Korean Feast
On Tuesday evening we were invited to have dinner with Jiseon and her husband David. She made an astounding Korean feast and various bowls and dishes literally covered the table. There was soybean paste soup, similar to but in my humble opinion superior to miso, a main dish of kalbi jjim beef shortribs stewed with dates, mushrooms and vegetables, egg battered fish, fresh kimchi, cubes of gelatinous mung bean starch jelly, strands of spicy seaweed, and a steaming bowl of rice to be eaten by the mouthful surrounded by a piece of crisp and salty dried seaweed. To finish we brought William Sonoma style pineapple upsideown tartlets which turned out well and were admired.
We finished watching season 3 of Dexter and are meandering through various films (Where the Wild Things Are, Master and Commander) as well as the first season of Star Trek. I also completed reading The Chronicles of Narnia and felt, probably unfairly, let down by "The Last Battle". The Narnia that I remember from childhood is full of mystery, talking animals, magical beasts, and the most beautiful lion possible who, if you had the chance to actually meet him, would whisper astoundingly deep secrets in your ear, have breath as sweet as peppermints and a velvety nose softer than a horse's. I would have liked to keep church and state more separate in the fantasy, but mostly I found the end tragic when I don't think that was the intention. In fairness to C.S.Lewis I've probably found more melancholy than intended in the endings of both Winnie the Pooh and the Moomins, as well as the words to 'You are my sunshine.'
Now I've started reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and am trying to learn how to read hieroglyphs. Today I transliterated and transcribed several similar passages from stelae in the British Museum. For example, "Regnal year 14 under the person of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt Kheperkare, living enduringly". I like the cartouche for Kheperkare as it is quite simple to read; it combines the images of the solar disk of Re, outstretched arms symbolizing the ka and the scarab Kheper.
For dinner tonight we had River Cafe crab risotto with green salad, a little chardonnay and the last piece of frozen birthday strawberry chocolate cake.
We finished watching season 3 of Dexter and are meandering through various films (Where the Wild Things Are, Master and Commander) as well as the first season of Star Trek. I also completed reading The Chronicles of Narnia and felt, probably unfairly, let down by "The Last Battle". The Narnia that I remember from childhood is full of mystery, talking animals, magical beasts, and the most beautiful lion possible who, if you had the chance to actually meet him, would whisper astoundingly deep secrets in your ear, have breath as sweet as peppermints and a velvety nose softer than a horse's. I would have liked to keep church and state more separate in the fantasy, but mostly I found the end tragic when I don't think that was the intention. In fairness to C.S.Lewis I've probably found more melancholy than intended in the endings of both Winnie the Pooh and the Moomins, as well as the words to 'You are my sunshine.'
Now I've started reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and am trying to learn how to read hieroglyphs. Today I transliterated and transcribed several similar passages from stelae in the British Museum. For example, "Regnal year 14 under the person of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt Kheperkare, living enduringly". I like the cartouche for Kheperkare as it is quite simple to read; it combines the images of the solar disk of Re, outstretched arms symbolizing the ka and the scarab Kheper.
For dinner tonight we had River Cafe crab risotto with green salad, a little chardonnay and the last piece of frozen birthday strawberry chocolate cake.