Food Review: Mikuni, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

Mikuni is one of my two favourite restaurants in Frankfurt (the other is Toan, a brilliant Vietnamese restaurant - a separate review will follow). Mikuni, located at Fahrgasse 91, is conveniently located between Konstablerwache and the Museum for Modern Art. Its interior is typical for a Japanese Izakaya, in other words rather bleak. There is a Sushi bar with about 10 seats, I guess about 25-30 seats at bare wooden tables and a little Tatami area (I have been told that you pay a little extra to sit there, which may well be true given that I have never seen the area being used). The food however is fantastic - the two Sushi masters operate behind the bar and prepare the best Sushi within a 180km radius (Düsseldorf is just outside that circle and there are some serious competitors there). The seafood is always fresh, of the best quality and served in very generous portions - unlike in the typical "escalator" type Sushi restaurants, where you get a big box shaped machine-produced rice parcel with a thin slice of pre-cut fish on top, at Mikuni you have to look for the comparably small hand-formed and hand-warm rice ball (ever eaten Sushi straight from a fridge? The thought alone makes me shudder) under the massive slice of fish. The Toro (fatty tuna belly) is probably the best you find in town, the Unagi (grilled eel) a must (it will be warmed briefly before being served, so go for it first), the Hirame (Fluke) best enjoyed with lemon and a pinch of salt... ah, I could go on but you probably get the picture.

Mikuni has much more to offer than just Sushi though - beyond the obvious (Sashimi, Donburi, etc.) there are a large number of typical Izakaya snacks (as a starter or to go with your Beer, Sake or Shochu), ranging from standards such as Edamame (green soya beans) and Wakame Kyuri-Su (seaweed and cucumber in mild vinegar) to more exotic dishes for the daring, involving ingredients such as Nato (fermented soy beans - a very acquired taste), grated yam root (very mucilaginous which can be challenging for some) or squid intestines. Of course you will also find classics such as various types of Kushiyaki (aka Yakitori), grilled fish, Tempura, Soba, Udon and so on. If you have tasted your way through the menu, ask for the daily specials, which are written in Japanese on individual pieces of paper behind the bar; you will be rewarded, dependent on seasonality, with wonderful specialities - amongst my favourites were White Aspargus with Miso Sauce, Japanese Cucumber with Miso Paste, Fresh Oysters with a special Japanese sauce, half a grilled Head of Hamachi (Yellow Fin Tuna), Lotus Root and Pumpkin Tempura (with salt and lemon) and - very special - Monkfish liver, pressed into a sausage form, sauteed, cut into slices when cooled down and served in a light vinegar with cucumber.

Drinks range from green tea (free refills), Japanese and German beer and wine to Sake and Shochu. Prices aren't cheap, but then again they never are with good Japanese restaurant. If money is a problem stick with your Yo Sushi and Sushi Circles of this world because you won't be enjoying going back to these after you tried this original Japanese food. Alternatively, go at lunch time and enjoy a cheap "Mittags-Sushi", which comes at 12 or 14 Euro I think, including a Miso soup.

9/10 - Great value for money - I do go there once per week, and I miss something if I don't!

Film Review: Get Carter (1971)

I think few people would disagree with me that Mike Hodges' first feature film, both written and directed by him, is also his best film so far - he is certainly less remembered for the 1980s Flash Gordon (sing: Flash, ahaaaa) or the sadly overlooked A Prayer for the Dying (1987). His latest fictional feature film was I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, released in 2004 and starring Clive Owen, which 33 years after his debut seemed like a faint memory of what once was, plotting a similar story line as the 1971 classic did, but without having the same impact or, frankly, even playing in the same class.

Get Carter is a classic in its own right. The brilliant Michael Caine starrs as Jack Carter, a killer working for the East London mob, who travels to his home town to revenge his brother's dead. The film is mostly filmed on location in Newcastle, which in the early 70s provided an extremely bleak and rather depressing backdrop for Carter's search for revenge (some would say that Newcastle hasn't improved much since - I will stay well away from that one!!). There is nothing charming about any of the gangsters in this film - Carter lives in a world of filth, corruption, hate and violence, which was quite a tall order for the early 70s: until then, few gangster films, if any, have been so rough-edged and gritty. The film includes some very memorable lines and images (I don't want to give them away so see for yourself) and has aged very well. The DVD looks reasonably well (only a few shots, including the opening shot, look a bit dodgy) but the sound could do with a bit of a clean-up job. Perhaps MGM or someone will sponsor a 40th Anniversary Edition...?

8/10 - Highly recommended if you like the Gangster film genre and don't mind the violence (which is not very graphic)

Food Review: Bengal Lounge, Farnham, UK

So here it finally is, my first restaurant review. The Bengal Lounge, located in Wrecclesham just outside Farnham, Surrey (approx. 35 miles Southwest of London) is my favorite 'Indian' restaurant in the area (if you wonder why I put Indian in inverted commas, just focus very hard on the name of the restaurant and try to figure it out. Hint: the clue is in the first word).  Together with a good friend who shares a common interest in good food I have sampled quite a number of curry houses in the wider Farnham / Guildford / Farnborough area (I was indeed introduced to almost all of these by said friend), but this one does offer the best food, especially when it comes to vegetable dishes. Check out the menu on their website (follow the link above) to get a feel for what's on offer at what price - this isn't the cheapest in town, but it is worth every penny! I would strongly recommend the Bengal Chattpoti (spicy chick peas, potatoes and half a hard-boiled egg - the best starter on the menu IMHO) or the Maas Biran (Bangladeshi fish with caramelized onions) as a starter and my favorite main dish is the Chicken Tikka Rezella, tender pieces of chicken in a thick lamb mince sauce with fresh green chillies - I'm salivating as I am writing this... The best part though are the veggie dishes: Bada Gobi, stir-fried cabbage with fresh green chillies, is divine, the Sag Bhaji (spinach) is beautifully dry (as opposed to swimming in oil as so often in other curry houses) and yet full of flavor and the Shatkora Dall, lentils with the shatkora fruit, a bangladeshi bitter lemon, is an acquired taste but I absolutely love it!

The service is friendly, the ambience pleasant and we have never been served a bad dish, despite our rather experimental ordering (I wouldn't dare ordering Honey King Prawn or a Bengal Fish Curry in most other curry houses I have been to! The prawns by the way were surprisingly tasty, but with the tangy taste of Tanzanian honey, which is not everybody's cup of tea...)

Ah yes, and here's another exception: this is the only curry house where I have a pudding almost every single time I go: Zorda Shemai - a home-made dessert made from vermicelli, milk, dried fruit and spices. I know, it sounds lame, but it's great - not too sweet, not too filling, very nice!!!

9/10 - I would drive 50 miles return, once per week to dine there!

Film Review: Source Code

First of all, apologies if some of the things I am saying in this review are a bit cryptic, but I want to stay true to my ambition to give away as little of the plot of a film as possible - and especially with this film I wish I could have watched it without having seen the preview before.

After the brilliant "Moon", Source Code is Duncan Jones' (David Bowie's son if you must know) second feature film, and boy is he pushing the boat out with this one! Source Code is, just as Moon, a Science Fiction film. And, just as Moon, the Science Fiction aspect of the film is pretty much irrelevant. Jones is extremely ambitious in his film making, because he combines an intelligent plot with the exploration of big ethical issues and deeply emotional character development. And he succeeds in all three. The one mistake you must not make is to question the Science in the Science Fiction too much. One of Jones' underlying premises in Moon is actually scientifically plausible: there is a wide-spread view that Helium-3 is present in significant amounts on the Moon and there is a wide-spread view that it could potentially be used to enable nuclear (cold) fusion. You may not have watched Moon yet (what are you waiting for - get the DVD or Blu-Ray!), so I will not elaborate on why the second underlying scientific theme is much less plausible, at least with our current understanding of the human condition. In Source Code, the underlying scientific principles are a bit wobbly and the biggest mistake is to think too hard about the science and ignore the more important aspects of the film over it. I think the best way to make this film work scientifically is to imagine that the scientist in the film have actually just begun to understand a phenomenon and are misinterpreting it quite badly. Just imagine Marie Curie as she experimented with radiation - if she had actually understood what she was dealing with from the beginning, she certainly wouldn't have died from the consequences of radiation exposure. So, if you're looking to pick holes into the science aspect of the film, don't bother and go back to re-watching Star Trek Voyager for the 10th time. Otherwise enjoy the carefully developed plot progression, the strong performances provided by all lead actors (Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright), the powerful soundtrack by Chris Bacon and, most importantly, explore the emotional and ethical dimensions that the film invites you to consider.

7.5/10 - watch this if you liked Moon, Inception and I, Robot.

Film Review: North by Northwest (Blu-Ray)

I never had the pleasure of watching North by Northwest in a theatre, but with the 50th anniversary release of the film on Blu-Ray, I am getting close - watching the remastered film on my home theatre setup made me appreciate the film even more than before. This has always been one of my favorite works of Alfred Hitchcock - it's very funny (this is probably one of Cary Grant's best performances), very suspenseful, fast paced, beautifully shot, featuring a great score written by the wonderful Bernard Herrmann and sporting two of the most memorable action scenes in film history (I don't want to spoil it for you in case you haven't seen the film, so let me just say crop duster and Mt. Rushmore). The Blu-Ray release looks fantastic - the colours are vibrant, the picture is as sharp and crisp as can be expected from a film shot in 1959 and the remastering is very successful in avoiding that artificial, overly smooth look you often find with remastered films; in the contrary, the picture shows a good level of fine granularity that you would see in a non-digital projection as well. I wish much more recent films (such as Heat) would have received that kind of treatment before transferred to Blu-Ray!! The soundtrack (presented in TrueHD 5.1) blows you away as Herrmann's score is opening up the film with a horn section only bettered by the soundtrack to Cape Fear (by the same composer). The extras are plentiful and very interesting, including a brilliant Audio Commentary by the screenwriter Ernest Lehman (84 years old when he recorded the commentary), a 90 minute documentary on Cary Grant (many Non-English people may be surprised to learn that the "American Icon" Cary Grant was really born in Bristol, England), a 40 minute Making of, a 60 minute documentary about Hitchcock's style and finally a 25 minute feature with contemporary directors including William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist) and Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy 1&2). One of the best Blu-Rays I own!

10/10   It doesn't get much better than that, highly recommended!

Film Review: A Single Man (Blu-Ray)

Colin Firth is George, an English Professor living in Los Angeles. It's 1962, the Cuba missile crisis is looming and George has just lost the love of his life, Jim, in a fatal car accident while being away from L.A.

A Single Man was co-written (an adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's novel) and directed by Tom Ford, an American fashion designer who previously worked for Gucci and is now running his own fashion label (Colin Firth is of course wearing Tom Ford gear in the film). This is Ford's first film, as a writer, producer and director. That bio made me expect the worst and I was very pleasently surprised. A Single Man is a beautiful, sensual, sad and romantic film: slowly paced and yet fully capturing your attention, you feel compelled to step into George's emotionally upset world while he is trying so hard to convey the image of control on the surface. The fact that George is homosexual is mostly irrelevant; this is the portrait of a lonely man who lost his love of 16 years and stands at a breaking point in his life.

The film is beautifully shot and scored and Colin Firth delivers a stunning performance - his subtlety, the nuances in his play, conveying deep feelings with so little effort, earned him an Acadamy Award nomination in 2010 (he lost to Jeff Bridges, who got the award for his performance in Crazy Heart - not undeservedly, I may add), of course followed by winning the award one year later for "The King's Speech". Firth carries the film, but he is supported by the brilliant Julianne Moore and two young talented Englishmen, Matthew Goode (Match Point, Watchmen, Cemetery Junction) and Nicholas Hoult (About a Boy, The Weather Man, the Channel 4 programme Skins, and soon to be seen in the prequel X-Men: First Class). Tom Ford has given us a beautiful work of art - I am looking forward to his future work!

The Blu-Ray provides very good picture and sound quality - this is obviously not a disc to show off your home cinema system, but I think it's still worth the upgrade from the DVD. Only extras are a 16 minute "Making of" and an Audio Commentary by Tom Ford.

7.5/10 - watch this if you liked American Beauty. If you felt uncomfortable watching Brokeback Mountain or My Own Private Idaho, get some therapy to sort out your homophobia and then watch this film.

Thoughts on Biofuel

There is a lot of press coverage about Biofuel in Germany at the moment because the German government has decreed the introduction of E10 Super Petrol, petrol that contains up to 10% of "Bio-Ethanol". Diesel already contains up to 7% of Bio-Diesel, again as the legislative powers in Germany require. So you would expect the press to comment on the somewhat problematic strategy to fuel your 4 litre engines with "Biofuel" while there are still Millions of people dying of starvation, with the most basic food prices steadily increasing, right? Well, a few journalists are actually picking up on this aspect - the majority of newspapers though are reporting about the danger of the high percentage of Ethanol in the fuel causing damage to those beautiful high-powered engines and the additional expenditure that drivers have to endure since they rather buy the normal fossile fuel based petrol.

The BBC reported in 2008 already that fresh water is going to become scarce at some poitn in an article about salt water based agriculture; estimates on current water consumption to produce one litre of biofuel range between 750 litres and 14,000 litres (future technolgies promise much better ratios, but this is based on current production from sugar cane, rape and soya seeds, etc.); food prizes keep rising, and particular for maize it's been established by various sources that costs have increased at least partly due to the increase in biofuel production from maize; although engines have become more fuel efficient over the last twenty years, these efficiencies have been pretty much balanced off by people driving bigger cars with bigger engines (couldn't find the data for Europe but this chart is probably rather representative - you do actually have to wonder whether the trend for Europe would look worse, albeit perhaps on an overall lower level, since the recent popularity of SUVs). And yet German politicians insist on increasing the share of biofuel, supposedly to "save the planet". Any laws to help increasing actual fuel efficiency (e.g. by providing much stronger incentives to drive fuel efficient cars)? No. Any real intent to introduce a nationwide speed limit on the German Autobahn? God no, this is the land of Porsche, Audi, BMW and Mercedes!!

In light of the recent events in Fukushima, Japan, the German public have sent a signal to the government through regional elections that they want to get out of Nuclear Power. Mind you, these are the same people that elected that same government only a couple of years before, knowing that they were most likely going to extend the lifetime of nuclear power plants in Germany. You also have to wonder whether these people had already tried to influence the nuclear agenda by buying electrical power produced solely from renewable resources (no, NOT biofuel, this would be sun, wind or water) - given the spread between 24% of people voting "Green" and only 6.6% of people actually buying "green" electricity in the state of Baden-Württemberg, this seems to be another area where people are not really putting their money where their mouth is. So it looks that unless some catastrophic event is somehow going to turn people against biofuel (and I don't mean the possibilty that their car engine may not perform as well, which many people actually do seem to rate as a catastrophic event) this complete nonsense will probably continue, with the German government proudly reporting on it's success to increase the share of biofuels.

It should be noted that Germany is following an EU directive in this matter which requires a 10% share of biofuel by the year 2020.

Film Review - Sucker Punch

Don't trust the write-ups on this one!! Not a clever way to start my own write-up you say? You may be right, but I rather have you ignoring my write-up as well and go and see for yourself what you make of this film.

Zack Snyder wrote (with Steve Shibuya) and directed "Sucker Punch" - Mr. Snyder's pervious body of work includes "Dawn of the Dead" (the 2004 remake, kind of an instant classic despite it being a remake), "300", the brilliant "Watchmen" and "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole" (can't comment on that one, I tend to avoid films starring speaking animals like the plague). You may have read that Sucker Punch did badly at the box office so far and that about 60% of the reviews are pretty bad. So what. If you rather want to wait for the fourth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, or the prequel of X-Men or some other safe Hollywood bet, milking previously successful franchises, then you better unsubscribe from this blog.

Sucker Punch features a great soundtrack: cover versions of 80s and 90s classics from Pixies (Where is my mind?) and Björk (Army of Me) to name only a couple of highlights provide a great musical atmosphere, which was also one of the strong points of Watchmen ("All along the Watchtower". Enough said!). The opening scene sets the tone for the film - the curtain lifts (literally - Snyder is telling a story after all) after the Production logos and the events leading to the main plot unfold in video clip style to a cover version of Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams (sung by female lead Emily Browning). The film tells an original story on three different levels of reality (or fiction, whatever you prefer), so you need to pay some attention - this is not Transformers 3 although the action scenes dominating the trailers may attract that kind of audience. Speaking of which - the action scenes are in a class of their own and obviously not meant to be realistic, they are a visual feast and clearly influenced by the pop culture (films and video games) of the last 15 to 20 years. Some of the board postings you can read on IMDB are shocking - a lot of people had no idea what was going on in the film although it really wasn's so difficult to figure out.

Snyder said in an interview that he wanted to make a film with cool action sequences as in "Ultraviolet" but with a meaningful, capturing story. I would say he succeeded in trumping Ultraviolet in the Audio-Visual department and managed to come up with an interesting story that kept me engaged throughout the whole film.

8/10 - watch this if you liked One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Brazil, Matrix, Lord of the Rings, Watchmen and... Piranha 3D (that last one is an inside joke! The other ones, other than Watchmen, aren't really all that serious either, but I'd like to think that all of them had a bit of influence on this film)

Film Review - Whip It (Blu-Ray)

I admit it - I was never a big fan of Drew Barrymore nor did I dislike her much. She was cute in E.T., but how about Charlie's Angels? She was good in Donnie Darko (and co-produced the film!) but that was a rather small role. So, why would I buy a Blu-Ray called Whip It, a film about Roller Derby (a bunch of women racing round a small track on rollerskates), starring and directed by Drew Barrymore? Mostly because the film has Ellen Page (Juno, Inception) in it! I have to give Ms. Barrymore credit though: she did extremely well with her first feature film a a director: she picked an exotic, but entertaining backdrop (Roller Derbies in Austin, Texas), a great cast led by Ms. Page (who is again great as a rebelling teenager, picking up from her performance in Juno) and including Juliette Lewis, Marcia Gay Harden, Daniel Stern (looking much older since I have last seen him... which was probably in City Slickers) and Zoe Bell (who I think has a great future if she learns to pick her roles a bit more carefully - she has come a long way already from a stunt woman who worked on Tarantino's Kill Bill, Grindhouse and Inglorious Basterds), a good indie-soundtrack and a very good script, written by Shauna Cross, who wrote the novel of the same name.

The Blu-Ray itself comes at a good picture and sound quality but I guess the DVD would have done just as well. There very few extras (Deleted Scenes, which I did not watch - I trust they have been deleted for a reason) and some cast interviews during which I fell asleep (probably due to jet lag, they weren't completely boring...)

7/10 - recommended if you liked films such as Juno or Little Miss Sunshine.

PS If you are looking for plot summaries, go check out IMDB or Wikipedia. I won't provide any plot summaries since I think they tend to provide too many spoilers - that's why I love Sneak Previews so much!!

"Get me started!" or "I hate technology..."

So, because my ISP (Internet Service Provider - it's 1&1, and the thing they are best at is taking my money!!) is too stupid to help with my technical issues surrounding my blog jseidl.de, I have decided to abandon the site and start new. Blogger.com came highly recommended, so I am giving this a chance now. I am not going to move the stuff from http://blog.jseidl.de (mostly because I don't know how to do it easily), so if you still want to read up on my Thailand trip, follow the link in this post. Otherwise, for future reference, bookmark this page!