Battleship Chifa
By Steve Herte
Note: Our “Galloping Gourmet” is visiting Philadelphia. Steve
writes: “I spent time at the National Constitution Center, an entire museum
dedicated to the Constitution and the nation that developed from it. There was
a wonderful multi-media presentation followed by exhibits such as voting booths
to figure out who you would vote for this year depending on the issues alone, a
trivia contest about elections, various presidential memorabilia, an
interactive screen to tell you how your tax dollars are spent, and an
opportunity to make a Stump Speech (only six words) and publish it on a big
marquee. It was a lot more fun than I figured.”
Battleship (2012)
Hasbro
merges with Transformers, and Industrial Light and Magic to create a race of
lizard people who want to “phone home” from Hawaii but the Navy stops them by
bringing the USS Missouri out of mothballs and crewing her with retirees.
That’s the entire story behind Battleship,
a movie based on a game.
Taylor
Kitsch (great name) plays Alex Hopper, the screw-up brother of Commander Stone
Hopper (Alexander Skarsgård) who is forced into the Navy by his brother to
teach him responsibility. He falls in love with Samantha Shane (Brooklyn
Decker), the Admiral’s (Liam Neeson) daughter. He screws up again on duty
and is about to get kicked out of the service.
Meanwhile,
Cal Zapata (Hamish Linklater) has successfully sent a communication to “Planet
G” through a network of transmitter dishes in Hawaii by bouncing the signal off
a satellite. Next thing he knows is there are five UFOs zeroing in on Earth
from that exact location in space. One of them crashes into a satellite,
goes off course and trashes Hong Kong. The rest land in the ocean and
transform into enormous battle machines that enclose the entire Hawaiian Island
group in a gargantuan force field cutting off communications in the Navy.
Commander
Stone Hopper’s destroyer is destroyed by the aliens and all looks hopeless
until Lt. Alex has to join up with Capt.
Yugi Nagata (Tadanobu Asano), a former rival, to track the alien ships without
radar (enter Hasbro) using tsunami buoys. They manage to destroy most of
the alien ships, except the mother-ship. All destroyers are lost and they
recruit the retirees to bring the Battleship Missouri back into
action. The mother-ship is destroyed and the satellite link is
disconnected using “antique” technology (Oh, brother!).
Aside
from the spectacular special effects (we expect nothing less from ILM) the
movie is a bit lame and a lot unbelievable. There may be a nomination for
effects. The dialogue and the acting are routine and predictable, leaving me
glad I watched it On Demand at the hotel and didn’t pay top price to see it in the theater.
Chifas (Peruvian/Cantonese)
707 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
Don’t
let the loud façade of this Latino(Peruvian)/Asian restaurant fool you. When
you enter Chifas, you’re in a sleek bistro with a sexy bar lit in red on black
walls and gauzy curtained alcoves for dining. The sunlight coming through
the front windows provides great mood lighting but at no time is the restaurant
too dark.
The
specialty cocktail list looked interesting, so I chose the Diego Vega, a frothy
martini-style drink mimicking a traditional Pisco Sour, with Peruvian Brandy
and lime juice, which was fascinating as well as tasty. The menu had so
many varieties that, with the concurrence of my waitress (who was also the
bartender) I chose the Chef’s Tasting Menu - $55 – four courses (according to
her). My only request was that the Red Curry would be one of the
dishes. I had no idea of the feast coming. I ordered a 2010 Chilean
Pinot Noir from Morandé vineyards which proved its excellence by complimenting
every dish.
To
keep this review from becoming extremely wordy, I decided to list the dishes
with comments:
Amuse
Bouche – Corn puff with spicy, fruity paste – fluffy and intriguing.
Mizuna
Salad – Jicama ribbons, smoked marcona almonds, pickled ginger dressing – great
greens (almost like dandelion greens) in a nutty dressing with surprise
kumquats.
Ecuadorian
Ceviche – Oysters, spicy tomato, chives, yellow tomato gel, avocado – two
half-shells of pure delight.
Nikkei
Ceviche – Ahi Tuna, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, soy-yuzu, sesame – a shiny
steel bowl of flavorful fun accompanied by toasted chick peas.
Pork
Belly Bao Bun – Hoisin Glaze, pickled diakon & carrot, togarashi mayo – a
fluffy, rich pork sandwich.
Braised
Beef Short Rib and Taro Puff – shredded carrot, sweet chili – an amazing one
and a half inch ball filled with shredded, well-seasoned short rib meat.
Duck
Taco – duck confit, house kimchi, sliced radish, flour tortilla – thank
goodness the tortilla was soft, the spiciest dish in the feast but still rich
in flavor.
Red
Curry – Jumbo lump crab, coconut, tofu, eggplant, white rice – a black wooden
bowl filled mostly with white rice and topped with the crab mixture in a creamy
lightly spiced sauce.
Mussels
– coconut-rum broth, lemongrass, rocoto, Thai basil – delicate little shellfish
in a soupy, wonderful sauce (beware the sliced hot green peppers).
Wok
Fired Greens – seasonal selection – a wonderful nutty, oniony mixture that
effectively cut the spice of other dishes.
If
that weren’t enough, there were two desserts. The chocolate cake with raspberry
compote and almond ice cream and the Strawberry Panacotta with coconut puffs.
Believe it or not I finished everything with the exception of some of the rice
from the Red Curry. A delightful Indian Masala Chai crowned the feast
appropriately and returned to my hotel satisfied and believing I had most of
the menu for my dinner. Viva Chifa!
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