Bud this Year-Can you See it?

Last March, I ordered red/burgundy okra seeds on line. I have still seeds from my regular okra( green) that I saved last summer. Red Okra is an example of an edible ornamental. It is one of my favorite vegetable along with ampalaya.

This year I planted both the regular Green and Red Okra Varieties. I ordered the seeds from Beyond Organic Seeds. Only one green variety survived from the jay birds attacked and summer extreme heat on the seedlings but seven healthy red variety survived and looks very healthy (photo below).

The only green okra is on the right of the photo- the leaves have no purple center and veins.

Okra fruits must be harvested young. My simplest recipe is just sauteed it in olive oil the slice okra with onions, and shrimp paste with a trace of vinegar. 

  

What does red/burgundy okra taste like?

Red okra are torpedo shaped and range from two to five inches long. Offering a unique flavor and texture, the fresh taste is somewhere between eggplant and asparagus. When cooked, however, the red color disappears and the pods turn green.

Here are my favorite recipes for Okra.

https://myfavoritepinoydishes.blogspot.com/2019/09/an-easy-recipe-for-baked-okra.html 

Remember, He/She that Gardens rule the World. 

Meanwhile enjoy this photo from my collection:

Young Carenna and I enjoying the beach and sunset of Amoingon Beach, Chateau Du Mer, Boac, Marinduque, Philippines

 

 

Grand Daughter Alix Katague Engaged to Brendan Quinn

My grand daughter Alix Katague, oldest daughter of my oldest son, Dodie, posted some photos in her FaceBook page yesterday announcing her engagement to Brendan Quinn. I have prior knowledge of this event (3-days ago). I am flattered that I was informed ahead before the public announcement. Again, my congratulations to this handsome couple. Here are some photos of this memorable event in my aging years. Sending hugs/love to both of you, Lolo! 

Alix and Brendan were classmates at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York and are currently residing in San Francisco, California. Both have Bachelor Degrees in Computer Science & Engineering.  A very, very happy Lolo, indeed!

Below are the linkedIn sites of Alix and Brendan respectively:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alixkatague/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanjohnquinn/ 

Here's Alix Photo from her FB page.

Brendan's family resides in Long Island, NY. I learned recently that Brendan's Mom maiden name is Caruana originally from Malta. I have a Facebook friend originally from Malta who is also a Caruana, now residing in Marinduque- my second home.  Small world, indeed!
 

My 6 grand children photo taken 12/20/14

From Left to Right: Carenna, Elaine, Ian, Philip, Alix and Marina