The Daisy Buchanan of Wines

Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé!

It is time to revisit the noble topic of wine and it would be a grave omission indeed to let November pass without talking about Beaujolais Nouveau. Every year, precisely a week before Thanksgiving Day, known world over as the third Thursday in November, the first Beaujolais is released just mere weeks after harvest. Is it a marketing ploy? Sure, but so what? In these gray November days any occasion for merriment is as welcome as a ray of sunshine.

So back to Beaujolais (even saying it just rolls off one’s tongue!). Here are some vitals. It’s French from Beaujolais in Burgundy. Made of Gamay grapes Beaujolais Nouveau will please even the staunchest white wine drinker because it’s tasty and not at all serious, like the Gatsby’s Daisy - young, attractive, shallow, and tarted up with a new colorful label each year. Conveniently it is very nice with a turkey and at $10 a bottle will keep your family gathering jolly. If you are grabbing a bottle chances are it is George Duboef so no guess work there.

Beaujolais Nouveau at the Klatch homebase: 11/17/2011

Word of warning, don’t let your Beaujolais linger, by spring it looses its charms so bottoms up! And go for the "special cuvee" you see above with a pink label rather than the yellow one here, it is a little more interesting.

Getting Spacy

Did you ever dream of space as a kid? These photos are magic. And each day NASA posts a new photo, a glimpse into another world. Some of these are not unlike otherworldly abstract paintings. These beauties are best enjoyed with Moby on the background (who incidentally is into space pictures himself).

Sharp view of the sun.  This is stunning!



Another photo of the sun

The Rosette Nebula. Note to self, improve one’s understanding about nebulas, something so perfect is worth knowing about.

Starburst Galaxy also known as Cigar Galaxy with superwind.



Orion Nebulae

Have you had enough? For more go to NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, there is lots more where these from - and you can learn about nebulae, sun spots, and supernovas. 

Asian store

A couple month back I gushed about our visit to an old-school dry goods Apple Hill store.  This weekend we visited Great Wall supermarket and let me tell you, we might as well have journeyed to East Asia.

Look at these beauties, dragon fruit, persimmons, kumquats, pomegranates. Of course we bought some persimmons (they remind me of winter and transport back to being a kid) and dragon fruit to be daring a try something new. I should report that dragon fruit has quite a mild flavor that does not live up to its garish hot pink skin.

This here would be sugarcane, my friends. I've had sugarcane drinks before but am quite at a loss how to tackle this one. If you do, please let me know.

Canned goods with more exotic foods....



Sea Cucumbers which it would seem are quite valuable.  This section reminded me of Diagon Alley!

Exotic beverages with aloe vera....

 

The visit was an adventure in the middle of our quiet suburb, a stay-dventure.  Others in the store were just stocking up on pantry basics, making the visit all that much more memorable.

Okay, then!  We'll be back for panko crumbs, greet tea with roasted rice in it, and miso.

Mon-Fri Medley of Topics

Kids Books Month was a blast and I intend to revisit that topic in the near future. But in the meantime I have quite neglected the Klatch over the past week. Change of clocks in the fall always gets me down. But I am here to make amends. So here is an assortment of topics that has preoccupied me over these past days:

On Monday I pondered the popularity of Klatch post on artist Sonia Delaunay, thought written months ago it gets a steady trickle of traffic. I do wonder if writings on great artists like Sonia are scarce? Note to self: highlight another perfectly modern dame in November.

Unnamed Lithography by Sonia Delaunay (source: ArtNet.com)

On Tuesday I poked around HelloGiggles, the girliest of websites from Zooey Deschanel.

Hello Giggles founders

[Warning, if you are not a fan of unpleasant topics, move right along past Wednesday’s topic].

On Wednesday I wondered what happen to Sylvia Plath. I know what happen to her, but wanted to know a bit more about her and the road that took her to stick her head in the oven at age 30. Almost wish I did not read up about Plath’s biography. Sylvia’s two toddlers were sound asleep in their cots while their mama busied herself in the kitchen on that fateful morning. But it didn’t end there. Assia, Sylvia’s estranged husband’s lover, also killed herself and her four-year-old daughter by turning on the gas stove. Decades later Sylvia’s son hung himself. This saga really bothers me to the core. Sylvia might be a Klatch topic in the future, once I actually read the Bell Jar and make amends with their tale.

Sylvia

Assia Wevill and little Shura

On Thursday I found out about Weirdsister College, British TV series about college for witches. It sure smacks of Hogwarts but it is not on Netflix. Does anyone know where I can watch it online and if it is any good?

Today on Friday I am thinking about shadow puppets. Perhaps not as elaborate as this Victorian version, but I anticipate we will be entertaining ourselves by staging a play over Thanksgiving break, will keep you posted!

These remind me of Lemony Snickets!

Unitl next Klatch - what strange esoteric topics have you been thinking about?