Making Steamed Buns (蒸包子)

I know, I have been blogging much less lately. It’s not because I don’t have stuff to babbling about, I just don’t have time, or have more important stuff to write. However, I do want to follow up on my last entry. Even if it were not a dream and if I had lost my laptop, apparently, I could have a protection for it. There is a software called Front Door Software I found from this AP article. It allows me to track where my laptop is and even let the laptop keeps talking, never mind that there is a mute button on each laptop. Okay, enough about my laptop, allow me to get back to the chicken. After the chicken stew was cooked, of course there were leftovers. So the next day, I had made some noodles and cooked them in the soup. I called it homemade chicken noodle soup, not "chicken and dumplings." Although I don’t have much time to write and need more time to sleep, but I did cook quite a bit last few days. It makes me feel safer and healthier for what I eat. I even started to blend smoothie with two fresh orange every morning, sometimes mix with a banana or some cherry tomatoes. If I had a teenager to blend it for me every morning, I would be able to put a Jamba Juice sign on my door. A few days ago, I cooked green onion pancakes and some fish. The soup was made from tofu and pork feet — pork feet is supposed to be beneficial to the skin. I guess I can’t be more Chinese than this dinner. Yesterday, I was craving for some steamed pork buns (包子). I want the filling made from dices of pork, not ground pork. It’s Shan Dong style that my grand parents used to make — 山东大葱猪肉包子. So I marinated the pork with soy sauce, cooking wine, pepper etc, then chopped a bunch green onions. My filling is ready. Next, I rolled wrappers with leavened flour dough I prepared in the morning, and put the filling in. Then put them into a steamer. About 15 minutes later, I had my fluffy buns. Well, I really should not have written this — I am supposed to go to bed. But now, I am hungry. That’s okay, I have been going to the gym, everyday. And, the movies. Two Lovers This is supposedly to be Joaquin Phoenix‘s last role before he quits acting — he costars with Gwyneth Paltrow in director James Gray‘s new romantic drama "Two Lovers" (USA 2008, 110 min.). Unfortunately, both Phoenix and Paltrow fail to spark any chemistry to make the film either romantic or dramatic. Leonard (Joaquin Phoenix) lives at home with his parents in Brooklyn and helps their dry cleaning business. His parents tries to help him to recover from his recent breakup by setting him up with Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), the daughter of a businessman who is buying out his family’s business. While Leonard seems willing to play along with this arrangement, he quickly falls for a neighbor Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), who is having a fair with a married man at work. On Christmas Eve, Leonard has to make a final decision about his triangle relationship. I cannot figure out why Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow are cast for these two protagonists. It’s quite obvious that they don’t look like a couple together, but both of them have to work hard to pretend on behalf of their characters. I feel their pain on the screen, because they have to behave wired according to the script, which make them appear to be awkward, unconvincing, and strange. Soon after Sandra meets Leonard, she invites him to a dinner with her lover, the unfaithful cheating husband. Even Leonard has a crush on Sandra, he comes to this expensive restaurant anyway to have dinner with them. Just pretend that you were any of these three characters for a second, would you come to a dinner like this? That being said, I very much enjoy the characters of Leonard’s parents, terrifically played by Isabella Rossellini and Moni Moshonov. This is perhaps the most unromantic film about romance. When Leonard checks out Sandra by peeking into her window from his apartment, it’s creepy, not romantic. When they yell out at each other from their windows, it’s annoying to the neighbors and the audience, still not romantic. I am glad that the film has a conclusion for everyone so Leonard’s neighbors don’t have to suffer any more, nor these characters. "Two Lovers" opens on Friday, February 27, 2009 at Landmark‘s the Embarcadero Center Cinema in San Francisco and the Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley.