spring-ling

Ah, il fait beau! - literally, 'it makes beautiful'.. meaning to say, it's a fine weather.

On a fine spring day like this, you really wanna 'air' yourself outside, have a stroll by the riverbank or in the park, scooping on strawberry granita on the sidewalk terrace, have a picnic, golek-golek on the grass... the weather is perfect for these activities. It's really sunny and cool at the same time.

This is the season when the rituals of winter - nursing a kettle of tea, bundling in layers of scratchy wool, staying cooped up in the warmth of the home - make way for the rites of spring.

I love this period of the year when it's sunny but not scorching hot, when you get to listen to birds tweeting upon opening the windows, when everything comes back to life. We have longer days, warmer temperature, livelier streets decorated with bouquet of fresh flowers, happier, sprightly people.

Spring air gives me a particular sense of clarity and if you breathe in hard enough, you could almost smell that new bud sprouting from the tree branch. J'adore!

greek chick

It all started in a Parisian Greek restaurant. Hubby had a love affair with a Greek goddess.. er, sandwich, he'd eaten there and wanted me to replicate it at home. Sure. So I searched the net for the recipe. Didn't know what to look for exactly but found a fairly easy Greek chicken recipe instead. Tried my hand at it.. can't say it's the exact replica of the Paris's version but it was good nonetheless. I made ciabatta sandwich out of the chicken. It was quite a hassle to eat it, so I improvise the second time I cooked the chicken, and made it into a salad instead. And it has become a cult dish for hubby since. He likes it so much that he said, and I quote, "I can even eat it for breakfast" (haral kami).

sandwich vs salad

All you need here is skinless chicken legs marinated in lemon juice, herbes de provence (mixture of rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano), olive oil and minced garlic. Leave it to marinate for an hour or so and it's ready to be pan-fried. Once the chicken has cooked through, shred it, put it back in the pan and pour the rest of the marinade and let it sizzle. I like to add some chilli flakes at this stage to give it an added kick. Remove the pan from the heat, cool it down a little before mixing it with the salad, cherry tomatoes and cut-up ciabatta which I made into croutons. Give it a good mix, drizzle a little more olive oil if it's too dry, sprinkle some salt and it's good to go. Bon appétit!

before & after

cinematic experience

We dropped by the cinema today to check on the movie 300. I told myself that I must watch this movie after Boboy mentioned it to me and then checking out the movie site. But unfortunately, they only show it in version française and that really sucks. Well I guessed it as much but was hoping by miracle that they might show this kinda movie in its original version. Pas de chance! That's what you get in French cinemas. All foreign films are French-dubbed here.. and I hate that. I like my movies in their original version, wherever they come from, and with the appropriate subtitles. But if you're in Paris though, you have the choice to watch an American-produced movie either in version française or version originale. But since we're not in Paris, we'll just have to wait for the movie to be out on DVD :(

So what is it about this movie? It's an epic and I like epic movies like 300 even if it comes with lots of gory fights. It appeals to me firstly because of its visual feast - the different era, the costumes, the artistic direction, the whole setting. This movie reminds me of the game The Prince of Persia (which we both like and have played repeatedly).

I love those movies that are set in the 18th century or older. Movies like Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Elizabeth, Dangerous Liaisons, Marie Antoinette, Gone With The Wind.. just to name a few. I'm completely mesmerized by movies of this genre. Once again, its the visual feast (don't you just love those extravagant, intricately-designed dresses back then?) and of course they usually come with a good storyline. Watching these movies will propel you to another world altogether. How life seems so much simpler back then. Oooh.. talking about this makes me long for a good one right now.

I'm not one to watch those mindless 'fighting movies' especially if Jean-Claude Van Damme is in it. Another movie peeve for me has to be the Western cowboy kinds.. I'll do a double pass on that. Oh, I've also passed up on horror movies. Just as well, cause hubby's not into it either. I did watch movies like The Exorcist, Poltergeist, The Ring, etc., before I went cold turkey on them. Most of the scary scenes would stay fresh in my mind for a long time after watching such movies. So why scare myself shit when I can just not watch it altogether.

I love going to the cinemas but I don't do that here due the reasons cited above. The only time I went to a cinema here was years back and that was to watch a French comedy. My (and hubby's) best cinematic experience had to be the one in Golden Village Gold Class.. very class indeed.. our thanks again to Boboy and Yati for that! (biasa-biasakan lah buat mende macam tu, eh ;)