Music Obsessions – September 2020

Time for the next Music Obsessions! Its September and the beginning of Labor Day Weekend! Fun times, right? I’ve been bombarding everyone with movie reviews lately so all wordy posts in general so lets just get right to it and check out some fun music!

Warm Sunshine 暖阳光 – 吴季峰 Jifeng Wu

One of the songs from the Mr. Honesty is definitely one of my favorite since its all kinds of positive vibes. Its all happy and fun to listen to which is exactly what I’ve been wanting to listen to.

红眼睛 Red Eyes – Rarpid望江晴 & JD & 葛兆恩 Kodii
(“Listen Up/ Rap Star” Team Battle Performance)

There’s probably isn’t another performance part of Rap Star/ Listen Up variety show that I’ve listened to more on repeat. These three put together a stellar show packed with a love triangle story line and some great lyrics. If only they had a version which was just what they were saying when the mic is off to add to the actual performance, that would be so cool. All three are such good rap star contestants that I’ve love to see them get further. Of course, JD ended up winning 1st place in the show already so he’s going to places.

Mojito – Jay Chou

I’m 3 months late to this Jay Chou party but this song was a reminder that I need to get back to J-Style Trip. Its filmed in the streets of Havana, Cuba and has such a fun vibe to the story with lyrics that compare some romantic lyrics comparing a lover to Havana and all its highlights. This song is upbeat and awesome! Not to mention the music video also has a special appearance with Alan Kuo.

Rain 雨- 沈以誠 Eason Shen
(Song from TV Series “Go Ahead” OST)

I haven’t had a chance to fangirl over Go Ahead which is my latest drama binge as its playing right now updated with new episodes everyday. That series is just all kinds of feels. I’ve cried and laughed, sweet and bitter times and there’s still 10 episodes to go as I’m writing this up. This song is my favorite that happens to play in some of the really memorable moments fittingly. I especially love the piano ballad and the lyrics…well, that’s everything isn’t it? Its my current mega obsession both the song and the TV series.

宇宙的宇 阳光的阳 – JD
(Winning Performance of Rap Star 2020)

The finals of Rap Star was really awesome with a lot of amazing performances. I had a hard time deciding which one to use since the 2nd Trouble.Z and 3rd place KC also had some awesome songs. While I think this one won on the song being about JD changing his usual style and taking a more melodic route with a rap song and lyrics for his son about giving his name which meant that he would give him the universe and the sunlight, which is rather touching and warm. I mean, how to do beat a song like that? Not to mention that JD was no doubt going to win this season since he had a lot more stable and solid technical skills and production skills than the other contestants in general.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to?

Recap: Goodfood #19

Welcome back to another recap for Goodfood!

We’ve been ordering these boxes at quite regular intervals. Its nice to see that this time’s menu actually reflects quite a bit on the warmer weather and gives us a very nice summer vibe. These recipes are on the more time-consuming side though as they estimate approximately 40-45 minutes for each of these and we usually always surpass that time.

Let’s just get right into it.

Enchiladas Verdes with Zucchini, Rice & Fresh Tomatillo Salsa

I haven’t had enchiladas for pretty much as long as my lactose-intolerance relapsed back in 2008 or something. I still remembering loving them whenever we went to Mexican restaurants with my friends back in college. This one is a little different as its our vegetarian meal of the box. I don’t usually start with the vegetarian meal however, I was tight on time and this was the easier one to put together. It also had an ingredient that I’ve never used before: Tomatillo. A fun little one to put together. There is a decent amount of chopping but putting it together was quite fun. It yielded 6 enchiladas so we made them in two separate oven pans. Mine excluded all dairy products, which means no sour cream mix for the rice and not cotija cheese on top. My husbands had everything as it should be. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this recipe but it turned out to be quite tasty. Not too crazy about the tomatillo salsa but the wrap itself (which is what it is without the Mexican parts was really fresh and delicious.

Mojito Chicken with Crispy Rice & Chayote-Mango Salad

One of the more unique recipe ideas from Goodfood has to go to transforming mojito to clash with a chicken dish. I get the concept behind it but I wasn’t quite sold. It didn’t help that they gave a mango that was over-ripe for a crunchy salad texture. It was mushy and in the end, I actually put it aside from just eating by itself. At the same time, I’ve had a traumatizing chayote cutting experience last year so I had my husband do that part since apparently my hands (and it happens to a lot of people) react to the chayote when you cut it and it dried out my skin and I just start peeling so its best to use gloves when you cut them as precaution. And they suggested to not cook it, which I didn’t like the idea of seeing as my hands didn’t like it, imagine my mouth, right? So we ended up grilling it a little so changed the recipe up for ourselves. I like chayote when its done good and it was pretty good, the crispy rice had a good idea but not sure in execution it worked as well and the best part did go to the chicken itself as it got infused with various mojito-ish flavors and the spices worked well. A little disappointing but it had some good elements and cool ideas.

Miso Butter Pork with Red Rice & Yu Choy

And we present to you the highlight of the box and also my experiemental choice which turned out to have some really nice trick up their sleeves. Miso in anything usually is a really salty idea. So I went light on the salt and pepper in general for this one. If I remember correctly, the rice had garlic and then had mirin and sesame oil added to it afterwards which adds a lot of nice flavors to it. There was some cool marinated apples on the top also with mirin and vinegar and sesame oil (maybe). Which made everything very marinated and helps that the pork was only cooked with salt and pepper and not some special spice. The Miso Butter element was really just the sauce that was poured over it. I could definitely have lowered the salt a little bit more however, it still was really delicious. I only ever use mirin when I get these boxes and I’m not sure using sesame oil on rice is a good long-term eating habit plan but every once in a while, its a pretty nice touch.

BBQ Pork Burgers with Crispy Onions & Garlic-Butter Corn

Onto my husband’s time in the kitchen as he makes delicious burgers. He took over while I did gardening so I actually have no idea how any of this recipe works. I can tell you that this burger buns were better than the last one we had. The patty was also quite delicious. The garlic-butter corn was really good also. Crispy onions do add a nice little bite to the burger as well. This one was a pretty decent success. We don’t eat pork burgers a lot, mostly because I never think about ground pork but its a nice change from beef. Our second fave of the box for sure!

That’s it for this Goodfood recap!
Next one is the 20th recap and while I debated to stop doing it, I have so much fun sharing these cooking experiences.

Any of these recipes appeal to you?