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In one what must count as one of the great tragedies of the 21st century literary fiction world, Swedish writer Stieg Larsson never lived to enjoy the fruits of success from  his wildly popular crime novels.

Since most of ye schmucks read so little, some education is in order before we proceed to the movie review.

Larsson is the author of the Millennium trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest).

Serious readers of the SI blog will, of course, recollect the Larsson name since we’ve reviewed two of his books on these pages: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl who Played with Fire. We just got the third volume – The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – a few days back and will read and review that as well.

Alas, Larsson died of a massive heart attack at 50 just before the first book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was published.

Such then are the vagaries of life.

Lovely Swedish Film
Today we celebrate Larsson’s life with the review of the film version of Män Som Hatar Kvinnor (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).

The movie debuted this morning at the Ritz 5 theater on Walnut St in Philadelphia and, folks, the 125-mile drive was most certainly worth it. Every single mile of it.

Directed by Niels Arden Oplev, faithful to the novel and featuring Michael Nyqvist  as the journalist Mikael Blomkvist and Noomi Rapace as the oddball hacker Lisbeth Salander, the Swedish language film with English subtitles is as wonderful and as gripping as the book.

Agreed, some of the thrill of the whodunit is lost since readers of the book know the ending and the identity of the rotten apple in the Vanger family. But that’s more than amply compensated by the excitement and anticipation of encountering in color on the big screen the characters  you’ve read about in small black print on the pages of a book.

Like the book, the movie focuses on the search for the killer/killers of 16-year-old Harriet Vanger, who disappeared 40 years back from Hedeby island to the great anguish of her dear grandfather Henrik Vanger, the head of the Vanger conglomerate.

In four decades, his missing grand-niece has become the idée fixe of Henrik Vanger’s life and the old man has left no stone unturned to get at the root of her disappearance. But in vain. Continue reading »

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If you let a bunch of sloshed monkeys run amok inside the kitchen and dining room of Palace of Asia Wilmington (DE), you’re likely to end up with better curry and superior service than what woebegone us experienced during our horrid meal at this restaurant.

Folks, to describe Palace of Asia Wilmington as an authentic Indian restaurant would be a gross insult to the magnificent wonder that’s Indian cuisine and a grave injustice to the English language.

Seldom do we visit a restaurant like Palace of Asia where the food and service are in constant fratricidal battle to determine who can inflict maximum pain to the diner.

Want to know our gravamen against the place?

From the dessicated, slothful waiters to the lousy food, the cheap tipping practices and ultimately to the billing snafus, Palace of Asia is a dump.

A disgusting dump, no less.

Plain Incompetent
Try as you may, it’s hard to come up with bozos who mess up even the humble Pappadums.

But underestimate the incompetence of these Palace of Asia jokers only at your peril. They messed our Pappadums by frying it only around the edges and left the center portion incompletely fried.

Such is the relentless attention paid by Palace of Asia’s wannabe-chefs in besmirching the fair reputation of Indian cuisine.

Like at most Indian restaurants in the U.S., Green Chutney at this place too was cold, tasteless and atrocious.

Here’s a healthy dollop of advice to the bozos snoozing inside Palace of Asia’s kitchen: if you are too lazy to offer freshly prepared Chutney to diners, pick some other profession. Sell your blood plasma, wash cars with the amigos or mop the floor at Walmart but stay out of the kitchen.

Out of the kitchen, comprende. Just ensure that your presence doesn’t pollute the kitchen.

Shun the Wilmington Impostor

Art of the Big Lie
Only a fiendish monster would serve the watery, insipid Dal Makhani we got at Palace of Asia.

Guys, cattle wouldn’t sniff at such garbage. No, they wouldn’t. Casting a disdainful snort, the quadrupeds would amble away from this awful Dal Makhani.

And by way of education to those of non-Indian origin lurking around on this blog, Dal Makhani must be the simplest item in the massive pantheon of the sub-continent’s cuisine. Say, the equivalent of making an omelet.

Any schmuck should be able to do that, right? Alas, not the Joseph Mengeles at Palace of Asia practicing their hideous torture on diners. Continue reading »

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