DANCE PARTY WITH PRASHANT!

On a Saturday a few weeks ago, I finally had the opportunity to go to DJ Prashant’s Bollywood dance party. Instead of his usual venue at the Crystal Ballroom, the party was hosted at the Mcmenamins Mission Theater on NW 17^th and Glisan. Prashant also added a new component to his DJ style- VISUALS!

Much like the 80’s dance party that graces Lola’s Room, Prashant used the music videos from Bollywood movies in creative tessellating patterns to hint at his next dance pick. Plus the crowd begins to feel like part of the dance number as you join in with  Shahrukh Khan’s festival dance moves or try to titillate like Katrina Kaif.

It was a wonderful night. The doors opened around 9pm for a cover of $5 (it increases after 10pm). My boyfriend and I had a double date with another couple there. Since we were there early, there was time to talk over a mango margarita or chai-tini ($9) and ogle the screen that depicted miscellaneous movie plots  to us. At 10 pm , Prashant taught us to dance Bollywood style with the his favorite song “Jai ho,” from Slumdog Millionaire. By this time, more people were on the dance floor. The dance music played, starting with a mix of Bollywood and Western songs. The songs playing did not match with the videos playing on the screen  and I was initially disappointed about it. However, then I was informed that Prashant hadn’t even started playing his songs, so when it was his turn, he really got the party started.

Prashant might just be the king of the hip Bollywood dance scene in Portland. DJ Anjali is fun too, because they play memorable favorites of old and new movies. However, they often have the same playlist (though I will have to visit Prashant a second time to observe  his variations). I like how Prashant interacts with his audience more with the dance lesson, being charismatic and friendly and bringing East and West together : “Dance to this song with all of Mumbai tonight!”

He plays all the freshest music from the films and keeps you dancing the whole time- I DANCED FOR THREE HOURS STRAIGHT AND DIDN’T WANT TO STOP.

It was interesting to see the new songs because I have been behind on the recent bollywood films. Bollywood seems to be becoming more liberal with their depictions of sex. I was really surprised about the risqué content compared to the earlier films: you can see nipples during a tomato stomping, women can now writhe in sheets, and men can move their pants up and down (see below).

But see its’ all a good time!

Another trend was the style seemed a lot like the 1990’s, and the film quality was not the only thing. They wear a lot of 1990’s fashions with bright colors and mimic rap and Prince videos.

At this location, they served food until pretty late so our friends ordered nachos and my bf and I got a sandwich to keep us going.

I can’t wait to go again.

Mr. Bhansali, Please don’t try to hide behind the razzle dazzle!

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s most recent film, Guzaarish or Request, is just as much as a sparkle spectacle as his other films. The art direction is slightly more muted, but is replaced with a bohemian flair  reminiscent of Baz Luhrman’s Moulin Rouge, with deep wine reds and midnight blues.

            A retired, quadriplegic magician turned radio host named Ethan (Hrithik Roshan), feels that it is time to end his life. He’s been living as a quadriplegic for several years after a tragic magic trick accident. Ethan decides to make a plea to the Indian governmemt for euthanasia, as well as publicize the issue on his radio show. For this campaign, he has his caregiver/ lawyer to fight for euthanasia legalization. Meanwhile, Ethan decides to pass on his tricks from the trade to eager apprentice Siddiqui (Aditya Roy Kapoor) and provide a refuge for his other caregiver, the vulnerable Sophia D’Souza (Aishwariya Rai), who has a abusive ex-husband.

This film varies from other Bollywood because of the strong political agenda that carries the film, presenting different perspectives about assisted suicide from the main characters and many anonymous characters as well. I began to feel like I was watching a documentary where lots of people were discussing their views on a controversial issue. My opinion is that you can’t really make an entertaining, fictional agenda pushing film. The fiction and the controversy collide and make a less compelling story. I would be more interested to see a film telling a story, instead of debating if a character should live or die. The story, characters and art direction choices would be important in helping the audience relate to the issue. Guzaarish, on the other hand, distracts the audience with the sparkly art direction, does not provide relatable characters and lacks making the story from an individual standpoint. These elements are replaced by formal debates of the issue.

Bhansali has the impeccable ear for music and tremendously gifted eye for creative aesthetics, but his characters and content need some improvement. I have seen all of his movies. His first film, Khamoshi blended into mainstream Bollywood so it was not until Devdas did he make a name for himself. I truly loved Devdas, if not solely for the captivating art direction, which I will admit and did not mind that he distracted me from the fact that he remade the film from the 1950’s film with Dilip Kumar.

Even though I allowed myself to be swept away in the sparkly world, we can compare the character development in both by looking at the two clips. Aishwariya conveniently is the leading lady for both films, so we will use clips with her.

DEVDAS:

AND GUZAARISH:

                                                                                                 

I like that Bhansali creates gorgeous films, but would like to see him focus on the meat of a good picture, like plot and character (even though I will admit I own “Saawariya” for pure glitter awe factor and the plot puts me to sleep). I want a reason to keep watching, not just be submerged gleefully in shiny.

Somewhat Ordinary Al Amir (In Downtown Portland)

After India Day, after Karam was closed,  we decided to try Al Amir for our Middle Eastern food fix. Besides, there’s nothing like continuing a food journey further east.

First impression promised a similar experience to Karam and other Middle Eastern restaurants- curtained doorways and windows, an ironic full bar and dimmed lighting.

The menu was tres chere, or quite expensive, in the $15 and above range. The appetizer section was small and I became so overwhelmed by the prices, I suggested that my group of my friend and my boyfriend, order family style.  We order the veggie mezza plate and a vegetable dish, since we were so weighed down by delicious fried delicacies from the stands at India Day.

The veggie mezza platter was not the best. The bread was probably bought at the store and warmed up, so it was passable. However, I am a firm believer that Middle Eastern restaurants must make their own bread, because it is the ultimate accompaniment to the rest of their dishes. The Al Amir plate was downhill from there: the hummus was bland, after a few bites of baba ghanoush the taste became mayinaisey, the tabouli was not very memorable but decent.

            The best thing about the small platter was the singular dolmas and falafel. Both were succulent and flavorful, the dolmas not overly briny.

The second dish, which I can’t remember the name of, was much better. The dish was a selection of eggplant, cauliflower, carrots and a yellow squash. They were roasted, tender and delightfully bitter in the right places, and covered with an acceptable amount of yogurty sauce. Rice came with the veggies with a sprinkling of pine nuts and a red pepper and thyme sauce.

The dessert menu appealed to me for its variety, so I might return for a veggie dish and a dessert at some point. Quantities should have been larger for the price, because I have been to many restaurants that heap on the mezza. Al Amir is for the Western, hipster client who would appreciate a semi formal meal in downtown Portland. For this reason, someone like me that appreciates the details and authenticity of food and needs to enjoy sumptuous leftovers the next day, I probably would not be the ideal person for this restaurant.

Karam is still DA BOMB as they say, or number one on my list for Middle Eastern restaurants. Here is my full, short list complete with descriptions of their awesome bread.

1.)    Marrakesh ( Morrocan): Their crusty semolina cubed bread soaks up the rich, princely succulent dishes, whether red lentil soup, carrot puree salad, or braised hare.

2.)    Karam (Lebanese): Almost paper thin, refillable pita gives you the smoothest tastes when you dip it into the velvety hummus or baba ghanoush.

3.)    Nicholas (Meditteranean/Middle Eastern): Extensive food and drink menu, plus you can order mezza platters to share with a fair amount of people. They use a wood fired oven for meat and veggie pies, plus for their epic bread that fills up the center of the table.

4.)    Ya  Hala  (Lebanese): Renowned for their veggie mezza platter, so you’ll need their thick and buttery small pitas. They also make their meat pies with dough that is almost as thin as a pastry.

"Make like a tree and....."

I would say that this film has attained legendary cult status among new college grads and current college students. The film was released in 1999, was postponed because of the tragic Columbine shootings, but is now considered a hit after being shown in a lot of American colleges. Yes, it is “Boondock Saints.”

There are many attractive features to this hyper violent flick: a growing preference for non traditional plot, a bad ass soundtrack with catchy and haunting lyrics, the vibrantly offensive vocabulary, absurd violent circumstances, adamant religion and an ultimately ambiguous morality. Boondock Saints is an exceptional 90s film. The film was made as we transitioned into the millenium and promoted an alternative, and sometimes irreverent perspective.

I must mention that this film was made after Quentin Tarantino’s acclaimed “Pulp Fiction (1994),” which shares many of the facets listed above. Tarantino’s motive seems to be popularizing  B movie irregularities by using weird details and darkly disturbing twists in his films. He started his bizarre film-making career in the early 90’s with “Reservoir Dogs” (think that “Stuck in the middle with you” musical garage scene), and continued to surprise the status quo with comical and brutal behavior in Pulp Fiction. A friend of mine criticized  “Boondock Saints” for trying too hard to be like a Tarantino flick. To a point, I agree.  SPOILERS ALERT! The narrative structure, random dialogues and superfluous expletives of “Boondock Saints”  follows Tarantino’s formula, along with their strange props (using the toilet as a weapon) and cartoonic gore,  in the case of the cat. Both films treat violence without consequence, and as a source of comedy at times: “Let’s kill everyone!”

The difference between the two is that Tarantino immerses the audience in a gritty world of dangerous people, and we root for them akin to “The Godfather” or “Bonnie and Clyde.” “Boondock Saints” also provides realistic characters in their violent acts but the film focuses more on orchestrating (quite literally too) the mood of the situations and the structure of the plot. I’m not suggesting that Tarantino’s films are devoid of meaning, only that the audience is aware that they are becoming part of Tarantino’s alternative world for awhile. “Boondock Saints,” while stylistic as well,  the protagonists are not assassins, mob bosses or people who rob banks. Murphy and Connor are ordinary, working class individuals, going to Sunday mass and trying to survive on a slaughterhouse salary. They seem to have sort of a mission that benefits other people as well, even if it is unorthodox.  The audience can identify with their needs on a basic level, and do not need to worship a hero or anti hero that often is not seen in our own ordinary lives like in “Pulp Fiction.”

During my most recent viewing of “Boondock Saints,”  I observed that Murphy and Connor compare their surroundings (like a wall of guns to choose from) or circumstances to the movies. They literally state, that in the films, the situations are to be executed a certain way. They seem to want to pretend and glorify their conquests too, by leaving their mark on their victims with the coins on the eyes. Also, the murders they commit are not completed according to plan, especially if David Della Rocco is involved; therefore, they succeed in murdering the bad guys despite the chaotic nature that they create. Their imperfections appeal to the audience because it reminds us of our own, if we were in their situation, pretending, like the brothers have been doing the entire film. So many movies are about the plan, the characters setting up the plan, following the steps of the plan smoothly, the sigh of relief that they have completed the plan while dodging minor obstacles. But the saints seem to keep messing up the plan they have choreographed, murder the mafias and seem to stay free from harm.

Here is a scene where the plan goes awry:

And the music makes it seem like a performance.

To continue the hyperbolic performance theme, the plot is set up as if you were viewing a live show like theater, opera or the symphony. Music is even coalesced with the plot structure to show off the violence and help figure out the way it occurred, especially in Willem Dafoe’s case. The plot is character study (peppy Irish music), conflict, trying to figure out what happened by crime scene clues (Dafoe’s opera music), flashback to the murder scene (kickass music), and the outcome for the two brothers. REPEAT!  And there’s that haunting catchy song they play after the brothers have prayed and are going to murder some mafia members.  

The ending continues to demonstrate aspects of a performance because there are interviews from random people about the brothers mission to kill evil doers. The movie asks for audience participation by confronting  different people’s perspective on the issue. The most popular response is no comment, but other answers display the ambiguity of the violence with people for and against the saints’ behavior. The movie ending polls the audience about the individual’s position in society, looping back to the opening scene’s beginning story of Kitty Genovese. For those who don’t know, Genovese was raped and stabbed to death within earshot of her neighbors, and none of them called the police. The beginning and ending scenes are a dichotomy of the paths that the individual chooses to play if they witnessed someone who needed help- indifference or  the extreme action that the saints take.  The opposing positions are trying to get the audience take part in their society and discuss the right thing to do if someone does not receive justice. Are we  really turning into a society that doesn’t care about others around us?

College students are watching this film when they  are away from home for the first time, formulating the career they want and exploring the person they want to be. The no comment people in the ending define an apathy that is more widespread than holding  an opinion and serving justice to those it is deserved. College students are also on a search for morality, because for the first time they can make their own rules and try the things that their parents discouraged them to. Why not help this journey with an entertaining action movie?

So. “Boondock Saints” is a violent, irreverent action performance / backwards morality tale. A great end to the 90’s, because America was actually welcoming diverse perspectives, strengthening women’s roles, and heading towards globalization. Makes sense that our films would reflect that.  They also prided themselves on being culutrally diverse. Even though these two can be very offensive with their torrid racial comments, the dialogue works to expunge stereotypes. For example, in “Pulp Fiction” Pumpkin (Tim Roth) calls the waitress at the diner “Garcon!” to get her attention. He had just  been racial profiling a slew of different cultures with Honey Bunny, and wants a coffee refill. The waitress arrives with the coffee and corrects him, because “Garcon” means boy in French. In this situation, the waitress represents the more aware, modern 90’s culture while Pumpkin represents the old, racist ideas that really are showing off his ignorance as we started becoming more knoweldgeable about different countries in the 90’s. “Boondock Saints” also shows the positive impact of diveristy. Though there is David Della Rocco’s racist Coca Cola joke and the semi- segregated mafias, Connor and Murphy are well versed in several languages as shown in their first meeting with Willem Dafoe’s character. I might even suggest that the first meeting scene heavily influenced Tarantino, as his 2009 historical fantasy “Inglourious Bastards” is barely English but  predominately French and German.

Both Tarantino and “Boondock Saints” have portrayed these elements in their films. They have taught us to see the film medium in new narrative views and plot structure, “Boondock Saints” favors the performance choreography and Tarantino prefers to keep varying the structure in each of his films. Other films have followed “Pulp Fiction” and “Boondocks Saints” with their experimentation of  structure, like “Lucky Number Slevin” and “Memento.”

But they were the two that paved the new way to tell a story artistically and non-traditionally, and it was a profound statement.

Gruner- C’est Magnifique!

This all started because of the quest for the perfect burger. I tried a variety of burgers over the years of my foodie adventures. Lots of burgers were eaten, many forgotten and not worth mentioning. Then Willamette Week’s burger recommendations came out recently:

http://wweek.com/portland/article-12221-burgerquest.html

I have eaten at a few of these: Carafe,  Foster Burger, and Toro Bravo. Here are my contenders for the tastiest Portland burger:

Carafe’s I had awhile back and was not very memorable.

Toro Bravo redeemed themselves from their initial manchego bacony impression. The burger is made of lamb with some cheese, sweet pickles and a spicy sweet pepper tapenade at number four. Many of my friends rate this as their favorite, I don’t agree probably because I am not a sauce person.

Number three is Kenny and Zukes pastrami burger. It’s only $7.50 during their happy hour (and goes great with a chocolate egg cream if you want to feel East Coasty). This beef burger has a slab of pastrami and cheese on top. Very melty and gooey.

Number two is Foster burger. The meat cut is high quality with clean, homemade pickles and iceberg lettuce. There also is a juicy greasiness to it.

Number one belongs to Gruner,  the enchanting Northwest meets the European Alpine restaurant. The bun is probably the factor that determined my final decision. The bread is a seeded potato bun that does not weigh you down like other buns do. It also does not get very soggy. The burger  comes with a choice of fontina or cheddar cheese (fontina adds to the lightness as well), bread and butter pickles, aioli, arugula and smoked bacon. There also is a side of a few delicately fried potatoes.

Gruner is much more than a tasty burger. Their salads deserve the highest accolade in all of Portland. My boyfriend and I ordered the endive salad, garnished with egg, chives, walnuts and gruyere. The dressing is a light salty-sweet mustard vinaigrette. Every bite is crisper and fresher than the last. From now on, every time we crave the perfect salad, we think Gruner.

 Before I get to the yummy dessert, I must mention the entree my friend ordered. It was an exceptional sauceless pizza with sweet onions, cheese, and smoky bacon, butterly reminiscent of “the best lardons I ate in France,” said my friend.

The grand finale of our meal was again full of flavor but still delicate as the other courses. I feel like the chef really nurtures the food he prepares. We had the bavarian cream trifle with rhubarb sauce.

   A blend of Northwestern and German cuisine emerges with this layered dessert because the richness of the cream and cake is muted positively by the tangy rhubarb sauce. Often European desserts feel weighty with butter and cream, but the fruit sauce left my palate satisfied and not overwhelmed at the end of my meal.

Your check to this European-esque establishment will arrive in a German book and you definitely will feel like you've tasted your money's worth. Here's the website for the restaurant: http://www.grunerpdx.com/

And keep watching for more of my burger updates. I am going to try to hit Metrovino, Biwa and other non burger places the rest of this summer.

Peem-EW!

My friend and I wanted some Thai food so we checked out Peemkaew because we were in the Pearl District. The dinner started out very strange. The place was empty and locked even though they said it opened at 5pm. The be back soon time sign said 11am.

We were about to retreat but then someone inside saw us and opened the door. As you walk into the foyer, you seen some cool Thai statues. But once you take a right into the dining room, that great first impression fades. There are red Chinese lanterns everywhere, along with an artists display of watery women paintings. Where we sat, I also got a full view of the huge Ikea light, this intense one:

I was nervous and didn’t know what to order. So while listening to their funk soundtrack that included Marvin Gaye, I decided on the Angel wings for about $11.  These wings were stuffed with some veggies, vermicelli and fried. I pictured them like something out of “God of Cookery.” I was wrong because I was only given two, they were covered in panko, kind of gooey and served with sweet and sour sauce. My friend ordered a basil beef stir fry.  After delivering my food, they brought my friend’s food out and then remembered he ordered beef, and went back to the kitchen. When they delivered my friend’s food, then I was able to taste his order. The stir fry was decently seasoned, but all you could taste was basil and nothing else. They served his $10 dish in a small plate, with a small amount of rice.  It was considerably better than mine; however, not worth the price. My only consolation that these dishes sort of brought out interesting flavors when the wings were dipped in the sweet chili sauce, because it contrasted the earthy basil stir fry.

Other than that, it took awhile to get the check, a water refill, and the lights kept blinking on and off.

Follow up to "Memories of a Cuban Kitchen"

A couple months ago, I made baked chicken from Mary Urrutia Randelman's Memories of a Cuban Kitchen.
Even though I messed up the marinade the first time I made it, the chicken still tasted very good. I tried the recipe once more and followed the directions meticulously.  The first time the chicken came out more fruity like the Cuban food I've eaten at a food cart or the Pambiche restaurant in NE Portland.

This time the chicken had a lighter tangy flavor and was very brothy. I just wanted to let other cooks know that the flavors can change depending on the orange juice that you buy. The first time I used Odwalla orange juice with pulp, which definitely infused the chicken like with tropical, succulent flavors.

This time I only had access to pulp free Simple Orange, which is also a great brand, but there was more liquid in the dish and less orange flavor.

In conclusion, the flavor you are going for is dependent on pulp or the brand you choose.