TV | New Scandinavian Cooking

About a month ago I chanced upon this program called New Scandinavian Cooking on cable TV. Hosted by Norwegian culinary expert and food writer Andreas Viestad, it was certainly different from any other cooking show I've ever seen, and I was hooked.

For one thing, every single dish or beverage prepared on the show is done outdoors; Andreas has this portable "kitchen" which he assembles himself and sets up just about anywhere--backyards, gardens, or even mountains.

The portable kitchen--check out that magnificent view behind it

Since it's filmed in Norway, virtually everything outdoors looks spectacular, and Andreas can often be seen cooking with stunning views of fjords, lush green valleys, or ice-covered mountains behind him. In fact, I tended to focus more on the scenery than on the food most of the time.

The shows uses video rather than film, making all that lovely scenery look even clearer, and it also has a good soundtrack, with some relaxing, lazy music often heard in the background.

Andreas Viestad

Andreas is one of the few TV chefs who can carry on a show just by talking; more often than not he expounds about Norwegian culture and gives added insight on Norwegian cuisine. Since he's a writer, he's eloquent without being overbearing, just like another food writer, Nigella Lawson. Hmmm...I guess food writers do make excellent cooking show hosts, since their passion about food clearly shows.

New Scandinavian Cooking is currently on its 5th Season; the one being aired here is the 2nd Season. Andreas Viestad hosted Seasons 1, 2, and 4; Tina Nordstrom from Sweden took over from Andreas in Season 3, and Claus Meyer from Denmark is the host for Season 5.

[Photos by Erik Røed]

Gizmos | Limited Edition BAPE DS Lites

A couple of Limited Edition DS Lites will be released by A Bathing Ape, or more popularly known as BAPE, which is a line of urban & hip-hop street clothing in Japan.


The DS Lites come in either white or gold, and will feature one of BAPE's characters, Baby Milo, along with Nintendo's Mario. The white DS Lite looks like it was just studded with colored Mario & Milo stickers, while the gold one looks more elegant with white Mario and Milo logos, making it look like some kind of fashion accessory.

As far as Limited Edition DS Lites go, these two BAPE DS Lites look pretty good though--a far cry from previous other bland and dull limited editions. They're priced the same as regular DS Lites, and will go on sale on April 1, 2008.

Chilly in February

It's almost a week now that we've been having really nice, cool weather here in Metro Manila, which is a bit unusual considering that we're approaching the end of February.

As always when cool weather is involved, I'm always in a state of pure happiness--yeah, it doesn't take that much to make me happy, but the things that make me happy are kinda difficult to procure, and the weather is of course way beyond anyone's control. It was the same with me more than a year ago, only this time I can't remember experiencing chilly weather for this long.

I'm not complaining, as it's really great to take long walks without breaking into a sweat--earlier this evening, my AI groupmates from the office and I went out for dinner (a despedida for our friend Karl who's leaving to start his own business venture), and we had a long walk on the way home.

The distance from the Julia Vargas Home Depot area to the Shangri-La Plaza MRT station is no joke, as it's quite a long way off, but I was able to walk a long way without getting tired or hot; weeks ago we also walked that far when we had dinner at the same place for our friend Wenda's birthday, but I can't recall the weather being this cool. It's also good exercise for me, something that I always try to get every single day.

The current weather here is somewhat like being in Tagaytay or Baguio, but those places are much colder. Sleeping at night is always comfortable, with no air-conditioning needed. Getting up early mornings for work can be difficult though, but it's this kind of difficulty that I'd much rather bear than plow through the stifling heat and humidity that blankets the city most of the year.

Music | 1 Giant Leap featuring Maxi Jazz and Robbie Williams - My Culture

1 Giant Leap is a band project formed by two British musicians, Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman. Their first album was released in 2002, which featured tracks that were collaborations with other artists.

An exceptional track from the album was the single titled My Culture, which featured vocals by Maxi Jazz from Faithless (of which Catto is also a member), and pop singer Robbie Williams. Incorporating a mix of trip-hop, electronica, and world beats, the song became a hit in Europe, particularly in the UK.

However, it was the song's awesome music video that first caught my eye when I saw it years ago on MTV--it featured a cool technique where buildings appear to rotate and sprout up from the ground like plants. The video also had a grainy, unpolished feel to it, and you could actually see the transparent film layers moving about, which culminated in an exodus-like blasting off of buildings like rocket ships.




The video was directed by Tim Hope, and earned two Grammy nominations in 2002, for Best Short Form Video and Best Long Form Video.

Film | Cloverfield

This movie generated a lot of Internet hype when the first teaser trailer premiered sometime in July last year; it had no real title then, except for the Cloverfield working title, which eventually became its real title.

As 2008 approached, several things about the movie became clearer, with most of the theories about it falling flat: it wasn't about Chulthu, Revelations, or the funniest ever, Voltron the Movie, LOL.

The plot of Cloverfield can be summed up in one sentence: Giant monster attacks New York City, and people scramble to get out of its way. The film focuses on a handful of people trying to escape the city, with one of them conveniently holding a video camera, and we see everything from this camera's point of view.

This type of first person filming technique has been done before, with perhaps the most famous and recent example being The Blair Witch Project, except that in Cloverfield, the one doing the filming doesn't really narrate all the time.

Of course, the bad part about this technique is that the camera shakes a lot, which can induce nausea and dizziness. It wasn't that bad in The Blair Witch Project, but in Cloverfield, particularly the first 15 minutes, it got really bad, but became tolerable later on when the monster attacks.

So did the movie live up to the hype? For me it did--it was a blast, and I really enjoyed it. The concept was brilliant, as the first person point of view made the audience part of the carnage that was unfolding onscreen. It's like we were really there, alternating between states of panic and terror without knowing exactly what was going on.

Highly recommended...but try not to eat anything before viewing it though, hehe.

Gizmos | Cobalt/Black DS Lite

Ever since Nintendo released the two-toned Crimson/Black DS Lite last year, we've heard nothing but praise about how cool it looked, as the combination of red and black trim seemed to hit all the right buttons when it came to DS color schemes.

Perhaps wanting to repeat the favorable response it got from the Crimson/Black DS Lite, Nintendo is releasing another two-toned DS Lite, this time with blue and black trim: the Cobalt/Black DS Lite. I have to admit, this one looks better, but I'm kinda biased since Blue happens to be my favorite color.


The Cobalt/Blue DS Lite will be out on February 10, 2008. Unlike the Crimson/Black DS Lite though, this one seems to be a North America exclusive, as no announcement has been made about a Japanese release...yet.