weekend + recent books
Aug. 14th, 2007 04:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rushthatspeaksFlying visit to NYC over the weekend; Ruth and I got to see ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
coffeeandink for Ukrainian food and then Chikalicious, which is an awesome little dessert bar place that gives off the minimalist vibe of a good sushi bar, only with much more involvement of chocolate. Their prix fixe thing made me very happy-- for twelve dollars you get amuse, choice of dessert, and petit fours.
Our amuse was cherry gelee with white corn ice cream. I had never previously thought of white corn ice cream, but it is a very good idea, sweet with the sweetness of perfectly summer-ripe corn and creamy and smooth as corn isn't. The cherry was rather overwhelmed by comparison-- I think they were trying to offset the corn with a slight sourness, but the cherries just weren't that sour. Still, I like cherry, and the ice cream was spectacular.
I got the warm chocolate tart with pink peppercorn ice cream and red wine sauce, Ruth got caramel sorbet with ginger cookies in chilled lime soup, and Mely got... oh dear, I remember it had sweet basil sorbet because I had a bite of that, but I don't remember the specifics of the rest. Basil sorbet is also a very good idea, although not as spectacularly so as the corn ice cream. I also tried a bite of Ruth's, which was obviously the sort of dessert that is the best thing ever if you like that sort of thing, but I don't really, so I sort of went 'hm. wouldn't have thought of caramel lime. okay then' and returned to making small moaning noises around my chocolate. Which was-- the tart interior was the consistency of butter, creamy, Valrhona chocolate maybe or something on that level, with the slight snap of the crust, and the sour richness of the wine present but not overwhelmingly so, and the flowery peppery sweet perfection of the pink peppercorn ice cream, which is on my list of the two or three best ice creams I have ever had. I have the recipe for Chikalicious's pink peppercorn ice cream, and when I get back to Boston I am making it. This dessert is one of the things that stays on their menu, and it is going to be hard in the future to make myself try anything else.
The standout of the petit fours was a coconut marshmallow, and you have to understand that I don't like marshmallows, but this was ethereal, lighter than foam and just pleasantly lacy sweet. Also served: chocolate cake squares with chocolate whipped cream, and anise shortbreads.
Blessings upon the Mely, without whom I would never have heard of this place, let alone found it, and who remains a delightful person to chat with and eat with and see generally.
I have gotten carried away by my food descriptions, but Ruth and I went on Sunday toifnotnow's wedding, and saw many many people I do not see often enough. Mazel tov! Good food there, too, and lovely stained glass in the sanctuary, and what appeared to be an attempt by the groom's family to set a world record for Most Energetic Hora. And the bride was glowing, as brides should do.
Back in D.C. now, and looking for someone to see Stardust with, as I do not think B. is interested (at least, he groaned when I brought it up; B. is not overly fond of Neil Gaiman).
Recent books:
Everything Is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer. Oddly enough (I don't think this has ever happened to me before), I came to this one by way of the movie. And promptly discovered upon beginning the book that the movie had quite wisely not attempted to film the part that is either a dead-on parody of the kind of overblown portentious magical realism that has been popular in recent years, or else a particularly over-the-top specimen of same. Which was not to say it wasn't readable, as it was, and the other parts of the book were extremely fine, but I have already read One Hundred Years of Solitude twice, once as itself and once as Desolation Road, and it has now officially Been Done (and ain't nobody gonna do it better than Ian McDonald, anyhow). Anyway, in this book Jonathan Safran Foer, our author, goes on a trip to the Ukraine to try to find out what happened to some of his antecedents and the people who knew them in the Second World War. Most of the book is narrated by his guide, Alex, in letters to Jonathan, and Alex is a delight, with an incredibly striking, unique, and funny voice and just the right undertones of serious. The magic-realist bits are chapters of the novel Jonathan is supposed to end up writing about the shtetl his family are from. There are some other bits too; very structurally fine. The movie had Alex just as well, though, and not the rest of it. In conclusion: the movie, highly highly recommended; the book recommended if you like that sort of thing.
Magic For Beginners, Kelly Link. I go through this weird thing with Kelly Link where the first time I read any of her stories, I hate it, and then several years later I go back and reread it and discover that it has actually taken root in my subconscious and is incredibly important and meaningful and striking and I have to go over my own writing with a fine-toothed comb to make sure that I am not actually swiping things from her wholesale and Stranger Things Happen is one of the books I turn to in times of stress and trouble and illness. Right now I desperately hate this book. Recommended.
The Naked Chef, Jamie Oliver (recced byvom_marlowe). Socute! So. Cute. A sweet little British boy talks about cooking. Okay, I'm sure he's older than I am, but he looks about seventeen and like he oughtn't know what arugula even is. And he has a handwaving grab-your-lapels sort of enthusiasm, which I enjoyed even though he didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. And some of the recipes look worth copying. Possibly a bit self-consciously charming in places, and certainly a bit self-consciously British, but socute! Recommended, if you are a starting cook or enjoy sleepy-looking British boys, which I didn't know I did as much as I apparently do.
The Trolls, Polly Horvath (recced bycoffeeandink). I would never have found this one myself, because I think it may have the generic kids-book cover to end all generic kids-book covers. And the setup did not seem promising: Aunt Sally, babysitting for a week, tells stories of her childhood to the three protagonistish children. Only Aunt Sally's stories are actually hilarious, and then begin to have a dark edge that one does not expect in children's books, and then go downward, and the whole thing wraps into something far more painful and complicated and interesting and genuinely tragic than I would ever have expected. Has its flaws-- the protagonist children are nowhere near as interesting as Aunt Sally, ever-- but the trolls are genuinely pretty damn creepy, and the local color on Vancouver Island has a good feel to it. Recommended if you read YA/children's lit and enjoy watching people fuck with its conventions. Also a great read-aloud book; I read much of it to Ruth over the weekend.
Hellsing, v.8, Kohta Hirano. As always, The Best Damn Vampire Comic Ever, although I do not recommend reading more than a volume or two at a sitting as the gore can become a tad repetitive. And as always, there is a lot of gore. This volume contains, among other things, my personal nomination for prettiest/creepiest picture of Alucard, Nazi vampire armies, zeppelins as background detail, a shoutout to Honey and Clover (bzuh?), Seras Victoria's opinion on a mustache, mutual betrayal, and The Cavalry Coming In. Also pointed non-explanations as to why there has been a year-and-a-frickin'-half wait between volumes. And I think the series is gearing up for the finale; the pacing has that feel at this point. Highly recommended, but start at the beginning of the series.
Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Jeff Lindsay. Found viarysmiel's book writeups. First of a series of novels about Dexter, a serial killer who only kills other serial killers; in this one, a copycat killer has started up who seems to be taunting him. Fun narrative voice, less gore than I was expecting although still quantities of gore (so those of you who avoid gore should still avoid), plotting that I picked up on early but enjoyed anyway. Beach reading of the Dresden Files/Wen Spencer werewolves sort, I'd say. I'll read more if I run across them. Recommended if you like crime novels.
Books I should write up soon: The Bone People, Keri Hulme; Powers, Ursula Le Guin; The Jane Austen Book Club and Sister Noon, Karen Joy Fowler. But I think each of those gets a post to itself.
Also I need to write that post on why I so desperately hated Geoff Ryman's Air.
coffeeandink for Ukrainian food and then Chikalicious, which is an awesome little dessert bar place that gives off the minimalist vibe of a good sushi bar, only with much more involvement of chocolate. Their prix fixe thing made me very happy-- for twelve dollars you get amuse, choice of dessert, and petit fours. Our amuse was cherry gelee with white corn ice cream. I had never previously thought of white corn ice cream, but it is a very good idea, sweet with the sweetness of perfectly summer-ripe corn and creamy and smooth as corn isn't. The cherry was rather overwhelmed by comparison-- I think they were trying to offset the corn with a slight sourness, but the cherries just weren't that sour. Still, I like cherry, and the ice cream was spectacular.
I got the warm chocolate tart with pink peppercorn ice cream and red wine sauce, Ruth got caramel sorbet with ginger cookies in chilled lime soup, and Mely got... oh dear, I remember it had sweet basil sorbet because I had a bite of that, but I don't remember the specifics of the rest. Basil sorbet is also a very good idea, although not as spectacularly so as the corn ice cream. I also tried a bite of Ruth's, which was obviously the sort of dessert that is the best thing ever if you like that sort of thing, but I don't really, so I sort of went 'hm. wouldn't have thought of caramel lime. okay then' and returned to making small moaning noises around my chocolate. Which was-- the tart interior was the consistency of butter, creamy, Valrhona chocolate maybe or something on that level, with the slight snap of the crust, and the sour richness of the wine present but not overwhelmingly so, and the flowery peppery sweet perfection of the pink peppercorn ice cream, which is on my list of the two or three best ice creams I have ever had. I have the recipe for Chikalicious's pink peppercorn ice cream, and when I get back to Boston I am making it. This dessert is one of the things that stays on their menu, and it is going to be hard in the future to make myself try anything else.
The standout of the petit fours was a coconut marshmallow, and you have to understand that I don't like marshmallows, but this was ethereal, lighter than foam and just pleasantly lacy sweet. Also served: chocolate cake squares with chocolate whipped cream, and anise shortbreads.
Blessings upon the Mely, without whom I would never have heard of this place, let alone found it, and who remains a delightful person to chat with and eat with and see generally.
I have gotten carried away by my food descriptions, but Ruth and I went on Sunday to
ifnotnow's wedding, and saw many many people I do not see often enough. Mazel tov! Good food there, too, and lovely stained glass in the sanctuary, and what appeared to be an attempt by the groom's family to set a world record for Most Energetic Hora. And the bride was glowing, as brides should do.Back in D.C. now, and looking for someone to see Stardust with, as I do not think B. is interested (at least, he groaned when I brought it up; B. is not overly fond of Neil Gaiman).
Recent books:
Everything Is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer. Oddly enough (I don't think this has ever happened to me before), I came to this one by way of the movie. And promptly discovered upon beginning the book that the movie had quite wisely not attempted to film the part that is either a dead-on parody of the kind of overblown portentious magical realism that has been popular in recent years, or else a particularly over-the-top specimen of same. Which was not to say it wasn't readable, as it was, and the other parts of the book were extremely fine, but I have already read One Hundred Years of Solitude twice, once as itself and once as Desolation Road, and it has now officially Been Done (and ain't nobody gonna do it better than Ian McDonald, anyhow). Anyway, in this book Jonathan Safran Foer, our author, goes on a trip to the Ukraine to try to find out what happened to some of his antecedents and the people who knew them in the Second World War. Most of the book is narrated by his guide, Alex, in letters to Jonathan, and Alex is a delight, with an incredibly striking, unique, and funny voice and just the right undertones of serious. The magic-realist bits are chapters of the novel Jonathan is supposed to end up writing about the shtetl his family are from. There are some other bits too; very structurally fine. The movie had Alex just as well, though, and not the rest of it. In conclusion: the movie, highly highly recommended; the book recommended if you like that sort of thing.
Magic For Beginners, Kelly Link. I go through this weird thing with Kelly Link where the first time I read any of her stories, I hate it, and then several years later I go back and reread it and discover that it has actually taken root in my subconscious and is incredibly important and meaningful and striking and I have to go over my own writing with a fine-toothed comb to make sure that I am not actually swiping things from her wholesale and Stranger Things Happen is one of the books I turn to in times of stress and trouble and illness. Right now I desperately hate this book. Recommended.
The Naked Chef, Jamie Oliver (recced by
vom_marlowe). Socute! So. Cute. A sweet little British boy talks about cooking. Okay, I'm sure he's older than I am, but he looks about seventeen and like he oughtn't know what arugula even is. And he has a handwaving grab-your-lapels sort of enthusiasm, which I enjoyed even though he didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. And some of the recipes look worth copying. Possibly a bit self-consciously charming in places, and certainly a bit self-consciously British, but socute! Recommended, if you are a starting cook or enjoy sleepy-looking British boys, which I didn't know I did as much as I apparently do.The Trolls, Polly Horvath (recced by
coffeeandink). I would never have found this one myself, because I think it may have the generic kids-book cover to end all generic kids-book covers. And the setup did not seem promising: Aunt Sally, babysitting for a week, tells stories of her childhood to the three protagonistish children. Only Aunt Sally's stories are actually hilarious, and then begin to have a dark edge that one does not expect in children's books, and then go downward, and the whole thing wraps into something far more painful and complicated and interesting and genuinely tragic than I would ever have expected. Has its flaws-- the protagonist children are nowhere near as interesting as Aunt Sally, ever-- but the trolls are genuinely pretty damn creepy, and the local color on Vancouver Island has a good feel to it. Recommended if you read YA/children's lit and enjoy watching people fuck with its conventions. Also a great read-aloud book; I read much of it to Ruth over the weekend.Hellsing, v.8, Kohta Hirano. As always, The Best Damn Vampire Comic Ever, although I do not recommend reading more than a volume or two at a sitting as the gore can become a tad repetitive. And as always, there is a lot of gore. This volume contains, among other things, my personal nomination for prettiest/creepiest picture of Alucard, Nazi vampire armies, zeppelins as background detail, a shoutout to Honey and Clover (bzuh?), Seras Victoria's opinion on a mustache, mutual betrayal, and The Cavalry Coming In. Also pointed non-explanations as to why there has been a year-and-a-frickin'-half wait between volumes. And I think the series is gearing up for the finale; the pacing has that feel at this point. Highly recommended, but start at the beginning of the series.
Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Jeff Lindsay. Found via
rysmiel's book writeups. First of a series of novels about Dexter, a serial killer who only kills other serial killers; in this one, a copycat killer has started up who seems to be taunting him. Fun narrative voice, less gore than I was expecting although still quantities of gore (so those of you who avoid gore should still avoid), plotting that I picked up on early but enjoyed anyway. Beach reading of the Dresden Files/Wen Spencer werewolves sort, I'd say. I'll read more if I run across them. Recommended if you like crime novels.Books I should write up soon: The Bone People, Keri Hulme; Powers, Ursula Le Guin; The Jane Austen Book Club and Sister Noon, Karen Joy Fowler. But I think each of those gets a post to itself.
Also I need to write that post on why I so desperately hated Geoff Ryman's Air.
