AppsScraps

Yesterday siu mai so
what else today but B & G’s special dumplings. Lacking mushrooms, we made a quick trip to
Chinatown East for dim sum this morning and to pick up some additional
supplies for dumpling preparation in the afternoon. G prepared the
oh-my-gawd-fabulous filling, while I played with potato and wheat
starch trying to perfect dough. Not easy, lemme tell you.

1) G’s special dumpling filling (shrimp, chives, scallops, shitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots); 2) peek-a-boo dough

Once
you’ve got the dough and filling prepped, time to stuff the little
dumplings. Steamed 12 minutes later and voila,  fabulous B & G special dumplings.

Sunday’s Hot Doc’s Films:

They Chose China
Director: Shui-Bo Wang

Fascinating story of 22 US POWs, who, at the end of the Korean War, opted not to return to the good old US of A but instead held fast in their beliefs about peace and ended up living in China. The Academy Award-nominated director of this movie, Shui-Bo Wang, met one of these peace soldiers when he was a little boy and finally managed (after a 10 year struggle) to bring their – in the West at least – forgotten story to life. One of those excellent documentaries that tells a seemingly unbelieveable story. I wonder how many American xangsters even knew of this chapter in their history?

Raised to be Heroes
Director: Jack Silberman
 

As a die-hard refusenik/peacenik myself, this doc served to reinforce my views on the military. It tells the story of Israeli soldiers who have decided to refuse military service (for new recruits) or assignments (for soldiers already in the army) in the Occupied Territories. While I think this story could have been told in about 20 minutes less (editor, get to work), there is a great story here which in two cases during the documentary is chilling as soldiers explaining why they have chosen their course of action compare the Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories to situations the Nazis faced in WW2. It is chilling in the comparison. Absolutely worth a see if only for these two comparison. As a hot doc should do, this piece will have you examine your thoughts on the Israeli/Palestinian situation again.

Brent’s rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

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