*dimsumdolly* - the different morsels of the life of a foodie

Hot Chocolate

The ideal hot chocolate is made with the finest cocoa powder or solid chocolate or both. The resulting beverage should be neither too thin for serious satisfaction nor too thick to refresh; neither too bitter to produce the childlike enjoyment we seek, nor so sweet and simple as to insult the intellect. The harsh flavour and gritty texture of cocoa powder and the soft fattiness of solid chocolate should be blended so that neither can be distinguished. As a general rule, one's first swallow should induce a long interlude of silence.

~ Jeffrey Steingarten in It Must Have Been Something I Ate

Hot chocolate is one of those things which I mentally file under 'Comfort food' or perhaps more accurately 'Comfort drink'. It's best enjoyed on a cold winter's day or at a time when you need a sugar rush. You can also somehow convince yourself that it's healthy 'cos hey, it's milk after all, and milk is supposed to be healthy, right? But perhaps that reasoning can only be applied to hot chocolate that is more English- or American-style.

The hot chocolate that you find in Italy and Spain is like molten chocolate. It's thick and viscous and flows down your throat like molten lava. I like this version when I'm feeling I need something REALLY sinful. It's rather heavy-going and I know some people who can't fathom how anyone could gulp down something so thick and viscous. They can't, but DSD can!!!

In Singapore, I haven't found a place which does hot chocolate Italian or Spanish style. Admittedly, I haven't tried ordering it in an Italian or Spanish restaurant here. OK, I shall make that my next mission the next time I go to one. But if any of you know of any place which serves it that way, please let me know. Just don't tell me to go to a chocolate fountain at some buffet, 'cos that just ain't the real McCoy.

As for the normal hot chocolate, I like the one served in Canele. So far, it's the best one I've had in Singapore. Other recommendations are welcomed!

A Pig In Provence

A good book is one where you're able to experience the sights, smells and sounds the author is describing through words. In A Pig In Provence: Good Food and Simple Pleasures in the South of France, American cookbook author Georgeanne Brennan brings us into the Provence she got to know in the 1970s when she moved there with her first husband and daughter to eke out a living making fresh goat's cheese.

The book centres around food and Brennan takes the reader into a time where there weren't hypermarts, and where more people were in tune with the land and what it had to offer. Readers are introduced to her French neighbours who teach her about French Provencal life. She learns how to make fresh goat's cheese the French way and ends up pleasing all her neighbours because no one in the area makes it anymore.

She experiences what it's like to herd goats and rear pigs. We feel her excitement when she goes on her first mushroom hunt and learns how to identify edible mushrooms. We can feel her squirm when she witnesses a pig being slaughtered to make sausages. Brennan also learns what it takes to make an authentic Marseille bouillabaisse. Her description of the long summer meals the locals enjoy seduces us to the charms of rural Provence.

If you love food and you're looking for an easy read for the weekend, this is the book to pick up!

For Singaporeans: This book is available in the National Library.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

If you are wondering what book you should pick up next, may I suggest that you read Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer if you haven't already done so.

The book's protagonist is Oskar Shell, a precocious nine-year-old boy who had lost his father in the 911 World Trade Center attacks two years ago. While going through his father's things, he finds a key which doesn't seem to open any lock or door at home. So Oskar sets out to find the lock to which the key belongs to. In his quest, he meets different people and embarks on a journey of healing for himself and the people he encounters.

The plot is quirky with a few odd characters, yet it also manages to explore and bring out the emotional distress and hurt experienced by the families of the 911 victims. The narrative structure of the novel is very innovative and it's been a long while since I came across a book like that.

Highly recommended!

Disillusioned Females

Even female Komodo dragons have given up on their male counterparts!

A Life in Words

When I was in my twenties, a friend in her thirties said to me, "I wasted my twenties." I found that a shocking and memorable sentence. How could you waste ten years of your life, especially when you hadn’t been alive that long? But now, at the end of my thirties, I too, see that I wasted my twenties, not in a fug of drugs or in the stupidity of beer, but rather just by being lost. Or not even being lost, just not knowing how to get to where I wanted to go.

Literary Recipes

Friends are sometimes surprised to spot, lodging among the cook books in my kitchen, Ian McEwan’s novel Saturday. “But surely,” I say to them, “you know that it contains the most brilliant recipe for fish stew?”

about competition

about competition

the higher you climb
the greater the pressure.

those who manage to
endure
learn
that the distance
between the
top and the
bottom
is
obscenely
great.

and those who
succeed
know
this secret:
there isn't
one.

~ Charles Bukowski from the Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line the Way.

The Big Over Easy

If you fancy a funny and intelligent detective story, I suggest you pick up Jasper Fforde’s The Big Over Easy.

Humpty Dumpty has been found scattered into pieces over the wall and foul play is suspected. Detective Inspector Jack Spratt of the Nursery Crime Division and his assistant Mary Mary set out to uncover the cause of his death. In the course of their investigation, they meet with familiar nursery rhyme characters who are all part of this world where nursery rhyme characters co-exist with fellow humans.

The book’s a riot – bringing in your knowledge of nursery rhymes and combining it with your knowledge of the ways of the modern world, all the while laced with satirical wit and intelligent humour. A recommended read.

The book is available from the National Library.

Ex-boyfriends in Heaven

Ex-boyfriends never go to hell,
no matter how many times
you suggest it. No, they ascend straight
to heaven, where they speak French,
wear matching socks, and always,
always arrive on time, with a full
tank of gas and a bottle of wine.
They never curse your cat
or your mother, never call you up
drunk doing Arnold Schwarzenegger
impressions, never say Hey Rita
if your name is Tammy,
never say Hey Tammy
if your name is Joan.
They're better trained than dogs
and they smell better, too, better
than Twinkies or camellias, better
than anything on earth. Once
in a while, they take a holiday,
drive their Porsches down
through the clouds
in one long line and ring
the doorbell in your dreams,
offering tender apologies, tender
chicken cutlets, tender love.
But before you take one sack
of groceries, before your lips
graze a clean-shaven jaw,
before you let one polished
Oxford loafer through your door,
remember that as soon as they cross
the threshold, the truth will slip
in behind them: ex-boyfriends only
exist this way in heaven, or
whatever you want to call it,
their new lives without you.

~ Gwen Hart from Lost and Found

Food Vocabulary

Something I learnt from Germany in my recent trip there:

In Germany, a Bratkartoffel relationship refers to a relationship based purely on sex.

Brat = fried
Kartoffel = potato

Apparently, it's so-named because fried potatoes are so common in Germany, thus alluding to the casual nature and the frequent occurence of such relationships in society.

Interesting. And I suppose it's a good thing (or not?) I don't like eating potatoes! ;p

Sunday Reading

Every Sunday, I look forward to surfing by two websites. The first being Postsecret where people send in postcards anonymously bearing their deepest secrets. All of the postcards are creatively made, and the messages can really tug at your heart. Some confessions are funny and cute, others are beautifully tragic. Some make you smile as you identify with them. Some make your eyes water at its sad message. It must be cathartic and therapeutic for the individuals who send their secrets, and most of all, when reading it, it reminds me life is about these myriad of emotions and situations.

The second website I surf to is the Weddings & Celebrations section of the New York Times. Every week, a wedding couple and their love story are featured. There's nothing like a good love story and I'm a sucker for it even though my own love life is in the doldrums. And perhaps that's exactly the reason why I need to read such things to not give up on love.

It's just nice to read how real people (and not characters in novels) meet, fall in love, and decide to spend the rest of their lives together. What I like about it is it features people from all walks of life and situations. Gay and lesbian couples are also featured as just another love story, with no emphasis on their sexuality. Something like that would never happen in Singapore's media, I'm sure. Singapore's media is just too straight-laced for this sort of thing. Blah.

So yeah, that's Sunday reading fodder for you.

Hug

Hug

The older I get, the more I like hugging, When I was little
the
people hugging me were much larger. In their grasp I was a
rag
doll. In adolescence, my body was too tense to relax for a
hug.
Later, after the loss of virginity—which was anything but a
loss—the extreme proximity of the other person, the smell
of
hair,
the warmth of the skin, the sound of breathing in the
dark—these were mysterious and delectable. This hug had
two primary components: the anticipation of sex and the
plea-
sure of intimacy, which itself is a combination of trust and
affection. It was this latter combination that came to
character-
ize the hugging I have experienced only in recent years, a
hug-
ging that knows no distinctions of gender or age. When this
kind of hug is mutual, for a moment the world is perfect the
way it is, and the tears we shed for it are perfect too. I
guess it
is an embrace.

~ Ron Padgett

----------------------------------------------------

I thought the poem was lovely, so decided to put it up and share it. Indeed, a hug can be something so reassuring. That touch, with another human, or animal (e.g. a dog--I love hugging my dogs), just makes you feel like you DO exist in this world. Know what I mean?

The Definition of Me

Merriam Webster's Word of the Day for June 02 is:

foodie \FOO-dee\ noun

: a person having an avid interest in the latest food fads

Example sentence:
A serious foodie, Beryl reads cookbooks like novels and scours specialty shops in search of exotic ingredients.

Did you know?
"Foodie" is a relatively recent addition to our language (dating from the early 1980s), but it derives from a much older word, "food," which has been with us for as long as there has been anything that could be called English. "Food" can be traced back through Middle English to the Old English form "fōda," which is itself related to Old High German "fuotar," meaning "food" or "fodder," and Latin "panis," meaning "bread." "Panis" is the source for "empanada," a Spanish turnover with a sweet filling, "panatela," a type of cigar, "panettone," an Italian bread containing raisins and candied fruit, and "pantry," a room used for the storage of provisions.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Chinglish

Just so you have an idea of the type of English I have to correct in the course of my work:

At the Cambridge School, for the first time in my life, I enjoyed the companionship of seeing and hearing girls of my own.

~~~~~
So this sad experience may have done me some good and set me thinking on some of the problems of composition.

I'm given these sentences by Chinese teachers in China who teach English. If this is the sort of thing they're teaching their students, they're really screwing with their students' English.

Ex Libris

To book lovers out there, are you the sort who expresses your love for your books by maintaining them in pristine condition? Or do you scribble notes and highlight paragraphs to show your fondness?

Do you have this compulsive urge to buy books? Are you the sort who can't tear yourself away from a bookstore and the sight of books excites you to no end? Is your home filled to the brim with unread books?

Is there a favourite pen you write with? And why is it so special?

Are you a compulsive proofreader such that restaurant menus, newspapers, advertisements and all sorts of printed matter don't escape your eagle eye for correct spelling and grammar?

If you marry a fellow book-lover, how are you going to marry your libraries as well?

In Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, Anne Fadiman explores these various situations in her witty essays revolving round her love (obsession perhaps?) with books. Coming from a literary family, Fadiman had grown up among books, and it's no wonder, too, that her better half is a writer. Book lovers are always suckers for fellow lovers of the written word. And yes, DSD digs literary men too. Very much so. Unfortunately there aren't many around in the sunny little island of Singapore. Hmm.

Ex Libris is an extremely enjoyable read for bibliophiles. You can identify with pretty much everything Fadiman writes about. Her wit and succint writing is a textbook example of what good writing should be. Her voice shines through and you feel like you've really gotten to know Fadiman (just in terms of her love for books) at the end of it. Each essay is a few pages long and the book's really thin, so it's a great one to take along for that bus or train ride.

Many thanks to d who lent me the book. I was tempted to hijack/kidnap the book, but of course I won't 'cos I'm always respectful of books and their rightful owners. :)

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

The ancient ritual of foot binding is the focus of American novelist Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. The novel revolves around the central character who's also the narrator, Lily, and her laotong (老同 Old Same), Snow Flower.

"A laotong match is as significant as a good marriage," Lily's aunt explained. "A laotong relationship is made by choice for the purpose of emotional companionship and eternal fidelity. A marriage is not made by choice and has only one purpose ? to have sons."

Set in 19th century China, the two girls are bound together for life from the day they have their feet bound at age seven. They are taught the ancient women's writing called nushu (女术), and this is their only way of written communication. They inscribe their messages on a fan and this fan becomes a journal of their lives as they each embark on their own paths when they of marriagable age.

See brings her readers into the inner realm of women and the horrific ritual of foot binding where the bones of young girls' feet are crushed to make them resemble lily flowers. Ancient marriage rituals are also brought alive in this book and the lowly status of women in that time period is starkly obvious in the picture that See paints.

The novel provides a fascinating insight into the rituals that govern foot binding, marriage, and the status of women in 19th century China. It is available at the National Library.

Comfort Me With Apples

With a title like Comfort Me With Apples how could I possibly resist picking up Ruth Reichl's book? This book picks up from where Tender at the Bone leaves off.

In Tender, Reichl writes about her childhood and her first marriage, skilfully interweaving food into her narrative. She does the same in Comfort where readers get to know of her early career as the food critic of The Los Angeles Times.

Reichl also writes candidly of the breaking down of her first marriage, the infidelities on both her and her first husband's part, her subsequent meeting with her second husband and the struggles they faced with adoption. Major milestones in her life are laid out for readers as we are subsciously drawn into her life as she weaves in her vivid descriptions of food.

The book's enjoyable enough but it's not great. Suitable for some easy weekend reading.

The book is available at the National Library.

Word of the Day

esculent \ESS-kyuh-lunt\ adjective

: edible

Example sentence:
Sonia is a chef at The Wild Asparagus, a top-notch restaurant whose claim to fame is that every dish on the menu features an esculent native plant.

Did you know?
One appealing thing about "esculent" is that this word, which comes from the Latin for food ("esca"), has been around for 375 years. If we give you just one more tidbit of etymology � that "esca" is from Latin "edere," which means "to eat" � can you pick which of the following words is NOT related to "esculent"?

~ from Merriam Webster

To Die For

Perhaps all foodies should be like Australian food critic Stephen Downes--write a list of 100 gastronomic experiences to have before one retires six feet underground. In To Die For: 100 Gastronomic Experiences to Have Before You Die, he does exactly that.

The book is divided into three sections: Eating Out, Eating In and Worth the Effort. In the first section, he chronicles best meals he's had in restaurants and anything that's not homecooked food. From the three-star Michelin restaurants to the century eggs in Hong Kong, he whets your appetite with every word.

In the Eating In section, he writes about the best homecooked food he has eaten. Can't quite remember what the items were. Worth the Effort is about food that is worth putting in the effort to make. I remember Eggs Benedict as being in either one...can't remember which one!

In his introduction, Downes writes that in writing this book, he wants to share with people how to eat well and how to recognise good food. There are no recipes in the book and it really is a book about the art of eating well. It's an easy and pleasant read which is great for that short bus/train ride as the book is really made up of short articles.

To Die For is available at the National Library.

Kitchen Confidential

Now that Mr. B has been dumped into the "Reject for all Eternity Bin", we're ready to move on.

Now, the one man that has captured my imagination recently is celebrity chef Mr. Anthony Bourdain. I've just finished his book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.

In this autobiography of sorts, he writes about how he came to become a chef. We read of his stints in dodgy bistros, restaurants, his dabblings with drugs, and all the shady characters he worked with. Through his eyes, we are given an insight into the inner workings of a testosterone-filled working environment.

But of course, he's quick to point out that not all restaurants are as boisterous as the ones he's worked in. Still, it's a fascinating portrait he paints of the kitchens and the people inside it.

Foodies and industry professionals will love this book with its honesty, dark humour and wit. His very conversational style of writing is thoroughly engaging and it's as if the guy's really talking to you, the reader, in the flesh. Bourdain's love for the cooking trade and all his good friends in the industry transpires through and it was a very delectable read indeed.

A highly recommended dish for the brain. Something light and easy on the brain's palate for the weekend. The book is available in the National Library.

Are Men Necessary?

In the jacket blurb of New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd's latest book Are Men Necessary?: when sexes collide, it says that the book looks at the sexual politics between men and women.

It makes the book all very intellectual and I was inclined to pick up the book after seeing the book on New York Times' 100 Notable Books of 2005 list.

However, I was rather disappointed at the read as she doesn't seem to be exploring new ground with her observations on the gender situation in dating, the home, workplace and politics. OK, probably she makes a case for the fact that men are really the ones responsible for screwing up the world (main target of bashing being Bush Junior) and that the world would probably be better if women ruled it. That is, Condi Rice (as she likes to call the US Secretary of State) would do a much better job had she had the reins. OK, perhaps I might just go with her theory on this. Haha.

No new ground is broken in this book and I think it's a book you could pass on if you chance upon it.

Tender at the Bone

If there's one food writer I want to write like, it'd have to be Ruth Reichl. She has the amazing ability to draw readers into her life and her anecdotes are so interesting.

Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table takes us through her childhood to early adulthood and all the experiences she had had with food which has helped shaped her career.

She skilfully weaves the theme of food around her life as we learn of how she had to cope with her mother's maniac depressive tendencies, her three years of boarding school in France, her dealing with the awkward teenage and college years, her hippie lifestyle in the 60s and 70s, and her first marriage.

Another delectable read by Reichl. Please taste it if you come across it!

Fork It Over

With a title like that, Alan Richman's Fork It Over: The Intrepid Adventures of a Professional Eater is a book waiting for me to take a stab at devouring its contents.

The book is a compilation of essays written by him over the years as a food critic. These essays have previously appeared in various publications he has written for such as GQ, Cond� Nast Traveler, Food & Wine and Bon App�tit.

His anecdotes on the restaurants and cities he has been to, dining with Sharon Stone, going to a French cooking school etc, all make for easy reading and are all pretty interesting. Something you might want to pick up for a weekend read.

Garlic and Sapphires

Ruth Reichl, the present editor of Gourmet magazine, has the ability to draw people with her easy and friendly writing style. In Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise she writes about the different personas she adopted when she was the New York Times food critic.

To avoid being recognised at top restaurants in New York, so that she wouldn't get preferential treatment (which would render inaccurate reviews), she often donned different wigs and make-up to conjure different personas. She took inspiration from people she met or saw along the streets and this book about her experiences when she dined as these people.

Reichl must have had a penchant for acting, as she seemed to be able to construct very full and rounded characters. She slips into her roles like the way a chameleon changes its colour. One moment she's her mother who's loud and demanding at restaurants (very prima donna-ish), and the next she's a meek old lady who squeaks and is utterly forgettable, then she's the hot blonde who sweeps men off their feet with her beauty, or she could be the charming brunette who's everybody's darling just 'cos she's so nice.

It's fascinating to read how she describes her transformation not only in outward appearance but also in psyche whenever she puts on a disguise. Reichl's very personable writing makes the reader feel as if you know her as a friend. One feels she's accessible and I think that's an important thing to note when writing a memoir or autobiography.

A recommended read for easy reading. Definitely goes down well with the stomach!

Top 10 Books of 2005

As usual, I haven't done as much reading as I wanted to, I mean, if time permitted, I would devour every book on my wishlist! So anyways, here are the top 10 books for me this year (in no particular order of preference).

1) Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl

2) Stalking the Green Fairy: and Other Fantastic Adventures in Food and Drink by James Villas

3) Between Bites: Memoirs of a Hungry Hedonist by James Villas

4) The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

5) The Perfectionist: Life & Death in Haute Cuisine by Rudolph Chelminski

6) With Love & Irony by Lin Yutang

7) Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi

8) Eating My Words: An Appetite for Life by Mimi Sheraton

9) A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines by Anthony Bourdain

10) The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer

Word of the Day

voluptuary: a person devoted to luxury and the gratification of sensual appetites.

Sensuous vs Sexy

I�ve been reading Stalking the Green Fairy: and Other Fantastic Adventures in Food and Drink by James Villas, who�s an American food writer. The book contains his essays on various types of food like the meat loaf, chicken salad, pumpkin pie, and he muses about his love for peanut butter and canned tuna.

In his essay on onion soup, he writes that there is a big difference between foods that are sensuous and those that are sexy. This got me piqued. To Villas, sensuous is: foie gras, truffled eggs, sea urchins, Stilton cheese and white peaches. Sexy is: oysters, braised beef cheeks, roast grouse, gumbo (it�s a type of stew originating from New Orleans containing many types of meat and vegetables).

He writes, �To be sexy, a food must awaken certain primal instincts, stimulate the id, and inspire a little recklessness.� To him, onion soup has �the earthy allure, the wanton charm, and the saturnalian ability to seduce�.

And I just love the way he personifies the dish��Like the bohemian lady she is, onion soup is neither trendy nor sophisticated, but she is irresistible. Dressed in her golden mantle, she is most often spotted in the dark, romantic Left Bank bistros of Paris, but wrapped in any number of other dazzling guises, she also haunts the tascas of Lisbon, the wood-paneled pubs of London and Copenhagen, the smoky stuben of Munich, and even the rutty cafes of Buenos Aires. In these places, the nocturnal courtesan is still not only greatly appreciated but respected as the fickle creature she is."

To me, the two words didn�t seem tttoooo different from each other. So I went to check up their meanings on dictionary.com. The given definitions were:

Sensuous (adj): appealing to or gratifying the senses

Sexy (adj): Arousing or tending to arouse sexual desire or interest.

And then I was enlightened.

So here�s my list:

Sensuous
- Warm apple pie with old-fashioned vanilla ice cream
- A crisp 油条 with warm soy bean milk
- Moist carrot cake (the English kind)
- Carrot cake aka Cai Tau Kueh
- Claypot rice aka Lap Mei Fan which is probably best eaten in HK at this time of the year!
- Good Cantonese porridge
- Smooth, silken beancurd dessert
- Roasted chestnuts
- 合桃糊，栗子糊

Sexy
- dark chocolate
- a tasty steak done rare to medium-rare
- tiramisu
- any good Cantonese soup
- grilled oysters with generous amounts of garlic
- any yummy stew
- chocolate dipped strawberries

OK, brain is not working very well at the moment, and of course I�m sure I have more to add to the list. But time�s not on my side for me to mull over all the cuisines of the world. Would love to hear what others consider as �sensuous� and �sexy� food too!

The Historian

After all that hype about Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel The Historian, I was very eager to read the book to see what it was that seemed to grip people the world over.

If you haven't already heard, the book is about the history of Dracula. There is a great amount of research on eastern European history and one is impressed by the efforts put into digging up all that history.

A young lady finds a book in her father's study which will lead her and her father on a quest to hunt down Dracula. The suspense is intriguing for the first 400 pages or so, and the book is a real page-turner. But three-quarters into it, the novel is let down by a too-lengthy account of Turkish and Bulgarian history, making it read more like a history textbook. The pace is slowed down at this point and the ending wasn't that satisfactory.

Certain aspects of the novel also seem somewhat improbable as the novel unfolds in the form of letters from the lady's father to her. To have someone writing that much in the space of such a short time is rather far-fetched an idea and it certainly had me raising my eyebrows and question marks popping up in my mind.

Overall, it is a pretty good read but I would have to admit I was a tad disappointed.

Word Challenge

Help. My sister needs examples of a plural regular noun inside a compound.

Examples given to her were:
- 6-inches-long-spider (quntificational compounds)
- Publications research, finals week ('heteregenous' class, mostly denoting organizational units, fields of study etc)
- Equal rights amendment, new books shelf (an adjective modifies the plural noun inside the compound)

Word geeks out there, please crack your brains! Thanks!

Writing

The cursive crawl, the squared-off characters
these by themselves delight, even without
a meaning, in a foreign language, in
Chinese, for instance, or when skaters curve
all day across the lake, scoring their white
records in ice. Being intelligible,
these winding ways with their audacities
and delicate hesitations, they become
miraculous, so intimately, out there
at the pen's point or brush's tip, do world
and spirit wed. The small bones of the wrist
balance against great skeletons of stars
exactly; the blind bat surveys his way
by echo alone. Still, the point of style
is character. The universe induces
a different tremor in every hand, from the
check-forger's to that of the Emperor
Hui Tsung, who called his own calligraphy
the 'Slender Gold.' A nervous man
writers nervously of a nervous world, and so on.

Miraculous. It is as thought the world
were a great writing. Having said so much,
let us allow there is more to the world
than writing: continental faults are not
bare convoluted fissures in the brain.
Not only must the skaters soon go home;
also the hard inscription of their skates
is scored across the open water, which long
remembers nothing, neither wind nor wake.

~ Howard Nemerov, from The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov. � University of Chicago Press.

Sybarite

That's a new word I learnt today and it refers to a person devoted to luxury and pleasure.

I wanna be that.

The Perfect Day

You wake with
no aches
in the arms
of your beloved
to the smell of fresh coffee
you eat a giant breakfast
with no thought
of carbs
there is time to read
with a purring cat on your lap
later you walk by the ocean
with your dog
on this cut crystal day
your favorite music and the sun
fill the house
a short delicious nap
under a fleece throw
comes later
and the phone doesn't ring
at dusk you roast a chicken,
bake bread, make an exquisite
chocolate cake
for some friends
you've been missing
someone brings you an
unexpected present
and the wine is just right with the food
after a wonderful party
you sink into sleep
in a clean nightgown
in fresh sheets
your sweetheart doesn't snore
and in your dreams
and old piece of sadness
lifts away

~ by Alice N. Persons from Never Say Never � Moon Pie Press.

What would make a perfect day for me?
1) I don't have to wake up to the ringing sounds of an alarm clock
2) Freshly squeezed orange juice made by my mum
3) A nice and sunny day
4) My favourite music playing on my stereo
5) warm and fresh soya bean milk from the market
6) crisp and warm 油条 to go with the soya bean milk
7) A day spent canoeing and hanging out at the beach
8) Reading a good book
9) Talking to good friends
10) Snuggling into nice pyjamas and the warm familiarity of my bed

I could think of more, but for now this is it. What constitutes a perfect day for you then?

The History of Love

This is a cop-out but I'm just too lazy to write a review of The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (mainly 'cos I find it very difficult to write!!!), but I have to plug this book 'cos I really enjoyed the read. So I'm just going to type what's on the book jacket.

"Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbour know he's still alive. drawing attention to himself at the milk counter of Starbucks. But life wasn't always like this: sixty years ago, in the Polish village where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a book. And although he doesn't know it, that book also survived: it crossed oceans and generations, and changed lives.

Fourteen-year-old Alma was named after a character in that book. She has her hands full keeping track of her little brother Bird (who thinks he might be the Messiah) and taking copious notes in her book, How to Survive in the Wild Volume Three. But when a mysterious letter arrives in the mail she undertakes an adventure to find her namesake and save her family."

Krauss cleverly weaves together different characters and time periods in this story about love in its various forms--unrequited love, puppy love, parental love, friendship and romantic love. Put together in an interesting narrative structure, this is one thing that sets this book apart. Krauss sensitive portrayal of the characters coupled with her acute understanding of human feelings and behaviour tugs at your heartstrings, making this book a delight to read.

The Perfectionist

Avid followers of the French culinary scene will no doubt have heard of the suicide of French chef Bernard Loiseau two years ago. The book The Perfectionist: Life & Death in Haute Cuisine is a biography of this celebrated chef, giving us an insight into the events that led to this tragedy.

Written by Loiseau's close friend and veteran journalist, Rudolph Chelminski, the book is a fitting tribute to a man who was so obsessed with achieving perfection in his craft.

However, one cannot speak of Loiseau without also mentioning the other great French cookery maestros and wizards from whom he had learnt his craft from. Chelminski writes of how cookery masters like Fernand Point, the Troisgos brothers and Paul Bocuse influenced Loiseau. Vivid descriptions of French food and its preparation are a constant throughout the book as Chelminski describes each chef's speciality. You can almost see the dish being prepared right in front of you and after that sitting right under your nose.

Anecdotes from many of Loiseau's family, close friends and acquaintances add depth to the caricature of his character, allowing readers to understand the man behind his cheery facade.

Readers are also given a glimpse of the intense competition in the French culinary scene and the often symbiotic relationship between the media and restaurants. Loiseau often courted the press to promote his restaurant the La Cote d'Or in the small town of Saulieu. In a way, he had to ensure the survival of his restaurant as it was tucked away in a small provincial town.

While playing up Bernard's strengths as a man who was warm and generous to all around him, and one who was ambitious, the book also leads us to know that Bernard was, in actual fact, a highly insecure person. He needed to be reassured of his ability all the time. We soon learn that this insecurity stemmed from a medical condition called Bipolar Disorder, also known as manic-depressive disorder.

Eventually, it is this condition, went unrecognised, that led to his death after his restaurant was demoted by two points in the GaultMillau 2003 food guide. Even the retention of his three stars in the revered Michelin guide wasn't enough. A demotion to him meant his failure as a person as his restaurant was everything to him. Unable to face the situation, he shot himself in the head, leaving behind a wife, three children and 65 staff who were thoroughly devoted to him and La Cote d'Or.

This is a recommended read for all, especially foodies. It makes for an interesting read with its thorough research on the French culinary scene. Chelminski's writing is clear and succint, and his descriptions of food are an absolute delight to read. But most of all, it is a book written by a person who obviously knew the man and this gives it some degree of poignancy.

*This book is available for loan from the Singapore National Library.

The Star

Almost every one of us would have sung or recited the first stanza of this poem hundreds of times ever since we were kids. But I think few have actually come across the entire poem. At least I didn't until quite recently, so I thought I'd just share it with others who haven't.

The Star

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.

When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Then the trav'ller in the dark,
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.

In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky.

As your bright and tiny spark,
Lights the traveler in the dark�
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

~ Jane Taylor.

With Love & Irony

I can't believe it has taken me this long to discover the writings of Lin Yutang.

Born in China's Fujian province in 1895, he was one of the earliest Chinese intellectuals to write in English. Written in simple everyday English, his prose is charming, humorous and witty, often taking a satirical stance on the political situation during his time.

The book I'm reading now, With Love & Irony, is a collection of his essays which were published in newspapers such as The New York Times. Even though the essays were published in the 1930s, many of the things he writes about still resonates very much with the world in its current state of affairs. His astute observations of life, from simple things like the Chinese people's fascination with birds to more profound topics like Sino-Japanese relations, the East-West divide and the political unrest in China, are always tinged with a touch of humour, even though a more serious message lies beneath. Absolutely brilliant.

Lin also lectured in English literature and often translated classic Chinese texts which has remained popular in the West till today. His most famous original works are My Country and My People and The Importance of Living. Definitely worth checking out I'm sure.

Reading Lolita in Tehran

Since it's International Woman's Day today, I think it's quite fitting to put up this post. If you're a woman and you love literature, you HAVE to read Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi .

This book is a true life account of how this group of Iranian women meet every week to discuss literature. We are given an insight into the tyranny of the totalitarian regime these women are forced to live under and how they seek to escape from this cruel reality (albeit only for a few hours a week) through literature. Most interesting of all is how the author has dissected Lolita and other works by Nabokov and linked the themes to their situation. Other writers and their works discussed in the book are F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James and Jane Austen.

Nafisi, who now lives and teaches in the US, is a literature professor who spent her growing years in the West and returned to Tehran , full of dreams, to teach literature at the University of Tehran. After a couple of years, she is disillusioned with the regime and their controlling ways. She then quits her job and withdraws herself from academia. In doing so however, she finds herself withdrawing from society and becoming increasingly isolated.

She then decides to set up a small class with a select group of students she once taught. The critieria on which she bases her choice centred only around one thing--that they have a genuine love of literature. The women, ranging from their early 20s to 30s, are all strong individuals who are vastly different in characters. Brought together by their common love for literature, we learn of how the totalitarian regime has impacted their lives.

In a country where intellectual life is suppressed and where women are treated as second-class citizens, we get a glimpse of how the women cope with the restrictions imposed on them. What women in more libertarian regimes take for granted, like the painting of nails, the freedom to dress and go whereever one pleases, these Iranian women will never know in their country.

I think this book resonates more with the female rather than male reader. As a
woman, I really felt for these women who are being made to live in a society that oppresses women. Many of Nafisi's students grew up not knowing what love and happiness were. Freedom and liberty also became foreign concepts. So much so that when an opportunity comes up to taste these forbidden fruits, Nafisi writes of the 'ordeal of freedom' and the 'burden of choice'. Ironic, isn't it?

Perhaps it's true though--those of us living in more libertarian societies DO suffer from the ordeal of freedom and the burden of choice. We have so many options that we do not know which to choose and end up being lost sheep.

Nafisi's succint prose emotionally engages the reader with her heartfelt descriptions of her personal struggles as well as those of her students. Her dissection of the great literary works brings the reader into her classroom, making one feel like one has just attended one of her literature lessons.

The book's an extremely compelling read and one which I highly recommend.

And yes, let's celebrate womanhood!

The Da Vinci Code

I finished The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown over the weekend. Like finally read it after half the world has read it and lauded it to the skies.

While I don't share the enthusiasm and view of some readers who have proclaimed it the best book they've ever read (frankly if this is the best, I shudder to think what they've been reading so far), I must grant Brown some points for his brilliant idea of stringing research done by historians, archaeologists, astronomists, scientists etc, into a mystery novel.

While I'm skeptical as to how much of the so-called "facts" presented are truly facts, it does make for quite an interesting read at some points. I mean, some of the puzzles are pretty clever.

However, Brown's style of writing is to me, just mediocre and really, just plain bad at some points. The language isn't compelling and there were times I found him to be overly descriptive. Like I would find myself thinking, "I didn't need to know THAT." or "I could have figured that out for myself thank you very much."

Overall though, a passable read but it definitely won't be on the list of my Top 10 books of the year.

Crossing Time

We are each the love of someone's life. ~ Max Tivoli in his confessions

A beautiful opening sentence to the novel The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer. But while we may be each the love of someone's life, it doesn't follow that we are, in turn, the love of THEIR lives. And so it is with this novel which is heartache personified.

Set in San Francisco and spanning the later half of the 19th century to the mid 20th century, this novel, written in the first person, reads like the diary of Max Tivoli, a man who ages backwards. That is, he is born looking like an old man. But as he grows older, he looks younger. It's a curse and a blessing really, depending on how you see it.

He finds the love of his life when he is 17 but looking like 53. He doesn't get his girl. Later in life, he's given two more chances to win her love. Max's heartfelt accounts of his emotional and physical ordeals touch the heart.

The theme of unrequited love runs through the novel as the main characters in it find but struggle to be with the ones they love. A tragically beautiful story.

The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, a novel I read last year but didn't write about, runs in a similar vein. A cleverly crafted love story bringing in elements of science fiction and time travel, this story revolves round a couple who have to deal with the anxieties and anguish arising from the husband's ability to travel through time.

Written in the first person from the two protagonists' point of view, the novel plays out the love, intimate thoughts and feelings between that of a married couple. While Confessions is about unrequited love, Traveller is about finding that love and hanging on to it no matter what happens.

Both recommended reads and copies of both are available in the Singapore National Library.

Nothing is Lost

Deep in our sub-conscious, we are told
Lie all our memories, lie all the notes
Of all the music we have ever heard
And all the phrases those we loved have spoken,
Sorrows and losses time has since consoled,
Family jokes, out-moded anecdotes
Each sentimental souvenir and token
Everything seen, experienced, each word
Addressed to us in infancy, before
Before we could even know or understand
The implications of our wonderland.
There they all are, the legendary lies
The birthday treats, the sights, the sounds, the tears
Forgotten debris of forgotten years
Waiting to be recalled, waiting to rise
Before our world dissolves before our eyes
Waiting for some small, intimate reminder,
A word, a tune, a known familiar scent
An echo from the past when, innocent
We looked upon the present with delight
And doubted not the future would be kinder
And never knew the loneliness of night.

Poem: "Nothing is Lost" by Noel Coward, from Collected Verse, edited by Graham Payn & Martin Tickner � Graywolf Press.

A Writer's Accessory

A Spiral Notebook

The bright wire rolls like a porpoise
in and out of the calm blue sea
of the cover, or perhaps like a sleeper
twisting in and out of his dreams,
for it could hold a record of dreams
if you wanted to buy it for that
though it seems to be meant for
more serious work, with its
college-ruled lines and its cover
that states in emphatic white letters,
5 SUBJECT NOTEBOOK. It seems
a part of growing old is no longer
to have five subjects, each
demanding an equal share of attention,
set apart by brown cardboard dividers,
but instead to stand in a drugstore
and hang on to one subject
a little too long, like this notebook
you weigh in your hands, passing
your fingers over its surfaces
as if it were some kind of wonder.

~ "A Spiral Notebook" by Ted Kooser, from Delights & Shadows � Copper Canyon Press.

While still on the subject of diaries, I love this poem about the spiral notebook. I think it's something every writer or anyone who loves to write should have. I usually buy spiral notebooks 'cos I just like turning the pages over. :p

Dear Diary

What's in My Journal

Odd things, like a button drawer. Mean
Things, fishhooks, barbs in your hand.
But marbles too. A genius for being agreeable.
Junkyard crucifixes, voluptuous
discards. Space for knickknacks, and for
Alaska. Evidence to hang me, or to beatify.
Clues that lead nowhere, that never connected
anyway. Deliberate obfuscation, the kind
that takes genius. Chasms in character.
Loud omissions. Mornings that yawn above
a new grave. Pages you know exist
but you can't find them. Someone's terribly
inevitable life story, maybe mine.

Poem: "What's in My Journal" by William Stafford, from Crossing Unmarked Snow � University of Michigan Press. Reprinted with permission.

I love this little poem 'cos I've kept a diary since I was 12. I used to scribble a lot as a teenager and the scribblings got progressively less as I grew older. These days I have two diaries. This blog and a hard copy one which I reserve for my deepest thoughts and feelings.

My first diary was given to me by my mum when I was 7. It had Hello Kitty on its cover. My first entry into it was made in the same year I got it. I wrote about my mother, father, sister and cousin, and drew a few pictures. Then I stopped there. I only started writing in it again when I was 12. It probably got lost amongst my toys in the intervening five years.

Anyway, I love spiral notebooks for diaries or leather-bound ones, or a Moleskineus notebook. Or any pretty diary really! My one critieria is that the pages are not ruled. I like plain pages so that I can doodle whenever I want to.

I keep all my diaries and sometimes I think maybe I should start a bonfire and burn them. But I think they're special memories (if only to myself) and I'll just keep it for my own reading pleasure when I'm old and greying so that I can laugh at the foolishness I displayed in my youth. :)

Kitchen & N.P.

"No matter what, I want to continue living with the awareness that I will die. Without that, I am not alive. That is what makes the life I have now possible."

~ Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

In Kitchen, Mikage Sakurai is a 20-something orphan whose grandmother, her only living relative, has just passed away. Having always loved being in kitchens, she finds herself having no will to live after her grandmother's death and ends up sleeping in the kitchen all day and night.

She is brought out of such an existence by the arrival of Yuichi Tanabe, a young man her age who worked part-time at her grandmother's favourite flower shop. He suggests that Mikage move in with his mum and himself as he thinks she needs some help. Yuichi tells Mikage that her grandmother was always nice to him, and he thought that it'd only be right to extend a helping hand to her.

After some contemplation, Mikage decides to move in with Yuichi and his mother, Eriko, who is really his father. Eriko underwent a sex change after the death of Yuichi's mother and is now one of the top hostesses in a club. The story offers a charming but bittersweet look into the lives of these three individuals who learn to live and love one another in their own ways.

Moonlight Shadow, the companion story to Kitchen, deals with the grief and the overcoming of loss of a loved one. Satsuki, a young girl on the cusp of adulthood, has just lost her highschool sweetheart to a motorcycle accident. A beautiful and moving story which touches on love, tragedy and the supernatural.

As mentioned in Yoshimoto's Afterword, Kitchen and Moonlight Shadow are about growth and the overcoming of obstacles. In both stories, we see how the characters become stronger and wiser after they've learnt to deal with their losses.

N.P. is a little darker in tone. In this novel, a celebrated Japanese writer has committed suicide, leaving behind his work N.P., a collection of short stories written in English. Translators who have tried to translate the work into his native Japanese inevitably stop short at the 98th story as after that they choose to take their own lives too. This includes the protagonist Kazami Kano's boyfriend, Shoji.

Having never been able to fully get over Shoji's death, Kazami is drawn to three young people whose lives are initimately bound to the late writer and N.P. Love found, love lost, incest, friendship and mystery are things that Kazami finds having to face over the course of a summer where she will discover the truth behind the 98th story and have her own life bound to these people she has gotten acquainted with.

The beauty of Yoshimoto's writing is that her characters are always flawed which truly reflects on all of us as humans. Her characters are also quirky and interesting because there's always something bizarre about them. Veering on the side of alternative perhaps. Her language is sparse and simple, yet leaves the reader wistful with her astute observations about human existence.

Wok

An apt article and poem (below) to complement this photo of mine.

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

~ Robert Frost (1876 - 1963)

Hungry For Words

"I have since come to recognize that men and women generally write differently about food and perhaps about everything else. Men tend to express their opinions in a brasher, more confident or even conceited tone, although those opinions rarely prove more reliable than the carefully couched and subtly appeasing assessments made by most women. Men and women usually draw upon different frames of references, thereby coloring the copy."

~ Mimi Sheraton in Eating My Words: An Appetite for Life

When I read this, I was struck by this astute observation and felt that Sheraton's description rang true when I compared her writing to that of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain. In Eating My Words: An Appetite for Life, Sheraton's writing is elegant as opposed to Bourdain's brash and rather "laddish" form in A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines.

Both books are written in the first person, engaging the reader personally in a conversational style. While the core subject of both is food, they are quite different and both make for delectable reads.

Eating is akin to going to a posh restaurant where the interiors are immaculately done up, cultery is nicely laid out, chairs pulled out for you and napkins are folded every time you leave your chair. A Cook's Tour on the other hand, is like your favourite neighbourhood bistro--casual and where people come round to say hi and pat you on your back, and not just exchange air kisses. Though the two places are on extreme ends of the spectrum, you get the same kind of satisfaction from the food served in each place because both are good and unique in their own way.

In Eating, we learn how Sheraton became the foremost food critic in the United States when she became the food reviewer at The New York Times in the 1980s, staying there for eight years. A strong, spirited and opiniated woman, she is not one to mince words or shy away from controversy. Her words, like the knife of a top sushi chef, are razor sharp when she writes about people she doesn't like. Her writing is succint, compact, and like wasabi, manages to pack a punch with very little.

Sheraton brings us back to 1960s New York and paints a charming picture of Greenwich village filled with artists, poets and bohemians, a place where she has been residing for the past 40-odd years. She brings the reader into many restaurants around New York and around the world. Once, she even makes mention of the streets stalls, Satay Alley and chicken rice stalls along Middle Road in Singapore back in the 60s--stalls I didn't even know existed at that time.

I love her description of the durian--"a stinking melon that looked like a giant grenade and when ripe smelled like a mix of rotten cheese and overcooked cauliflower."

Realising that her reviews could make or break restaurants, affects livelihoods, families and sometimes even lives, Sheraton took her job very seriously and therefore was very intent on keeping her anonymity in order to maintain objectivity and do her job well.

What's most interesting is how she went about it. She resorted to buying an assortment of wigs and only putting them on in the taxi on her way to the restaurant so as not to be recognised by office personnel and people on the street as she stepped out of her office. The wig was accompanied by tinted glasses so as to allow her eyes to roam about the restaurant freely without being discovered (as she once had been). Other methods, amongst many others, include only paying for meals in cash or with the credit cards of her dining companions. She also turned down invitations to all events, business or social, if anyone connected to a restaurant or a related establishment was expected.

After reading of Sheraton's efforts to remain anonymous, I'm convinced that food reviewers/critics in Singapore lack the professionalism Sheraton has. In Singapore's national newspaper, The Straits Times, the food reviewers have photo bylines (this now sounds so sacrilegious compared to Sheraton)--something which Sheraton would never EVER have in her piece!

Like Sheraton, Bourdain regales us with tales as he eats his way around the globe, camera crew in tow, from Portugal, France, Russia, Vietnam, Morocco, Cambodia to Japan. While not a memoir like Eating, A Cook's Tour is more of a food travelogue interspersed with other interesting facts which highlights facets of the cultures he comes across. While his writing is far less elegant (very bloke-ish), it is still pretty enjoyable. Not one to mince words either, he is as frank with his opinions as Sheraton is of hers.

Bourdain is like the brash American who annoys people with his typical brashness and loud attitude. He however, has a healthy respect for other cultures. For example, the full weight of America's involvement in the Vietnam war hits him when he sees a man badly disfigured by Napalm in Ho Chih Min City. He becomes reflective and pensive, giving us a glimpse into the sensitivity that lies beneath the man. There are several instances like this in the book which doesn't make him as annoying as he sometimes comes across. But soon you realise that this is just him--exuberant, loud and laddish, ultimately though just one of the good blokes in your friendly neighbourhood.

In A Cook's Tour, be treated (or maybe not) to descriptions of drinking cobra bile in Vietnam, the slaughtering of a pig in Portugal, the eating of sheep's testicles in the Sahara desert , and various other weird cuisines. Bourdain described the durian as "a big green menacingly spiked football--only it exudes an unforgettable, gassy, pungent, decomposing smell". Though the smell irked him, he surprisingly loved the taste of it.

One reason why I like food is because it's so entwined with culture, a subject which I love. Food varies from culture to culture, and it is interesting to learn about how various factors like religion, climate, geography and economic status influence the things people eat and the ways in which food is prepared. For example, in Morocco, stews are prepared because the women can afford to leave the food aside for many hours while it is cooking so that they have time to take care of other chores. The desert's climate also dictates drying and smoking as methods of food preparation because of the lack of refridgeration in the poorer regions. Meat also has to be cooked well-done as it is easier to peel and separate the meat. The lack of cultery like forks and knives otherwise needed to cut meat that's cooked just rare to medium dictates such a practice.

Anyhow, if you're interested in knowing more about food, run along and pick up these two books. But if you just want to read one of them, Mimi Sheraton's Eating My Words is a better read.

FYI readers in Singapore -- Kinokuniya doesn't stock Eating My Words: An Appetite for Life. I haven't tried Borders, but I got my copy from the library. As for A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines, take note that it also goes by the title of A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal, so don't be fooled by the different title!

Haha! :)

By the Shores of Pago Pago

Mama's cooking pots of couscous,
Papa's in the pawpaw patch,
Bebe feeds the motmot bird,
and I the aye-aye in its cage,

Deedee's drinking cups of cocoa,
while he's painting dada-style,
Gigi's munching on a bonbon
(getting tartar on her teeth),

Toto's drumming on a tom-tom,
Fifi's kicking up a can-can,
Jojo's only feeling so-so
and looking deader than a dodo,

Mimi's dressing in a muumuu,
Nana's bouncing with her yo-yo,
stirring batter for a baba,
Zaza doesn't make a murmur,

Kiki hopes her juju beads
will help to ward off tsetse flies,
Lulu's looking very chichi
in a tutu trimmed with froufrou:

does all this mean our family's cuckoo?

~ "By the Shores of Pago Pago" by Eve Merriam, from Rainbow Writing � Atheneum

Small Things

Snowflake

Timing's everything. The vapor rises
high in the sky, tossing to and fro,
then freezes, suddenly, and crystallizes
into a perfect flake of miraculous snow.
for countless miles, drifting east above
the world, whirling about in a swirling free-
for-all, appearing aimless, just like love,
but sensing, seeking out, its destiny.
Falling to where the two young skaters stand,
hand in hand, then flips and dips and whips
itself about to ever-so-gently land,
a miracle, across her unkissed lips:
as he blocks the wind raging from the south,
leaning forward to kiss her lovely mouth.

~ William Baer, from Borges and Other Sonnets

I love the poem above as it has brought such beauty to something so small we hardly think about. I imagine the writer when he wrote it--it must have been one of those savouring-the-simple-pleasures-in-life kind of moments for him. The imagery the poem conjures is lovely and one day I would hope to see snow fall (so far I've always visited temperate countries in summer) with that special someone...

Top 10 Books of 2004

Well, there are definitely more but I just can't remember what I've read! I remember having read lots of good books this year but off the top of my head I can't quite recall every one of them now. So here's the off-the-top-of-my-head list.

1) Only a Sandpiper: Appreciating Classical Chinese Poetry by Li Lienfung -- Thanks to overacuppa and Fatgirl, I now have the book sitting nicely on my shelf!

2) The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

3) Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

4) Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris

5) Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

6) French Lessons: Adventures with the Knife, Fork, and Cockscrew by Peter Mayle

7) Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto

8) Toast by Nigel Slater

9) Battle at the Red Cliff: A Guide to Three Kingdoms by Li Lienfung

10) Ladyfingers & Nun's Tummies: A Lighthearted Look At How Foods Got Their Names by Martha Barnette

Gatecrashing

A delightful article that appeared in The Guardian which brings together some of literature's best parties. Go here for a read.

French Lessons

Just like his Provence series, Peter Mayle delights his readers with French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Cockscrew. In this book, he moves away from Provence and takes us to different corners of France, in search of culinary delights.

We are brought to nondescript little eateries to Michelin-starred restaurants, to seaside resorts filled with sun-kissed babes in bikinis, wineries, an escargot fair and all sort of quirky festivals in food-loving France. In the last chapter, you'll also learn how the Michelin guide came into existence and the exacting standards with which the publication abides by.

Mayle excels and is clearly in his element when he writes about food and wine during his travels. He paints his characters with humour, has a knack for searching out the unusual and manages to bring all these across to his readers in a conversational and engaging manner. I wished I could write a book like that one day. It'd be my dream come true--getting to travel, eat and write about it! And get paid to do so too!

An enjoyable and delectable read. Definitely one for that relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Coma

Alex Garland's latest novel Coma certainly lives up to its title. It nearly left me comatose, but thank goodness I extricated myself in time from the spiralling vortex of boredom by cutting short my read.

The protagonist Carl (we never get to know his last name), while trying to help a young woman who was being disturbed, is attacked by a gang of thugs in the underground in London one night. When he awakes, he finds that he experiences lapses in memory. We never get to know whether it's reality he's experiencing or whether it's just a figment of his imagination. Is he still in a coma or is he not? Go figure 'cos I gave up halfway.

It's a very short book and doesn't take too long to read. I was 3/4 way into the book but it became a bit of a drone for me. It might prove different for others.

One thing I liked though, were the pictures that are in the book--it's been a while since I last read a book with pictures! The 40 woodprints in the book are done by Nicholas Garland, the political cartoonist, who also happens to be the author's father. Even if you don't read the book, it's nice to have a browse just to have a look at the pictures.

Best Friends

Three pairs of feet
Two beings walking
Side by side
In companionable silence

They speak not each other's language
But no words are needed
Nor do they exist

They are bonded
Through a leash
That stretches
From hand
To head

They are bonded
Through a love
That stretches
From heart
To heart

A poem composed while out walking my collie, Rex, on Monday night. For some bizarre reason, I was in a whimsical mood. The night was lovely with a cool breeze blowing and the stars twinkling on the black canvas.

As I walked along, leash in hand, words just started forming in my head. Anyway, sounds a little cheesy, but what the heck.

Life & Death

No matter what, I want to continue living with the awareness that I will die. Without that, I am not alive. That is what makes the life I have now possible. Inching one's way along a steep cliff in the dark: on reaching the highway, one breathes a sigh of relief. Just when one can't take any more, one sees the moonlight. Beauty that seems to infuse itself into the heart: I know about that.

- Banana Yoshimoto in Kitchen

A Good Year

In his latest novel A Good Year, Peter Mayle brings readers back to his beloved Provence which fans of his, having read the highly successful A Year in Provence, Encore Provence, and Toujours Provence, should be familiar with.

The story revolves round high-powered British financial executive Max Skinner who in the course of one day, finds himself out of a job, and also the inheritor of a 20-hectare vineyard and large country house in Provence left to him by his uncle who has just passed away. Having nothing left for him in London, he decides to pack his bags for Provence to oversee the running of the vineyard and the house.

He soon grows to love the Provencal sun, the unhurried and relaxing pace of life in the French countryside, and the warmth of the people in the village. Amidst all these, a little scheme is brewing in the vineyard. Discover what Max unearths in this breezy book which is befitting for a light summer's read.

Only a Sandpiper

For anyone who's interested in learning more about Chinese classical poetry, I highly recommend Only A Sandpiper: Appreciating Classical Chinese Poetry by Li Lienfung.

It's a great book which is aimed at bilingual readers who are more proficient in English. It gives the uninitiated a good and simple introduction to the basics of classical Chinese poetry. Explanations are written in English and there is hanyu pinyin to help the reader when encountering a word that one does not know how to pronounce.

Li Lienfung, now in her 80s, is an effectively bilingual scholar in Chinese and English literature and she peppers her explanation with personal anecdotes of her learning experience. Her easy conversational style of writing makes the explanations go down like a fragrant cup of tea.

Learn how the structures, cadences, and the choice of words make a good poem. She introduces several famous poets in Chinese history like Tang dynasty poets Du Fu and Li Bai, Song dynasty poets like Su Dongpo. There are several others like Li Yu and Liu Yong who are mentioned.

In order to appreciate Chinese classical poetry, it is also important to learn about the circumstances surrounding the poet when he/she wrote it. For example, it might have been because of some existing political situation, or a personal tragedy which sparked off the poet to pen the poem. In explaining each poem that is mentioned in the book, Li Lienfung gives all these background information in order for the reader to fully grasp and appreciate the poem. The reader is often given snippets of Chinese political history as it is often the situations which arise from the political happenings which are written about.

After reading the book, one is able to better appreciate the implicit meanings and nuances that are so inherent in Chinese classical poetry. The biggest difference between English and Chinese poetry is the subtlety of the language. In Chinese, one character embodies so much meaning. There are so many connotations, underlying meaning, and conclusions that can be drawn from one character. Therein lies the beauty of the Chinese language.

I think schools in Singapore should teach such things to students to make Chinese lessons more interesting. I only wished I had such lessons in school last time!

The Food of Love

That's it. I'm determined to marry a chef. An excellent chef. I want to be romanced with food--good food.

And what sparked off this bout of craziness? I've just finished reading The Food of Love by Anthony Capella. It's a romantic comedy about a young 22-year-old American woman on a one-year art exchange programme in Rome. While there, she falls in love with an Italian guy, thinking that he's a chef. Little does she know that it's actually his good friend, who's really a chef, who's been helping him to romance her with all his wonderful culinary creations. As expected, the chef also falls for the American signora, and a love triangle starts brewing...

Though the plot is somewhat trite, and the writing of the main story itself isn't what one would term as literary genius, Capella excels when he writes about food. One can almost taste the delicious flavours and smells he is describing. His extensive knowledge on Italian cuisine and the research put into the book is evident.

I love reading about the intricacies of Italian cuisine which are cleverly weaved into the story. Learn what type of pasta is suited for certain kinds of sauces, get introduced to the completed world of coffee drinking which the Italians seem to have turned into an art form, learn about traditional Italian cooking, 'savour' the cuisines from the different regions of Italy, and be thoroughly seduced by all the wonderful food that are dished out.

Be seduced also by the descriptions of the quaint villages of Italy, the romanticism of Rome and the many art galleries that dot the city.

So if you're in for some light reading which makes for easy digestion, this is one delectable read. Buon Appetito!

South of the Border, West of the Sun

Haruki Murakami's South of the Border, West of the Sun was a much more palpable read compared to Sputnik Sweetheart and The Wild Sheep Chase. While the latter two had bizarre storylines which included metaphysical happenings, South of the Border, West of the Sun is much more down to earth, with a storyline that many of us can relate to.

The novel traces the life an average Japanese man from childhood to adulthood. When he is twelve, Hajime, an only child, meets Shimamoto, a girl of the same age. Being the only two only children in their school, they become good friends and develop a special bond to each other. However, they lose touch when Shimamoto moves to another town with her parents.

We then learn of Hajime's years as a teenager and young adult where he parties a lot, sleeps around, and breaks girls' hearts. While in his 20s, Hajime feels lost and directionless, and it's as if he is sleepwalking through life. Later, he meets, falls in love with, and marries Yukiko with whom he finally feels a sense of belonging to. Together they make a good life for themselves with Hajime becoming the owner of two jazz bars and Yukiko being the virtuous wife looking after their two young daughters. [Incidentally, the title is taken from a Nat King Cole song.]

However, this nice equilibrium is shaken when Shimamoto walks into Hajime's life again after 25 years...

This novel depicts a thoroughly believable situation which many will find themselves caught in. Lost loves, missed opportunities, and the inevitability of some things in life are written in a wistful style which characterises Murakami's novels.

A nice read on a wistful rainy day but not recommended for the chronically depressed!

Chick Lit

Do you agree that books have snob appeal too? I mean, there are some books which we wouldn't want to be caught dead with, e.g. trashy romance novels with Fabio on the cover. *puke puke puke*

Hence publishers play on this snob mentality of consumers and package books in different covers and different titles. I�m now reading a book from what is known as the "Chick Literature� genre. It has quite an embarrassing title�How to Meet Cute Boys: a novel by Deanna Kizis.

I mean, the title certainly is an attention-grabber for their target audience, i.e. swinging single women like moi, but to be seen toting it around is a different matter. I mean, yes, I do want to meet cute boys (who doesn't??? Don't lie now!) but I don't need to be so blatant about it ok. SO I only read it on the bus and train (where no one knows me. I hope.) with the book cover parallel to the ground, and stash it in my bag the moment I enter the office. :p

Anyway, the book's all very tongue-in-cheek and it makes for a fun read. It's about this 27-year-old female journalist who's the dating scene authority for LA's Filly magazine even though her own love life is nothing too boot about. So the book brings us through her ups and downs as she struggles to survive the perils of the LA dating scene.

An interesting feature of this book is that it is interspersed with magazine articles (e.g Five Dates from Hell) and several quizzes (e.g. Is it a Love Connection?) supposedly written by this journalist. It's very Sex-&-the-Cityish, which is what characterises Chick Literature. Us intellectual women don�t like to flex our brain muscles ALL the time. Heh.

I haven't reached the end of the novel, but I'm enjoying the read so far. It's like junk food for the brain--you need some of these things once in a while.

Other Chick novels I enjoyed are the Shopaholic Trilogy by Sophie Kinsella and the ones by the author Jill Mansell. I suppose this genre owes its origin to Helen Fielding of Bridget Jones fame. Her most recent novel Olivia Joules is ok....not fantastic but readable. It's like Bridget Jones meets Austin Powers.

Chick novels aside, I�ve also recently finished Sputnik Sweetheart by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. This book is so weird that I don�t even know where to begin talking about it. Maybe I�m just dumb, but I didn�t really get the message behind it. It was a mix of mystery, love, lost souls and a little of the metaphysical. Go here to read an extract of it.

His writing style and the things he writes about are very similar to Banana Yoshimoto. I don�t think I got a good introduction to Murakami through this novel--it probably isn�t his best. I�ve heard that Norwegian Wood and South of the Border, West of the Sun are good. I will try to get hold of those two books. Meanwhile, I borrowed another book of his called The Wild Sheep Chase from the library, and I�ll start on it once I finish that bimbotic read of mine!

Lizard

Reading Banana Yoshimoto's works never fails to please. She has the uncanny ability to articulate profound thoughts in unadorned yet beautiful prose--it certainly takes a skilled writer to do that.

In Lizard, she confronts the despair and loneliness that plagues many in urban living. Through the six short stories, we're presented with six different protagonists who form a microcosm of the problems that people in urban societies face.

In the first short story Newlywed, a 28-year-old salaryman is taking the train home as is his usual practice. He is, however, reluctant to alight at his stop as the train pulls into the station. What awaits him at home is his dutiful wife who has made the home her universe, busying herself all day with finding trinkets for the home. The honeymoon stage is over and he finds himself lost--is this how it's going to be for the rest of his life? His wife forever mulling over the house and him just bringing back the dough? At this point, a stranger appears and helps guide him back to his station through an interesting conversation.

If you--or anyone on this train, for that matter--thought of life as a kind of train, instead of worrying only about your usual destinations, you'd be surprised how far you could go, just with the money you have in your wallet right now.

Incidentally, this short story was serialised in the Tokyo subway system. I wished we had something like in Singapore!

In Lizard, a male medical officer realises that he is in love with his female friend of many years. He calls her "Lizard" because she has "round, black eyes that gaze at you with utter detachment, like the eyes of a reptile. Every bend and curve of her small body is cool to the touch, so cool that I [he] want to scoop her up in my two hands". Both lost souls, the reader is led to see how these two find solace in each other.

Helix is written in a somewhat similar vein to Lizard. A writer finds himself unable to tear himself from his on-off girlfriend. He resigns himself to the fact that it is "an infinite helix, the chance of two souls resonating, like the twist of DNA, like the vast universe".

The protagonist in Dreaming of Kimchee gives a voice to women who find themselves as the third party in relationships. Her insecurity and despair tugs at one's heartstrings and to me, serves as a reminder to never tread in such waters!

Blood and Water will resonate most with people who have left home to work in another country or city. The protagonist has left the small town she was from for several years. When she first arrived in Tokyo, she found everything fascinating but eventually realises that wherever one goes, there're always "escapists who just can't cope than healthy people who live their lives to the fullest".

Though she finds herself sometimes wanting to go home to her parents and small town who will always love her for who she is, she is unable to do so. She does not like the small town mentality and Tokyo has become her home despite its occasional alienating environment.

No one else could go home again, even if they wanted to. For lots of people, in fact, the impossibility of return only intensifies their yearning.

Personally, I liked Blood and Water best as I could relate to some of the protagonist's feelings.

Indulging in orgies was the protagonist's way of deriving pleasure in A Strange Tale from Down by the River. Another lost sheep, she soon finds it all a very empty existence. Like a lone leaf that falls into a flowing river, she finds herself being swept along with no sense of control. Thankfully, there is hope for her yet...

Unlike the river I had seen moments before, full of chaos and anxiety, the water now appeared calm and powerful, like an image frozen by a camera lens. It was peaceful, like the passage of time, flowing by, gentle and unchanging. It amazed me how utterly different things can look, just with a change of heart.

In her afterword, Yoshimoto said that in writing this book, she wanted to explore time, healing, karma, and fate. The characters in the six stories are lost and lonely souls encountering hope for the first time.

A recommended book for those of us in need of some reflection but are sick of those Chicken Soup for the Soul series which are, in my opinion, too feel-good and Oprah Winfrey-like for my liking.

The Humdrum Stops

At 6pm each day, the airconditioner in my office makes a loud rumble and then shuts down. Suddenly, the already quiet office space becomes even quieter. It then becomes eerily quiet without the humdrum of the aircon. Every day when it happens, I am reminded of the short story The Machine Stops by E M Forster. I first read this story when I was in secondary 3 (or was it 4? I can't remember! My fellow secondary school classmates please help me out here!) and it left a very deep impression on me.

Set in a dystopic world several thousand years into the future, The Machine Stops depicts a world in which humans live under the earth's surface because the surface is no longer inhabitable by humans due to destruction caused by the latter. Blue skies, the sea, and green grass are alien to the people of this civilization. The "outer air" on the surface of the earth kills, because their lungs are so accustomed to breathing air that has been generated by the Machine which controls every single aspect of life.

There is no face-to-face interaction, instead human 'interaction' takes place through the Machine with its screens and other technological contraptions. People see the Machine as being omnipotent and every single being relies on it for his existence. No one can seem to function without it. All these sound scarily akin to how dependent we are now on computers!

First published in 1909, this short story presents lessons that are still applicable to us today, almost a century later. Though dystopic, the story ends on a bittersweet note, reminding us that there is still hope for us yet. I shan't say anymore but shall instead let you read it for yourself here.