Tortoise and Hare: The Real Tale

Speaking of all things Greek, we all know Aesop’s tale: overconfident rabbit challenges stodgy turtle to a race and manages to lose the race. Of course there have been many interpretations and debates (is there a moral lesson here or was rabbit corrupt and throw the race?).

From 1912 edition of Aesop's Fables

Well at last a plausible explanation which I ran across on ever-cool Brain Pickings in a 1947 dramatization. Supporting characters include a raccoon, a fox, and an owl. So worth watching!

*The film is in the public domain and available for free, legal download courtesy of the Prelinger Archives.

[Virtual] Cookie Exchange

Friends, get your rolling pins ready! A new Klatch holiday tradition in the making: a virtual cookie exchange! Here is how it works – email me photos of your holiday baking with recipes, tips, and baking stories. Deadline: Christmas. Easy as a sugar cookie!

Tasty Little Pasty

Cornish Pasty is a delicious treat, full of steaming curried chicken or winter veg. We are lucky as there is a genuine pasty shop in the strangely charming ally off our main street. It is a respectable establishment with a Union Jack on the façade and gleaming wood. Pasty is just the thing on a Friday night when you don’t feel like pizza or cooking.

Behold. Though the photo does not do pasty justice (the flaky crust and steamy aroma are heavenly!).

My mind wondered, as it often does, and I am convinced that with the right recipe I can create pasties in my own kitchen. Though I am still searching for the right recipe to try (if you have one, do be so dear and send it my way), I learned some fascinating pasty facts along the way.

For one, humble pasty now has a Protected Geographical Indication status. Yes, as of this year only a pasty that originates in Cornwall and following traditional recipe can in fact be called Cornish. And Cornish pasty is in good company – other foods holding such European distinction are Gorgonzola, Parmesan-Reggiano, Cornish clotted cream, and Arbroath Smokies (Smokies I will have to learn more about!).  It is fitting as even Shakespeare is said to have referenced the very pasty more than once. 


Cornwall

Cornwall by all accounts is a charming seaside place.  Falmouth Docks photo by Andy Roberts from East London.

But pasty is not fancy, miners often took pasties with them since they were easy to reheat underground.  A true Cornish pasty is shaped like letter D and crimped on the side (NEVER on top). According to the authorities on the subject (Cornish Pasty Association) the filling must be “hunky, made up of uncooked minced or roughly cut chunks of beef (not less than 12.5%), swede, potato, and onion with a light seasoning. The pastry casing is golden in colour, savoury, glazed with milk or egg and robust enough to retain its shape throughout the cooking and cooling process without splitting or cracking." Chew on that or better yet go get yourself a wonderful little Cornish-style pasty!

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?