Hidden Identity + weird congee
Oct. 31st, 2016 11:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
I've started watching Hidden Identity, another K-drama. It's like Ocean's 11 crossed with Mission Impossible crossed with The Departed (because for at least the first few episodes, the lead is a plant in the bad guy's organization).
It's pretty fun and entertaining to watch, and it doesn't hurt that Kim Bum is in it. He joins an elite, off-the-books arm of law enforcement. He's ex-SEAL (Korea's version of it) and ex-SWAT. He is suuuuuuuper hot in it, because he's a badass fighter, tortured by the loss of his girlfriend (of course). There are a number of scenes that gratuitously show off what a badass he is. :)) And there's definitely a gratuitous shot of his physique. We never saw his naked chest in Boys Over Flowers, but I believe this hard-muscled version of him is fairly new. (Check out this brief shower scene. Oh my.)
I don't know if there's any romance on this show; there's a female agent, but that doesn't mean they'll get involved. In fact, I hope they don't... this isn't a show where I need any romance.
Some of the scenarios are kind of silly, which I found to be the case in Signal, too... I'm not sure if it's that I'm being too hard on it, or if I'm just used to the "realism" of American shows (meaning, not that they are more realistic, but I might be more used to their form of realism. Or, really are just more realistic. :)) ) Here's an example:
Bad guy: *draws gun on hero*
Hero: *kicks gun away, without first deflecting the weapon in case the bad guy chooses to shoot, which for some reason he does not*
Gun: *lands on pier that's next to a large body of water*
Hero and Bad guy: *fight to a draw*
Car carrying innocent people: *about to go off pier*
Hero and Bad guy: *stare at one another, while backing slowly away, as hero is torn about going after bad guy or saving innocent people*
Bad guy: *runs away, without going for the gun lying RIGHT THERE*
Hero: *watches him impotently, without going for the gun lying RIGHT THERE*
The stand off is an overused but OK trope. But seriously, no one accounts for the gun?? IT MAKES NO SENSE. They could have at least had it fly off into the CONVENIENTLY AVAILABLE BODY OF WATER or something! But for both the bad guy and the hero to not even care about it lying right there is just plain dumb.
Another thing is that there's a member of the squad who is basically there for comic relief. There's a concern that their whole group has been exposed, but they keep putting this guy into these undercover scenarios, because apparently the bad guys all suffer from that ailment where they can't recognize faces.
*******
While rewatching Oh My Ghostess, I was inspired to make congee. See, it's set in and around a restaurant (the hero is a chef/restaurant owner), and one of the things that's made as "comfort food" is cabbage congee. Traditionally, congee is made with protein-based items, so it sounded kind of weird to me. But then I thought, why not expand my idea of what congee can be? Then Jo Jung-suk did something that made me REALLY inspired to make it.
There's a part where he has water and a white something in a blender. First time through, I idly wondered what it was, but quickly forgot about it. On rewatch, I found myself wondering about it again -- and then I realized... it was rice! And then I was like, ohmygod... blitzing rice in a blender to make congee... BRILLIANT. One of the hardest things about making homemade congee is that it's really hard to get it to the consistency of restaurant congee. I've been able to do it in a slow cooker, but that's cooking it for like 16 hours. But what if using a blender is able to shorten that time?
And guess what? IT WORKED. It didn't happen instantly, like it did on the show, but it only took like an hour or so of cooking on the stove. The consistency isn't EXACTLY like when you make it with un-blitzed rice, it's a lot smoother, but it's still creamy and luscious. In fact, if you blitzed it a shorter amount of time (and maybe don't use a Vitamix like I did), you could probably achieve a similar result with a faster cooking time.
Also, I made it like on the show, with carrots, onion, ground beef, and cabbage. Which is the WEIRDEST-sounding congee ever. But guess what? It's delicious. HA! Just goes to show, trying new things, always a plus.
It's pretty fun and entertaining to watch, and it doesn't hurt that Kim Bum is in it. He joins an elite, off-the-books arm of law enforcement. He's ex-SEAL (Korea's version of it) and ex-SWAT. He is suuuuuuuper hot in it, because he's a badass fighter, tortured by the loss of his girlfriend (of course). There are a number of scenes that gratuitously show off what a badass he is. :)) And there's definitely a gratuitous shot of his physique. We never saw his naked chest in Boys Over Flowers, but I believe this hard-muscled version of him is fairly new. (Check out this brief shower scene. Oh my.)
I don't know if there's any romance on this show; there's a female agent, but that doesn't mean they'll get involved. In fact, I hope they don't... this isn't a show where I need any romance.
Some of the scenarios are kind of silly, which I found to be the case in Signal, too... I'm not sure if it's that I'm being too hard on it, or if I'm just used to the "realism" of American shows (meaning, not that they are more realistic, but I might be more used to their form of realism. Or, really are just more realistic. :)) ) Here's an example:
Bad guy: *draws gun on hero*
Hero: *kicks gun away, without first deflecting the weapon in case the bad guy chooses to shoot, which for some reason he does not*
Gun: *lands on pier that's next to a large body of water*
Hero and Bad guy: *fight to a draw*
Car carrying innocent people: *about to go off pier*
Hero and Bad guy: *stare at one another, while backing slowly away, as hero is torn about going after bad guy or saving innocent people*
Bad guy: *runs away, without going for the gun lying RIGHT THERE*
Hero: *watches him impotently, without going for the gun lying RIGHT THERE*
The stand off is an overused but OK trope. But seriously, no one accounts for the gun?? IT MAKES NO SENSE. They could have at least had it fly off into the CONVENIENTLY AVAILABLE BODY OF WATER or something! But for both the bad guy and the hero to not even care about it lying right there is just plain dumb.
Another thing is that there's a member of the squad who is basically there for comic relief. There's a concern that their whole group has been exposed, but they keep putting this guy into these undercover scenarios, because apparently the bad guys all suffer from that ailment where they can't recognize faces.
*******
While rewatching Oh My Ghostess, I was inspired to make congee. See, it's set in and around a restaurant (the hero is a chef/restaurant owner), and one of the things that's made as "comfort food" is cabbage congee. Traditionally, congee is made with protein-based items, so it sounded kind of weird to me. But then I thought, why not expand my idea of what congee can be? Then Jo Jung-suk did something that made me REALLY inspired to make it.
There's a part where he has water and a white something in a blender. First time through, I idly wondered what it was, but quickly forgot about it. On rewatch, I found myself wondering about it again -- and then I realized... it was rice! And then I was like, ohmygod... blitzing rice in a blender to make congee... BRILLIANT. One of the hardest things about making homemade congee is that it's really hard to get it to the consistency of restaurant congee. I've been able to do it in a slow cooker, but that's cooking it for like 16 hours. But what if using a blender is able to shorten that time?
And guess what? IT WORKED. It didn't happen instantly, like it did on the show, but it only took like an hour or so of cooking on the stove. The consistency isn't EXACTLY like when you make it with un-blitzed rice, it's a lot smoother, but it's still creamy and luscious. In fact, if you blitzed it a shorter amount of time (and maybe don't use a Vitamix like I did), you could probably achieve a similar result with a faster cooking time.
Also, I made it like on the show, with carrots, onion, ground beef, and cabbage. Which is the WEIRDEST-sounding congee ever. But guess what? It's delicious. HA! Just goes to show, trying new things, always a plus.
