Life Style

After many years at Hong Kong Stadium, the annual Hong Kong Sevens tournament moved to Kai Tak Stadium in East Kowloon this year.Some of those who attended the Sevens were quoted as saying the venue’s disorganised catering, with vendors running out of food and drinks, left them hungry, thirsty and angry.This may be a concern for music fans, with British pop band Coldplay, Hong Kong actor-singer Nicholas Tse Ting-fung, Singaporean singer-songwriter JJ Lin and Taiwanese singer-songwriter Jay Chou Jie-lun all playing at Kai Tak Stadium over the next few weeks, while the Hong Kong Football Festival will take place there in July.Fortunately, there is an abundance of food and drink options in the surrounding area. Here are nine Kai Tak area restaurants to satisfy concertgoers before or after the...

Few who watched the recent four-part crime drama Adolescence on Netflix would have remained unmoved – whether by the powerful acting, the one-shot episodes, the tragedy of a teen murder, or the disturbing attitudes embodied in language.Many delved further – the terms “manosphere” and “incel” saw a spike in online searches following the show’s release.“Manosphere” combines “man-” with “-sphere” to refer to a particular area of interest and the people associated with it, the word modelled after the coinage “blogosphere”.It comprises a conglomerate of groups and communities that create, consume and distribute content online aimed at men and boys that is regarded collectively as promoting ultraconservative models of masculinity and espousing anti-feminist views, typically involving misogyny an...

Do you eat breakfast? If so, what do you have?The first meal of the day has long been seen as the most important, with research showing links between having breakfast and better health through lower incidence of diabetes and heart disease and a lower body mass index.The rise in popularity of intermittent fasting and time-restricted eating has prompted many people to skip breakfast, however, and sparked a debate about this meal’s importance.We asked four experts in nutrition, three of them in Hong Kong, whether breakfast is important, what they ate and the reasons for their choices. Their consensus: never skip breakfast, eat it not too long after waking – and include protein.Sandra Carvajal offers this simple recipe for a healthy breakfast: blend fresh or frozen fruit with nut milk, a coupl...

The stars align for a major fantasy series, and lawyers tackle violence against women, in the latest small-screen casting announcements out of South Korea.1. Human X GumihoStars Jun Ji-hyun and Ji Chang-wook have received offers to lead the coming fantasy drama Human X Gumiho.Beyond the hint from the title that this will be a fantasy drama involving gumiho – mythological “nine-tailed foxes” who take on human form, usually as a beautiful woman, to seduce a man – no concrete plot details have been revealed so far.Ji Chang-wook in a still from Welcome to Samdal-ri.Known for timeless works such as My Sassy Girl and My Love from the Star, Jun was most recently seen in Jirisan and will next be seen opposite Gang Dong-won in the big-budget Disney+ series Tempest.Ji has been very busy of late, app...

Although war is still raging, 30-year-old Nadia Kukla is managing a punk-rock band’s tour around Ukraine. Her biggest challenge is the daily air raid sirens that sound across the country to warn of Russian bombing.“If the air raid alert lasts longer than an hour, we have to cancel and reschedule,” Kukla said.The band, Susidy Sterpliat (The Neighbours Will Endure), is on a 12-stop tour. One of the gigs was in the western city of Vinnytsia, in a pub just opposite the site of a terrible Russian strike on July 14, 2022.Missiles targeted an army concert hall, killing 27 people, including three children, and wounding 202 others. The building still lies in ruins.The punk rock band Susidy Sterpliat‘s manager Nadia Kukla checks tickets before a concert in a pub in Vinnytsia, Ukraine. Photo: AFPIn a...

Netflix released the official poster and trailer this week for its coming series Weak Hero Class 2, the sequel to the 2022 hit Weak Hero Class 1.The new season follows Yeon Si-eun, a model student who transfers to Eunjang High School burdened by trauma after failing to protect a friend from violence. Determined never to lose another friend, he finds himself standing against even greater violence.Portrayed by Park Ji-hoon, Yeon faces off against a mysterious new rival, Geum Seong-jae, played by Lee Jun-young. In the trailer, Yeon says remorsefully, “Su-ho, I got into another fight. I’m sorry,” hinting at the unresolved scars from his past.Having lost his smile and become a self-imposed outsider, Yeon struggles to stay unnoticed, but disturbing rumours soon target him.New characters Park Hu-...

Ever been moved to tears while cooking dinner? If not, you are probably not cooking with onions. For most of us, our eyes react this way because of a sophisticated self-protection system in these allium plants.Jutta Papenbrock, a professor at the Institute for Botany at Leibniz University Hannover, in Germany, explains why cutting onions makes us cry, and ways to prevent it.Sulphurous, volatile substances are produced when we cut onions, thanks to a reaction between the organic compound isoalliin and the enzyme alliinase, which are contained in onion cells, Papenbrock says. This substance helps protect onions by keeping predators like voles and rats at bay.The two substances come together when an onion cell is destroyed, releasing a volatile mixture that irritates the eyes, which then prod...

A young actress’ suicide in South Korea. Allegations of an underage relationship. These are part of a growing drama in the Asian entertainment world that raises questions about society’s treatment of celebrities in crisis, with harsh media and online commentary amplifying their lowest moments.This week, South Korean actor Kim Soo-hyun publicly denied allegations that he dated the late actress Kim Sae-ron when she was under the age of sexual consent. His emotional press conference followed Kim Sae-ron’s suicide in February, which reignited allegations that they were romantically involved.Here’s what we know about the case.Who was Kim Sae-ron?Kim Sae-ron was once one of South Korea’s most promising film stars. She began acting aged nine in A Brand New Life (2009), which premiered at the Cann...

Anyone who recalls whispering at the dinner table as a child likely also has memories of being overheard and reprimanded by a sharp-eared mother – even as an oblivious father ploughed through his meal.According to British and French researchers, the impression that women often have sharper hearing than men is now backed by scientific evidence.Following tests on around 450 people across 13 countries, the team revealed results showing women “typically” having hearing amplitude that is around two decibels more sensitive than men’s.“Women consistently exhibit higher sensitivity by two decibels” on average across the entire frequency spectrum tested in all populations sampled, the research team said in a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports.Women not only show “heightened cochlear ...

Manhattan is a bagel city, a pizza city and … a croissant city?Over the past dozen years, many have focused their attention on transforming the classic pastry. Since the days of the Cronut, New York-based bakers have been modifying butter-laminated dough to create everything from Sicilian pizzas to a Dubai-style chocolate bar pastry.“To understand the popularity of croissants, you have to follow the butter,” says Gadi Peleg, founder of the New York-based chain Breads Bakery. He sees croissants as both a highly adaptable blank canvas and the ultimate flex, given the technical mastery needed to laminate dough.He also believes the growing availability of artisan domestic and imported butter makes the pastries an irresistible product for bakers and their customers.Even with the rising cost of ...