Arkansas Times Recommends is a series in which Times staff members (or whoever happens to be around at the time) highlight things they’ve been enjoying this week.
“Rain Song,” featuring Yeri Han
The layers of “Minari” fandom get deeper and more breathtaking all the time, it seems. As if there weren’t already enough about Lee Isaac Chung’s acclaimed, Arkansas-set film to fall in love with, here’s Yeri Han, who played the role of the family’s disillusioned mother figure Monica, singing on the movie’s rain theme with composer Emile Mosseri.
-Stephanie Smittle
@ZillowGoneWild
My level of entertainment is really at its highest low bar these days. Like many people, I’m obsessed with Zillow. So of course when @ZillowGoneWild was in my “you might like” suggestions on Instagram, I had to follow. Thank god I did. First of all, what the actual fuck is going through these peoples’ minds? I need to know.
P.S. They launched @zillowgonewildcelebrityhomes this week, too. You’re welcome.
-Mandy Keener
Give your birds the good stuff
Remember all the pandemic trends people were embracing with relish this time last year? Baking bread (if you could procure impossible-to-find yeast), binge-watching “Tiger King,” looking for birds out the window. My family never managed to produce a respectable loaf, and after her stint on “Dancing with the Stars” we’ve had more than enough of that bitch Carole Baskin. The birds, though? We’re still totally into those. In a series of trial and error, we learned that birdseed gets moldy in some feeders, and some feeders too easily spill their guts out on the ground. Honestly, most feeders are simply not good enough for the chickadees and downy woodpeckers I want to hang out with. Experts at Wild Birds Unlimited steered us to Tidy Cylinder feeders with their tubes of stuck-together seeds that never spill. It’s like an irresistible giant Rice Krispie treat for birds.
-Austin Bailey
Spot the International Space Station
To get alerts on when and where to look for the space station — generally sent out about 12 hours before the station will pass over your area — head here to put in your location and pick whether you want to be notified via email or text message, and check out the helpful FAQ here. Yay, science!
-Stephanie Smittle
Hacienda Shrimp Burrito with cheese dip and green salsa
Have you found that the effects of the pandemic isolation on the soul have turned you in the direction of sentimental flavors? For years, I frequented La Hacienda, at 3024 Cantrell Rd., for its Shrimp Burrito, stuffed with flavorful grilled shrimp and tomato and covered with white cheese dip. I don’t know how I went a few years without having it. It’s a sensation on the palate that anyone not opposed to eating shrimp should try. Yes, cheese dip comes on the burrito, but that’s not enough; it must be ordered. The green salsa, one of the three original and masterful salsas Hacienda offers, is the best of its kind. And it’s a secret recipe. A really talented cook I know tried to recreate it and gave it everything he had. He failed. He failed terribly. But, here’s what you do. You take a side of the green salsa and you instantly fold it right into the cheese dip. You might be inclined to try to spread it around with a chip, which is a tasty way of doing it, but for a proper blend go ahead and get a spoon and really mix it up good. You could stop there and just eat the cheese dip/green salsa with chips and eat your burrito, rice and beans and have an amazing experience. But you might want to up the level of decadence and spoon the cheese dip/green salsa mixture onto the burrito with already existing cheese dip on it. As you’re doing it, give some kind of noticeable shrug even if no one’s around and go ahead and apply some to the rice and beans as well. I know it’s excessive, but the flavors are so rewarding. I’ve done this three times in the past couple months.
Afterward you might need to sit for a while before cleaning up. Maybe text your friends “Hacienda green with cheese dip.” They’ll know what you mean.
-Rhett Brinkley