April 05, 2005

Tuesday April 5, 2005 • Howard Tayler

If you've been following my Live Journal, you're probably aware of my love of spicy foods, as well as my embarkation upon a low-carb diet. Monday I discovered where the two meet...

The Atkins Diet book said nothing about masaman curry (a sweet/spicy yellow curry). That's because it's typically made with potatoes, and served over rice -- not your typical low-carb fare. Well, I did some carb-counting... the masaman curry paste has something like 10g of carbs per pot of curry (five servings). The coconut milk adds 6g. The onions add another 10. The Splenda adds 4. the chicken is a freebie, and the potatoes and rice are freebies too if you don't use them. That's 30g of carbs, only half of which are simple carbs, for five servings.

I just finished dinner... it was delicious. I love Thai food, but I figured that while dieting I'd be giving it up. I'm very, very happy to be wrong. Sure, I didn't have any potatoes in the curry, but they're like reactor control rods for the peppers. Who needs 'em? The rice? Same thing. I like my curry hot, and this was just right.

And speaking of spicy things... I saw Frank Miller's Sin City this afternoon. Had this been filmed in full color, without the noir lighting, it would have been all but unwatchable. It would have been gorier by half than Kill Bill: Vol. 1, which left me feeling dirty inside. As it was, though, it was extremely entertaining. Yes, it was violent. Yes, it earned its 'R' rating on all counts. It was also spectacular, gripping, and eerily beautiful. Scene after scene seemed to leap right out of the pages of Frank Miller's works -- the words "cinematographical masterpiece" may be tongue-tying, but they certainly apply.

Now, if you want to see an action movie with a happy ending, this movie scores a C+ (assuming we weight "happy ending" and "pulse-pounding action" equally). If we score it like the SAT (800 points possible for action, 800 points possible for happy endings) it scores about 1000. Or maybe 830, depending on which characters you made the mistake of getting attached to.

It was similar in some regards to Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow -- both movies were eye candy with flavors reminiscent of antique peppermints. Frank Miller's Sin City differs in that it didn't suck, and the ending was much, MUCH punchier than "Polly! Lens cap!"

Oh, the curry... it makes my tongue crawl around in my brain... I think I may be LICKING the part of my mind from which words flow. I think I may just lubba limmna lug blub luh guh go get some more.

Are you interested in having me come to your city? Your convention? Your HOUSE? Pay my way and pay my stay, and we can make it happen. The BEST way is to convince the convention organizers that I'm worthy of "GoH" status, but there are alternatives. Email me if you've got an event in mind.