The Seder

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy2WPgNOvV8bSboZLeiYAWy-tMpHiD82QXoD1FhBbucDmLCvpDlrGA91hjnSF7nC5GQztMU26mP3e6oomv8SgZhigf_RBrFJ_l8YCvKt8UtpcdSSVtVW6s6zPhtYGpxBk5A_4_LOz1LbIA/s1600/seder1823.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454255573738114786" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy2WPgNOvV8bSboZLeiYAWy-tMpHiD82QXoD1FhBbucDmLCvpDlrGA91hjnSF7nC5GQztMU26mP3e6oomv8SgZhigf_RBrFJ_l8YCvKt8UtpcdSSVtVW6s6zPhtYGpxBk5A_4_LOz1LbIA/s400/seder1823.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Abby's Seder Plate, Wine, and Matzot:</div><div style="text-align: center;">Salt Water, Greens, Charoset, Horseradish, Bone, Egg</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGbUy0U2YgGgGDnK3i7eRzte9TZ-c8_kIuWZ_BOL3Uwb8GivX-jP3SdOQWzkXlY5HAxCtqhPLDegZV4MhiHDiZ45VVwfDxaClSORQzsIPVGfdCZZ9Rp0hywn8PSc4U3LI7aIk37k84Wc6W/s1600/seder1828.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454255560919319666" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGbUy0U2YgGgGDnK3i7eRzte9TZ-c8_kIuWZ_BOL3Uwb8GivX-jP3SdOQWzkXlY5HAxCtqhPLDegZV4MhiHDiZ45VVwfDxaClSORQzsIPVGfdCZZ9Rp0hywn8PSc4U3LI7aIk37k84Wc6W/s400/seder1828.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Gefilte Fish and Egg with Horseradish</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMqwfzAyMBRcr2CZxbkSMUjaejUK96yzmy697C0H4m0qeCIckEhXl4mLaaJQW_Zy3Gv0kJpBtqLQELFD0emy4UuUVVHwAL2ABnlwtop1Jsde91bLYRCiv8_TplW07fNDqO1OoFxdY9yMxt/s1600/seder1829.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454255554270956226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMqwfzAyMBRcr2CZxbkSMUjaejUK96yzmy697C0H4m0qeCIckEhXl4mLaaJQW_Zy3Gv0kJpBtqLQELFD0emy4UuUVVHwAL2ABnlwtop1Jsde91bLYRCiv8_TplW07fNDqO1OoFxdY9yMxt/s400/seder1829.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Matzoh Ball Soup</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBU3Aw_tlhizFwYAEadUjuLjlafS2HihNGAMp_1qYhGU1wlFEPR1dngBhsw3486ALpV2N1SHKynAC-HmtSTS1dX7-DctZHJVeDzhHaa871cdB0i_-G9rdXMuPbwrPrYv5dBlYLr6JYO-SK/s1600/seder1831.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454255543244425906" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBU3Aw_tlhizFwYAEadUjuLjlafS2HihNGAMp_1qYhGU1wlFEPR1dngBhsw3486ALpV2N1SHKynAC-HmtSTS1dX7-DctZHJVeDzhHaa871cdB0i_-G9rdXMuPbwrPrYv5dBlYLr6JYO-SK/s400/seder1831.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Brisket and Vegetables</div></div>

The Seder

Abby's Seder Plate, Wine, and Matzot: Salt Water, Greens, Charoset, Horseradish, Bone, Egg Gefilte Fish and Egg with Horseradish Matzoh ...

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"True Flavors"

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLo7Kz8I4alzkja2-2gKXDV3TlI7fBL8wyblmqIG8JvXjhnbawNcc2LfmGrq55fYZx_dOypCjziieihvuUSOpCgV6hOcV0FNU-YnPsPyMYuG18eLqLda2cKnq2h93xuj5fhJmk8bTvLc71/s1600/chang1800.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453801065780057970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLo7Kz8I4alzkja2-2gKXDV3TlI7fBL8wyblmqIG8JvXjhnbawNcc2LfmGrq55fYZx_dOypCjziieihvuUSOpCgV6hOcV0FNU-YnPsPyMYuG18eLqLda2cKnq2h93xuj5fhJmk8bTvLc71/s400/chang1800.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 400px;" /></a>This sketch of vegetables titled "True Flavors" is painted on a piece of scrap styrofoam -- I wonder if it was part of a cheap picnic ice box. We saw this painting in a beautiful exhibit of the author's work at the University of Michigan Museum of Art.<div><br /></div><div>The artist, Chang Ku-nien (1906-1987), had a delightful way of placing modern objects in classical Chinese paintings. One very long scroll depicted a typhoon that hit Taiwan in 1959, showing a train the artist was riding that almost derailed when the bridge was blown out. A winter scene shows a classical landscape, but two tiny figures at close inspection turn out to be skiiers. Paintings of autumn and winter in Michigan and of the Yellowstone Falls show how the artist's vision could turn American scenes into what appear to be Chinese landscapes.<div><br /></div>"True Flavors" does the opposite: places a Chinese painting on a modern object!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaClN7VbtSlIEwLZI9xF0hz0c0FGTMBYrx0_zibczcbzPTbu0tgRqsurO1XMicVZgNZc0WircZLAKnesuLCzgjvz3ktYvLfEhDd9xmkqg8E8CY4YVPxwcqZr4kxioF4vhfI1QWsxMfZ84J/s1600/chang1807.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453822823386773650" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaClN7VbtSlIEwLZI9xF0hz0c0FGTMBYrx0_zibczcbzPTbu0tgRqsurO1XMicVZgNZc0WircZLAKnesuLCzgjvz3ktYvLfEhDd9xmkqg8E8CY4YVPxwcqZr4kxioF4vhfI1QWsxMfZ84J/s400/chang1807.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a></div>

"True Flavors"

This sketch of vegetables titled "True Flavors" is painted on a piece of scrap styrofoam -- I wonder if it was part of a cheap pic...

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Ayaka Restaurant

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgESLLP4nk7LaCj2i0l6WOfwV9VVwtSnNgGty4lmKpQatEp8FGm7t-2ukuMvf0y1DOXmW-LfWIEz6D0DwAne0zK4lvazrkaK6ZQvJ2IIRFASrl5aKz4qsHJp7tJtMKGWcuLB8jMjgfUWkky/s1600/ayaka1818.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453800135273084578" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgESLLP4nk7LaCj2i0l6WOfwV9VVwtSnNgGty4lmKpQatEp8FGm7t-2ukuMvf0y1DOXmW-LfWIEz6D0DwAne0zK4lvazrkaK6ZQvJ2IIRFASrl5aKz4qsHJp7tJtMKGWcuLB8jMjgfUWkky/s400/ayaka1818.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a>We had lunch at this little place with a nice sushi bar and freshly made tempura served with udon. The decor was tasteful and appealing. It also looked very practical and inexpensive. Plastic chairs, plastic benches and dark formica tables could be easily wiped down -- and were spotlessly clean-looking. Ordinary tableware. But a much nicer atmosphere than a diner with similarly practical and inexpensive furnishings and decor.

Ayaka Restaurant

We had lunch at this little place with a nice sushi bar and freshly made tempura served with udon. The decor was tasteful and appealing. It ...

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A poem to think about

"Ice cream!" Sun. Light airy cakes.<br />A clear glass tumbler of water, icy cold.<br />Our dreams take flight, into a chocolate world<br />Of rosy dawns on milky Alpine peaks.<br /><br />But as the teaspoon tinkles, it is sweet<br />In some little summerhouse amid the dry acacias,<br />To gaze, then take gratefully from tearoom Graces,<br />Little whorled cups with crumbly things to eat...<br /><br />The street-organ's playmate suddenly appears,<br />The ice-cream cart, with multicolored covering --<br />The chest is full of lovely frozen things;<br />With greedy attentiveness, a small boy peers.<br /><br />And what will he choose? The gods themselves can't say:<br />A diamond tart? A wafer filled with cream?<br />But under his slender spoon the divine ice,<br />Glittering in the sun, will soon melt away.<br /><br /> <i>-- Osip Mandelstam</i>

A poem to think about

"Ice cream!" Sun. Light airy cakes. A clear glass tumbler of water, icy cold. Our dreams take flight, into a chocolate world Of ro...

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Victoria Sponge

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6jfVjQSl5yaGfNAoIjlLGcbE5YfUSISB6ORvCrX449bOMmsUmyD0KQrigmy4MIf5vAR_yrN_hY2hvl49XSqiccArS7_zZtaa9_o7Cti6VOhXwqG7omMLZqtI56n5JbMRRURkgAiEM7Z59/s1600/cake1798.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453472860177032594" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6jfVjQSl5yaGfNAoIjlLGcbE5YfUSISB6ORvCrX449bOMmsUmyD0KQrigmy4MIf5vAR_yrN_hY2hvl49XSqiccArS7_zZtaa9_o7Cti6VOhXwqG7omMLZqtI56n5JbMRRURkgAiEM7Z59/s400/cake1798.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 299px;" /></a>I recently read in the <i>Atlantic</i> food section about <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/food/archive/2010/03/victorian-england-age-of-war-politics-and-cake/37854/">the famous Victoria Sponge cake</a>. The cake featured in an article by Tejal Rao about the even more famous Victorian cookbook <i>Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management</i>. The article describes the Victoria cake recipe from the book:<blockquote style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Beeton originally documented the recipe as a perfect 4:4 ratio of a baker's go-to ingredients: butter, eggs, sugar, and flour. Most English cooks still follow that guide, as do many non-English cooks, because the Victoria Sponge is England's most well-traveled cake, visiting her old colonies and never leaving. It still turns up at boarding schools in Kenya and home kitchens in India, and other places too. As a girl guide in England, I had to bake a Victoria Sponge for a stranger and serve it to him with a pot of tea to acquire my hostess badge—which they've since retired or renamed, I imagine. </blockquote>The technique of weighing eggs and then using equal weights of the other ingredients is one I had heard of but never tried. This time, I decided to do the experiment -- as there are only two of us, I started with two, rather than four eggs. I weighed butter, sugar, and flour; creamed the butter and sugar; added the egg, then the flour; and baked my single layer in an 8 inch pan. It took a little longer than the 25 minutes in the recipe, which did not specify pan size. Although I had raspberry jam, which the recipe suggests, I used lemon curd between the layers.<br /><br />Not-so-Victorian tricks: I softened the butter in the microwave oven, and used my electric mixer for beating the cake. My oven has a thermostat and an on-off switch, which no Victorian oven had. Also a modern advantage: I cleaned up with running water and a dishwasher. Eat your heart out, Mrs. Beeton.<br /><br />We ate the cake for dinner, with tea. It's a dense cake, and tasted good. It's true: we had nothing but cake for dinner. How nice.

Victoria Sponge

I recently read in the Atlantic food section about the famous Victoria Sponge cake . The cake featured in an article by Tejal Rao about the...

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Billy's Pan Pizza

If you've read Stieg Larsson's second thriller <span style="font-style: italic;">The Girl Who Played With Fire</span>, you'll recognize the amazing character Lisbeth Salander's favorite food: Billy's Pan Pizza. In her millionaire's apartment, purchased with money she obtained in the course of the first thriller, she has a dream kitchen with "a shiny French gourmet stove with a gas oven as the focus" and a Jura espresso machine, "the espresso equivalent of a Rolls-Royce." But Salander shops at 7-Eleven and other convenience stores and she eats only ready-to-microwave food or ready-made cheese sandwiches while chasing nearly superhuman public enemies and working for truth and justice. When she has time, she makes coffee. Otherwise, a few gulps of water from the tap keep her going. And going.<br /><br />Living on odd bits of instant food, of course, is only one of Salander's amazing capabilities. She's a mathematical genius (including her achievement of the utterly improbable discovery of Fermat's own solution to the famous theorem). She has a photographic memory. She can hack into any computer on the planet. She's brave and honest and agile, out smarts the wiliest criminals, and wins hand-to-hand fights with men several times her size. But the fact that she eats a nerd's diet is indicative of how the late, great Larsson put together his portrayal of this remarkable character.<br /><br />PS -- It's a good read. Both of the books are. But I'm <span style="font-style: italic;">suspicious</span> of the mathematical elements of the second book.

Billy's Pan Pizza

If you've read Stieg Larsson's second thriller The Girl Who Played With Fire , you'll recognize the amazing character Lisbeth Sa...

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Gefilte Fish Selection

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijGGDGj3FlZgHK98oV27i-9Rt2SLixx0QJaZnVXY9mtWrIGmp_MehuQsp5DaIbdCjzH28fZc3RSSPSKhktxuulaQma7P34aCt0_l4A9Jr2M_lx2i3HHRbiEdoFCGYadxSe3IuZsmDguHZT/s1600/gefiltefish-hillers.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452946263215163714" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijGGDGj3FlZgHK98oV27i-9Rt2SLixx0QJaZnVXY9mtWrIGmp_MehuQsp5DaIbdCjzH28fZc3RSSPSKhktxuulaQma7P34aCt0_l4A9Jr2M_lx2i3HHRbiEdoFCGYadxSe3IuZsmDguHZT/s400/gefiltefish-hillers.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 299px;" /></a>

Gefilte Fish Selection

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