August 20 2023

August 20, 2023
# 1620

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COVER:

Roast chicken: everybody’s favorite to eat
Following the brilliant recipe below

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Cover Story
Roast Chicken

Although our recipe is one of the simplest you’ll ever come across, any use of an oven adds experience to fundamental cooking skills. Young adults can develop their palates and creativity by trying different herbs, spices, and marinades. The cook will think about issues from handling raw meat to using an oven.

Roasting a chicken is a life skill that can be valuable throughout adulthood. It's a basic cooking technique that can be adapted to various meats and even vegetables, expanding one's culinary repertoire.

Any homemaker will attest to two positives that come with the decision to roast the chicken: one is that  roasting a whole chicken is economical, and two, compared to red meat, roast chicken is healthier, providing a leaner source of protein.

Roasted chicken can be repurposed into multiple meals: sandwiches, salads, soups, pot-pie, and more. Learning to maximize its use helps with time spent in the kitchen as well as meal planning and reducing food waste.

It’s impressive as the centerpiece of a dinner party, showcasing your cooking abilities and hospitality.

Knowing how to roast a chicken empowers young adults to cook for themselves and others. This sense of independence and self-sufficiency can boost confidence and encourage exploration of other cooking techniques and recipes.

Recipe, so easy, so perfect

Slow Roast Chicken

Taking the chicken directly from the refrigerator, slow-roast the chicken in a 200* oven for 55 minutes per pound.
When the slow-roast is over, turn oven up to 475* and cook the chicken for another 15 minutes.
Remove the chicken.

Note the absence of a chicken gravy. Cooking the chicken at such a low temperature means the juices that normally flow out of a chicken in a hotter oven stay in the chicken. So, no gravy. But a much juicier bird.

Salt and pepper is all you really need.

But, here are two seasoning options where the seasoning is applied after the slow roast and before the hot oven cooking @ 475.

1. Brush this marinade all over the bird: melted butter, fresh lemon juice, salt, freshly ground pepper, and finely chopped parsley. Return the chicken for its 475*, fifteen minute stint. Then the chicken sets for 30 minutes.

2. Brush this marinade generously all over the bird: olive oil heavily infused with garlic, seasoned generously with salt and pepper. Return the chicken for its 475*, fifteen minute stint. Then the chicken sets for 30 minutes.

This seasoning option is applied after the hot oven cooking @ 475*, otherwise, the marinade may burn:

As soon as you remove the chicken from its 15 minutes stint in the 475* oven, brush a marinade of sesame oil, soy sauce, and gochujang sauce all over the bird.
Now the chicken sets for 30 minutes.

Author has given permission for Mark Miller to release this image under a Creative Commons license. - From author

Garlic, Lemon and herb roasted chicken, two halves.

For this to be a remarkable meal, you need to find a supply of remarkable chickens. First option, buying the bird from a live-poultry market, aka poultry butcher.

Commentary
I think management is fearful that workers have been benefitting from remote work in ways hitherto reserved for the management class like using the toilet on demand, taking a longer, more relaxed lunch, making a personal phone call, taking a nap. Workers, having tasted the good life, are reluctant to give it up.
To a person, all the workers I have spoken with are confident they are just as productive with a schedule allowing for three days in the office and two days work at home.
The social impact , like reduced traffic congestion, a happier workforce, a healthier environment among a host of other improvements, easily outweighs whatever negatives management ascribes to work-at-home.

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Kat’s Gen Z Corner

Life is Good

In so many ways!

I visited my friend Brooke in Los Angeles, which is always loads of fun and a good compliment to New York.

I've been loving The New Yorker's recent profiles on Larry Gagosian, a fascinating and wildly successful art dealer, and Mayor Adams, New York's most hubristic elected official. 

At an Italian cafe, I met Kyra Sedgwick, protagonist from TV series The Closer and my dad's favorite on-screen example of a powerful woman. (As a single father, he was very thoughtful in providing on-screen examples of powerful women!

I visited MoMA's Georgia O'Keefe exhibit, which was beautiful because it's Georgia O'Keefe, although plain in its curation.

I'm savouring the few days left to escape to Central Park without a jacket. Summer has been good. 

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Tucker’s Corner
I got a chance to see a late night screening of what will go down as one of the scarier films I’m sure to see this year. I know horror films are divisive and most avoid them but I’m here to tell you that this one is worth your time. I will say though that I’m not including as many images as I usually do because they’re a little on the creepy side and it might ruin the otherwise lovely feeling this weekly issue sets out to create. Anyway I loved this one and if I can get a few more people to see it in its theatrical run then my work is done. This is Talk To Me.

Talk To Me - Directed by Danny and Michael Philippou

The entertainment company A24 has developed something of a cult of personality with horror film fans as of late. They’ve had huge success with Ari Aster’s back-to-back films Hereditary and Midsommar. Ti West has been able to get his two masterpieces X and Pearl seen by audiences everywhere thanks to the same company. Other huge recent horror hits like Men, Bodies Bodies Bodies, and The Witch all owe their success in part to A24’s terrific distribution. A24’s success isn’t just in the distribution of horror. The company knows a hit when they see one and invest early. So much so that they’ve become the defacto production house for up-and-coming horror directors and so far their record is nearly sterling.

Their latest acquisition is Danny and Michael Philippou’s debut Talk To Me whose devastating script and charismatic cast help create a terrifying and heartbreaking tale of grief. The story follows Mia (Sophie Wilde), a teen struggling to cope with her mother’s accidental overdose. In the time since the death, Mia has moved in with her friend Jade (Alexandra Jensen) and Jade’s little brother Riley (Joe Bird). When Mia is roped into a party game that’s been making the rounds online, she’s shocked to discover the trick at the heart of the activity has very real, very unsettling properties. The game itself advertises that by grasping a ceramic hand and whispering, “talk to me”, one can speak with the dead. Once Mia realizes the full nature of this game, she becomes obsessed with trying to use the hand to communicate with her late mother, but that obsession begins to reap a disastrous toll on Jade and her family.

Obsession is a familiar enough trope in the horror genre but Talk To Me’s success comes from the modern tone set by its script and how endeared you become to the cast nearly right away. The film’s modernity gets going early thanks to nearly every character’s believable attachment to their phone. Like obsession the idea of a horror film’s cast being enraptured by viral videos (especially disturbing ones) is well trodden but it’s the slice of life approach to phones that sets Talk To Me atop a pedestal. Phones in this film are a means of connection. To friends, social lives, and even those we’ve lost. Mia rewatches old videos of her and her mom to remember her. Riley falls asleep watching his phone and even something this small rings a huge bell of truth with a cast of this age. Details like this that ground the reality of Talk To Me are what make it such a success. When the emotional punches start being thrown, they hurt that much more because we’re fully invested in the film’s world.

I can promise those emotional punches come and they hit hard. Mia and her friends have a blast taking videos of the hand forcing them to speak strangely and act even more strangely, but things quickly spiral out of control and young Riley winds up in the hospital. From the second things begin to go south Talk To Me doesn’t let up and soon it becomes clear that Mia is a dangerously unreliable narrator whose need for closure regarding the dead ends up bringing ruin to the living people still in her life.

Though the film is only ninety minutes long it smartly dedicates the majority of its first third to building believable bonds between Mia and Jade’s family. Horror films often fall by the wayside because they’re designed as killing machines that want to serve up a body count but what Talk To Me understands if that if the audience relates and cares about the characters the entire film will have a much stronger impact. So much time and care is given to making sure the performances, body language, and banter, all remind us of ourselves or people we hold dear. Because you’re invested in these people, you’re terrified when things turn sour for Jade and Riley, but you also carry an empathy for Mia and an understanding for why she continues to use the hand. The film plays with these feelings and over the course of the story you feel an emotional tug of war pulling back and forth between fear for Riley and heartbreak for Mia.

Sophie Wilde as Mia

The script and direction do a lot of the work here, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t credit Wilde’s performance. She uses her small frame and massive eyes to give off the impression that she’s a wounded, terrified animal. She hunches in on herself like she’s in physical pain and as her reliance on the hand grows so do the involuntary twitches that wrack her body. This all comes as the film progresses and stands in stark contrast with the Mia of the film’s opening. At the start she’s a vibrant, energetic person and watching someone go through such a physical degradation in such a brief period is a true testament to Wilde’s physicality as an actor. Horror performances rarely get attention but hers is worth examination.

As a whole Talk To Me is a successful tale of desperation, desire, and destruction. It hits all the right notes to be a classic horror film and yet the feelings of dread it sets out to generate in its audience remain long after the credits roll. That’s truly great horror.
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Dylan’s Gen Z Corner  

When not at a SAG AFTRA event

I enjoy a bit of relaxation

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Local Bits

Abe and Louie’s burger at lunchtime is one of the best food values in the city. A large burger with all the trimmings for nineteen dollars. Fries included. Martinis are extra.

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Chuckles and Thoughts
Don't sweat the petty things and
don't pet the sweaty things.
-George Carlin

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Six Word Stories
Sunset's kiss, memories linger, hearts mend.

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Social Life

Finding something to do in consort with others is key to a healthy social life. Join a bowling league. Show up at a birding event. Volunteer.

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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts, including links.

Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
text to 617.852.7192

This from Jim P re: Brayden’s piece on Dreams.

Hi Dom,

Those were amazing dreams. I don’t have any interpretations but just want to mention that if people do keep a dream journal it is a good idea to also record some of the main events from your day. Studies show that things that happen to you on, let’s say, a Monday, might show up in your dreams five days later. Of course, they show up as a dream, which is like a metaphor in action, but if we know what actual events or images the dream is based on, it is easier to interpret. That is why keeping a record of the daily events is very helpful.   

Love,

Jim

PS: The images were great too.

And Brayden’s response on reading Jim’s remarks:

Wow this is very cool!

I’m definitely going to start keeping more detailed journals (dream & awake!)

Thanks for sharing :-)

Brayden

Dreaming oil on canvas 128,5 x 201,2 cm 1860 signed b.r.: J. Israels

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Korean Drama
Why am I such a fan of Korean Dramas?
Here’s an analysis from Korb Blog, Korean-Binge.com of my current binge.

“Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” is a viral hit romantic-comedy Korean drama and an outstanding remake of the 2004 film, “Mr. Hong”, starring Kim Seonho and Shin Mina.

Since its premiere on August 28, 2021, “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” consistently holds the highest nationwide viewership ratings in its time slot across all channels, with Episode 14 achieving the highest record so far of 11.6%, according to Nielsen Korea.

It also remains on the Top 10 TV shows on Netflix in several countries such as the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and a lot more. As of writing, 98% Google users liked this show with a rate of 9/10 through the IMDB.

Here are five reasons to love and watch “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha”:

1. The screenplay is simple but engaging.

We have enough Korean dramas this year that are heavy to watch, involving intense crime scenes, fight scenes, high drama, killings, and the like. It’s time for a lighthearted show that is simple yet extraordinary and engaging in its content—an improved classic, slice of life, feel-good kind of drama.

As Chief Hong stated in Episode 12, ““Rather than detailed paintings, I like simple ones like this. Adding elaborate details is easy. It’s harder to express the essence of something with ordinary drawings.”

Without sabotaging the original storyline from the film “Mr. Hong” in 2004, “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” managed to create its own tweaks, twists, and turns, making the drama more mysterious, engaging, and amusing to watch.

“Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” centers around two opposite lives, a perfectionist dentist from the fast-paced city of Seoul and a free-spirited jack-of-all-trades from the humble countryside. It also takes us to the daily life of residents at the seaside village of Gongjin where life is calm, slow-paced, and less stressful.

The smart doctor but clumsy woman, Hye-jin, moves to this town to start life afresh and set-up a dental clinic. Residing anew in the countryside, she meets the nosy but heartwarming villagers where she learns to adapt, learn, grow, and heal.

A damsel in distress? Not at all. Hye-jin’s character reflects an independent and strong woman who happens to meet a countryside hero smitten by her uniqueness and warmth.

As Doc Hye-jin expressed in Episode 12, “This type of cliche is known as classic these days.”

Despite coming from a broken family, she managed to grow into a responsible, self-sufficient, and intelligent daughter—who made it on her own to achieve a college scholarship, become a competent dentist, stand for her right amid workplace maltreatment, fight for her worth against emotional abuse from an ex-lover, speak up for her best friend against sexual harassment, defend Chief Hong from her father’s prejudicial remark, and start over again from a failing career.

She is a determined person who knows what she wants, achieves her dreams, sets boundaries, speaks up her mind, and conscientiously leads her life. But just like the rest of us, she is not perfect at all.

Her flaws and vulnerabilities will be exposed as she crosses paths and gets to know Chief Hong Dusik through a series of unfortunate events and inconveniences, unfolding romance. This is where she begins to lay down her spines, experience, and embrace the kind of love that she never had but so deserves.

2. The intriguing mysterious character of Chief Hong Dusik.

Chief Hong Dusik was introduced to us as a jolly and reliable handyman who assists everyone around the village with his tireless hands, adorable smile, and empathetic heart.

He is a talented man who is engaged with several activities such as surfing, reading a book, biking, fishing, photography, candle-making, soap-making, coffee-making, bidding, singing, guitar-playing, collecting books, wines, and records. He also knows how to speak French, Chinese and communicate using sign language.

The unemployed Chief Hong we thought we knew is no ordinary man at all. He got into Seoul National University as a scholar with the highest grades, studied, and graduated Engineering. He then returned to Gongjin five years after graduating.

The villagers revealed that he was an extraordinary and smart kid. At age six, he memorized Cheonjamun. In school, he won the gold medal at the Mathematics Olympiad and always gets the highest score or first place during classroom exams.

“Then why does he live the way he does?” Hye-jin asks. We have the same question as viewers and we can’t wait for this mystery to unfold.

Aside from this, there are other several mysteries in the life of Chief Hong that convey a seemingly deep and heartbreaking story.

The boat on top of the hill, the suit he wanted to throw away, the photo of a woman holding a baby kept inside the pages of his book, the regular visit with a psychotherapist in Seoul, and his chronic nightmares all need a clearer picture as the story progresses.

The undisclosed five years in the life of Hong Dusik is also something to anticipate in the next episodes. How his unknown backstory will be exposed, how it will shaken the image of a know-it-all, charming town hero, how it will affect his relationship with the villagers at Gongjin including Hye-jin, and how he will manage to face his fears will be an interesting move in the storyline.

It will surely bring us to the most heartbreaking character and scene of Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, perhaps a major highlight in the drama.

3. It has a refreshing vibe—a visual and musical treat amid a world in crisis.

“Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” offers a refreshing atmosphere, a momentary escape amid the troubles around the world.

The scenes are mostly filmed in the picturesque Pohang City, located in the province of North Gyeongsang, South Korea. The breathtaking cinematography, beautiful shots of the sky, ocean, moon, boats, lighthouse, and sounds of the waves definitely add a touch of charm and warmth to the story.

The quality of OST is also good that it makes you want to travel to the beach, sit back, chill, and reflect on life. The following songs are a hit:

Romantic Sunday by Car The Garden, One Sunny Day by Kassy, My Romance by CHEEZE, Wish by Choi Yu Ree , Be The Light by Kim Jae Hwan, Here Always by Seungmin.

Remarkably, the show’s OST captivated the hearts of many that several YouTubers and musicians around the world did covers of the songs.

The chemistry of Kim Seonho and Shin Mina is also lovely and fun to watch. They make you squeal even in simple moments such as the beach scene, the first kiss, exchanging bickering dialogues, and a lot more. It is not boring at all to see these two strangers squabble and it is exciting to see how these two “in love” characters will grow more as a couple when the hidden life of Chief Hong unfolds.

Another visual treat in this drama is the overflowing handsomeness of Kim Seonho. He is more glowing, radiant, and bewitching in all angles since he rose to fame. No bias but his charming smile is so contagious that it makes you smile while watching.

4. It is warmhearted with relatable characters.

There’s more to this romantic-comedy show where the writer takes us to various metaphors and mysteries and where warm stories abound.

“Life isn’t so fair for all of us. Some spend their whole lives on unpaved roads, while some run at full speed only to reach the edge of a cliff.” – Hong Dusik

Every character represents us.

Hye-jin, the dentist, mirrors our insecurities veiled behind fancy clothes, bag, and shoes. She is a strong, independent, and outspoken person but needy inside who aches for the absence of mother’s tender love and father’s protective presence.

Chun-jae (a.k.a. Oh Yoon), the frustrated singer, conveys our broken dreams. He is all of us in times our talent, skills, and abilities are challenged, rejected, or denied and whose hope is left behind in the past. Nevertheless, he is an empathetic father whose love for his daughter is unconditional. He represents the kind of father we wish we had.

Yeo Hwa-jung, the seafood restaurant owner, reflects our fighting spirit amid the uncertainties of life. She knows pain but refuses to face it and moves on in life, as if undisturbed. Life goes on no matter what. Like her, sometimes we keep ourselves busy not to feel the pain.

Jo Nam-sook, the Chinese restaurant owner, portrays a loud person but empty inside. She is a nosy person who meddles in the life of others, trying to conceal and avoid the painful void at home. It’s her way of coping. Sometimes, talking too much is our way of coping.

Kim Gam-ri, the oldest granny in town, communicates our pain of aloneness, whose home is empty. She is all of us in moments we long for some affection and attention from the people we love the most.

The rest of the villagers at Gongjin resemble the nosy yet supportive people in our lives who lovingly correct us when we do something wrong, fight with us in the face of combat, rejoice with us when we achieve a goal, and serve as an instrument to our journey of healing.

Whereas, Chief Hong characterizes our hidden lives that we refuse to be exposed. He is a broken person hiding behind a mask of a vibrant town hero who identifies our pain of rejection, abandonment, and trauma. He is all of us in moments we help others during tough times but unable to help ourselves and in certain situations where we bottle up our emotions instead of naming them to heal.

“Why is this suit out here?”, one of the grandmothers asked Hong Dusik.

He seriously replied, “I’m throwing it out.”

But later on, he advised Oh Yoon about his tape album, “I didn’t think it belonged in the trash.”

On a wider perspective, the hometown in Gongjin teaches us to slow down, pause, and appreciate the small details of life, often unnoticed.

5. The cast performances are outstanding.

It is no doubt that the entire cast is superb in portraying their characters from the main leads to the supporting roles. Each one stands out.

The kids and grandmothers (halmeonis) are also adorable to watch. They make the drama more fun, engaging, and heartwarming.

The roles of Chief Hong and Hye-jin perfectly suit Kim Seonho and Shin Mina. No bias, but they are both equally astounding in their performances.

Special mention to Kim Seonho for portraying the jack-of-all trade role and how he is able to deliver it differently and uniquely from his popular role of Han Jipyeong. He is truly a one-of-a-kind actor.

“Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” is definitely a huge break from the heavy, dark, suspenseful thriller, gripping conflict, crime-filled Korean dramas that we have this year.

It has a warm storyline with a perfect blend of humor, romance, drama, and mystery. Epilogues are brilliant. Casting is excellent. Cinematography is perfect. OST is soothing and beautiful. SikHye chemistry is exceptional. Kim Seonho shines all the more as an actor with his superb performance as “Chief Hong”.

It’s definitely worth the stream on Netflix—a perfect treat after a busy week. Good job to the creators, director, writer, production team, and entire cast.

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Travel
I’ve opened my suitcase and large backpack.
Will start packing today, the 15th of August. Departure is two weeks away but i enjoy doing a bit every day.

**Community Pictures with Captions are sent in by our followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com

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