Category Archives: book

Suck it Wonder Woman: The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek by Olivia Munn

Suck it Wonder Woman: The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek by Olivia Munn won’t be out til July 6, 2010, but you can pre-order it on Amazon. Today’s hottest geek and host of G4’s ATTACK OF THE SHOW dishes her unique brand of humor of on everything from Star Wars, gadgets, and her love of banana cream pie. Here’s a short synopsis of the book :

Actress, comedian and television host Olivia Munn, best known for being the face of the G4 network, occasionally likes to get dressed up as Wonder Woman. SUCK IT WONDER WOMAN is her paean to Geeks everywhere. Using her trademark humor in essays like THOUGHTS ABOUT MY FIRST AGENT’S GIRLFRIEND’S VAGINA she skewers what it’s like to live in Hollywood. In “SEX: WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOURSELF HAVE MORE OF IT,” she frankly gets down to the business of getting it on. In “WHAT TO DO WHEN THE ROBOTS INVADE (YES, WHEN!),” Olivia offers valuable information on… what to do when the robots invade! And just when you thought she couldn’t get any more Geeky, she can. This book also includes an Olivia Munn timeline of great moments in Geek history and her answers to the Unofficial Geek FAQ. Is it any wonder that Olivia Munn is quickly becoming the most powerful Geek on the planet? SUCK IT WONDER WOMAN is a humorous look at geeks, gadgets, Hollywood, and huge heapings of banana cream pie.

With Olivia Munn‘s wit and humor, this should make for a hilarious book. Here’s a few “reviews”:

“This book so good. You buy now. Okay, bye.”- Olivia’s Mom

“If Citizen Kane were a book, this would be it.”- Director Jon Favreau

“She’s part Asian! And I like sushi.”-Masi Oka, actor on Heroes

“Suck it Wonder Woman is a book only Olivia Munn could write. It’s as clever and witty as she with a surprise on every page. Better read it now; everyone’ll be talking about it tomorrow.” – Stan Lee

For those who are illiterate or prefer her voice, Olivia Munn will also be recording an audio book for Suck it Wonder Woman. If you stumbled on this page thinking you would see Olivia Munn in a Wonder Woman costume, check out the videos below.

Olivia Munn as Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman’s Guide to Office Safety

Secret Identities x the404 interview

Check this cool interview with the guys of the404 interview Cliff Chiang and Jerry Ma of Secret Identities. There were very few Asian American superheroes growing up. Secret Identities seeks to remedy the lack of Asian American heroes. The guys at the404 and Secret identities discuss stereotypes seen in comic books and why Secret Identities was created. (also check out our interviews with Lynn Chen and Tak Toyoshima about Secret Identities.)

Get your copy of “SECRET IDENTITIES: The Asian American Superhero Anthology” today.

Throughout the episode of The 404, Jerry and Cliff offer a unique perspective on the current state of the publishing industry and the move toward digital comic creation. Great comments about being Asian American artists.

Secret Identities x the404 interview

momofuku cookbook

momofuku’s David Chang drops his cookbook today. The book is one of the most highly anticipated books of the year filled with labor intensive recipes that fuse Asian and American flavors. It’s also filled with f-bombs. Definitely not your mom’s cookbook. (See a sample recipe below.) If you can’t get into any of his restaurants in NYC, you can take a crack at making some of the dishes at home.

Pick up the cook book on Amazon. (The $40 book is being sold for $24.)

Chef David Chang of Momofuku with Anthony Bordaine

Momofuku Sample Recipe excerpt:

Ginger Scallion Noodles and Ginger Scallion Sauce

Our ginger scallion noodles are an homage to/out-and-out rip-off of one of the greatest dishes in New York City: the $4.95 plate of ginger scallion noodles at Great New York Noodletown down on the Bowery in Chinatown.

Ginger scallion sauce is one of the greatest sauces or condiments ever. Ever. It’s definitely a mother sauce at Momofuku, something that we use over and over and over again. If you have ginger scallion sauce in the fridge, you will never go hungry: stir 6 tablespoons into a bowl of hot noodles–lo mein, rice noodles, Shanghai thick noodles–and you’re in business. Or serve over a bowl of rice topped with a fried egg. Or with grilled meat or any kind of seafood. Or almost anything.

At Noodle Bar, we add a few vegetables to the Noodletown dish to appease the vegetarians, add a little sherry vinegar to the sauce to cut the fat, and leave off the squirt of hoisin sauce that Noodletown finishes the noodles with. (Not because it’s a bad idea or anything, just that we’ve got hoisin in our pork buns, and too much hoisin in a meal can be too much of a good thing. Feel free to add it back.)

The dish goes something like this: boil 6 ounces of ramen noodles, drain, toss with 6 tablespoons Ginger Scallion Sauce (below); top the bowl with 1/4 cup each of Bamboo Shoots (page 54 of Momofuku); Quick-Pickled Cucumbers (page 65 of Momofuku); pan-roasted cauliflower (a little oil in a hot wide pan, 8 or so minutes over high heat, stirring occasionally, until the florets are dotted with brown and tender all the way through; season with salt); a pile of sliced scallions; and a sheet of toasted nori. But that’s because we’ve always got all that stuff on hand. Improvise to your needs, but know that you need ginger scallion sauce on your noodles, in your fridge, and in your life. For real.– David Chang

Ingredients

* 2 1/2 cups thinly sliced scallions (greens and whites; from 1 to 2 large bunches)

* 1/2 cup finely minced peeled fresh ginger

* 1/4 cup grapeseed or other neutral oil

* 1 1/2 teaspoons usukuchi (light soy sauce)

* 3/4 teaspoon sherry vinegar

* 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, or more to taste

(Makes about three cups)

Directions

Mix together the scallions, ginger, oil, soy, vinegar, and salt in a bowl. Taste and check for salt, adding more if needed. Though it’s best after 15 or 20 minutes of sitting, ginger scallion sauce is good from the minute it’s stirred together up to a day or two in the fridge. Use as directed, or apply as needed.

Steamy Kitchen on ABC News

Food Blogger Jaden Hair talks about her new cookbook “The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook” on ABC News. With over 120 Asian recipes, her blog took off after learning food photography and getting press. With no formal culinary training, Jaden Hair is sometimes called the Chinese American Rachael Ray. She recommends learning 4 basics recipes: miso soup, thai curry, fried noodles, fried rice. You can build on the basics and make more complex meals. A few months ago Jaden showed us the Kogi BBQ Sauce Recipe.

You can pick up her upcoming book “The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook” here. You can check out her site here.

Steamy Kitchen on ABC News

"I Love Yous are for White People" : The Making of a Memoir

I Love Yous are for White People” : The Making of a Memoir is a short documentary based on the HarperCollins published memoir of Lac Su, a young Vietnamese refugee at the time who struggled to find himself on the mean streets of West Los Angeles. As a young child, Lac Su made a harrowing escape from the Communists in Vietnam. With a price on his father’s head, Lac, with his family, was forced to immigrate in 1979 to seedy West Los Angeles where squalid living conditions and a cultural fabric that refused to thread them in effectively squashed their American Dream. Lac’s search for love and acceptance amid poverty—not to mention the psychological turmoil created by a harsh and unrelenting father—turned his young life into a comedy of errors and led him to a dangerous gang experience that threatened to tear his life apart.

Directed by film producers Steve Nguyen and Brian L. Tan, the documentary takes you through a journey of Lac’s past revisited after 15 years. Heart-wrenching, irreverent, and ultimately uplifting, “I Love Yous Are for White People” is a memoir at its most affecting, depicting the struggles that countless individuals have faced in their quest to belong and that even more have endured in pursuit of a father’s fleeting affection.

This reminds us of the Vietnamese American Oral Histories Project. There’s a potential collabo here.

“I Love Yous are for White People” : The Making of a Memoir

Campus Ghost Story

Quentin Lee be a busy man. Not only was this guy the director/producer of the upcoming movie “The People I’ve Slept With“, but he’s also cranking out graphic novels. He collaborated with graphic artist John Hahn. Here’s more information about Campus Ghost Story:

Julian, a freshman, becomes obsessed with Darren, a handsome student whom he encounters at only the strangest hours at night. Little does he know, Julian is slowly drawn into a wicked plot of betrayal that will lead him to the other side. Meet Alice, a young and lonely medical student, who invites Becky, a beautiful and sexually experimental English graduate student, to live with her in a possibly haunted house. As Becky draws Alice out of her shell, Alice suspects that Becky is secretly stealing her identity. But Becky s plot is way beyond Alice s imagination. Then there’s Sarah, a fifth year senior with a loving boyfriend. As she struggles with her eating disorder and explores her psychosis with a campus therapist, her senses become heightened. She starts hearing voices and sees five ghostly women stalking her. These ghostly visions lead her to a violent and unexpected conclusion that reveals much more than a murder.

You can take a peek at the graphic novel here. The book will be released on September 9, 2009. You can order a copy here.

BTW – if you like graphic novels, also take a look at Secret Identities.

Campus Ghost Story Trailer