Around the World in 80 Days- Week 9

It's official! We failed! We have two days left and too many resteraunts to complete by the time our challenge deadline is here. We were close but no dice. We are going to continue our journey around the world and finish it but we know we are not going to make the deadline. Money and time simply doesn't allow it. We would like to thank everyone who was reading and eating along with us for their time. We're sorry we couldn't complete the journey! We also would like to thank our team mates for the time  they spent researching resteraunts and the money they spent going out of their way to try new and interesting cuisuine. Too often we go to the same old places over and over again. We went on this journey to expand our cultural palettes and horizons. Oh and we totally called Peruvian food coming to Hong Kong. (Boom!)

This week we tried to be as adventurous as we could with our end of the month pennies. You know you eat out less at the end of the month because the cobwebs start appearing in your wallets! We had more European food this week with Swedish at Ikea (A total cheat we know!) A complete bargan at 7 dollars for coffee with unlimited refills and food for 15-30 dollars! You can't do better than that! The chocolate truffle cake was yummy AND nut free! Shatin Ikea was practically empty on a Tuesday afternoon and we totally took advantage and spent some time divulging into some Swedish treats at bargain prices!

Norwegian was a surprise at FILLES in TST. Pricey at dinner but a bargain at lunch for a 120 you get two courses of free range, organic food from the Scandanavian land of Trolls and ugly ass sweaters. Try the smoked salmon salad with poached eggs. Super yummy! Veggie options and Pescatarian options are plenty on the menu!

Matthew and Steven took on Seafood Buffet at a all you can eat Japanese buffet on Kowloon side. Their only complaint was they both ended up with massive headaches from the meal. MSG, anyone? Migraine suffererers beware! They also went to Olympic city and dined on Chinese cuisine. Cheap and yummy it was a pleasurable experience for both!

Mongolian was scratched off the list at Bayi. Off the beaten path in Sai Ying Pun. Bayi specializes in one thing: Camel. If you want to eat a dromedary this is the place. I had camel pancakes with peking style sauces. Kind of like eating camel soft tacos. It came with veggies to add and was a little spicy. Definately an adventurous meal and healthy! Camel is apparently very low in fat!

Portugese was taken off the list with a lunch at Cafe Liason in LKF. I never could afford this place at dinner but I knocked it off the list at lunch time. It was about 150HKD for a three course lunch with dessert and coffee. Still have not found a replacement for Cuban. Working on it.
Two days left... Will make another post on Tuesday about any progress made.

Color Coding System

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

Week Five

Week Six

Week Seven

Week Eight

Week Nine

I Love Bad Movies

I love a good bad movie! I wait with baited breath every year to see what is nominated for a Razzie award and then I watch them with abandon. My favorite movie of all time will forever be Showgirls! I love good theatre but I adore a good bad movie... I think a crappy movie that makes you laugh is the perfect escape from an artistic existence. When you spend 90% of your days working on theatre and trying to create good theatre it's just fun to come home and watch Mommie Dearest!

Movies that are camp and unapologetic about how bad they are, are great because they make you laugh and you don't have to think. Movies that are supposed to be "great" films according to their creators and are HORRIBLE in a good way are even better ala Troll 2 or Showgirls. I love to watch the trailers for films that are horrible but people thought were going to be great like the recent bomb John Carter or Norbit. (That movie really sunk Eddie Murphy's chance at a Oscar didn't it?)

Why am I write about my love of bad films?
Just yesterday at the opening night of HK players Yellow Face I was introduced to Ivy Lam who is going to help bring Bad Movies to their place of glory in Hong Kong.

She's helping run a screening of Troll 2 and the documentary and the Best Worst Movie Documentary at the HK Arts Center in Wanchai on May 5th! I think we should totally go support her for this effort because we artists are often too serious about our craft and could use a dose of "Good Bad" Cinema to lighten our moods! Get your "Troll On" with me and many others on May 5th! Press Release Below and You can find the more info at the facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/293575404052033/

What's your favorite "good bad" movie?

Review- Yellow Face- Hong Kong Players

Tonight I braved the rain and hopped down to Sheung Wan to see Hong Kong Players opening night of Yellow Face by Asian American playwright, David Henry Hwang. Yellow Face talks about race and identity issues of what it is like to be an Asian American. It talks about the act of a white performers pretending to be Asian for a role ala Rex Harrison in The King and I or Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's. One of the pivotal jumping points of the script is the Miss Saigon casting scandal in the 1990's. All American theatre students are subjected to hearing long tedious lectures in college about this scandal. Hwang took both real life experience and fictionalized characters and blended them together into the world of Yellow Face. It is not a "ha ha" comedy but an intellectual one. You will have to sit in the theatre and think for two and half hours. This might not be the best show to come to rip roaring drunk. It's not that kind of show, and it is LONG, eat before hand!

Around the World in 80 Days- Week 8

 Color Coding System

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

Week Five

Week Six

Week Seven

Week Eight

Week Nine

This week we got quite a bit accomplished! We know we are in the final crunch of the challenge! We have only one more week left and several countries left. We also had some firsts this week! I had my first Szechuan and my first Argentinian meals. I loved my Argentinian lunch at Tango Steakhouse on Wellington. Chef Martin was a delight and it is now my NEW favorite place to eat. Seriously, check this place out! I can't afford it at their dinner price but lunch was around 100 and I had some seriously LARGE portions with some delish ingredients. The best empanada!

Szechuan on the other hand was a seriously painful experience. It hurt! My mouth went numb and I don't think I have ever eaten anything that hot before. My gay said that it was good Szechuan and if your mouth goes numb then it's cooked correctly.... WAH?! I had to go home and change my shirt after the meal!

Louise was a big help to us and knocked out Japanese noodles and hand pulled noodles! She had pleasurable experiences at both places and highly recommends both! They both have open kitchens which give you a view into the kitchen and how your food is prepared!

I also had an all chocolate experience at Awfully Chocolate in Central. I had a salted butterscotch brownie that cost me 60HKD. I know, right? Expensive ass brownie! I shared it with my friend Sarah because it was a big ass brownie and there was no way we could finish it. Share the love and the cost with a friend when you go! Super Yummy!

I also had a healthy treat with Gluten free food at O Green Cafe in Sheung Wan. I left a bit hungry but everything tasted super fresh. The staff was super nice and seemed generally concerned about all food allergies I had. (Unlike some places where they roll their eyes at you when you ask them to clean the knives between preps. You know who you are...)

We have 8 days left and 17 places left. We don't know if we'll meet the deadline or not. But we're going to sure as heck try! Cuban will have to removed from the list as we have found out that the only Cuban place in town shut down. We'll let you know what it has been replaced with once we find a viable option.

Review- The Truth About Lying- HK Art Festival

I was really excited to this show. It was the winner for Best Script, Best Performance and Leading Actress of 2010. This was also the winner of a lot of awards at the 2011 Hong Kong Drama Awards. Playwright, Wong Wing-sze was the recipient of one of the largest arts grants in Hong Kong to help produce this piece. I wanted to see what the board was awarding the money to and what all the buzz was about. Expectations were set high for this show; I paid close to 400HKD to see it and I wanted to see a good show. People were really talking it up as one of the best things to come along in local Hong Kong drama in the past few years. My local "Canto gay" and I went to see it; in case I didn't understand some of the jokes I thought it best to have an interpreter.

Presented by Hong Kong Arts Festival in partnership with author/director Wong Wing-sze it was supposed to be a dramatic look at relationships both work/romantic from the view of the protagonist, Emily who is working at a high power law firm. I can understand the plight of the working woman in HK as an interesting concept for a piece but the story line seemed predictable at best.

Design wise it was beautiful. I though the set design was good and I thought the lighting design was well conceived. I think the use of working lights hanging above the actors as part of the set was rather ingenious as it seemed to put a feng shui feel onto the entirety of the set. Costumes were chic and simple. Yours basic HK business wear, suits, heels and ties. People looked expensive, people looked like those fancy people you see walking around IFC at 11am on a Thursday. All the great design in the world couldn't save it in my mind...

Vlog #3- Money Honey!!!

Our latest vlog talks about money issues as a theatre artist. A lot of people have had complaints about the financial struggles of being an artist in Hong Kong. How do you make a profit? How do you pay the bills? How do you pay off the student loans for that Masters Degree hanging on your wall?

If you have any money saving tips for productions or a great tale of how you made it in the black leave it in the comments! We want to know about your successes!

Do you have any ideas about how to solve issues we're facing with ticket prices, venue prices or cost of designs? We love an open dialogue between the community. Enjoy our vlog. Many thanks to Giles Burton of HK Microfest who was gracious enough to sit down with us and to the people at the opening night of ACT's "The Dining Room" who answered our questions!

Review- The Dining Room- ACT Hong Kong

"We don't have dining rooms in Hong Kong so I think I'm missing some of the jokes."- Sam

"I liked the kid's birthday party best."- Michelle

"I don't particularly care for the script."- Clara

"I liked the last ten minutes of Act 1"- Jeremy (Who was VERY late to Act One) *burn*

"Very sweet."- Natalie

"Sara is great!"- Matthew

The Dining Room by A.R. Gurney is like indulging in a fancy 12 course meal. There are little plates, big plates, intermessos and sweet treats. There is a palette cleanser or two. There is sure to be great company to help pass the time and a lot of booze (hopefully). Sure, there are some courses that are better than others but overall the meal is made up by a great cast of characters who weave great stories together over the hours. I enjoyed my evening with ACT as they took on Gurney's award winning play. Of course, there are things that can always be improved upon but overall it was money well spent as you could tell that the production crew spent a hell of lot of time (and money) on that set and props list. Only the Saturday matinee has tickets left! So if you're available Saturday at 3pm I highly recommend you get your butts down to box office and pick them up! It's worth the money as it is a very high quality show production wise.

Let's talk production...