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August 2007
August 29, 2007
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
Because I didn't grow up here, I didn't read a lot of the books that people in the US read while they were growing up. I read other books. My friends know I'm anxious to fill the American literature void in my being, and to that end one of them sent me A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
For me, it's Anne of Green Gables meets Angela's Ashes. By that I mean even though it describes all the details of a poor, Irish-Catholic upbringing, it doesn't get down and dirty in them. It keeps a kind of Little Women positivity about the situation but does it without completely losing realism.
The main character is the young-but-wise, funny and introverted Francie. The book begins with her at age 11 and leaves her at
age 17. That's exactly the same amount of time we spend with Harry
Potter, only the fear that cannot be named in this book is that of never escaping poverty. Through Francie we endure
the indignities of having no money in Brooklyn at the turn of the last century. And we see that once again, in spite of feminism not really being invented yet (the first wave had only just begun waving), it was women who were supporting and holding their families together against poverty and poor marriage choices.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn provides further proof that although people do not want to experience a poverty-stricken childhood, or the early end of a charming but tragically alcoholic father, or being on the losing team in the class war, they love to read about someone else's experience of these things.
US Book Release
This announcement is kind of late. The Gospel According to Sydney Welles was released last month, and some of you have already read it, but I didn't have a blog up then so I couldn't post about it. That's why I'm doing it now. My first novel is out in the US. Yay!
And very soon I will be offering chances to win the book, and other neat stuff, right here. Please stay tuned.
To find out more about the book, click here.
August 23, 2007
A Nail Through the Heart - Timothy Hallinan
This is a thriller set in Bangkok and an excellent book. And I'm not saying that just because Tim was once my excellent writing teacher. But don't just take my word for it, take this guy from Booklist's word for it:
"The author of the 1990s Simeon Grist series returns with a compelling new protagonist: American travel writer Poke Rafferty, who is out to right some serious wrongs on the predatory streets of Bangkok. While attempting to adopt a homeless girl, rescue a potentially murderous urchin known as Superman, and build a lasting relationship with the former bar girl he loves, Poke is pulled into two brutal mysteries. One involves a notorious Khmer Rouge torturer, the other a series of child-porn photos. As he doggedly plumbs these ghastly depths, Rafferty matures from a play-it-as-it-lays layabout into a man willing to meet his lover’s culture more than halfway and find his moral compass at a time when the victims can be as guilty as the murderers are innocent. The fact that the referenced pedophile photo series and Phnom Penh torture house both existed heightens the impact of a narrative that’s already deeply felt. If this opens a new series, Hallinan is off to a surefooted start with a supporting cast (including Poke’s precocious, pugnacious, almost-daughter Miaow) well worth getting to know." — Frank Sennett
The best thing about this book is that it is the first in a series of three, which means there will be two more to read.
August 21, 2007
China Bans Reincarnation (Without a Permit)
I've only just seen this story. My reaction was WHAT!?!? I thought you should see it too, as it's one of those things you have to see to believe.
The ban is for Tibet, so the rest of us are all free to reincarnate as we like. But still.
An Excellent Sandwich
While colonialism was not a very good thing, at least not for those being colonized, it did, in the case of the French and the Vietnamese, produce an excellent sandwich. The Banh Mi. Spicy, Vietnamese fillings in a crunchy French baguette. What's not to like? Pickled carrot, cucumber, fresh cilantro (that's the same as fresh coriander to Aussies and others), teamed with Vietnamese pate, luncheon meat, grilled pork, meatballs, or some other things I haven't been brave enough to try yet. (Pictured here is a No. 1, extra spicy, from Viet-Nam Banh Mi So 1. I had it with French-pressed Illy coffee for breakfast.)
I first heard of these Banh Mi back when I lived in Melbourne. There were, apparently, some to be had on Victoria Street. But the problem was, whenever I got to Victoria Street, there was just so much other great Vietnamese food to eat that I never got around to it.
Similarly, when I lived in South East Asia for a couple of years, there was just too much other food to be eaten, and too much frolicking in the South China Sea to be done. I never ate one of these sandwiches there either. When Pepper Crab, crunchy baby squid, and the like are readily available, sandwiches aren't top of mind. I don't think I ate one for two years.
I had my first Vietnamese sandwich in New York. And it was one of those "where have you been all my life" moments, and has spoiled me for all other sandwiches, with the notable exception of the po'boys you get in New Orleans.
There are several places you can get Banh Mi in Manhattan. Some are so elusive that I've never found them. I go to the one below. It's in plain view in Chinatown, on the edge of Little Italy. It's a tiny hole-in-the-wall with standing room only, and then only for about four, slim people. It costs around $3.50 a sandwich. I almost always grab a sandwich-to-go here whenever I'm in the area. Washed down with a light red wine for dinner, it makes you feel like a well-fed, happy, transcultural, post-colonial peasant.
Viet-Nam Ban Mi So 1
369 Broome Street (between Mott & Elizabeth)
If you live somewhere where no one makes and sells Banh Mi and you
think I'm cruel for telling you about them when you can't get them, well, I'm not as cruel as
you think. Here is a recipe to make your own. It comes from the
sandwich shop I frequent. Click here for recipe. I've never tried it. Why would I? I can buy them whenever I want to. Okay, so, maybe I am a bit cruel.
August 20, 2007
The Last Real Bargain in Manhattan (Or A Dumpling Day Out)
It is easy to eat well if you just go where Zagat or Michelin has been before you and hand over your wallet. And it’s fun, if expensive, but after a while, dining out with all the other gourmet sheep gets a little boring. You’ve got to mix it up a little. And discovering good food where you least expect to find it, and where you don’t have to pay thirty-dollars-a-plate for it, is often much more fun.
Dumplings are quite possibly the last bargain left in New York City. One dollar for five pork and chive dumplings is a bargain anywhere — for me, five dumplings maketh a meal. But here, in Manhattan, where a million dollars will buy you a one-bedroom apartment if you’re lucky, one-dollar dumplings are such amazing value for money that you even feel slightly better about your rent. The logic goes something like this: Sure, I pay enough in rent each month to support the economy of a small third world nation, and I pay it for an apartment that would fit into the master bedroom of the houses of my friends who live in normal places, on a street where there is traffic and construction noise all day and drunken shouting all night, but, gee whiz, would you look at what I’m saving on these dumplings!
Where do you get these amazingly cheap dumplings? Quite a few places in Chinatown, really, but I like to make the trek to Eldridge Street — it’s in the part of Chinatown where most of the shops look like they’ve gone out of business without anybody noticing, where no one will offer to sell you a (surprisingly sophisticated) fake designer handbag, and where any tourist you encounter is lost, trying to find their way to Canal Street to buy a (surprisingly sophisticated) fake designer handbag.
The Dumpling House, on Eldridge Street, is not a new discovery. The queues out the door prove that just about everyone in Manhattan knows where it is and what it’s for. The gourmet sheep have made it down here, too, and are once again, standing in line for food. I’m not knocking the Dumpling House. It’s great. I go there when there’s no queue, and I buy their take home dumplings whenever I can.
But why would you wait in a line on a sweltering day (or any other day for that matter) when there are other places where, for the same price, you can get the same, or better, food? Prosperity Dumpling, a little way down Eldridge Street, is just such a place. The place does a brisk trade, but there is never a line of gourmet sheep out the door, even though they serve slightly larger, and in my opinion, slightly better pork and chive dumplings than The Dumpling House (though the quality of both can vary). At this place, you do, sometimes, have to order by pointing at the menu, but if you have reading and pointing skills, it’s no great hardship.
The pork and chive dumplings at both these places are great. And, if you’re still hungry, the sesame pancake roast beef sandwich is pretty good too. The sesame pancake is a big round pan-fried bread that looks like focaccia with sesame seeds on top. The first time we went to Prosperity Dumpling, they made the sesame pancake from scratch in front of us, cutting hot slices from it to make our sandwiches. The sandwich cost a dollar-fifty.
All of that is very good but, for me, the beauty of both these dumpling shops is that they will, for very little money, let you take frozen dumplings home with you. A kind lady at Prosperity Dumpling showed us how to cook them while we were there — they are pan-fried, then steamed (after you brown their bottoms, you add water and pop a lid on the pan). I replicate the dumpling sauce at home by adding a little sweet vinegar (an apple cider or sherry vinegar works but my favorite for the task is actually a white balsamic) to soya sauce. I also add chilli oil, which you can get at a Chinese supermarket while you’re in the area. It looks like dried chilli flakes, in oil. Actually, these days, I think even Wholefoods stocks some.
Unlike most people in New York, I don’t use my kitchen for storage. I use it for, well, cooking. My apartment, unusual for this city, is mostly kitchen — due to a not-to-scale sketch my landlord drew for the contractor who renovated the place. Even so, thanks to the proliferation of gourmet markets in downtown Manhattan that make buying fresh food daily easy and desirable, I have nothing in my freezer. And by nothing I mean ice, vanilla ice cream, two kinds of vodka, frozen fresh curry leaves, and either an eight-dollar bag of fifty pork and chive dumplings, or a five-dollar bag of thirty pork and chive dumplings, or both.
Prosperity Dumpling
46 Eldridge Street (between Canal & Hester)
The Dumpling House
118A Eldridge Street (between Broome & Grand)
How to Write a Blockbuster
I'm not sure where this came from or who wrote it. Sorry I can't credit it. It's probably not new (I'm not cool enough to get things new) but it is interesting. Especially as you consider that all six Star Wars films are amongst the highest grossing of all time, and that every tenth book sold is Harry Potter. Maybe there is a formula that works after all.
