Nepenthe

Everything You Need to Know About Sushi Varieties and Accompaniments, Etiquette and Dining Tips, and More by Dave Lowry Tell the truth: When you go out for sushi, don't you worry that you're not doing it quite right? And don't you hate feeling ignorant and inept about such a popular food category? If you do, you're going to love this informative little handbook by a St. Louis food writer who clearly know his way around a sushi-ya. A present for: Anyone who doesn't want to look like a dork at the sushi bar. What it is: A rundown on sushi fish from aji to uzuri tamago . Required readings: Washing It Down: What to drink with sushi. (Hint: It's not sake.) How the wasabi and soy sauce ritual got started, and why it's wrong. Chopstick etiquette. The training of an itamae, or sushi chef. What's the deal with that ceramic Hello Kitty. Something extra: A glossary of sushi-ben, or slang, with a warning that using it incorrectly will make you look really ...

Got this on my Observer print magazine (will snail mail) :-) When I started cooking professionally, it was hard, if not impossible, to find a decent vegetarian meal. So-called top restaurants concentrated on the main course - meat - and never the vegetarian option. When I became head chef at one of London's most expensive restaurants, the Lanesborough Hotel, I was happy to cater for meat eaters and vegetarians alike. Other chefs often asked me why I bothered. After all, vegetarians didn't want to eat at such grand establishments, did they? I saw it differently, however. Why shouldn't vegetarian dishes be interesting and imaginative? Even nowadays, it is not unusual for high-profile chefs to talk contemptuously about vegetarians, but to me they are just customers who have decided to forsake meat and fish in their diet. [Read all the recipes, again, from the Guardian-Observer ]

We don't have an address for Mr Sawada, the sushi master. Just a card with the samurai symbol of a red dragonfly and the name of a street off Tokyo's Ginza. We find the tiny dragonfly engraved beside a buzzer in an unremarkable doorway. 'This is a very extraordinary moment for me,' says Chie, our translator, as we troop up some shabby stairs. 'I could never eat here. I am not rich, I am not old enough.' She's in her mid-thirties; I think she means - 'not wise enough'. Ordinarily you would pay some $500 in advance just to make a booking here at the table of one of Japan's most talked-about traditional sushi chefs. But then, we could never have made a booking, because Sawada serves at most eight people each mealtime and is booked up years ahead. He has given us a few minutes at the end of his day to photograph him in action. We find a small square room made entirely - floor, ceiling, walls, chairs, counter and even the fridge - of pale lemon hinoki...

[Quien tenga oidos que oiga]

[ Chema Madoz ]

When Nikita Khrushchev took the podium on the final day of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the speech he gave was so surprising and unexpected that some members of the audience actually fainted. It was Feb. 25, 1956, three years after the death of Josef Stalin and Khrushchev’s accession as first secretary of the party. Although the speech was made in closed session, and has been known forever after as the “secret speech,” it did not remain secret for long. The text had been given to local Soviet organizations to be read aloud and to East European Communist parties. A Polish version soon reached the West, and although its authenticity was denied for a long time by Moscow, it soon became obvious it was genuine. Why was the speech so shocking? Because it came at the end of decades of totalitarian terror during which millions of people died, in a country where the misuse of power had gone virtually unquestioned and unchecked (and where anyone who dared questio...

THE West and Islam are on a cultural collision course. That's the best-selling fiction that many people — politicians, religious leaders and the media on both sides of the equation — are working overtime to turn into fact. Actually, it's a very old story, and art is routinely pulled into it. Always, we hear Islamic art talked about in the way something called the "Islamic world" is talked about, as if it were unitary, unchanging, inscrutable and over there. We hear that Islamic art is, by definition, religious art, and we hear about its hostile relationship to the human image. We got an earful of this with the furor over Danish cartoons lampooning the Prophet Muhammad. The fact is, images of the Prophet abound in Islamic art and culture; the Metropolitan Museum has several examples in its Islamic collection. But unlike the cartoons, such images are not caricatures. More from The NYTimes

More illustrations here

Only they're not so new... Finalists: 01 Acropolis, Athens, Greece 02 Alhambra, Granada, Spain 03 Angkor, Cambodia 04 Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico 05 Christ Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 06 Colosseum, Rome, Italy 07 Easter Island Statues, Chile 08 Eiffel Tower, Paris, France 09 Great Wall, China 10 Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey 11 Kyomizu Temple, Kyoto, Japan 12 Kremlin/St.Basil, Moscow, Russia 13 Machu Picchu, Peru 14 Neuschwanstein Castle, Füssen, Germany 15 Petra, Jordan 16 Pyramids of Giza, Egypt 17 Statue of Liberty, New York, USA 18 Stonehenge, Amesbury, United Kingdom 19 Sydney Opera House, Australia 20 Taj Mahal, Agra, India 21 Timbuktu, Mali To vote one has to pay.

fortalecem-nos para a vida, diz Arturo Pérez-Reverte, agora em Lisboa para o lançamento do seu primeiro livro, O Hussardo. Quanto ao Capitão Alatriste, com Viggo Mortensen, está pronto e recomenda-se :) Trailer aqui e fansite aqui

Trailer here :)

The Anagram London Tube Map was censored, the page that was serving it now says «Content removed at the request of Healeys Solicitors acting on behalf of Transport for London and Transport Trading Ltd». The previous post about it on this blog was redone, and here it goes again, since it's being served elsewhere, and that's what matters. Tá bonito, isto... :(

Polumgla from Context

BOOKS of mine have been translated from the English in which they are written into some 25 other languages, the majority of them European. Of the 25 I can read two or three moderately well. Of many of the rest I know not a word; I have to trust my translators to render fairly what I have written. Whether that trust is well placed I find out only rarely, when a bilingual reader who has compared translation with original happens to report back to me. Some such reports come as a jolt. In Russia, I discover, The Master of Petersburg has been renamed Autumn in Petersburg; in the Italian version of Dusklands, a man opens a wooden crate with the help of a bird (what I wrote was that he used a crow, that is, a crowbar). Most reports, however, are reassuring. Even in the money-driven world of modern publishing, shoddy translations seem to be rare. In the translation of literary works in particular, the urge to give of one's best even when it may not be noticed still seems to reign. As ...

Click on the images to see a descripton of the Myth :) From LiveScience

Great question. [To the scientists] I would recommend “Invisible Cities” by Italo Calvino, “Blindness” by José Saramago , “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, and “The Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayyam.” And for works of science for non scientists, I would recommend first of all “The Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin, “The Character of Physical Law” by Richard Feynman, and “A Mathematician’s Apology” by G.H. Hardy, the great Cambridge mathematician. Although that’s mathematics and not science, it’s a stunning book. The Future of Science: A Conversation with Alan Lightman

A quarter-century ago, the idea that Spain might be considered a vivid center of architectural creativity would have been considered definitely silly, and possibly cruel. The great nation was still awakening from the long cultural slumber enforced by dictator Francisco Franco, who died in 1975. Franco's idea of great architecture was a deadening, nationalistic sort of classical kitsch. Modern architecture, for the most part, was just something for the tourists -- mile after banal mile of hotels that were degrading to local culture and the fine beaches they were built on. And, yet, here we are. Spain today is "an international stage for architectural innovation and experimentation," says Terence Riley of the Museum of Modern Art. Riley backs up his words in "On-Site: New Architecture in Spain," a riveting exhibition of models, photographs and words that opens this morning in Manhattan. Contemporary is the word. Of the 53 projects in the MoMA show, 35 are under...

Agamemnon steals woman from Achilles. Achilles is sad. Achilles complains to his mommy, who happens to be a god. More woman stealing occurs. Pertinent descriptions of the crews of a large number of boats. Achilles whines to his mommy. Rocks no ten men today could lift are thrown into soft and yielding left nipples. Everyone dies. Achilles whines to his mommy. Casts of characters: Achilleus - Momma's boy; application for the US Postal Service rejected due to his inability to control his "menis" or god-like wrath. Agamemnon - Once leader of a group of kindergarten schoolchildren; now believes he has the capacity to lead an entire army. The only army he is in control of are the ones attached to his torso. Everyone hates Agamemnon. Patroclus - his mom thought "Patrick" was a cool name, but his father wanted something cool, so your mom agreed to name him Patroclus Hector - The Trojan who reaks the most havoc and heck. Hence the name "Heck-tor" Priam - He...

From the book

Obrigada ao caracolito!

For a bit of history and samurai prints, click here Thanx to Mawalien

God bless my ground floor apartment with me tiny gardencinho

‘Late Show with David Letterman,’ CBS “Good news, ladies and gentlemen, we have finally located weapons of mass destruction: It’s Dick Cheney.” “We can’t get Bin Laden, but we nailed a 78-year-old attorney.” ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,’ NBC “That’s the big story over the weekend. ... Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fellow hunter, a 78-year-old lawyer. In fact, when people found out he shot a lawyer, his popularity is now at 92 percent.” “Dick Cheney is capitalizing on this for Valentine’s Day. It’s the new Dick Cheney cologne. It’s called Duck!” ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,’ Comedy Central “Now, this story certainly has its humorous aspects. ... But it also raises a serious issue, one which I feel very strongly about. ... moms, dads, if you’re watching right now, I can’t emphasize this enough: Do not let your kids go on hunting trips with the vice president. I don’t care what kind of lucrative contracts they’re trying to land, or energy regulations they’re trying to get lifte...

Dresden has become a particularly charged symbol of suffering, in part because the former East Germany encouraged commemoration of the bombing, and questioning of the Western powers and reunification has brought the discussion of the Dresden fire-bombing to the entire country. But there has also been prodigious recent literary attention focused on it. The destruction of Dresden has been taken up by historians and literary humanists, including W.G. Sebald in On the Natural History of Destruction (who spreads his ruminations across many bombed cities), Jonathan Safran Foer in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close , German historian Jörg Friedrich in Der Brand (The Fire), and British historian Frederick Taylor in Dresden , as well as in a new film melodrama, Dresden , which just premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. More from Slate

When I finally catch wind of Sleepless in Sudan , it closes :( Still, lotsa stuff to catch up on - 9 months of posting - and the promise to be continued.

E claro, Conchita é um nome muuuuuuito português!

Two shock announcements yesterday - first a ban on the trade in caviar, second the news that balsamic vinegar is naff, according to top chefs - have left middle-class kitchens dangerously short of overpriced gourmet foodstuffs. To find replacements that can quickly achieve the same cachet among people who can't really cook will take, at the very least, some lateral thinking. Below, the long list: Apple hearts. Top British apples whittled down to their nutty, woody essence by teams of poorly-paid eastern Europeans, the only ingredient to use for a proper tarte au coeurs des pommes. Pure Scottish dishwasher salt. The saltiest salt, pound for pound, on the planet. OK, so it's not actually fit for human consumption, but that's what they used to say about mouldy cheese. Foetal peppers. It's hard to believe that once upon a time English cooks discarded the little tiny peppers you sometimes find growing inside big peppers. With recipes such as foetal pepper, truffle and apple ...

Quercus suber is among the noblest of trees and not just because this oak has traditionally produced corks for wine bottles the world over. But the cork oak's bark can only be harvested every ten years and it can take up to 50 before the outer bark is ready for its first cutting. Cork, like wine, needs patience, so it is impossible to suddenly boost supply. But patience is now running out in Portugal, the world's main cork producer. Increasing competition from modern alternatives like plastic tops, synthetic stoppers and, dare one mention it, screwcaps is hurting the Portuguese economy as well as removing a little magic from wine drinking as surely as a corkscrew does with a cork. Even the prestigious Wine Society dispatches wine in screwtop bottles these days. So now there is a fightback on behalf of the environmentally friendly cork, none of whose supposed defects such as "cork taint" cannot be dealt with by modern methods. Leading the fight is José Mourinho, Chelse...

I feel offended. Zealots are nailing veils onto the faces of my sisters in Afghanistan and Pakistan and are busy hanging women, homosexuals, adulterers and non-believers. But human rights, women's rights and the right to liberty are the most exalted in the history of humanity; this is the tradition in which I was raised. Values that make the world better and more peaceful. I demand that the governments of Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Indonesia and Egypt apologise to me. Otherwise I am unfortunately forced to threaten, beat up, kidnap or behead their citizens. Because I am somewhat sensitive about my cultural identity. I feel offended. Fanatics are blowing up the Buddhas of Bamiyan, marvellous cultural monuments. But art is an expression of universal beauty and innocence to me. It is a value that makes the world better and more peaceful.; this is the tradition in which I was raised. I demand that Hamas, the spokesman of the French Muslims and the Director of the Al-Azhar-University apol...

The health food section at my local supermarket seems a bit of a reproach, when you eventually find it sandwiched between instant packet sauces and speciality olive oils. This is where you can buy products made by the Food Doctor. His cereal, fruit and seed bars may consist of 26.6% sugar in its various guises and cost 75p each; they are, however, "designed for a balanced metabolism". Most of the food here makes similar claims for itself. But an unspoken question hangs uncomfortably over the shelf flyer: if this is healthy, what does that make the products in all the other aisles? Well, some of them have now started making claims for themselves too. Over in yoghurts you can buy pots of Danone's Activia with its patented bifidus "digestivum" bacteria. You've probably seen it advertised on television. Cod Latin names may clog up the brain, but this bacterium is "clinically proven to help improve digestive transit". Which presumably explains why it is...

Yep, pretty irresistible: airlines. "It is thought the company may also be in exploratory talks with another U.S. carrier, Alaskan Airlines" (Times). It's Alaska Airlines. "It was found only a few miles from where a Swiss Air jet crashed two years ago" (Boston Globe). It's Swissair. Perhaps because airlines so commonly merge or change their names, they are often wrongly designated in newspaper reporting. The following are among the more commonly troublesome: Aer Lingus Aerolineas Argentinas AeroMexico AeroPeru Air-India (note hyphen) AirTran Airlines (formerly ValuJet Airlines) Alaska Airlines All Nippon Airways (not -lines) Delta Air Lines (note Air Lines two words) Iberia Airlines (not Iberian) Icelandair Japan Airlines (Airlines one word, but JAL for the company's abbreviation) KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (normally just KLM) LanChile (one word, but formerly Lan Chile, two words) Sabena Belgian World Airlines (normally just Sabena) Scandinavian Airlines S...

The Danish cartoons are all the rage now, they show freedom of expression, the single most important fixture of the Western world, and they must be defended, according to Ibn Warraq, a Muslim dissident writing in Der Spiegel: On the world stage, should we really apologize for Dante, Shakespeare, and Goethe? Mozart, Beethoven and Bach? Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Gogh, Breughel, Ter Borch? Galileo, Huygens, Copernicus, Newton and Darwin? Penicillin and computers? The Olympic Games and Football? Human rights and parliamentary democracy? The west is the source of the liberating ideas of individual liberty, political democracy, the rule of law, human rights and cultural freedom. It is the west that has raised the status of women, fought against slavery, defended freedom of enquiry, expression and conscience. No, the west needs no lectures on the superior virtue of societies who keep their women in subjection, cut off their clitorises, stone them to death for alleged adultery, throw acid on t...

What you need Cell phone with MP3 ring-tone support CD or MP3 of the song Any method of transferring the ring tone from computer to phone (USB, Bluetooth, e-mail, instant message, etc.) Audio-editing software that allows export to MP3. If you don't already have this, Audacity is a good open-source program you can download for free, and is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. You'll also need the LAME library for Windows , Mac or Linux . (LAME is a free downloadable MP3 codec that enables Audacity to encode to MP3.) About 20 minutes Instructions on Wired

Wired reports that NASA and SETI imagine life on other worlds

Still, more disposable stuff in the world? The posties of Australia could be in for a bit of a shock. Rather than delivering conventional postcards, they could soon be dropping off high-tech digital postcards - ones with built-in flat screens that can play a slide show of photos taken by the sender. That's the vision of Stuart Calvey, a 22-year-old industrial design student at the University of NSW whose invention could mark the most significant upheaval for the postcard since it made its debut in an Austrian letterbox in 1869. Calvey's Snap+Send Postcard, a disposable digital camera, is so light and inexpensive it can be sent in the mail. All it needs is a stamp. "You would buy it at a newsagent or photo developer, take a few shots and, once it's full, you stick a stamp on it, address it and put it in the postbox," Calvey says. "Then grandma, or your girlfriend, gets it. They tear open the perforations, fold out a little kick stand on the back and sit it...

Dear Cosmopolitan, We need to talk. Over the years, I really appreciated how your magazine and team of experts have taught millions of women how to properly perform fellatio and enjoy the soothing sensation of anal intercourse . I am surprised to find in your latest issue , you claimed that if a man has an “ Asian character tattoo ”: This stud craves mystery in his life, so expect surprises, whether it's a last-minute getaway or an out-of-the-box erotic move. “Since few will know the translation of his chosen character, he relishes the opportunity to explain the hidden meaning behind it," says Green. "He uses the symbol to give people insight into his personality and what he's all about." Are you f*cking kidding me? Obviously you have been cooped up inside your office for too long, over-dosing on the complementary chocolates from Godiva, but please do take a look of my site and perhaps read through some of the “Asian character tattoo” owners’ stories… By the ...

Wog. Spastic. Queer. Nigger. Dwarf. Cripple. Fatty. Gimp. Paki. Mick. Mong. Poof. Coon. Gyppo. You can’t really use these words any more and yet, strangely, it is perfectly acceptable for those in the travel and hotel industries to pepper their conversation with the word “beverage”. There are several twee and unnecessary words in the English language. Tasty. Meal. Cuisine. Nourishing. And the biblically awful “gift”. I also have a biological aversion to the use of “home” instead of “house”. So if you were to ask me round to “your home for a nourishing bowl of pasta” I would almost certainly be sick on you. But the worst word. The worst noise. The screech of Flo-Jo’s fingernails down the biggest blackboard in the world, the squeak of polystyrene on polystyrene, the cry of a baby when you’re hungover, is “beverage”. Apparently they used to have “bever” days at Eton when extra beer was brought in for the boys. And this almost certainly comes from some obscure Latin expression that only Bo...

For the finding of Vasily Grossman's masterpiece, Life and Fate

«A recently unveiled map purporting to show that a Chinese explorer discovered America in 1418 has been met with skepticism from cartographers and historians alike.» This and the book 1421: the Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies, that a friend has read and liked, but if the author «argues that Zheng led a fleet of 300 ships to America in the early 15th century to expand Ming China's influence», I'd like that yarn very much indeed! National Geographic News