The art of "lying"

What set me thinking about this topic were two pieces of news that is related to J-ent. Why I prefer to post it here rather than the Dorama World blog is because these are my personal views so I'll want to keep the J-ent news and reviews there but save the personal thoughts here. Disclaimer here again: please don't get worked up if anything here isn't to your liking so I hope that you read this in a light-hearted mood. ^__^

A couple of days back, a Mr. M and Ms. K were reported to have been on an overnight date. The exact words in Japanese were お泊りデート(a date where the couple spends the night together) and 半同棲 (semi-cohabiting i.e. not entirely living together but already getting total access to each other's apartment) but I had chosen then to use some "milder" words when doing the translation since the parties involved have not admitted to anything. The two of them are already in their 30s and can definitely do what they want, as long as it doesn't affect anyone adversely. Honestly speaking, I don't think anyone has the right to stop them if they are truly in love with each other. The issue I see here is not their relationship but rather how they chose to deal with the news being out in the open.

In this time and age, celebrities dating one another is no longer as much as a taboo as in the past. In fact, it's very much encouraged especially if the artiste has been single for a long time and well past the marrying age. Fans these days also tend to be more receptive to open relationships nowadays (well, as long as the other party isn't someone with a sordid past or very questionable character etc.). In this instance, the two of them had already been reported to have gone on dates last year. Mr. M even denied in public that they are an item and that they had gone out with their staff members in tow. This time, even with Ms. K clearly having spare keys to Mr. M's apartment and no mention in the article of any third party heading into his apartment prior or after Ms. K's arrival, the "official" response from the agency was that they were not alone in that apartment even though they did spend the night together in the same place. As soon as I read that article, my first response was, "you guys are taking everyone to be idiots". When you know jolly well that the story seems too far-fetched, wouldn't it have been better to avoid from commenting rather than shoot yourself in the foot?

Another story is about Ms. S's departure from a very popular drama series which coincidentally was also reported in the past week. This isn't totally unexpected because rumours of her being dropped were rampant for a very long time. There were lots of conspiracy theories about why this happened e.g. one of the big-name supporting stars hated Ms. S after they worked together in the past, the lead wanted someone from the same agency as his to take up the meaty role of his sidekick or that Ms. S had other plans in mind e.g. concentrate on her singing career (apparently, she has a concert tour planned this year) or spend time with her new beau. Whatever it is, since the announcement had been made, you would think that's the end of the story, right? No, the TV station chose to dig a hole for itself by saying things like although Ms. S will be out of the series after the first episode, she might come back for future appearances in the later episodes. So what happens if Ms. S doesn't appear after the first episode?Oh well, I certainly do not think that Ms. S will want to do that when the limelight is hogged by someone else. Besides, it was clear that Ms. S had been replaced and the new female lead is there to stay at least for the whole season. Where does that leave Ms. S if she has to come back for cameos? Wouldn't it have been better for the TV station to just say that Ms. S is gone for good?

Which brings me to the point, how do you "lie" without making a fool of yourselves? Sometimes, I think the more people try to explain, chances are, they will end up looking bad at the end. If there's obviously no way for you to wriggle out of this situation, perhaps it would have been better to stay quiet. Some people may take it to mean that you are admitting it to something but surely, the damage caused by this will be lesser than if you are found to be lying or spinning a tall tale. Ridiculous stories don't work anymore these days, you've got to think harder to fool us from now on. ^__^

Chiso Zanmai 馳走三昧 @ Central

First of all, I'm not a professional food blogger. I don't go around with a huge DSLR to take those mouth-watering shots of food but I admit to taking pictures of what I eat outside usually with my phone's camera or sometimes with my digital camera. If people close to me are eating with me, chances are, I'll try to sneak in a quick shot before letting them lay their hands on the food. :-p

I was running out of ideas of where to have dinner with a friend and decided to go to Central's website to check out what new offerings they have. Chiso Zanmai looked quite interesting and having heard good things from another friend who had been there, I decided to head there for a visit.

First up, typical of a Japanese buffet, the usual sushi that I eat, the pink and white kamaboko and some tempura. Since it's still January, there's an Osechi corner there just beside the sushi where you can take items traditionally seen in those Osechi sets. The sushi was quite good while the tempura was a bit lacking. And I loved the kamaboko so much that I went back for more.

If it isn't for the fact that this is a Japanese buffet, eating sushi and tempura could have easily cost quite a bit if you order it ala carte at some of the more expensive Japanese restaurants. Then again, I didn't pay a lot for this buffet so I wasn't expecting a lot from it anyway, in terms of variety and quality. It was a series of hits and misses along the way but generally, it was a pleasant experience for my palate.

Ramen remains as one of my favourites whenever I go to a Japanese restaurant. There are two options here, one is the shio version while I got the tonkotsu type. By the way, I added the kamaboko and the spring onions so what the chef gives to you only consists of the noodles, the char siew and the menma. The good thing is, it doesn't taste powdery or watery. Although a bit on the salty side, I think it's a credible attempt at offering ramen even though Chiso Zanmai obviously does not specialise in it like those famous ramen shops. I didn't get to try the shio version though so it could have been that this might fare better than the tonkotsu version. Gives me another reason to return for another visit, I guess.

And more kamaboko from the osechi set on my plate! Plus the deep-fried stuff and some yaki-udon. Frankly speaking, save for the corn cream croquette, the others were not really to my liking. Then again, if I had eaten them straight after it was cooked and served, it might have been a different story altogether. The yaki-udon was acceptable but I'm of the yakisoba type so the texture of the udon took some time to get used to.

Chicken curry but where's the chicken? By the time I got to this, there were only carrots and bits of chicken so it was rather disappointing. The curry sauce was OK but without the key ingredients, I couldn't really tell if the sauce and its ingredients were in perfect harmony or effectively going their separate ways in terms of taste. Maybe I should get to the curry section earlier next time or risk having to eat curry sauce rice and not curry rice.

By the time we got here, it was proving a bit too much for us to bear so we shared what we had here. Japanese-style mochi, western desserts with a Japanese twist like matcha cheesecake, matcha tiramisu and matcha swiss roll. Generally nice to eat although I have to note that I didn't taste matcha in the tiramisu. Skip the chocolate pudding, go for the Japanese desserts and fruits instead.

A brand new beginning

You may ask, why the need to start a new blog now when I'm already busy with maintaining the Dorama World blog?

Well, that space is solely dedicated to J-culture as a whole. I do feel reluctant to post my personal stuff or rather things I experience offline there because I don't think every visitor to Dorama World would be keen to  know. And yet, I need another space to share my thoughts outside of the J-culture world. And the quick fix is probably to start another blog.

Frankly speaking, I'm not even sure how to categorise this blog. It's not really about lifestyle, not solely about food, and definitely not just an avenue for me to air my grievances. And so I thought, perhaps I do not need to give it a definition. Let the blog take its natural course and someday, I or even someone else might be able to define its nature.

Feel free to leave your comments if you have anything to share. Just a disclaimer though, these are all my personal views so please don't get worked up if we happen to have differing views. ^__^