| A TASTE OF LOVE |
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| Poster provided by tvb.com |
| Themesong – Miriam Yeung Let taste be your guide Take it all in with your eyes How it is to love Follow the taste of happiness Because the simple joy can be moving This feeling… Go take a walk and leave your loneliness behind Understand the menu of the day There’ll come a day when you grow old But everything will be okay Passion flows like running water The most simple dish Is one created with love # If sweets things are attractive Who’ll notice if love is coming near Simplicity… In the end, a taste of love only needs one kiss Sky without rain will be blue Dishes without the right ingredients are not complete Plainness may be a comfortable thing And uncooked food may need warming But after the bitterness will come the sweetness When you’re in love, your body is like one big roller-coaster ride A simple happy menu doesn’t have to taste bad When you have a partner to share it with If the water does not taste good Just add a few drops of the right mood And the taste will surely change Repeat # # If passion can be simple Who’ll notice love as it’ll becomes a habit Simplicity…take it one step at a time In the end, a taste of life can be had regardless of night or day (Disk 1 of “Play it Loud/Kiss Me Soft Album – Song #5) |
| Subthemesong – Miriam Yeung All is quiet when the sun sets As the sky grows dark Losing all of its bright sunlight Reading the letter you wrote I’m reading it once more with care But my thoughts cannot escape My memories contain some good ones Most of them would cause people to dance in joy Where once I held them dear in my hands Romance in a dream is like a fleeting dance # Let’s find the reason for my heart’s happiness Who can actually lock themselves behind close doors Happiness and sorrow will chase after your shadow But if they never catch you, what will the ending be? The stars are like diamonds in the sky Like fireworks exploding, creating intricate patterns What exactly is romance? Is it like the legendary dragon high in the mountain? That only appears every so often Whose story contains both joy and sadness I don’t know how to pass each day When much of them are spent in sorrow But it also holds some sweet times too I guess experiencing happiness before is enough For who can go through life without experiencing pain Repeat ## Let’s find the reason for clear skies turning cloudy Who can actually explain why rain turns into rainbow? I was touched deeply once so if the world is to drown I would’ve learned that happiness and pain differs by only one kiss |
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| Synopsis This entertaining series stars Lawrence Ng, Flora Chan, Joyce Tang, Joe Ma, Miriam Yeung, Raymond Lam Fung, Hilary Tsui, and Winnie Yeung. This is a very refreshing cast and all the chemistry worked well. Lawrence plays a talented chef and had a past romance with Joyce and a present one with Flora. Flora plays an elementary school teacher who inherits a seafood restaurant from her father. Joe is the head chef for a very expensive high quality restaurant who is in love with Joyce who is a waitress at the same restaurant. Miriam plays the daughter of the owner of the restaurant Joe works for and dreams of becoming a singer and having her own album. Raymond and Hilary are childhood friends who grew up on Lamma Island (Nam Ah Doe). Raymond is Flora’s half brother. Winnie plays Joyce’s roommate and Flora’s friend. Lawrence used to be a great chef with lots of potential but after the breakup with Joyce (he thought she was two-timing him), he lost his love of cooking and was content to be a street vendor selling shrimp noodles. Flora inherits 51% of her father’s restaurant on Lamma Island and was planning to sell her shares to her half-brother (whom she’s never met). Raymond, an irresponsible young man who just likes to play and never work, thinking he owns the entire restaurant was planning to sell it to Hilary’s nephew (played by Tai Saw) so he can buy a sailboat. That plan fell through when Flora shows up on the island and refuses to sell after recalling her father’s love for cooking. She wants to maintain his legacy because he once cooked her own special dish at the restaurant. She quits her job as a schoolteacher and stays to help the failing restaurant become successful again but keeps her identity a secret. She hires Lawrence to be the head chef after much persuasion. Miriam ends up on the island and working for Flora’s restaurant after her father cut her off for not obeying him and decided that she can earn her own money and make an album. After becoming friends with the staff, Miriam has a little friendly competition with Hilary for the heart of Raymond. When her father had a mild stroke, she returns to Hong Kong and takes over her father’s business. That’s when Raymond found out that he’s in love with her and follows her to Hong Kong. Not only winning over the hearts of her lazy staff, Flora also managers the difficult task of teaching her brother to grow up and take responsibilities, and getting Lawrence to quit smoking and fall in love with her. Alas, just when things were starting to look good for Lawrence and Flora, Joyce pops back into their lives and complications arise. At this point, Joyce is together with Joe but when she found out that Lawrence didn’t abandon her like she thought (it was all a sick joke from her ex-boyfriend who didn’t like the fact that she dumped him first), she wanted to get back together with Lawrence. At first, Lawrence made it clear that they can’t go back to the way things were since she was dating Joe now so Joyce started eating erratically and ended up in the hospital. Out of a sense of duty, Lawrence gets back together with Joyce. When Joyce breaks up with Joe, he became furious. He thought he could win her back by challenging Lawrence in a cooking contest and beating him. For the cooking contest, Lawrence entered the dish Joyce created for him instead of the one Flora thought of and loses to Joe. His mentor later tells Lawrence that the reason why he lost was because his heart wasn’t in it. For a dish to be excellent and perfect, the chef has to make it with love and passion, but he couldn’t taste any emotions in the dish and that was why he lost. Joyce secretly found out that Lawrence and Flora has feelings for each other but pretend she doesn’t know. In revenge for stealing Joyce away, Joe decided to buy out all the restaurants on Lamma Island, including Flora’s (because Lawrence works there), and shutting them down to create a food park. In the end, Flora couldn’t come up with the money to open another restaurant so she was forced to shut down. She leaves the island for a vacation with Tai Saw. Joyce finally admitted to the truth that Lawrence no longer loves her and broke things off with him. She opened up a flower shop and remained friends with Joe. Lawrence and Joe buried their differences and became friends again. Two years later, Lawrence got enough money to open up the restaurant again and got the staff back with the hopes that Flora will come home. She finally does and it turned out that she became a very successful food critic. Of course, with this being a romance comedy, they get back together and everyone lives happily ever after. I must say this series is a refreshing change compared to A Matter of Customs. There wasn’t any complicated mess to sort out. Everything is pretty predictable but then again, if it wasn’t predictable, it wouldn’t be a relaxing series, would it? So take it like it is and sit back to enjoy a simple funny romantic series with a nice cast and very appetizing dishes to feast your eyes on. The dishes were amazing but the best part is that they explain why and how certain dishes are prepared a certain way. Also, you would appreciate why seafood are so expensive after learning how much hard work it takes to prepare just one dish! Flora and Lawrence make a nice couple but I still like her best with Bowie. Lawrence looks much better in this series than in Healing Hands II, because he looks tanner and bigger and doesn’t have to wear the nerdy-looking glasses. Miriam is average in her acting and the same goes for Hilary. Frankly, those two seems much too much alike. The new comer Raymond Lam has potential but for some reason, he reminds me of Eason Chan. Joyce and Joe played their roles well as usual. With the exception of Raymond’s mom (you know, the same mom in Secret of the Heart and ATE), she’s still as annoying as ever, all the other minor characters (mainly the staff) supported the series well and without their comical wit, the series would not have been as funny. Rating: $$$ and 1/2 |
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