How to Make Spam Musubi

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Spam musubi is one of my personal favorite snacks to make whenever I have free time. Its a very simple dish to create using only a few ingredients.

Ingredient List:

Spam Musubi

  • ▢ 1.5 cup/310g Rice (uncooked)
  • ▢ 1 tbsp Toasted sesame seeds
  • ▢ 1 Nori seaweed sheet 
  • ▢ 1 can of small Spam 7oz(200g)
  • ▢ 2 tsp vegetable oil

Spam Sauce 

  • ▢ 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • ▢ 1 tbsp sake
  • ▢ 1 tbsp rice vinegar
  • ▢ 1 tbsp sugar
  • ▢ 2 tsp Katakuriko (potato starch)
  • ▢ 1 tbsp water
  • 1. Cook rice by the instructions listed on your rice cooker.
  • 2. Once the rice been cooked, sprinkle toasted sesame seeds into the rice.
  • 3. Slice the spam ham into 6 even slices.
  • 4. Heat a frying pan over medium heat with vegetable oil
  • 5. Add Spam. Cook and brown each side for about 2-3 min.
  • 6. Set aside the cooked spam slices. Then place all ingredients into the pan and reduce the heat to low.
  • 7. Stir continuously until thick, put the Spam slices back into the frying pan and coat the spam with the sauce. Turn the heat off.
  • 8. Next is to assemble the Spam. I like to use a specific mold for Spam, but if you don’t have one there is a very easy alternative. Line a washed spam tin with cling wrap and put 1/6 of the cooked rice into the tin.
  • 9. Press the rice down with your hand. Add a piece of spam on top and press.
  • 10. Remove the spam and rice, place the nori strip over on the centre of the spam and wrap over the musubi.

Enjoy!

-Harrison Schreiman

Album Review: Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth

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In the 1980s, music was quite commercialized and accessible in addition to being very synth heavy. However, a thriving underground scene would emerge in places like New York City, giving us the Sonic Youth band. Sonic Youth started out as a highly experimental “no wave” band but would soon transition into making more “normal” alternative music after releasing their first two albums. After two new albums, they’d reach perfection with their fifth album, Daydream Nation.

The album cover of Daydream Nation

Daydream Nation can be described as one of the premier alternative rock albums of its time. It’s very noisy, features decently long instrumental introductions, and has unorthodoxly tuned guitars. Daydream Nation is also on the longer side with a run time of around one hour and 10 minutes. The best song on the album is easily its opener, “Teen Age Riot”.

Like nearly all the songs on the album, “Teen Age Riot” starts off with a layback, minute-plus-long instrumental introduction. We then get a very fast, fun piece of music. Thurston Moore’s guitar part is very cool. While his vocals are somewhat deadpan and spoken, I feel like that really helps to make the song.

Daydream Nation has gone down in history as one of the best alternative rock albums of the 1980s as well as one of the best albums ever made. This album is easily a 10/10 with all of the songs being great, although the album isn’t for everyone. It’s 100% worth a listen though!

Book Review: The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope by C.W Grafton

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The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope by C.W Grafton has many elements that make it a classic hard-boiled detective story, but Grafton’s story and characters give a unique perspective to a long standing genre. For one the main character, detective Gil Henry, is described as “short, chubby, and awkward”, as opposed to the generic idea of a tall and handsome detective you’d find in most other stories. The novel follows Gil as he embarks on a dangerous case that results in scandal and murder, and whether or not he finds his way out.

The novel opens in a very generic fashion, with Gil in his office when an attractive woman walks in with a case for him to solve. The woman is Ruth McClure, whose father’s death and the suspected stock fraud that followed from it leads Ruth to think something is astray. Early on it’s made very clear that Gil will find himself in danger if he continues to follow the case, but in crime story fashion he chooses to follow it anyway, regardless of risk. However, I think Gil’s character being set up as more of an average guy makes him much easier to root for, and gets you more invested into the story. I thought the mystery and plot itself were both solid, but there was nothing really amazing or mind blowing about the story or how Grafton constructs the mystery. If I had to give one main criticism towards the book, I would say that the ending and Grafton’s way of revealing who was the culprit and everyone’s motivations could have been executed better.

In my opinion, I think one of the best parts of the book is the fast-paced writing. The chapters are usually one to three pages long, making it easily digestible but also faster paced and more tense. Furthermore, I think the setting of 1940s America and Grafton’s use of the vernacular at the time makes it a pretty interesting read. It never really lost my attention, and I think it does a good job of giving the reader a complete resolution that ties up most loose ends. I would recommend this as a read for anyone interested in the mystery genre, or anyone who is willing to try something new.

Stephen Curry’s Magical 2016 Season

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Warriors win Game 7 to overcome a 3-1 deficit vs the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals

Stephen Curry’s 2016 regular season was one of the greatest ever.  He won the MVP unanimously with all 131 first-place votes.  He won the scoring title by averaging 30 points a game.  He did it with outstanding efficiency as he shot 50% from the field, 45% from three, and 90% from the free throw line, joining the 50-40-90 club.  Curry was unstoppable at the three-point line, hitting 402 threes in the season, shattering his previous record of 286 threes in a single season. 

Curry was not as good on defense, but he was still great.  He led the league in steals with 2.1 a game and was top 15 in both defensive win shares and defensive box plus-minus.  Overall, the Golden State Warriors were the second-best defensive team in the league, and Curry was a big part of that.  

Unfortunately, the Warriors did not cap off the season with an NBA championship.  They blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA finals right after overcoming a 3-1 deficit in the Western Conference Finals. The Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA championship by upsetting the Warriors in games 5, 6, and 7. The Warriors won game 4 in Cleveland, taking a 3-1 lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers.  However, Lebron James and Kyrie Irving played incredibly over the last three games, leading them to three straight wins to defeat the Golden State Warriors.  Nonetheless, Stephen Curry’s 2016 unanimous MVP season is still one of the most dominant seasons of all time.

Books about Stephen Curry are available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

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In the opening scene of the movie, Wakandan King T’Challa is about the die from an illness. Meanwhile, his sister Shuri is in the lab racing to find a cure before he dies. However, she is unsuccessful, and her mother soon comes to inform Shuri of her brother’s death. A year passes, and Shuri is still unable to accept this loss, as a new threat emerges: an underwater people led by Namor. Namor is the leader of the Atlanteans. While Wakanda’s advanced technology would enable them to defeat any other countries on Earth in a battle, the Atlanteans have many similar technologies to Wakanda. For this reason, the Atlanteans are possibly the only people outside of Wakanda which could actually fight against them. As Wakanda remains threatened, Shuri will be forced to face the grief from her brother’s recent death to ensure her country survives the battle with the Atlanteans. To do this, she must discover how to do what she couldn’t before to save T’Challa; Shuri must recreate the heart-shaped herb, which Killmonger burned down in the previous movie.

In this movie, while Shuri, Okoye, and Nakia are still main characters, Riri Williams, also known as Ironheart, is introduced. 

Originally, I didn’t think this movie would be that good due to Chadwick Boseman’s death in 2020, but after seeing it I think that this was actually a great movie. I liked the plot and there was a good backstory for the villains of the movie. Overall, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was a great movie and I would recommend it to Marvel fans or just those who enjoy action/adventure.

-Peri A.

Album Review: Slowdive’s Self-Titled Album

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Out of all the bands that came out of the UK’s shoegaze scene of the 1990s, Slowdive has to be my personal favorite. I decided to look at their self-titled album for this review. Released in 2017, Slowdive is on par with the famed Souvlaki with it having all the sounds a modern shoegaze album should have.

The album cover of Slowdive

Like Souvlaki, Slowdive is a shoegaze album. It features beautiful, ethereal vocals from Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell, two of the band’s founders. The guitars on the album have been heavily distorted and altered through the use of effect pedals. My favorite song from the album has to be “Sugar for the Pill”.

“Sugar for the Pill” starts out with a touching guitar part drenched with reverb. The bass line is very cool as well. While the vocals do show that Neil Halstead’s voice has aged since the 1990s, his voice is still able to touch the heart. It is less noisy than “Star Roving”, my second favorite song from Slowdive, yet that makes it more beautiful in my opinion.

Slowdive is a great album for those who want to get into shoegaze, especially modern shoegaze as its sounds are more updated than the ones in Slowdive’s works from the 1990s. I rate this album a 9/10. Please check it out when you get a chance. It’ll make your day

The Land of Forgotten Girls by Erin Entrada Kelly

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Don’t be mistaken by the title, this book is not about an isolated island filled with barefoot girls without parents Orphan Island (also at the library) style. However, it’s still a really good book about two girls and their modern evil stepmother living in Giverny, Louisiana. 

Soledad (Sol) lives with her little sister Dominga (Ming) in the United States of America. They live in an ¨affordable housing¨ apartment complex called Magnolia Tower, more specifically Apartment 4. It would have been nice if they lived there with their father, especially since they lost their mother and middle sister when she was young, but he left for a trip back to the Philippines and never returned. As a result, he left them with their cigarette smoking, nose twisting, hair spitting, and extremely evil stepmother.

To pass time, Sol tells Ming stories about their Auntie Jove and her magical adventures around the world. Sol also hangs out with the seven-girl-kissing Manny. I could spoil the book, but I won’t because that’s just wrong.

Sooooo, read the book. It’s a good book and, in my opinion, a pretty easy read. But when you read it, make sure you’re not going to move for a while, that book glues you in your seat.

The Land of Forgotten Girls by Erin Entrada Kelly is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

Book Review: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

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Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a fiction book which is set in the 19th century in the Congo Free state controlled by Belgian. Conrad uses his European heritage and more modern views to allow for the readers to be submerged into the scramble for Africa and European society at the time.

This book is a very complex, with a lot symbolism, rhetorical devices, and sophisticated language. Heart of Darkness is a shorter book at 77 pages but don’t let that fool you as it is very dense. I really enjoyed this book as it had many important themes regarding the spread of colonialism and made me question whether or not every item had a deeper hidden meaning. In the book as the main character travels through his hero’s journey and farther into Africa we can see the horrors of colonialism on the African peoples, the descent into ones id or their primal instincts, and the prevailing societal values at the time.

I recommend this book to anyone that loves a deep and thoughtful read. Due to some of the outdated and complex language it may be difficult to read and that is why I would also recommend the graphic novel adaptation of the book. It still gets the same themes and elements as the book but simply conveys these through images that are just as deep and appealing.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

My Favorite Christmas Movies

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Watching Christmas movies bundled up in fuzzy blankets is one of my favorite winter break traditions. There are always a few Christmas movies that my family and I watch every year, and I thought it would be fun to share them. Here are my favorite family friendly Christmas movies:

The Muppet Christmas Carol. While this movie sounds silly and even childish, I can honestly say that this is one of my favorite Christmas movies of all time. The Muppet Christmas Carol portrays the characters of Charles Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ in a fun way that I’ve never seen before.

Elf. I feel like every Christmas lover has already seen this movie, but if you haven’t, I would definitely recommend it. It’s such a fun movie with so much energy, and it satisfies my aggressive kid urges every time I see it. When I saw Buddy the Elf eat his spaghetti with maple syrup, let me tell you, it changed my life.

8-Bit Christmas. This movie actually came out relatively recently, but my family and I have seen it at least five times. It gets a laugh out of me every time, too! This movie is very reminiscent of the 1980’s movie, ‘A Christmas Story Christmas’, although in my opinion, better.

I hope you’ll like these movies, if you haven’t already seen them, and if you have any Christmas movies you want to share, I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

The Muppet Christmas Carol and Elf are available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library.

The BFG by Roald Dahl

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The BFG is one of Roald Dahl’s most well-known books.  The story focuses on Sophie, an orphan who is captured by a giant and carried off to his cave.  Unlike most giants, this giant does not eat humans.  He is called the “Big Friendly Giant,” or the BFG.  Because he is not like other giants, the giants who live nearby have a strong disliking of him.  Still, the BFG behaves like other giants in some ways.  For example, he struggles with grammar.  He often mixes up words and phrases, such as “is I right or left” instead of “am I right or wrong,” or “human beans” instead of “human beings.”  I was amused by the BFG’s manner of speech.  He has many funny sayings in this book.

When Sophie learns that the evil giants are all going to London to eat some more “human beans,” including children, she decides that they must be stopped.  It turns out that the BFG is willing to help Sophie.  Together, they create a plan to make sure that the wicked giants never eat humans again.

I enjoyed many of the characters in this book.  It would be difficult to pinpoint a favorite, but if I had to choose one, I think it would be the BFG himself.  While he is not exactly the most articulate character in the book, he has a good heart and is actually very clever.  One of my favorite things about Roald Dahl’s stories are the unique words he creates.  “Scrumdiddlyumptious,” “swogswalloped,” and “bungswoggling” are just a few examples.  The language of this book is especially amusing when read aloud. 

I am extremely fond of this book.  When I read it the first time, I enjoyed it so much that I read it in one day.  For good reason, this is one of Roald Dahl’s most famous and popular books.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys Dahl’s books.

The BFG by Roald Dahl is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.