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If there were any doubt in my mind about who is the best chef in Toronto, they were put to rest after my recent experience of the intricate flavours presented at Susur restaurant. I pride myself in being able to find and experience the best cuisine that this fair city has to offer; whether it be a mom-and-pop shop, or a classy establishment like Susur. I love to eat and enjoy even more when I’m with friends. My recent experience at Susur was far more than I could ever hope for, so I apologize if you begin salivating at my delicious recollection of the night.

Who Is Susur Lee?
Susur is a celebrated chef in Toronto with his unmistakable trademark long hair and pony tail. Originally from Hong Kong, Susur opened his first restaurant in Canada, but later became the executive chef consultant for the Tong Luk group, overseeing the quality of Singapore’s finest restaurants. (Yes, there’s always a Singaporean connection in my stories!) He opened Susur in 2000 and followed up with Lee right next door in 2004. Susur has received many critical acclaim and accolades; among which being named in the company of the top 50 restaurants in the world on many international lists.

As if those accomplishments weren’t enough, Susur is also
 

Results could be mixed if you paired a bad student with a good teacher. But pair a good student with a bad teacher and the student could make things work out on their own. Tonight’s episode was an exploration into this phenomenon.

If there was some method behind Ken Shamrock’s madness, he certainly had not divulged it. Ken gave another pep talk after their team’s recent lost in the middleweight division. Ken was not winning over any fans this season nor was he winning back his team with speeches that failed to motivate. Team Shamrock’s laid-back approach got on the nerves of a few of its members. His team was envious of the intense training and hands-on coaching that had been the modus operandi of Team Ortiz.

Tito had been grooming his fighters for a career by showing them the skills, training, discipline and work ethic that a professional fighter needs to succeed. Ken had been focused on keeping his fighters fresh to win this tournament. It was a contrast between a long-term vs. short-term vision.

Regardless of whether or not Ken was pushing them, Team Shamrock did not stay stagnant. Every fighter on the team found ways to keep active, whether it was running stairs in the backyard, sprawling and shadow boxing. Who could sleep when the opponent is training hard to bash your head in?

Fire Water aka Lip Lubricant
Since the UFC reinstated alcoholic beverages in the fighters’ residence for season three, there had been more interesting and revealing conversations. When the contestants had some fire-water in their bellies, their lubricated lips loosened up. A few episodes ago, it was Ed Herman. This time around, Michael Bisping proclaimed freely that he was tired of Team Ortiz and Team Shamrock; that he was only looking out for himself. The sympathetic ears of Team Shamrock fighters shared his sentiments. Michael’s apologies the morning after were merely a drunkard’s remorse that did little to hide his true feelings.

The Fight Announcement
It looked early on like a vendetta was brewing between Mike Nikels and Michael Bisping. Bisping was annoyed with Nikels impersonating him. Everybody felt that it would be a good fight. However, we have to remember that these people were in a contest. Michael Bisping felt that he could best exploit a match-up against Kristian Rothaermel. Michael was a striker going up against Kristina’s jiu-jitsu grappling skills.

The Fight
Michael took control of every aspect of this fight. He sprawled beautifully and defended Kristian’s takedown attempts very well. On the second sprawl, Michael realized he was pushed up against the fence and beautifully jumped out into the center of the ring. Every time both fighters stood up from a clinched position, Michael had the presence of mind to let fly heavy punches, elbows and knees.

The hard shots stunned Kristian and cut him up on the top of the head and a few other spots. When Kristian was able to keep Michael on the ground, Michael was still the aggressor sending up punishing elbows, and hitting Kristian flush on target. Michael was getting the best of every exchange and it was apparent that Kristian was slowly giving up. On a few occasions, Kristian did not seem willing to get up to resume the fight. Finally, the referee John McCarthy stepped in and stopped the fight when he realized Kristian was not defending himself anymore.

Team Ortiz retained control and went up 3 – 1 against Team Shamrock. I wondered what kind of pep talk Ken will have in store for the next episode?

An Uninspiring Episode
The reality series seemed like it hit the wall as excitement is slowly dwindling away from The Ultimate Fighter 3. The downside to the fast matches was that the filler footages failed to captivate the television audience. Previews for the next episode revealed some sparks between Tito and Ken. Sadly, the most exciting thing this season could be if and when will Tito and Ken slug it out, since Tito had recently pulled out of the July pay-per-view fight against Ken Shamrock due to a recent knee injury.

Update: Tito Ortiz recently changed his mind and would like to find Ken Shamrock at UFC 61

Originally Published on April 27, 2006 on .

Episode two of The Ultimate Fighter 3 suffered its largest week-to-week ratings drop in the series’ history. Episode three sought to prove that the blip was not a downward trend by having a great lead-in show, UFC unleashed. UFC unleashed showcased five classic fights of the legendary, Royce Gracie.

Ken Shamrock gave his team a break after losing the last battle to enjoy venting their frustration at golf balls on the driving range. There were no lessons to be learnt here; just a show played out for the camera in my opinion. Tito Ortiz played the contrary style by drilling his fighters through a hard cardio workout running the stairs, and doing fireman-carry relays.

Tito Ortiz vs. Ed Herman
Ed Herman’s story was further developed this episode because Tito realized his mistake of not picking the red-headed fighter. Ed was an experienced fighter who wanted to be on Tito’s team but felt slighted being a late pick of Team Shamrock. In a drunken stupor, Ed boasted that he was the best fighter this season. What ever happened to the saying “action speaks louder than words”? Ed Herman obviously never heard of that quote before.

But Ed was not a fighter who could not back up his words. Tito knew this and upped the gamesmanship on Ed Herman. Tito knew that Ed was itching to fight and prove himself. During the fighter selection, Tito deliberately stared down Ed before revealing his choice for Ross Pointon to go up against his middleweight, Kendall Grove. The anguished-look on Ed’s reaction was priceless!

A Well-Conceived Alliance
Alliances had been attempted in previous seasons, and I had been skeptical that any alliance would work in this reality series. Team Dagger, comprised of Kendall Grove and Solomon Hutcherson, certainly proved me wrong. What an ingenious idea to plant a “mole” in the opposing team, while helping each other to advance in the competition. This alliance worked because the members were from opposing teams!

In a competition where you faced off against your opponent, it made sense to have an “inside man” giving you tips on who you should face, and how you should approach the fight. You can be sure that Solomon perceived Ross as a weak target and influenced Kendall to pick Ross this week. Solomon also gave Kendall insights on how Ross liked to fight and what were his weaknesses. It was enjoyable to have my assumptions decimated this episode.

Your Ground Game Sucks
While Kendall was getting lots of help, Ross was basically left on his own to prepare for the fight. It was not that his team wanted him to fail. Ross was not receptive to his teammates’ input. He had decided to not deviate from his original game plan. Ken Shamrock warned him bluntly that his “ground game sucks.” Ross was a brawler through and through but being one-dimensional could land you in heaps of trouble in the octagon.

The middle lull of the show got interesting as we joined Ross on a quest to drop 15 pounds to meet the pre-fight weigh-in requirements with a little over 12 hours left. Ross displayed an eerie calm attitude while his teammates were betting for him to lose the fight. Ross’s tough guy image was validated as he wore a sauna suit, and sweated the weight off in the sauna. We had seen other fighters totally crumble while cutting weight in the past. Ross continued his unorthodox pre-fight routine right after the weigh-in. He immediately bulked back up with sushi, pizza, garlic breads and ice cream; pre-fight food that most fighters conscientiously avoid.

Kendall Grove vs. Ross Pointon
The tale of the tape gave Kendall the discernable reach advantage, since Kendall was a tall, lanky 6 foot 6 inches. Both fighters meet in the center with Ross delivering cut kicks. The tactic showed that Ross was wary of Kendall’s punching range. After a brief stand-up exchange, Kendall did not mess around and shot-in for the takedown.

Ross valiantly stood up many times because he was simply not comfortable being on the ground. At times, Ross looked like a panicky fish out of the water. Kendall was the fisherman that kept Ross in his nets. Kendall held Ross against the fence, scoring takedowns each time Ross stood up. When they were on their feet, Kendall was the aggressor swinging elbows and punches and landing quite a few.

However, Ross had a good chin, and a knock out was not in the cards. In the end, Ross’s inexperience with grapplers forced him to expose his back twice to Kendall; who seized the second opportunity and forced Ross to tap out with a rear-naked choke.

Team Punishment In Control
Team Punishment (Ortiz) was now 2-1 against Team Shamrock. I wondered if Tito would use this to antagonize Ken. Season three fights still have not gone past the first round. Therefore, the producers had to focus a lot more on the private life invasion of the fighters at the residence. The camera man’s quality on this episode were shoddy in some spots; especially the part where Ross was heading out the house to go to the sauna. You have Derek Hoffmann to thank for that!

Originally Published on April 21, 2006 on .

I missed episode two but was lucky to catch the re-run tonight prior to this week’s upcoming episode three of The Ultimate Fighter 3 on Spike TV.

Episode two started flying out the gate. On the last review, I wrote about the changes in the fighter selection format. The change meant that it only took a few minutes into the show before we knew who would be the next pair of fighters. Removing the time spent on silly challenges freed up more time for viewers to get to know the fighters and their training regiment. Episode three featured the light-heavyweights as Team Shamrock kept the pressure on Team Punishment by choosing Jesse Forbes to fight Noah Inhofer.

Team Punishment (Ortiz)
To prepare for the fight, Tito Ortiz gave Noah a basketball training aid to keep his guard up. The basketball played a bigger role later in the show; so much that this episode was named after it. With some clever editing, it looked as if the basketball was gifted prior to the fighter selection. But it did not make any sense for Tito to focus on helping Noah if he did not know about Noah entering the ring that week.

Viewers got to appreciate more of Tito Ortiz’s hands-on coaching. But members of Team Punishment did not appreciate the fact that Tito had been giving deaf competitor, Matt Hamill, more attention. Tito even hired Matt a sign-language interpreter who signed 92 words-per-minute to ensure that Matt was not missing any instructional opportunity.

Being the father figure that he wanted to be, Tito visited the house and cooked a spaghetti dinner for the team – a first for any Ultimate Fighter coach. I wondered if the fighters cared about a low-carb, high-fiber, high-protein diet, or did they simply eat anything given the amount of energy they expended throughout the trainings.

Team Shamrock
On the other team, Ken Shamrock decided that it was best for the team to take two days off from training. His philosophy aligned with previous coach, Rich Franklin, who did not believe in over-training prior to fights. However, Ken was the first coach to encourage recovery by doing nothing. Rich Franklin got his team to at least keep active through enjoying other sports.

What happened during the days off? And what happened to the basketball? Well, when you have a bunch of testosterone-filled men in a house with nothing to do, pranks ensue. At the fighters’ residence, Jesse Forbes was portrayed as an immature and destructive youth who broke vases by shooting pool cue balls through them. This attribute perfectly raised the tension between Jesse and Noah when Jesse punctured Noah’s basketball with a steak knife. Noah displayed tremendous maturity by turning the other cheek, and not confronting Jesse’s mischief.

After the days off, Ken’s coaching became a tug-of-war between the contestants and his “my way or the highway” style. Ken was disappointed that the intensity dropped and pointed the finger to Kalib Starnes’ lack of effort. Kalib defended himself strongly by stating that he did not want to risk injury since he had reached the semi-final round.

The Fight
On fight day, Noah met Jesse in the octagon while nursing a slight ankle-roll injury. Noah’s pre-fight game plan was not to face Jesse on the ground because of Jesse’s wrestling background. The battle wrote a different story as Jesse quickly took Noah down and worked his way into a dominating side-mount position. Noah was fighting his own fight and not listening to his corner’s instructions. Jesse pushed his advantage, cornering Noah into the fence. While Jesse was working the ground-and-pound game, Noah sneakily heisted his hips, pushed off the fence and scored an arm-bar submission win.

I really appreciated the new feature showcased in this episode – the Amp’d Mobile replay. Dana White and the two coaches broke down the final moments of the fight and broke down the elements of the hip-heist that eventually gave Noah the victory. Ken Shamrock “saw it coming” and Tito commented that Jesse had done the worst thing possible when facing an arm-bar – trying to pull away instead of driving towards the opponent to keep his arms bent. This replayed was informative and helped fight fans further their knowledge of the sport.

Prelude to Episode Three
Team Punishment had wrestled the control of the fight match-ups from Team Shamrock. I look forward to checking out Tito’s strategy in the upcoming episode. Some fans have commented that season three was surpassing season two, but had not lived up to the high bars set by season one. I had a different opinion after watching the first two fights of this season. The fights thus far had not gone past the first rounds because the fighters brought more intensity and were more technically sound. If this trend continues, I expect the semi-final rounds to host the best fights that this realty TV series had offered thus far.

This article was also posted at .

Season three of The Ultimate Fighter reality series premiered tonight. Dana White, the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC) is one smart guy. Tweaking the series with feuding coaches, Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz, may have been the smartest move to spice up the third season after a lackluster season two.

Don’t get me wrong! Season two ended on a strong note, but it was too little, too late. The season two DVD’s low sales figures certainly proved this. In the past two seasons, the opposing coaches had been very cordial towards each other. Ken vs. Tito was a legendary rivalry that promised to translate itself onto the television screen again. Like a worrisome parent, Dana made sure to sit both coaches down and appealed to them to leave their personal grudges for an upcoming July pay-per-view event. But it could all be for naught, since the first segment ends with a Shamrock-Ortiz face-to-face stare-down with so much tension in the air, that a knife (or a commercial) could have cut it!

The New Blood
The new fighters appeared very skilled, and more importantly in shape, during the coaches’ separate evaluations. The evaluations were held jointly in the past, but Ken and Tito could not stand to be around each other’s presence. Tito and Ken evaluated the fighters over the first two days to help them determine who would be drafted onto their teams.

On this first look, this season’s contestants seemed like a bunch of levelheaded fun-loving fighters. The UFC had done a better job scouting and filtering who got picked to come on the show and there was an increase in international flavor. But in the end, it doesn’t matter. As Ken Shamrock declared, “[the show] IS about Tito and me”. The new narrow personality focus should do wonders for the show’s ratings. The audience got to see the sides of Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock that are usually reserved for the people who trained with them. Personally, Tito did the better job of winning me over on this episode.

The Draft
Tito won the coin-flip to pick his team first. After the obligatory verbal stab at beating Ken Shamrock yet again (for the coin-flip), Tito made a surprising first pick with inexperienced deaf fighter, Matt Hamill. The draft then went back and forth with Ken strategically picking fighters he felt would defeat Tito’s choices.

The training camp officially started with Tito’s team, Team Punishment, going through strenuous conditioning and sparring to prepare them for their would-be professional careers. Tito displayed a hands-on attitude, boxing and sparring with his fighters. The polar opposite was Ken Shamrock as his brought his “Lion’s Den” philosophy where the strongest survive. Ken’s coaching style was to oversee the contestants’ development. The contrast in coaching styles gained Tito more points in my book.

The New Competition Format
Dana White proceeded to drop the atom bomb on this season’s competition format. Gone were the silly physical challenges to determine which team would decide the pair of fighters to compete. This decision would rest simply in the fate of a coin toss. The winning team of the fight would retain the decision control of the next fight. The contest also adopts a tournament format to ensure all fighters fought at least one bout before advancing in the competition. The fights had also been shortened to two rounds and one over-time round instead of the previous three rounds. This modification would inspire fighters to go all out and not leave anything to chance.

I wonder whether fans of the show will react positively to these changes. I know that many Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fans have written in forums and online bulletin boards and these changes had been the result of the UFC listening to its fans. My opinion is that it’s about time that Dana and the UFC made it right!

The Opening Fight
Back to what this show was based on, the season-opening bout pitted Canadian Kalib Starnes against Mike Stine. Kalib took control right away in the opening minute, scoring a slam, and a full mount. Mike Stine tried rolling Kalib to reverse the bad situation, but Kalib proved too much of a veteran for such a move. With a gentle arm hook under the legs, Kalib leveraged the roll’s momentum and carried himself back on top. Mike could do nothing but duck and wince as Kalib launched punch after punch at Mike’s head. Team Punishment suffered the first setback and would look to wrestle the fight control back in the next episode

Will You Submit?
It’s finally started again! I really enjoyed blogging about the past 2 seasons of The Ultimate Fighter. The reality series was quite unique in its genre because, like The Amazing Race, the contestants were in full control of whether or not they get eliminated. There were no votes, no judges, and alliances made little sense. You fought to stay off elimination. It was as simple as that! I hope you will join me as the season progress and also share your thoughts about each episode!

This article was also posted at .

Extras!!
Now that you’ve read my review of episode 1. Get a feel of how “The World’s Most Dangerous Man”, Ken Shamrock, feels about his involvement in season three!

A warm welcome to Blogcritics.org readers that may be visiting this humble site for part 2 of The Ultimate Fighter 2 season finale. I summarized the show’s action and brought up its shortcomings in part 1 at Blogcritics.org. In this review, I will examine the fights in more detail. Hope you enjoy the anlaysis and share with me your perspectives!

 

They say people are attracted to reality television series just to see the people and the losers suffer. Is it funny? Most of the time, it is somber and non-humourous. Why not make it funny? Well, let’s hear it for Kenny and Spenny! The TV series Kenny vs. Spenny is chock full of laughs and is a great half-hour of entertainment before you have to resign yourself to bed to start a new work week. The series played for one season on CBC, but has now found a home right after Trailer Park Boys (another secret pleasure of mine) on Showcase at 9pm EST, on Sundays.

As a fan, I would certainly encourage everbody to watch the mayhem and hiliarity that ensues. I’ve written a review of it on BlogCritics to bring some exposure to it (Check it out here!). Season 1 of the Kenny vs. Spenny DVD is out now, released since October 25th. Buy the DVD for that friend or teenager in your household for Christmas!

I also came across Kenny Hotz’s personal blog on MSN MySpace. Check out this devilish comedy genius!

I missed blogging 2 episodes previously for my ongoing series about The Ultimate Fighter 2 on BlogCritics. The series is fast drawing to a close. If you are a fan of contact sports, martial arts or fighting events, be sure to check out this awesome reality series Monday Nights at 11pm on SpikeTV. Re-runs also run throughout the week on the channel.

For now, you can click on the link below to check out my latest live blog of episode 10 as I was watching the show.

BlogCritics » TV Review: Ultimate Fighter 2 – Episode 10

This is not really a review of the movie, The Wedding Banquet is an excellent movie with many reviews praising it. One more praise from myself will only be another drop in the ocean. Think of it as more of a reflection about the movie. In fact, I’m watching it on CBC’s International Movie Night as I am writing this blog. Did I mention this is why I love Canadian Media and the CBC? I guarantee you will not be exposed to this caliber of foreign film on American broadcast media!

For those unfamiliar with the work, a brief introduction is in order. Taiwanese director Ang Lee is a world renowned director famous for works such as “Eat Drink Man Woman”, and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”. His earlier works have always had a cross cultural element to it; “The Wedding Banquet” is such a prime example. Before there was “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, “The Wedding Banquet” was the first movie I saw that gave an accurate depiction of such a culture event. The story is simple but a very modern social issue. A Taiwanese gay man attempts to fool his traditional parents by marrying a former tenant who is in love with him. The fake marriage was to get the girl her green card, but she ends up getting pregnant on the wedding night.

I’ll leave the rest of the movie plot out to encourage you to watch the movie. My favourite portion of this movie was when Ang Lee himself appears and comments on the fun foolish games and excessive drinking that Chinese enjoy during their wedding banquets, by saying that “it’s the result of 5000 years of sexual repression”. I’ve seen this movie many times and I find it very relatable. First of all, I’m not gay but I can relate to the plight of a Chinese man who is not traditional in nature. I have talked about not wanting a wedding ceremony for myself, but a Chinese wedding is by essence not for myself; only to be accountable to others (as described in the movie too).

I also admire the perspective of Chinese culture; a recurring theme of all Ang Lee movies. Taiwanese people are very cultured whereas I am very lack of culture. That is why I enjoy any exposure to culture for myself. I would not know where to begin to organize a cultured wedding banquet. I wondered if I am avoiding it simply to avoid the challenge. There are so many things that can be discussed about this movie. Rather than hear me babble on, if you have seen this movie, please share your view of the movie and what issues or situations you can relate to from the movie. I look forward to hearing from you!

A tremendous monday night line-up pit SpikeTV’s Ultimate Fight Night against USA network’s WWE Monday Night Raw. I admit that I flipped through the channels and stayed mostly on Raw, but there was no tearing me away from SpikeTV when The Ultimate Fighter 2 began.

After the obligatory recap of the last episode, it was distrubing to see Matt Hughes’ reaction to a team victory, cathartic to see Jorge Grugel leave the competition and comical to see Jason Von Flue freak out over receiving stitches. This almost reminded me of my first time stitching up a cut on my hand. But I cannot blame him, the position of those cuts and under eyes would freak me out too if I knew that’s where they had to sew me up!

The RightGuard Challenge hosted by Randy Couture was inappropriately titled “last man standing”, when it is, essentially, heavyweight mud wrestling. By now the challenges are decidedly geared towards grapplers and wrestlers. I’d like to see future challenges focus more on other aspects of fighting arts, maybe a competition geared towards muay thai?

Once again, we see sore loser Matt Hughes emerge after the challenge competition. Team Hughes, with the exception of Joe Stevenson, visibly do not care much for Matt’s views.

Matt’s attitude is starting to get on my nerves. I don’t mind a coach who drives the team hard, but to not respect one of your fighters who won a fight for your team certainly shows his true character. No matter how he tries to excuse himself for dismissing Jason so easily for giving up a welterweight, I feel Matt is not worthy for my respect as a coach. Matt has already decided that he himself is the ultimate fighter and this is the Matt Hughes show. Matt wants to win; not for developing his fighters, but for himself.