Monday, January 31, 2011

Snow song

When the snow falls,
When the walks freeze,
When I'm feeling chilled,
I whip up some cocoa,
and roast some popcorn,
and then I don't feel so cold.

Hot cocoa recipe
4 spoons powdered chocolate, preferably Parisian
0.5 spoon cinnamon, Vietnamese is good
a dash of chili powder, Mexican is best
2 spoons honey, from bees who fly in clover
a dash of salt from the sea
2 cups of water, from a fresh spring

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Dal in a Jar

Dal Mahkhani, better known to as my favorite lentil dish, I think is largely vegetarian. Perhaps there is a good bit of cream or butter in the one I love at Rasika. That, rice, and perhaps some curried cauliflower make a complete meal. Last year’s new year’s resolution was to learn to cook lentils. I managed to cook them in water and douse them with the Makhani sauce marketed by Rasika in local groceries. It is tomato-based with herbs and spices. The bottle is far better than anything I can do on my own, but a mere shadow of the restaurant version.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Electrocuted in the elevator

The number "6" had the life punched out of it. You could see the "6" hanging crooked, back to the circuit board, funny-colored wires sticking out like Medusa hairs. I work on floor 6. When I scan my security pass, I find my index finger can't index anything - fleetingly I fear electrocution. Hah! on the elevator on the way to work, what a way to go. My co-workers laugh and quickly hit "6" on the right hand panel of the elevator. Fortunately, that digit still sat courteously punchable in its proper spot on the wall. Watch out for some angry guy, they said, I stepped out into the hallway.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Look, look at the moving picture

The talking portraits of Harry Potter's castle-cum-art gallery are one step closer to reality at the Sackler's exihibit, the Rise and Fall of Fiona Tan. Encased in picture frames, she's filmed her subjects - a nephew, a mother-in-law, a grocer and his son. We see their faces, the signifiers of their lives - bags of dry goods, toys, pieces of art collected on mantlepieces. The style is distinctive, sharp black and white video, a contemplative stillness while moving (how is that possible), the signature of the portraitist. They are on the verge of conversing with us, perhaps in the next genre.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Poste haste to Poste Brasserie

French toast by now is almost old-fashioned - the coffee shops are full of granola and yogurt (in a plastic cup), or perhaps oatmeal (in a thermal bowl), or an egg sandwich (in a wax paper sack), or even the breakfast burrito (wrapped in alum foil). I guess it's the sit-down-with-a-knife-and-fork aspect of it that makes it seem particularly slow food. The best in the neighborhood is Poste Brasserie at the Hotel Monaco. They coffee good, the green tea is even better. For the toast, they use challah bread - doubling, tripling, nay quadrupling the eggy sweet goodness of it all. Life is better, poste haste.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

We're just full of water

Shopping at Friendship Heights, at Bloomingdales, actually, I stop for coffee. There's a banner light stuck vertically in the public square. In Times Square it would have lit up messages advertizing the latest play, the latest fashion. In LA, it would carry promotions for the latest movie, the latest sports news. But here, in the nation's capital, in this prime spot, there are letters slowly moving across the banner - "...most of your body is made of various waters, water lubricates and eases chemical reactions..." Would be more exciting to note that we need air to breathe, or that the grass should be green, or that fire is hot? Or shall I stop drinking the coffee?