Life Style

Harshil Bhasin is the director of operations at Hong Kong restaurant group Silver Spoon Restaurants (formerly Silver Oaks), which just opened a new Thai place, O’Thai, in the city’s Hung Hom neighbourhood. He spoke to Andrew Sun.I was born and raised in Hong Kong. Like a typical Indian family, we ate a lot of home-cooked food.My dad managed Gaylord, the more than 50-year-old Indian restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui, so on big nights like Diwali, we would go there after the regular dinner service.I am a vegetarian now, but I’m “CDC” – condiments don’t count. I am OK with fish and chicken broth.Harshil Bhasin is the director of operations at Silver Spoon Restaurants. Photo: Harshil BhasinI used to be obsessed with the scallion, ginger, spring onion oil and brown sauce served with Hainan chicken ri...

In Ang Lee’s 1993 film The Wedding Banquet, a bisexual man tries to hide his boyfriend from his parents by marrying a Chinese immigrant who needs a green card.In Andrew Ahn’s new remake of the film, which opens in cinemas in the United States on April 18, the stakes have been doubled, with two gay couples whose differing needs and goals have led them to the brink of breaking up. That is before their families get involved.Director and co-writer Ahn assembled a stellar cast for the movie, including Bowen Yang of Saturday Night Live and Wicked; Lily Gladstone, nominated for an Oscar for her role in 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon; Kelly Marie Tran, known for her work in Star Wars films The Rise of Skywalker and The Last Jedi; and Korean actor Han Gi-chan (Where Your Eyes Linger).The last fe...

If you are stocking up on chocolate for Easter, the plain, dark variety may be the way to go if you are after a healthy sweet treat.While both dark and milk chocolate are made using ingredients derived from cacao beans, the dark variety has more cacao than milk chocolate: between 50 per cent and 90 per cent, compared with between 10 per cent and 50 per cent.The higher cacao content gives dark chocolate a more intense flavour profile, often described as bitter or earthy, says Hong Kong-based dietitian Cyrus Luk.The higher the cacao content, the higher the levels of beneficial compounds such as flavanols – a type of antioxidant that has been linked to improved cardiovascular health, enhanced brain function and reduced inflammation.Cyrus Luk is a Hong Kong-based dietitian. Photo: Cyrus LukDar...

3.5/5 starsLead cast: Lee Hye-ri, Chung Su-bin, Kang Hye-won, Oh Woo-riThe high school thriller has long been a popular genre in Korean media and it is no surprise why. Febrile teenage emotions mixed with the pressure cooker environment of Korean education result in tales of brutal competition and explosive drama.The new teenage thriller Friendly Rivalry understands this appeal all too well and escalates it by pitting leading characters against each other who are torn between self-interest and empathy.They do good things, some later revealed to be for the wrong reasons, and they also knowingly do bad things, either because they feel they have to or to help someone else. The drama comes from the fact that these characters constantly yo-yo in opposition. Occasionally they briefly bounce in u...

The long-awaited Easter weekend is here! Between Easter egg hunts, egg-themed dishes and extended relaxation in the warm weather, we have a full line-up of guest shifts worth checking out over the course of four days. If you’re not flying out for the long weekend, enjoy the local bar scene – world-class concepts from Jakarta, Beijing and even our sister SAR get behind the stick at some of our best venues.Thursday, April 17Wing Lei Bar x Honky Tonks TavernWing Lei Bar’s new head mixologist Mark Lloyd is visiting Hong Kong from Macau for a guest shift at Honky Tonks Tavern on April 17. Photo: HandoutWhat: Mark Lloyd, newly minted head mixologist at the revamped Wing Lei Bar at Wynn Palace in Macau, comes to Hong Kong for a gauntlet of guest shifts this Easter weekend. The Scotland native bri...

1.5/5 starsIrene Wan Pik-ha may have never come close to making the A-list of Hong Kong cinema, but the veteran actress could certainly never be faulted for not trying hard enough.While most actresses would transition to play more mature characters as they age, Wan appears completely reluctant to let go of the sex appeal that was her calling card in the 1980s and ’90s. Indeed, she is not even ready to ditch her heavy make-up and sexy dresses on screen despite the fact she will turn 60 next year.In the past decade, Wan has managed to stay visible through leading roles in films that were made by the studio Irene Production and skewed towards either portraying her as a major star (Love in Late Autumn, Lonely Eighteen) or reaffirming her attractiveness (The Fallen).None of them were any good, ...

Dressed in flowers, finery and make-up, scores of boys were paraded around a temple in Thailand after having their heads shaved – a symbolic start to a centuries-old Shan monkhood ordination.The Buddhist celebration is unique to the Shan people of northeastern Myanmar, hundreds of thousands of whom have moved to Thailand during their country’s decades of dictatorship and turmoil.Monks ritually shaved more than 40 boys’ heads with razors, tufts of hair falling onto lotus leaves.In shimmering robes, jewellery and colourful floral headpieces, they were carried around the Ku Tao temple in Chiang Mai three times on relatives’ shoulders, to the rhythmic beat of traditional gongs.Eleven-year-old Jomwong Koling, an ethnic Shan boy, is carried during the annual Poy Sang Long procession at Wat Ku Ta...

Hong Kong’s restaurants are fully embracing the Easter holiday and keeping things sweet for the long weekend. Whether you’re sick of the egg-themed offerings or that’s exactly what you’re looking for, we’ve got a recommendation for everyone – from Friday through to Monday.For those with a taste for fine dining, our 100 Top Tables Guide 2025 also has more foodie suggestions, perfect for a family Easter meal or otherwise.Friday, April 18Why not try Cantina’s Easter egg dessert platter as part of its Unlimited Cicchetti Easter Brunch? Photo: HandoutFor an intimate Italian-style Easter celebration, Cantina is offering a menu of authentic appetisers and mains that venture through the bright, comforting flavours of Italy. Springtime specials from the Unlimited Cicchetti Easter Brunch include lam...

People who use sugar substitutes in an effort to lose or control their weight could be making matters worse, according to recently published research in the journal Nature Metabolism.About 40 per cent of Americans regularly use sugar substitutes, usually as a way to reduce calories or sugar intake.According to a team of scientists based in Germany and the United States, sucralose, a widely used alternative to sugar, has been found to increase activity in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain that contributes to managing the appetite.The researchers, from the German Centre for Diabetes Research in Düsseldorf and the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, tested how 75 participants responded after drinking one of three drinks: water, a drink sweetened with sucralose, or a dr...

Seafood lovers know the fatty marbling is what makes tuna sashimi and sushi so tasty. So for the industry, it is the fish’s level of fattiness that is used to judge its quality and pricing.Usually, several people assess how fatty a tuna is by cutting the tail with a giant saw-like knife, an operation that takes about 60 seconds per fish.But now a machine called Sonofai uses ultrasound waves to do the job in 12 seconds, operated by a person without prior knowledge of how to carve fish.Fujitsu, the Japanese company behind the technology, recently gave a demonstration of Sonofai, a word blended from “sono” referring to “sound”, “f” for Fujitsu and “ai” for artificial intelligence. The name refers to its components but also stands for “son of AI”.A sushi chef shows how different fatty and lean...