Welcome to Newsletter #5.

Given last night's announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, it seems almost inappropriate to share an upbeat newsletter about what I've consumed over the last seven days.

The Queen was a constant presence in our lives and change can be unsettling and worrying. Every one of us are reacting to the news in different ways and whatever that looks like for you, that's OK.

Let's try to take a leaf from her book and practice kindness and acceptance to those we connect with over the coming days.

Coincidentally this week we have a film review (which I wrote earlier in the week) focusing on the subject of kindness, as well as a couple of experimental recipes.

Food

With a freezer full of discounted Waitrose goodies, last week I took stock (literally) and made a list of ingredients/meals for us to get through. This has meant selecting tomorrow's food and remembering to defrost it the night before as well as resulting in some rather odd concoctions.

Duck Carbonara

We had cooked and eaten duck breasts the night before and had leftovers. Inspiration struck when I was deciding how to use up what would have been a tiny portion of meat and this made it go a long way. The recipe is identical to how I would cook a pork based carbonara:

This was way better than expected.

Korean Chicken Stir Fry

As I'm writing this one I'm realising how basic and gross it actually sounds, but it tasted great and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. As a bit of a treat when we were out one lunchtime we purchased a KFC bucket. Again, this resulted in leftovers and this time I mashed together components from four separate meals to create this masterpiece:

Aside from eating these Frankenstein feasts, I also harvested another week's worth of courgettes this morning from the allotment. We've had heavy rainfall and they must love it because boy have they grown.

Film

I have to tell you about a film I finally got round to seeing this week: Everything Everywhere All at Once. The concept is pretty out there - Evelyn Wang (played by Michelle Yeoh) is struggling with strained family relationships and leads a mundane life doing her laundromat taxes. Without warning she becomes the centre of an infinite multiverse adventure, where she must see how her life might have played out, and use this knowledge to save the world.

Yeoh is brilliant and deserves an Oscar nomination for her performance, but the supporting cast are equally fantastic. Stephanie Hsu plays her 'troubled' daughter while Jamie Lee Curtis plays the pernickety IRS agent and both get to have a lot of fun in their various multiverse iterations; the hot dog-fingers-alternative-reality being a personal highlight! However it is Ke Huy Quan whose performance stole my heart. Quan plays Evelyn's meek and goofy husband, Waymond who puts googly eyes on inanimate objects, because why shouldn't he? We see him as incompetent and weak and yet it is Waymond whose kindness ultimately leads Evelyn to overcome the darkness.

It's an important message for a beta male character to be the hero without having to go on a transformative journey to 'find his confidence' or resort to violence. Waymond fights in his own way and never deviates from his beliefs.

The YouTube channel Pop Culture Detective did a fantastic piece on his character, although to avoid spoilers I would hold off watching until you've seen the film.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is absurd, with dildo jokes, the aforementioned hot dog fingers, and many more laugh out loud moments. It's also an action film, with elements of sci-fi and impressive martial arts scenes. It will make you laugh, cry but most importantly, think. This is my favourite film of the year so far and I can't recommend it highly enough.

9.5/10

Sign Off

If you have any feedback, please get in touch and I hope to see you again for next week’s newsletter.

Thanks for reading and have a great week.

Adam