Ten Minute Cooking School: Puerco Pibil

One of my favorite movies ever,The Shawshank Redemption is a modern day classic as it tells the story of two inmates who become friends and find solace over the years in which this movie takes place.Based on a Stephen King novel,this movie makes us feel different watching this film than most others as this is an incredibly realistic film.Tim Robbins stars as Andy Dufresne who is convicted of murder and Morgan Freeman as Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding who is a fellow inmate and close friend of Dufresne and Bob Gunton as Warden Samuel Norton who is the Warden of Shawshank State Prison and is a character who has mixed feelings and emotions towards everyone around him and a character who is sometimes easy to like and at other times easy to despise.This film is easily considered one of the greatest films of all time and I definitely agree with this fact.It was nominated for seven Academy Awards including (Best Picture, Best Actor - Morgan Freeman, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Sound) but didn't win any due to tough competition from the film Forrest Gump.I personally think that Tim Robbins should have been nominated for the Best Actor award as he really gave the performance of his career.Bravo to this brilliant modern day classic!

While I haven't, myself, tried this dish(never been much for Mexican food), it certainly sounds rather tasty, and judging from other comments as well as the boards here on the site, it is. Rodriguez, with his usual energy, takes us through a recipe that sounds very interesting and goes into the right amount of detail about each step. In about half the amount of time the title puts the short's running time at, he teaches us how to cook this food, and even takes some time to give a few general tips on cooking. With a mix of hand-held and static camera, this is a little different as far as cinematography goes than the two previous Ten Minute "schools", but Rodriguez, who comes across as someone who was just about *born* with the camera in his hand, pulls it off perfectly, with nary a wrong shot or angle. The editing is crisp and smooth as always when Robert is in charge of it, and there is not a single boring moment found throughout. For anyone not terribly familiar with Rodriguez, know that he does occasionally swear, and does so a little in this, as well. On that same note, if such words offend you, you'd probably prefer not to look at the Memorable Quotes for this short. I recommend this to any fan of Rodriguez, and anyone looking for cooking tips and/or a recipe on the Mexican food that's part of the title of this. 7/10

After director Robert Rodriguez learns us how to make a movie with digital video all by yourself in 'Ten Minute Flick School: Fast, Cheap and in Control' and 'Inside Troublemaker Studios' he shows us how to cook "puerco pibil" in 'Ten Minute Cooking School'. He cooks the dish Johnny Depp's character likes so much in 'Once Upon a Time in Mexico'.

Rodriguez himself holds the camera while he is explaining how to cook the dish. From time to time he lays down the camera because he needs his hands for cooking. He makes sure that even these simple shots look pretty good. All together this is another nice extra from Rodriguez, showing us how cool he is and giving us a nice dish that seems pretty hard to make.

I've cook this dish several times and it always taste good. It takes a lot of ingredients, but it's quite simple to cook. I'm from Brazil and I like spicy food. The only thing that bothered me was to wait 4 hours until the dish is ready. But one thing I can tell: It's really worth waiting. I hope the next Robert Rodriguez movies on DVD come with a recipe like that as bonus. It's cool to watch those videos and the way Rodriguez leads us through it is a real fun. Rodriguez's recipe is nice but I can't say the same about his films. Only 4 or 5 films are worth seeing. My favorite is still "from Dusk til Dawn". I look forward to watch his segment in "sin city".

Robert Rodriguez's comment that not being able to cook is as bad as not being able to f*** is actually a crudely put truism based on the physiological and psychological pleasures enjoyed from participation in the respective recreational activities. It takes someone with at least a modicum of talent in the kitchen to be able to appreciate the sensual pleasures of the consumption of carefully prepared food (and good wine) to further appreciate the same kind of emotion generated by the intimacies of the world's oldest sporting activity! The emotions involved in both should be able to render a grown man close to tears. Sound weird? Then you aren't the kind of person that can truly appreciate the wonderful enlightenment that participation in either brings. I have cooked dishes at home that have reduced me to tears when I have sat down to eat them, and have tasted wines that have had the same effect. As regarding the fairer sex? I can only say that emotion is viewed as a strength by women, not as a weakness.

The overriding danger of having such a "cool" focus in a film like "Puerco Pibil" is that the young, uninitiated wannabes will latch on to it and denigrate the real meaning by cooking it for themselves and serving it up at their lame "Hey, I can pretend I'm really cool!" parties to try and impress their friends (for friends actually read "Hangers-on"). If you're as cool as you think you are you will cook the dish (several times) and just revel in the all-consuming emotion that is generated by the taste explosion in your mouth. You may then just want to share that feeling (as does Johnny Depp's character) with someone close.

Cool is not letting people know you think something is cool. "Puerco Pibil" is destined to become a cult dish: that can not be in doubt. But it is because it has been mentioned in a film, not because it is the most marvellous food on this planet. (Don't even go there McCorporate Death Burger!) Don't reduce Robert Rodriguez's recipe to a mere social point-scoring exercise.

Be Cool. Stay Cool.