Life Style

Every time I open the container in which I keep most of my dried spices, the scent of cloves is overwhelming. I have a long, multistrand “necklace” of them, given to me a few years ago at a shop in Istanbul, Turkey, where my husband and I had made a purchase.As much as I cook, I’ll never make it through the entire necklace, because cloves are powerfully strong and aromatic, despite their small size.Cloves are the immature flower bud of a tree in the myrtle family. They’re used, whole or ground, in sweet and savoury dishes, to which they add a warm, intense flavour; if you bite into one, though, they numb the tongue.They’re also used in cigarettes, essential oils and holistic medicine, where they’re said to work as an antioxidant and antiseptic, help relieve toothache, stimulate the senses ...

Bruce Springsteen knows what Bruce Springsteen fans want. And that is more Bruce Springsteen.The singer, also known as The Boss, will release seven new studio albums, as a “Tracks II: The Lost Albums” set, on June 27. It will contain material written and re-recorded between 1983 and 2018.The news arrived this week via Instagram. The 83-song collection is mostly previously unreleased tracks, 74 of them never-before-heard songs, in a box set that includes a 100-page hardcover book.In a video, the 75-year-old American explained on Thursday: “I often read about myself in the 90s as having some lost period or something. Really, I was working the whole time.I built up a small collection of full albums that, for one reason or another, never got put out.Bruce Springsteen announcing the Tracks II r...

A vaccine to fight dementia? It turns out there may already be one – shots that prevent painful shingles also appear to protect ageing brains.The research, published in the journal Nature, is part of growing understanding about how many factors influence brain health as we age – and what we can do about it.“It’s a very robust finding,” said lead researcher Dr Pascal Geldsetzer of Stanford University in the US state of California. And “women seem to benefit more”, important as they are at higher risk of dementia.The study tracked people in Wales who were around 80 when receiving the world’s first-generation shingles vaccine over a decade ago. Now, Americans 50 and older are urged to get a newer vaccine that has proven more effective against shingles than its predecessor.The new findings add...

This article contains spoilersBy Park Jin-haiIn the recently concluded Netflix sensation When Life Gives You Tangerines, singer-actress IU delivers a captivating performance by seamlessly embodying two distinct characters – the spirited young Ae-sun and, later, her ambitious daughter Geum-myeong – in a multigenerational story of life, love and resilience.Despite the challenge of playing dual characters, IU, real name Lee Ji-eun, skilfully captures the intricate nuances of both their lives.Viewers have praised the 31-year-old for setting a new milestone in her acting career – in which her breakout role was in the 2018 drama My Mister – and once again expanding her acting spectrum.IU in a still from My Mister (2018). Photo: IMDBExpressing her joy and disbelief upon receiving the script for W...

Loyalty is a prized commodity among chefs, and Valentino Ugolini has earned his stripes over nearly 15 years to become one of Hong Kong-based Italian chef Umberto Bombana’s most trusted lieutenants.Ugolini, a native of the Umbria region in central Italy, has worked for Bombana since 2011, starting as a sous chef at three-Michelin-star 8 ½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana.“He teaches me a lot,” Ugolini says of his boss, who is among Hong Kong’s most respected Italian chefs.“He has a lot of knowledge about food. He knows a lot about ingredients. For me, he really is a big mentor. We are also very similar in what and how we like to eat.”Risone pasta at Venedia Grancaffe. Photo: Jonathan WongIn addition to working at Hong Kong’s Otto e Mezzo, Ugolini played an important role in the opening of Bombana’s ou...

The largely forgotten Cold Food Festival, known in Mandarin as hanshi jie, is a traditional Chinese holiday celebrated on the 105th day after the winter solstice. In 2025, this falls on April 4.The festival began around the 7th century BC and was widely observed through the eating of cold food and avoidance of the use of fire. The tradition had faded by the Tang dynasty (AD618-907), when it was consolidated into the more well-known Ching Ming Festival.As a result, not many in China observe the Cold Food Festival today, although it is still recognised in name.The Cold Food Festival occurs just before the Ching Ming Festival, or “tomb sweeping” day, which falls on the 15th day after the spring equinox.A woman sweeps a tomb during Ching Ming at Babaoshan Cemetery in Beijing. Photo: AFPThe Chi...

This is the latest instalment in our From the Vault feature series, in which we reflect on culturally significant movies celebrating notable anniversaries.At the turn of the millennium, the rise of digital technology allowed filmmakers to do almost anything they wanted. The limits were their imaginations – and the audience’s patience.The 2005 film Sin City, which turns 20 this month, was adapted from Frank Miller’s neo-noir comic book series and directed by Robert Rodriguez (Desperado) and Miller himself. Along with the 2004 films Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which starred Jude Law, and the Japanese superhero flick Casshern, it was one of a clutch of movies shot completely on a “digital backlot”.This means that everything except the actors, props and basic sets was created digita...

Meta is ramping up work on a deluxe version of its popular smart glasses, with plans to include hand-gesture controls and a screen for displaying photos and apps.The company intends to introduce its first glasses with a screen before the end of 2025 – and sees the product as a key step towards providing an alternative to Apple’s iPhone and other mobile devices, according to people familiar with the matter.Meta employees, who asked not to be identified discussing unannounced products, estimate the device, which is code-named Hypernova, will sell for over US$1,000 and as much as US$1,300 to US$1,400. The final price is unlikely to be decided until closer to an announcement.The company’s current smart glasses, the Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, start at US$299 and have been a surprise hit. Meta will c...

Lead cast: Lee Dong-wook, Lee Joo-bin, Lee Kwang-soo, Lee Da-heeHowever, this first small-screen outing for the director experiences a few growing pains in its early episodes as he looks to match his madcap style to the traditional K-drama formula of the series’ script.The show is built around a simple and amusing concept with plenty of potential for social observation – an actuary looks to resuscitate his flagging career by pitching a “divorce insurance” product to his company.Divorces are sad, messy and expensive, but a fact of life for many people although few expect it to happen to them. In a country that is struggling with low marriage and birth rates the show’s theme may appear to make light of the phenomenon, but it is easy to see a path to the typical K-drama happy ending here....

Kieu Chinh is a little pressed for time.It is a Sunday afternoon and the 87-year-old Vietnamese-American actress is preparing for a trip the next day from her home in Huntington Beach in California to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. There she would be doing filming for Chrysalis, a feature film based on the life of the Vietnamese-American artist and sculptor Daniel K Winn.“I wish we had more time,” Chinh says. “There is so much to talk about.”The past several months have been a whirlwind for the actress, during which she has come off production on the TV series Dope Thief, on Apple TV+, and the film Control Freak, which debuted on Hulu and is now streaming on Disney+. Both came out in mid-March, a day apart.Chinh is a still from Control Freak (2025). Photo: HuluDirected by Ridley Scott, Dope ...