Movie Review

The King's Speech was a wonderful movie about a stammering Duke who becomes a great King with the help of a brilliant speech therapist.  Colin Firth who portrayed King George VI was wonderful.   He took a very difficult and embarrassing problem like stammering and showed how love and support from family and friends and sheer determination of a person can overcome anything. Mr. Firth was so convincing with the stammering that I believed he really had a problem.  It was also nice to see Geoffrey Rush (Pirates of the Caribbean-the curse of the black pearl fame) as the great Lionel who helped bring levity and seriousness to this character.  Helena Bonham Carter showed how talented she is in the role of Elizabeth as the supportive, loving and lighthearted wife of "Bertie", King George VI.  The King's Speech was a historical and powerful movie depicting a scary and difficult time for England and its people.  This is a movie that I highly recommend seeing.

Movie Review

"I Am Number Four" is a science fiction/fantasy teenage movie about human looking aliens from another planet whose people have systematically been killed off.  Alien assassins are hunting and killing nine specially powered young people to complete their mission.  Number three was killed along with his keeper and now they are after number four.  The first two are dead and the story never really goes into detail about that.  Number 4 (John) of course wants to be a normal teenager but is reminded to stay off the grid so that he is not found.  Well...how easy is that in terms of the Internet and smart phones?  This movie have some references to different movies such as Superman, Twilight and Transformers.  The teenagers, the girlfriend, the geek sci-fi friend who wants to believe and who has a father that could hold the key to the whole situation.  The way the movie ended means there will be a sequel.  I Am Number Four is not a bad movie.  It's entertaining and if you are looking for a light distraction with no real strain on the brain, then sit and enjoy the show.

Cafe Caspian

Cafe Caspian is a Persian restaurant in Houston.  If you are not familiar with Persian cuisine, it reminds you a little of Greek food.  Their main proteins are chicken, beef and lamb.  They start you off with chunks of blue cheese, radishes and some herbs for a light type of salad.  Two of our new favorites are their dolmeh, which are stuffed grape leaves.  They are stuffed with rice, onions, leeks, parsley and mint.  It's served hot which is different then the Greek way which is served cold.  We tasted a new soup they serve which is a delectable lentil soup.  It is delicious.  They also have a fresh herb stew that is fantastic and their hummus is to die for, "not literally".  The decor is Middle Eastern and the people are very polite and informative about their cuisine.  If you are ever in the area, this restaurant is one stop you should make.

Rattan Asian Bistro

Rattan is an Asian restaurant in Houston and it's one of our favorite restaurants.  It's not a Chinese restaurant but a combination of different Asian cuisines.  They serve Japanese, Chinese and Thai based meals.  They also have an extensive wine list, happy hour and a live band plays on the weekend.  Their decor is modern rattan furniture.  The staff are very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable on their cuisine.  The newest item I just tried was the seaweed salad.  It had julienned  cucumbers with the seaweed in a nice light chili vinaigrette dressing.  Marvelous!  If you love Asian food, this is one restaurant you will love.

Cyclone Anaya Mexican Restaurant

Cyclone Anaya is a new Mexican restaurant located in City Centre in Houston.  The name sounds intriguing and would indicate fast service.  The interior and exterior of this establishment is beautiful.  It has a lot of nouveau contemporary sculpture pieces and beautiful furniture.  They have an extensive list of margaritas which they must be famous for because a lot of their patrons were drinking that and beer.  At this point is when I have to pause and say, "The good times have ended!"  When we walked in, we had a bit of a wait and when someone finally came they just asked if we needed a table for two.  We didn't get any type of greeting like welcome to Cyclone Anaya, my name is so and so...We finally got to our table and patiently waited for the waitress.  She was at least nice but she never told us her name and if there were any specials, we knew nothing about them.  We just ordered some water and ice tea.  The ice tea was awful.  My husband said it tasted like there was fuel at the bottom of the barrel, then rinsed out and tea was added...not good.  I decided to order something familiar and ordered the Rollo Anaya which is grilled chicken, mexican rice, grilled vegetables, refried beans and guacomole.  My husband ordered the tamales.  Our chips and salsa came and the salsa tasted like chunky ketchup with pepper added.  When our dinner came out, I received two big pieces of grilled chicken on top of my mexican rice with a lemon on top.  I had to move the breast to see the rice.   The grilled vegetables were 4 slices of grilled squash , the refriend beans looked and tasted like a dried up lump of brown beans.  There were two chunky slices of guacomole and two large chunks of tomatoes.  The thinest part of the chicken was kind of juicy and it was well seasoned.  The tamales were covered with a lot of cheddar cheese which sat on the dish like velveeta.  The tamales had more oil then Exxon Valdes.  I told him I had better food at Taco Cabana.  We finished our meal by admiring the decor and proceeded out the door.  Hopefully management will get their act together or change their executive chef.  It would be a shame to see this beautiful restaurant go out of business before its time.

Green Hornet

The question that comes to mind after seeing the Green Hornet is why do you need the Green Hornet and what is his actual purpose?  Not only was the so called hero upstaged by his partner Kato, he was also upstaged by the car.  Tom Wilkinson, Edward James Olmos and Cameron Diaz were unfortunately dragged into this poorly written movie trying hard to play straight and serious parts in this pathetic movie.  On a short positive note, there were some scenes that were funny because they were a rip off of the Pink Panther.  There was the same idea in the Pink Panther of a love/hate relationship between Clouseau and Cato that was used in this movie.  The Green Hornet left me with a bad taste in my mouth and a question mark on the top of my head.

Polonia Restaurant

There is a polish retaurant in Houston at 1900 Blalock that needs some work done in the kitchen or just a new chef.  (No offense to the Polish).  Let's start on a positive note.  The waitresses and the staff were very nice and accommodating.  They were packed and could have turned us away but they brought out a table to seat us.  Also, when the food came, I have to say that it was hot.  Unfortunately, this is where the kindness ends.  We were given glasses of water that was clearly unfiltered tap water.  It had an after taste that was not pleasant at all.  Our first dish, the potato pancakes "Goral" style came out with pre-packaged cream cheese and apple sauce in little plastic to-go containers.  That should have given us a clue as to what we were in for.  The pancakes were overfried, not seasoned and greasy.  They were edible only by drowning then either with the cream cheese or the apple sauce.  The main course came and it was the Pierogi with sauerkraut.  The Pierogi tasted like spam wrapped in thick rice dough.  This reviewer played it safe and had the chicken sandwich.  The chicken was too deeply fried but it did have flavor and it was served hot.  The sauerkraut was sweet and overpowered  with vinegar.  This is not a good combination and could not be eaten.  We were invited to this restaurant and was under the impression that it served good food.  Perhaps the cook was having a bad night, unfortunately for them it will be a meal that we will not repeat.  After that experience, our much needed relief came from Tums.