Holidays 2008 Production

Chinese New Year marks the first chapter of a Holiday DVD I produce annually. I began this as a 2005 New Year's resolution, after converting some old home videos from the 90's to DVD. I realized that there was a large gap. We consistently captured family occasions from 1990-1995, then stopped because the old Hi-8 camera was on its last legs. We did buy a new Digital-8 camera to replace it in 2000, but really just used that for vacations. In 2005, I found a very portable DivX camera on sale and made the resolution to get the home videos going again. The DivX camera just made things easier because it was small enough to fit into my pocket, so there was no excuse for not having it with me. It saved directly to the built-in hard drive, so I didn't have to spend time doing the video capture. It wasn't great though. The quality didn't match DV and it was difficult for my programs to read the format properly (it was probably some custom version of DivX 4.0). I eventually found a way around it by converting to MPEG-1 first, then upconverting to MPEG-2 for DVD.

The 2008 edition will have a number of changes. First of all, I'm pushing for the DV format and will make extra effort to lug around the larger camera. I'm going more after the better quality than portability now that I've created a number of nice looking vacation DVDs on iMovie/iDVD. Holidays 2008 will also be the first 16:9 video I shoot as more and more people are moving over to widescreen LCDs.

CNY Feast

Most of the dishes were made by my parents, but our guests also brought in their specialties. Auntie Janice is the Chinatown expert. Since it's close to where she lives, she knows all of the restaurants inside out. She'll usually go restaurant hopping to get the best roast pork from one place, the best duck from another, etc. Auntie Day makes great Filipino desserts and brought the fish-shaped flan. Auntie Kim, who's also a great cook brought over the homemade almond cake.

Snacks: sweet glutinous cake, dried fruit, Terrachips w/ organic spinach dip

Dinner: roasted chicken wings, shrimp, veggies, eggplant, fresh fish, dumplings, esparagus, curry chicken, sticky rice, fresh stone crabs, seaweed, noodles, roast pork, duck

Dessert: leche flan, oranges, persimmons, rice cakes, lotus buns, taro buns, almond cake

The stone crabs were great. I actually didn't eat them during the party because I was operating the cameras during dinner and had to keep my hands clean. I had leftovers tonight and they're just filled with meat that came off easily. It was appropriate that we had them as part of the buffet because we also had them at the hotel restaurant in Xiamen.

Chinese New Year 4706

Chinese New Year was actually February 7 this year, but since that was a Thursday, we decided to have our family gathering the Sunday after. Going along with traditional beliefs, celebrations should always come after the date hits rather than before. I tend to do this with other holidays and birthdays as well. If my birthday falls on a Monday, I prefer to celebrate it on the weekend after even though the weekend before is closer in time.


Last night, we had a small get-together at my parents' house with 9 people total. My parents' house has a small ground floor, good for an 8-person dinner. Anything over that and we have to eat in the basement. While the ground floor is cozier and warmer, the huge basement has certain advantages too. There's more elbow room and enough space to setup a buffet table. Because there's no TV downstairs, we can engage in deeper conversations instead of watching basketball and making fun of the Knicks. Guests started arriving at 3pm to help out. Those that came around 4pm watched some clips of my just-finished China 2007 - Xiamen DVD.

We had so much food... probably enough to feed 20 people. That actually goes along with another Chinese superstition. If you have leftovers, you won't go hungry for the rest of the year. During dinner, Uncle Bock explained that as child, his family would prepare the feast before the New Year hit. That way on New Year's day, there would only be celebration and no labor. Whatever comes in with the New Year is supposed to be a summary of the entire year.

DVDeals 2/10 - 2/16

I must've started this column at a bad time because there haven't been any good new releases on DVD Tuesday since! At least there are tons of great prices on older movie this week. Most of these are romance movies for Valentine's Day.

Best Buy Deals
West Side Story - $4.99
Breakfast at Tiffany's - $4.99
Sleepless in Seattle - $4.99
Moulin Rouge - $4.99
Jerry Maguire - $4.99
Charlotte's Web - $9.99
Transformers - $9.99
Princess Bride - $9.99

Circuit City Deals
Air Force One - $3.99
Sleepless in Seattle - $3.99
Mask of Zorro - $3.99
Pursuit of Happiness - $6.99
Da Vinci Code - $6.99
Rocky Balboa - $6.99
Curse of the Golden Flower - $6.99
Patriot (Director's Cut) - $6.99
Spiderman 1 & 2 (2-Pack) - $6.99

Wally "Tornado" Root

Original Dates: Fall 1987 - Summer 1989

We've experienced some pretty strange weather this year so far. It's 51 degrees outside right now. We're in the middle of February! Whenever I experience abnormal weather, it reminds me of junior high school science class with Mr. Root. His full name was Wally T. Root. Since he was so much into weather, my friends and I made the "T" stand for "Tornado!"

Mr. Root was the self-proclaimed "mean, nasty ogre" and whenever students didn't pay attention to his lesson, he would sneak up and slam a metal rod on their desk. That sure woke everyone up! The image of an ogre with a metal rod reminded me of the moblins, which were forest ogres from The Legend of Zelda that threw metal spears at Link. Despite how aggresive his teaching tactic sounds, Mr. Root was a very nice guy who was passionate about science. For homework, he not only required us to read long chapters, but we also had to outline them (and he would seriously check everyone's outlines). This alone made the amount of homework from his classes eclipse the total amount of every other class. Looking back now, I think that was the best style of learning any subject. I don't think I would've aced that class without the chapter outlines. And it prepared me for every other class I felt like acing.

Hopefully Mr. Root is still out there, spearing young punks and creating top students.

DVDeals 2/3 - 2/9

Circuit City Deals
Forrest Gump - $6.99
Coming to America - $6.99
Moulin Rouge - $6.99
Man of Fire - $6.99
Chicago - $6.99
Count of Monte Cristo - $6.99
Charlotte's Web - $9.99
Shrek - $9.99
Shrek 2 - $9.99

Best Buy Deals
Friends Season 1-10 - $16.99
Pursuit of Happiness - $7.49

Michael Jordan's Steakhouse

Location: 23 Vanderbilt Ave., New York, NY (btwn 42nd & 43rd)
Cuisine: Steak, American
Phone: (212) 655-2300
Website: www.michaeljordansteakhouse.com
Prices: About $55 per person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 9
Service: 10
Value: 6
Environment: 8

Frequency: Unique

I was recently awarded a dinner on the company for my 10th anniversary. For things like this, I usually choose Peter Luger Steakhouse, but we've been there many times before. As a long-time Bulls fan, I needed to make the trip to Michael Jordan's Steakhouse even if the restaurant doesn't have much to do with the god of basketball. So this was the perfect opportunity. I met up with my sister and aunt from Manhattan. I was also able to get my parents to come from Queens, which is very rare.


I read reviews of the food and it seemed to be hit or miss. Some people really liked and others thought it was bland. My aunt and I both had the 20oz porterhouse. My dad had the 16oz NY strip and my mom & sister both had the tuna. My steak was cooked medium and I could tell that it was well marinated and seasoned. It tasted great and was so juicy that I was able to strip it down to the bone cleanly. For side dishes, we all shared creamy spinach, sautéed mushrooms and asparagus. The mushrooms & spinach were pretty much safe dishes... just stuff I would normally order to go with a steak. The crunchy and flavorful asparagus was the surprise. Overall, the food was very good. I wasn't expecting much after reading some of the bad reviews, but in the end, I thought Michael Jordan's Steakhouse was comparable to Peter Luger. I didn't rate it a 10 because the taste probably relied a bit on the seasoning whereas Peter Luger's is purely on the meat.

Service was excellent as would be expected from a restaurant located out in the open on a Grand Central balcony. Despite being in the busy terminal, the environment was pretty comfortable. We could hear each other talk just fine. The tables were well spaced out. The decor was classy and clean, but had little to do with Michael Jordan. There was one small room that had his photos framed on the walls, but that was about it.

DVDeals 1/27 - 2/2

New Releases
It's a terrible DVD Tuesday this week. There's nothing coming out even worth mentioning. At least there are some bargains at Circuit City...

Circuit City Deals
Jerry Maguire - $4.99
61* - $4.99
Love & Basketball - $4.99
What Women Want - $7.49
Goldfinger - $7.49
License to Kill - $7.49
Dr. No - $7.49
From Russia With Love - $7.49
You Only Live Twice - $7.49
Diamonds are Forever - $7.49
Live and Let Die - $7.49
Octopussy - $7.49
The World is Not Enough - $7.49

Eclipse Evolution (Part 4)

Original Dates: Nov-Dec 2004

2004, the 10-year anniversary marked the rebirth of my Eclipse. I added a turbo kit which basically converted it from a GS to a GST. This upgrade changed almost the entire insides of the car... the entire exhaust system from the throttle body to the muffler was replaced. The front bumper area had to be modified to make room for the intercooler. Along with the power increase, I also had front and rear sway bars added for improved suspension.

After 10 years, most cars should be breaking down, but mine felt like a completely new one. Without the turbo, I felt like I couldn't get the car to do what I wanted at the particular moment. With the turbo, if I want to go a certain speed, I can do it almost instantly. My friend Warren once told me, "once you drive a turbo car, everything else feels like its broken."

Linden Place (for Dim Sum)

Location: 34-20 Linden Place, Flushing, NY
Cuisine: Chinese
Phone: (718) 888-7705
Website: www.linden-place.net
Prices: About $12 per person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 7
Service: 8
Value: 6
Environment: 10

Frequency: Uncommon

Linden Place like Gala Manor, functions as several different types of restaurants. They offer dim sum, lunch specials and banquet style dining. I've had dim sum here twice, including today.

The siu mai was just OK here... meaty, but not much taste. They probably put too much dough into the mix. Their lo mai gai (rice, egg yolk, mushrooms & meat wrapped in lotus leaves) was particularly good. It was a large one... just enough for the five of us. We also had chive dumplings, pork ribs, tofu skin rolls, turnip cake and honey tofu. We had 2 dishes that I haven't had in other places before. One was a chili pepper loaded with seafood. The other was a sticky, translucent, saucer-shaped dumpling with vegetables inside.



Linden Place is mostly about the environment and it's the only restaurant I awarded a 10. It's decorated like a palace with digitally reproduced classical paintings adorning the ceilings and walls. The interior design has a lot of unity because they carefully chose a harmonious color scheme of red and gold. They also have an elaborate stage for events that's surrounded by marble columns and sculptures.