myPics: Noël

It's been a while since I've posted. So, I didn't want to go too long without an entry. For the start of your Holiday pleasure - here is our Christmas tree in the new residence.

There's a lot of cool in this pic, I know.

myPics: Cira Centre

Over last weekend, I rented a car at a location at 30th Street Station.  The rental car facilities' cars are now located in a parking lot next to the Cira Centre instead of the basement of Amtrak's 30th Street Station. It walking my paperwork back, I realized that I had never been so close to the Cira Centre before and snapped this picture. I like how the perspective distorts that non-perpendicular lines of the building, causing you not to notice it at first.

myPics: Scotland, the Wonderous

I fell in love with Scotland.  It's like Ireland but connected to England, and I must confess - I love the Scottish accent more. Here's a rather nostalgic shot taken in the Moffat Hills of Southern Uplands of Scotland.



The grass really was that green and the sky that blue. It's moments like this I can start to wrap my mind around how the Celtic languages had same word to mean green or blue, glas, because they are both so magnificent together. 

myPics: Transgression

Ga Kho Gung

This picture is a beautiful as
the ginger, honey and lemongrass smell
(I wish I had any star anise)

As many of you may know, I’m working on getting my fitness levels back to where they were in 2010 just in time for my 40th birthday. I know, at 40 the body turns to shit anyway - we start to lose our muscle mass, the dreaded prostate exams start, etc. So why care? So I can still live a good and happy life until I’m ready to call it quits. I want to be able to walk when I’m 90 and avoid diabetes. You know, that stuff.


Therefore, I googled “healthy ethnic cuisine” to find a new recipe for my Around the World in a Pot! The CNN Health article I found named Vietnamese as one of the ten healthiest cuisines. I was determined to find a Vietnamese meal that I could make in the slow cooker. I searched the web and found Vietnamese inspired slow cooker recipes, but nothing very authentic. (Not that what I cook is authentic, but it’s close.) In the comments of the open forum boards that I found myself on, I noticed several comments that mentioned that Ga Kho Gung (Vietnamese Braised Chicken with Ginger) might lend itself to the slow cooker. However, I didn’t find any recipes; so I’m taking a stab.

The marinated chicken added
to the slow cooker

Kho comes from the Vietnamese for to braise, stew or simmer, and it is a cooking technique in which a protein (fish, shrimp, poultry, pork, beef or fried tofu) is braised on low heat in a mixture of fish sauce, sugar, and water or a water substitute such as young coconut juice. It lends itself to being a slow cooker dish due to the slow cooking.

The CNN article highlights the use of fresh herbs and cooking techniques that use water or broth as the ways that Vietnamese food stays lower in calories. So I followed these guidelines in adapting the Ga Kho Gung to the slow cooker, using water, adding a few more herbs to the dish and switching out white sugar with antioxidant and antimicrobial honey. 

As for dinner, both of my sources suggested serving over rice, which I will make brown rice.  Also, I think that it would pair nicely with an Asian flavored kale salad that I found on LIVESTRONG's blog: Nutty Kale Salad. This will make a wonderful meal on my gym days where I, per Lose It!, earn an extra 500+ calories from elliptical and weight-training.

Ga Kho Gung (Vietnamese Braised Chicken with Ginger), adapted from Cookin' Canuck's Ga Kho & SparkRecipes' Ga Kho

Based on 8 servings,
courtesy of Calorie Count by about.com

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp plus 1 tsp fish sauce
• ¼ tsp kosher salt
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• ½ tsp dried red chili flakes
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced 
• 3 lbs. bone-in, skinless chicken thighs, fat trimmed, generously seasoned with kosher salt 
• ¼ cup honey 
• ½ cup water 
• ½ medium onion, finely chopped 
• ½ cup fresh ginger, peeled, and cut into matchsticks 
• 3 to 5 star anise pods (optional) 
• lemongrass (optional) 
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced 
• a handful of mint, thinly sliced

Directions:

1. Mix marinade of fish sauce, salt, pepper, chili flake and one of the cloves of garlic; add chicken and let it sit overnight. 
2. In the slow cooker, add honey, water, onion, ginger, star anise and the remaining clove of garlic – mixing well; add the chicken and stir together.
3. Cook on low for 8 hours. 
4. Serve with sliced green onions and mint as a garnish. 

Serves 8

Based on 7 servings,
courtesy of Calorie Count by about.com

Nutty Kale Salad, adapted from LIVESTRONG's blog.

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• ¾ cup apple cider vinegar
• ½ cup natural chunky peanut butter
• 3 tbsp honey
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 14 cups kale

Directions:

1. Prepare the dressing, mixing the soy sauce and rice vinegar, then whisk in the peanut butter and honey; when those ingredients are combined, add the garlic and cumin and let sit.
2. Wash, clean and dry the kale. De-vein the kale and chiffonade the leaves.
3. In a large bowl dress the kale to be thoroughly covered with dressing and let sit in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours to soften the greens for a better texture. 

Serves 6-7

myPics: NYC

I was in New York City for about 14 hours on July 24, but I was able to get this picture while I was running to Pret a Manger for lunch while getting in the spirit of London's hosting of the (then) upcoming Olympics.

I never realized that Mercury/Hermes was on the top of Grand Central Station.  It makes sense, but I never really looked at the piece before. I was lucky to get a clear shot at Mercury and get the top of the Chrysler Building in the picture too.

myPics: British Gold

Technically this is not a picture I took at all with my iPhone therefore it bucks the theme. However, I did have to search for this image and adapt it to the format I use in my blog’s myPic meme.

I saw this image yesterday during the Olympics coverage – it’s from the United Kingdom’s first gold medal ceremony of the Olympics for the women’s double scull. I saw the Union Jack rise and heard the crowd singing “God Save the Queen” at full volume. (It recalled the 2000 Sydney Olympics when the crowd would sing “Advance Australia Fair.”) As I relive the Sydney memories, a flag with the Union Jack in the upper right hoist flies upward; it’s Australia. Then other… it’s New Zealand.

It is simply a striking image to me – one for what should be a very proud host nation. Britannia’s athletes trained rigorous hard to success and they get to revel in their triumph, sharing the podium with two of her strongest Commonwealth Realms.

(I’m sure the Aussies and the Kiwis might think differently.)

The London Olympics 2012 Start Now!

It’s here. Tonight is the opening ceremonies of the London Summer Olympics 2012. I couldn’t sleep last night; it was like Christmas Eve.

John Williams’ score is in my head – you know it  – Olympic Fanfare and Theme based on Leo Arnaud's “Bugler's Dream:” Bum bum bum bum-da-bum bum bum bum & doot-doot-doot-doot doo doo.

We will watch the United Kingdom’s response to China’s jaw-dropping opening. How will it start? The Queen in her jubilee year will open it but to what fanfare? Who will light the cauldron? What ancient rock stars will perform? Will non-Olympian, but rugby-hero and anti-bullying-advocate Ben Cohen be involved? (I think I’m only of handful who are thinking about Ben versus Beckham at the games.)

Starting 10 days out, I tweeted my favorite Olympic Moments of all time. For the sake of clarity, I’m repeating them here (but switching out the Winter Olympics moments for other Summer memories) for my personal top ten significant Summer Olympics moments.

10. Kerri Strug’s Gold Medal Vault. Atlanta, 1996.

Fresh out of college, I was living in my first apartment on my own and I was glued to the TV watching the Atlanta Olympics. It was the first Games on home turf since Los Angeles, and the first time when Russia, China and the US all vying for hardware in an American-hosted Olympics.

9. The US Boycott of the 1980 Olympics

This obviously is not favorite Olympics moment, but a significant one, that I wanted to add. As a seven year old, I didn’t understand politics or the difficulties in Afghanistan that still linger today. I did know that I wasn’t going to get to watch this magical sporting event that I only vaguely understood since the last Games occurred when I was three.

8. The Inaugural Women’s Marathon, Los Angeles, 1984

Joan Benoit

Gabriela Andersen-Schiess

Do you remember the inaugural women’s marathon in LA in 1984? I remember being glued to my TV during the summer to watch as many events as my parents would allow. I recall Joan Benoit being one of the favorites and watching her start to edge out from Grete Waitz. She had a lead early one and won the Marathon definitively. Then the focus moved on to Switzerland’s Gabriela Andersen-Schiess. Suffering from fatigue and dehydration, Gabriela painfully entered Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. There riveting issues was the debate about providing her medical aid immediately and subsequently disqualifying her or letting her finish and risking brain damage.

7. Carl Lewis Equaling Jesse Owens’ 1936 Performance, Los Angeles, 1984

Originally, I had ranked the US Entrance into Centennial Olympic Stadium, Atlanta, 1996, as one of significant memories. However as I was working to replace my Winter Olympics moments with Summer ones, I came across a rush of memories: Greg Louganis Accident and Redemption, Seoul, 1988; Zola Budd and Mary Decker Collision, Los Angeles, 1984; Juan Antonio Samaranch’s Final Closing Ceremony, Sydney, 2000, where he proclaimed, "I am proud and happy to proclaim that you have presented to the world the best Olympic Games ever." However, Carl Lewis and his feat of repeating Jesse Owens’ 1936 Berlin Performance, reminded us Americans, that we have the constant potential to be the best in the world if we only make that our goal.

6. Nadia Comăneci & her Perfect 10.0, Montréal 1976

This is my first vague memory of the Olympics – my parents who were recreational skiers back in the day had avidly watched the 1976 Winter Olympics, Innsbruck, Austria, in February. Married in January 1972, my mom and dad honeymooned in Innsbruck and felt an affinity for the games because they had been there four years prior. This excitement continued into July, and the Montréal were on the TV every evening. It is hazy, but I do remember the world’s reaction to the diminutive Romanian’s perfect score.

5. 2008 Drummers, Beijing, 2008

All eyes were on the Bird’s Nest, on August, 8, 2008 (8/8/08). The date was extremely auspicious as the number 8 is the Chinese lucky number, akin to our Western beliefs about the number 7. We all knew that Chinese had the human resources to out-maneuver, to out-perform and to out-shine any past Opening Ceremony. With the combination of edited reality in the form of CGI, lip-syncing, Han-only volunteers, Zhang Yimou and Zhang Jigang still awed the world with 2008 coordinated drummer pounding the heartbeat of the Games into a pulse racing rush.

4. Clepsydra, Athens, 2004

The games returned to Athens after the sting of the IOC awarding Atlanta the Centennial Olympics. I remember having a dream in 1997, just days before the IOC’s decision announcing the 2004 host that Athens would win the bid. (My dream including the originally bid’s logo, http://content.sportslogos.net/logos/27/1758/full/7015.gif, which I never recalled seeing before.) Finally the day had come for Greece to welcome the world home, and the pageantry was amazing. In movement of the Opening Ceremonies called Clepsydra, the water clock, The AOGOC visually told the world the complicated, tempestuous but beautiful history of Greece in a stunning parade with Eros giving his blessing.

3. Michael Phelps's 7th Gold, Beijing, 2008

I wasn’t alive for Mark Spitz. If I were, he would have made this list. However, Michael Phelps’s races were inspiring and collectively we wanted him to best Spitz, because then, we could show the world that America’s only completion is ourselves – not the Russians, not the Germans, not the Chinese. We truly are the only people who hold the bar so high for ourselves, and through diligence, we will surpass our expectations. I think that I held my breath during each lap, like my not consuming oxygen would help him (and regardless that the footage was televised about half a day later.) Hope and desire and fandom don’t always allow for reality to crash in.

2. Cathy Freeman’s Gold, Sydney, 2000

Ten days after setting the world on fire with the lighting of the Olympics Cauldron through the beautiful though-glitched water ignition, Cathy Freeman burned up the track in 400 meter final in front of a jubilant home-nation crowd.

Freeman won the Olympic title in a time of 49.13 seconds, becoming only the first Australian Aboriginal to win goal in a solo event. (Nova Peris-Kneebone won goal in for field hockey in Atlanta). After the race, Freeman took a victory lap, carrying both the Aboriginal and Australian flags, despite the fact that unofficial flags are banned at the Olympic Games. Though the Aboriginal flag is recognized as official in Australia, it is not a national flag and therefore not recognized by the IOC. However, her lap was without incident and the Aussies cheered her on.

1. Antonio Rebollo Igniting the Cauldron, Barcelona, 1996

In this one magical motion, Antonio Rebollo captured the imagination and awe of the globe; this lighting still gives me chills. This smooth, fluid act remains the pinnacle of all Olympic memories for me. In the climax of the ceremony, the paralympian lights the tip of his arrow from the Olympic torch and shoots it up into the gas floating above the cauldron – it erupts into flames – to the cheering throngs of athletics, coaches, supports and fans in the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys.

I hope that tonight’s ceremony adds many thrilling and awe-inspiring moments to my memories.

Happy Opening Ceremonies!

myPics: Pilgrim Monument

Not yet named travel entry: Dartmouth College

It's been a while since I posted on my own blog, but here is an entry that was originally posted on Frankly Penn (the University of Pennsylvania Alumni blog) on June 27, 2012. I have made minor edits.

For those who don't know my day job, I work in Alumni Relations. Not everyone understands what I do on a daily basis.

Baker Library, quintessential Dartmouth

Alumni relations professionals advance the mission of their institutions and serve and support its alumni - graduates of an educational institution - reflecting the values of the institution. We reinforce the principles of honesty, integrity, and trust, which form the basis for long-term relationships and engagement with the school. For the majority of us, we manage and direct the work of alumni volunteers who are promoting the image of the College or University to their school peers.

Annually, the Alumni Relations groups of the 8 Ivy League Universities as well as MIT and Stanford gather for the Ivy Plus Alumni Relations Conference, or Ivy+ for short. It is three-day forum at a peer institution where were meet our colleagues who do the same work we do in order to hone our craft. This year, the conference was hosted by Dartmouth College.

Dartmouth Hall, the original college building

Nestled in the town of Hanover, NH, Dartmouth College sits as an idyllic institution of higher education. So perfect is the image, Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 said “this is what a college is supposed to look like.” It is quite charming and, if Penn didn’t exist, I would agree with Eisenhower (for the record, I think that Brown, Cornell, Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford and Yale are all what college is supposed to look like.)

The Dartmouth Alumni Relations staff dazzled us with their school pride and shared with us their traditions like the Dartmouth Outing Club First-Year Trips, the Salty Dog Rag, the Winter Carnival, and Homecoming. From D-Term to Animal House, from Sophomore Summer to Occom Pond, we were taken on a crash course of all that is Dartmouth. By the end, several of us were seeing green – Dartmouth Green.

Christine Tempesta, Director, Strategic Initiatives, delivering her TEDx-style speech (note the ice sculpture of a beaver – MIT’s mascot)

Each of my colleagues found our specific conference track – focused on our area of expertise, including Affinity Groups and Shared Interest Groups; Alumni Education and Travel; Classes and Reunions; Clubs and Regional Associations; Marketing, Communications and Technology; Student and Young Alumni Programs; and Volunteer Management and Alumni Boards. In these sessions, we discussed best practices and shared success stories that we can hopefully adapt at our home University. The intent is that when we return to our campus, we follow up and continue the conversations started at Ivy+. I've already been in touch with my wonderful peer at Dartmouth, and I'm working on my follow up to my presentation, "Are Small Clubs Dying?" to the attendees.

Vijay addressing the Ivy+ crowd

Outside of our tracks of expertise, we had daily plenary sessions. Two of these featured Christopher Trimble, adjunct professor of Business Administration and Vijay Govindarajan, the Earl C. Daum 1924 Professor of International Business, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College – the authors of The Other Side of Innovation. During Ivy+, their discussions were based on our pre-conference reading (a.k.a. homework), How Stella Saved The Farm: A Wild and Woolly Tale About Making Innovation Happen, a fable based on their business best-seller. The discussions revolved around how to change the way we think about the planning for the future (where will the firm be in 20 years and what products or services will being the firm there) and addressing the need of mutual respect for the business’s production engine and its innovation team (both of which will be in conflict with each other).

The Tower Room, in Baker Library – the statue is a tribute to the original mission of the College

The other plenary discussion was from Peter Post, Director, The Emily Post Institute, and a follow Penn alumnus, who discussed the etiquette of tough situations. Peter annually comes to Dartmouth during their sophomore summer for a lunch which pairs the current sophomore class (the Class of 2015) with the matching 50th reunion class (the Class of 1965). The lunch is a wonderful opportunity for the two classes to make connections and discover each others class, while learning (or refreshing) their table etiquette. For us, though, Peter focused on what the contemporary meaning of etiquette is while being true to his great-grandmother’s mission: etiquette is the relationship between two people that is respectful, considerate, and based in honest. In remembering these three tenets, Peter assured us that we would have proper etiquette in the business world. He finished his talk with some role play to manage some of the most challenging interactions in today’s social world.

The Steam Tunnel Tour (picture from the Ivy+ Facebook page)

We talked shop, but we had fun too. On Wednesday, we had the options of a tour of the Hood Museum of Art for the show – Nature Transformed: Edward Burynsky’s Vermont Quarry Photographs in Context, a walking tour of campus led by Dartmouth sophomores or underground steam tunnel tour. On Thursday, we had a Dr. Seuss-themed Oh, the Places You’ll Go! excursion (Theodor Seuss Geisel is a Dartmouth Class of 1925 alumnus), which mirrored the Dartmouth Outing Club First-Year Trips, to the Connecticut River for either canoeing or kayaking, to King Arthur Flour Store and Bakery, to Simon Pearce – glassblowing and pottery studio, to a guided hike along the Connecticut, to the Hood Museum for the presentation “Ancient Art, New Media: Bringing the Past to Life,” or to the Harpoon Brewery. I opted for Harpoon in neighboring Vermont.

I am enjoying my excursion at Harpoon

At the end of the three days, the conference ended with a handful of TEDx-styled talks from our peers, including our own Elise Betz. They were charming, informative, evocative and emotional. The motivational chats moved the audience and summarized the amazing experience of getting to spend 3 days with our Ivy+ peers, sharing our skills, brainstorming ideas and meeting such impressive people who love their alma mater! Ending on a high note, we announced that Penn would be hosting Ivy+ in 2013. It’s a lot of work, but we’re looking forward to it. 

For your information, Peter Post’s guidelines for good business lunch etiquette

myPics: Don't Tread on Me

I am a little bit of a vexillogist. The current naval jack is apocryphally based on the first Union Jack of the United States. Reintroduced in September 11, 2002 on all navy ships in support of the War on Terrorism, the USS Constitution has been flying this jack since the 1980 as the ship's privilege since she is the oldest active ship in the navy. This photo comes from the deck of Old Ironsides.

In a honor of our Independence Day, I posted this photo on facebook.  I took it while I was in Boston this April for the Marathon. However, the picture of the naval jack is altered.  The wind was blowing in the opposition direction and I actually got the text in reverse.  I didn't think that anyone would mind if I flipped the photo in order to show off the text originally from the Gadsden flag. So below I posted the original photo, untouched.

Happy Independence Day.

myPics: Token from Jury Duty

City Hall is an amazing gem in the city of Philadelphia. Here is a detail of the tile in my jury deliberation room from my stint on jury duty about 3 weeks ago. Notice the yellow and blue of the tiles, evocative of the City of Philadelphia flag.

myPics: Like the Dickens

I've moved from Center City to West Philadelphia - only a block away from the very first place I lived after graduating in 1995. I've returned to the area and was impressed to see how lovely Clark Park has become in the years since I left.

In the park is a wonderfully rare treat - one of only two status of Charles Dickens in existence. (The other is in Sydney.)  This one has an addition character, Nell Trent from The Old Curiosity Shop.

myPics: Muddy York Cleans Up

Toronto is a lovely town - full of history, fun and ingenuity. I was lucky enough to sneak a quick picture of downtown and Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport on my trip back home via Cleveland earlier this May. (My flight was our of Pearson.) If you squint, you can see the CN Tower in the lower left area of the shot.

myPics: X - Pittsburgh

During my walkabout in Pittsburgh after getting a Primanti Bros. sandwich this weekend, I returned to my hotel via the End East. I walked past the U.S. Steel Tower.

I remember the first time I was here was summer of 1993, two friends and I were returning from Cleveland and ended up parking at Fifth and Liberty to find a place to eat. We ended up going out to Squirrel Hill for dinner, not before I noted the steel and architecture of the the then named USX Tower.

The building looks like a retro-futuristic skyscraper for a Jules Verne novel.  It is out of place, but yet, one of the appropriate iconic buildings for Pittsburgh. 

Oxtail Ragù over Ricotta Gnocchi

Like the Pollo en Escabeche and the Cawl recipes prior, this is another slow cooker meal to start the night before. As with the cawl, you will need to skim the fat off the top prior to serving. I find it easier to refrigerate while I’m at work and then skim and reheat when I get home.

Just about to turn on the slow cooker
but I forgot to take a pic of the seared oxtails :(

Albeit, this is a little more complex than my usual “set it and forget it” meals, but I’m moving and I’m working on eating most of the items in my freeze and pantry. I had a leftover container of ricotta and some homemade stock. The ricotta, which freezes well by the way, was earmarked for my Cranberry Ricotta Tart for Christmas. However, I didn’t get to dine with Aunt Florence at Christmas this year, so I didn’t have to make the tart. Plus, oxtail just happened to be on sale and I do like a good ragù!

Ragù and not the Unilever brand, Ragú, is a rich meat-based sauce. While there is a difference between sauces from the North and the South, a ragù, in short, is substantially composed of meat as the base, versus a meat sauce which is mostly a tomato base. It’s a little confusing.

After the hour on High

This recipe mixes the two styles. The ox-tails are braised for a long time with vegetables (Southern style) and the meat remains in the sauce and is flavored with a discrete amount of tomatoes (Northern style).

Mostly likely, ragùs entered Italian cuisine after Napoléon’s invasion of northern areas of Italy. Sauces influenced by the French ragoût, a type of main-dish stew, became prevalent in Emilia-Romagna soon after. The word, ragù, is related to the French ragoût.

Oxtail Ragù, adapted from Paola's Oxtail Ragù with Creamy Sage and Two Day Braised Oxtail Ragù

Ingredients:
•    2 Tbsp olive oil
•    1 onion, diced
•    3 cloves crushed garlic
•    2 carrots, peeled and diced
•    2 lbs oxtail, dredged in flour
•    2 cp. stock or broth
•    2 cp. wine, white or red
•    12 oz. tomato paste
•    ½ Tbsp oregano
•    ½ Tbsp thyme
•    2 bay leaves

Directions:

See the carrots and chunks of oxtail meat
that just fell off the bone

1. Sauté onion, garlic and carrots in the olive oil over medium-high heat until the onions are translucent, about 8-10 minutes; remove from the pan and put in the slow cooker.
2. Then add the dredged oxtail to the oiled pan and brown the meat all sides, again about 8-10 minutes; remove from the pan and put in the slow cooker. Using some of the wine or stock, deglaze the sauté pan and add to the slow cooker.
3. Add the remaining ingredients to a crockpot, and add water (or more wine), if needed, to ensure the oxtail is completely covered.
4. Cook on high for 1 hour and then turn down to low and cook for another 7 hours; the ragù is done when the meat falls off of the bones.
5. Refrigerate for around 8 hours; skim the fat off the top and discard bones and bay leaves.
6. Warm up the ragù to top the gnocchi.

Ricotta Gnocchi, adapted from allrecipes' Ricotta Gnocchi

Ingredients:
•    16 oz ricotta cheese
•    4 eggs
•    1 cp freshly grated Parmesan cheese
•    2 tsp salt
•    2 tsp pepper
•    2 tsp garlic powder
•    2¼ cps all-purpose flour, or as needed

Directions: 

1. Combine all the ingredients but the flour in a large bowl evenly, then mix in 1 cup of flour, adding additional flour, if needed, to form a soft dough.
2. Divide the dough into 3 or 4 pieces and roll into 1/2-inch-thick ropes on a floured surface; cut each rope into ¾ inch pieces and place on a lightly floured baking sheet.
3. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil over high heat; boil the gnocchi until they float to the surface, 1 to 2 minutes, then drain.
4. Top with the oxtail ragù.

I owe the blog a picture of the finished gnocchi! 

myPics: Old and New in Toronto

While I was in Toronto for work, I knew that I wanted to see the ROM and the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal.  Relatively early on Sunday morning, I rushed over Bloor and Queen's Park from the Delta Chelsea to get a good 90 minutes in the museum before I had to get ready for our event. I spent most of my time exploring the galleries of the crystal. This is one of my favorite galleries - the dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures.

I took this picture as an example of so many opposites coming together in this exhibit: the juxtaposition of the very ancient with the incredibly new, the organic with the inorganic, the play of light versus dark, the sharp stiff lines and angles with the curving bones and the list goes on.

myPics: Foggy Philly

This week, I took an impromptu staycation overnight.  Our water heater broke and it was going to be about 72 hours before we would have hot water.  So I pricelined a hotel, which happened to be at 11th and Arch, for $55 and stopped home for a change of clothes.  After enjoying a great Malaysian dinner at the Banana Leaf, I returned to my room for some TV in a king-sized bed.  Before calling it a night, I snapped this photo of my view.

 

By the way, I had Beef Rendang for dinner and don't be too surprised if I adapt it for an Around the Word in a Pot soon.

Đuveč

The đuveč from the Wikipedia
article on Serbia

Welcome to my non sequitur life. As you may know, my folks are planning to go to Scotland and Wales this year, and due to the success of our trip to Ireland, I’m invited to go.  This explains why I was looking up cawl a few weeks back. In doing my research on our future trip, I spent Saturday afternoon googling the Celtic Nations, because I only remembered 4 of the 6 of them off the top of my head. (Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. I forgot Brittany and the Isle of Man.) Then too, I only knew 4 of their 6 patron saints (Patrick, Andrew, David and Piran. St Anne is Brittany’s and St. Maughold – I never hear of him either – is Mann’s.)  While I was trying to learn about his story – he was an Irish thief converted to the priesthood by St. Patrick’s nephew and found refuge on Mann – I saw that Irish writers called the Manx island Eubonia. I had thought I saw that word before the night prior when I was reading Wikipedia articles on the Vampire Chronicles.  So I double checked, but it was the name, Eudoxia. I looked up that name in Wikipedia and surfed from Eudoxia to Eudoxia of Heliopolis to Baba Dochia to Baba Marta to Serbia. The Wikipedia article on Serbia was quite long and I got down to the cuisine section of the page. This was at dinner time and I thought that the picture of đuveč [ɟuˈvɛtʃ] (or djuveč or djuvech) looked delicious, all the while I was planning to finish off last week’s bredie.

Layering the ingredients

Đuveč is a Balkan oven-baked meat and vegetable stew similar to ratatouille. This dish is one of the national dishes of many former Yugoslav countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia) as well as of Bulgaria.  The name of the dish comes from the dish in which this delicacy is traditionally prepared.  The Slavic word comes from the Turkish güveç for earthernware pot. With the temperature of this April and May, I think this sounds like a great treat for this week for dinner.

Seared pork

Đuveč, adapted from a djuvec recipe by Vesna, a freelance writer living in Madison, WI, which she in turn adapted from a recipe found in Yugoslav Cookbook (1963, Izdavacki Zavod Jugoslavija).

Ingredients:
1 – 1½ lbs. onions, roughly chopped
1 large eggplant, cubed
1 bell pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
¼ - ½ cp. of parsley, chopped
1 Tbsp. salt
1 Tbsp. paprika
½ Tbsp. black pepper
½ cp. + 2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 lbs. country-style pork ribs, cut in 1" cubes
28 oz. crushed tomatoes
½ cup uncooked white rice
1 lbs. fresh tomatoes, sliced

Looks like my bredie

Directions:
1.    In a mixing bowl, toss together well onions, eggplant, bell pepper, celery, parsley, salt, paprika, black pepper and ¾ cp. of olive oil; set aside.
2.    In a heavy skillet on high, heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil to sear the pork in batches, until browned; set aside.
3.    In the slow cooker, layer the ingredients in this order:

       ½ can crushed tomatoes
       ½ of the vegetable mixture
       Rice
       Browned pork
       Remaining vegetable mixture
       Remaining crushed tomatoes
       Sliced tomatoes

4.    Set the slow cooker on Low and cook for 6-8 hours.

The final product

One thing to note is that I don't think that I salted the đuveč enough when I made it.  I thought that I compensated for the slow cooking time (and I have also edited and up the amounts of seasoning since making.)  Yet, a grinding or two of my pink Himalayan salt was just the trick to make the flavors pop. It has a heavy mouth feel – thick with tomatoes and delicate eggplant – and the herbal notes of celery and the floral notes of tender onion rang through.  The pork just melted in my mouth.  Now, I'm waiting on a co-worker to confirm the relative authenticity of the taste. Before eating, she did let me know that since I used pork as the meat that it was probably more Serbian, which would make the đuveč, ђувеч, since the Serbs use the Cyrillic alphabet.

Wish List: The ROM

East-facing façade of the Royal Ontario Museum,
built in 1933, courtesy of Wikipedia

It’s months shy of a decade since first I visited the ROM, the Royal Ontario Museum, in Toronto. Back then, the ROM was an example of Italianate Neo-Romanesque architecture – a beautiful building commanding Bloor Street. During my stay in 2002, I had heard about the new plans for the ROM and this talk about an addition that would look like a chrysalis. The vision of something so radically incongruous coming out of an original traditional structure always piques my fancy.

Now, with my recently-expedited renewed passport, I will be heading back to YYZ for work and I have taken an extra day to get there on my dime to return to this fantastic museum, which is Canada's largest museum of world culture and natural history and one of the largest museums in North America, in general. It’s no Bata Shoe Museum, but that’s okay.

While I am excited to see the dinosaur specimens and exhibits focusing on the War of 1812’s bicentennial; it’s the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal that is drawing me to the ROM. Inspired by the ROM’s gem and mineral collection, the Crystal was quickly dubbed as such because of its crystalline shape from the original concept sketch. The architect, Daniel Libeskind, initially penned his idea on paper napkins while attending a family wedding at the ROM. This new addition is composed of five interlocking, self-supporting prisms that, per the ROM’s website, “co-exist but are not attached to the original ROM building, except for the bridges that link them.” The exterior is a fourth glass and three-fourths aluminum and the interior houses seven galleries for artifacts and Canada’s largest temporary exhibition hall. Providing openness and accessibility as well as blurring the boundaries between the public street and the private galleries, the Crystal is where both people and artifacts interact to give the museum life.

The ROM addition sketch on a paper napkin

All images, except where noted, are courtesy of the Royal Ontario Museum: Dawn of the Crystal Age.

Tomato Bredie

Building the bredie
in the slow cooker

My exposure to tomato bredie came after I chose the 1999 Man Booker Prize for Fiction winner, Disgrace, by J. M. Coetzee for bookclub. I googled South African cuisines to help develop the theme for the bookclub meal.

In my search, I found this: the Congo Cookbook, a collection of African recipes, which features excerpts from historic texts and rare recipes. One fine highlight was passages from Recipes: African Cooking (Foods of the World), a companion volume to Foods of the World: African Cooking by Laurens van der Post.

Van der Post mused on one of the South African dishes that come from the Cape Malay, bredie:

"Almost every country in the Western world has its meat stew. The Irish, of course, have Irish stew; the English, Lancashire hotpot; the Dutch, hutspot; the Germans, Eintopf; and the Hungarians, goulash. But only in South Africa is the dish of Oriental origin. The very word bredie is significant: it is a Malagasy word from Madagascar, and between the east coast of Madagascar and the world of India and Malaya there has been a steady coming and going since recorded history began. To this day, the bredies are a culinary reminder of that traffic."

Pretend it's lamb

Traditional bredies start with browning sliced onions; then laying mutton chunks for braising; adding the chosen vegetable, which lends its name to the bredie; and slow coking the dish with sweet spices – like cloves and cinnamon – garlic, and chiles. The quintessential bredie is the tomato bredie. The rich stew is full of umami and sweet, that gets a flavor sting of heat from the chiles and spices.

Tomato Bredie, adapted from Laurens van der Post's recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion, peeled and sliced into 1/8 inch thick slices
• 1½ lbs. of boneless shoulder lamb (or beef), cut into 1-by-2-inch chunks
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tsp hot chile powder (like a hot paprika or West African chile powder)
• ½ Tbsp sugar
• ½ Tbsp salt
• 3 medium tomatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/8 inch thick slices
• 28 oz. can of whole tomatoes, crushed by hand
• 2 whole cloves

The addition of the tomatoes,
this bredie's namesake

Directions:

1. Lay the bottom of the slow cooker with the onion rings and then top the onions with the lamb.
2. Top the lamb with garlic, chile powder, sugar and salt, then place the tomato slices over the meat and top the meat and tomatoes with the can of tomatoes.
3. Add the cloves and cover and cook on low for 7 to 9 hours (or high for 4 to 5 hours), until the stew is rich and thick.
4. Serve with a side of rice, if desired.

The finished product - oh so yummy!

myPics: Faneuil Hall

I was in Boston last weekend for the Marathon.  I was planning on watching my cousin run; yet due to the heat conditions, he was able to defer until 2013.  In the meantime, we took our other cousin who had never been to Beantown on a bit of a tourist run. During our stop in Faneuil Hall, I snapped a shot of the staircase.

myPics: Kosciuszko's House

At 0.02 acres, this building is America's smallest National Park. It is the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, at 301 Pine Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

A Polish patriot and a hero of the American Revolution, Kościuszko returned to America to a hero's welcome after his wounding, capture, imprisonment, and banishment from his native Poland occupied by Russia, in 1796.  He lived in America for a year before returning to Europe, living life as a Polish émigré.  On October 15, 1817 Kościuszko died in Solothurn, Switzerland. In 1818 Kościuszko's body was transferred to Kraków, Poland; the Émigré was repatriated.

Today the building serves as a Memorial to Kościuszko's life and work. The displays focus on his work as a brilliant military engineer who designed successful fortifications during the American Revolution.

Cawl

Today I’m bringing you another recipe that you can prep and cook overnight so you can refrigerate while at work to have ready for dinner.

The Welsh Leek on a £1 Silver Proof Coin
with 24k Gold Plating, courtesy of the London Coin Company.

In anticipation of a trip to Wales and Scotland via England, I have been doing my research of all things Welsh and Scottish.  We all know that I got the whisky thing down right, even dropping the "e" when talking Scotch. Yet outside of a haggis, whisky (Scotland) and leeks (Wales), I do know what else to expect. (Scotch eggs might not even be Scottish; London department store Fortnum & Mason claims to have invented them in 1738. For more of a tie in, if you go to the Fortnum & Mason site for the week of April 1, the second photo is of the Queen and the two Duchesses taken on March 1st, St. David's Day, the Welsh nation holiday; Duchess Catherine is wearing a daffodil, the Welsh flower.)

Cawl is recognized as Wales’ national dish. Originally a simple concoction of meat and vegetables, cawl was regularly served in winter months as a two-course meal. The broth would be strained off and served as a light soup then the meat and vegetables would be the main course. Today, the dish has developed into a lamb and leek soup and most common recipes included start with mutton or lamb and leeks with the addition of potatoes, rutabagas, carrots and other seasonal vegetables.  All the pages about Welsh cuisine and food inform me that cawl should be started the day before so that any fat can be skimmed off and all the flavors can blend – perfect for the slow cooker.

Cawl, modified from the following cawl for slow cooker recipes: squidoo.com, bbc.co.uk - Mid Wales page and allrecipes.co.uk

Ingredients:

The finely chopped reserved parsley and leek.

• 2-3 lbs. lamb, shoulder (If lamb is difficult to get hold of, stewing beef is a good substitute. Sometimes I do half and half)
• 6 small potatoes, quartered (For durability in the slow cooker, I use small new red potatoes or Yukon golds)
• 3 leeks, washed and sliced, reserving 1 leek for serving
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 large onion, quartered and sliced
• 1 medium parsnip, peeled and sliced
• 1 small rutabaga or 2 small white turnips, peeled and cubed
• ½ small head of cabbage, shredded
• 2 Tbsp parsley, chopped, reserving 1 Tbsp for serving
• 1 tsp salt, or to taste
• 8-10 peppercorns, or to taste
• 10 cps water

Cawl, on the dinner table (and my
cluttered kitchen in the background. Shh!)

Directions:

1. Trim the fat from the meat as much as you can, and cube into ½ inch sized pieces.
2. Add the remaining ingredients but the reserved leek and parsley and cover with cold water.
3. Cook on Low for 8 hours.
4. Allow to cool (preferably 8 hours) and skim off all the fat.
5. Return to cook on High for 30 minutes or until at a good serving temperature
6. Finely chop the reserved leek and parsley
7. Top the cawl with the chopped leek and parsley and serve with bread.

After making this, I can recommend that you're going to need more salt than you think.  So I salted my cawl after cooking and after chilling and reheating.  I was surprised how the salt disappeared.  Also, when I revisit this, I might consider using some vegetable broth or stock to replace some of the water.

Lastly, if you are going to serve cawl the traditional two-course manner, I would make this suggestion. After removing the lamb and vegetable, add the reserved parsley and leeks to the broth.  This will add more texture to the soup when you serve it as the first course.

Not yet named travel entry: Bayou City and Treasures from Ancient Eygpt

I have visited Houston on a few occasions, but I never really explored the place.  The first time I was stuck out in the suburbs of Humble and my returns to the Space City have had me out in the Galleria area for the day or two that I was working.  This time, I was able to drive around and see more of the city and get to be a part of the daily life.

The monument at its full height

I won’t claim to understand H-town.  Without a guide, I couldn’t find the bustling downtown area.  Yet, I can drive to the Galleria area from the airport blindfolded and I did find the lovely Museum District, around Bissonnet Street.  After a delicious crawfish po’boy lunch at Calliope's Po-Boy, I headed out to the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site, leaving the 610 loop eastward toward La Porte, Texas.

After the twenty mile drive from lunch, I turned off the highway and drove down Independence Parkway, through massive drum-shaped oil containers and the Texas-themed banners.  Off in the distance, I could spy the large column monument as I noticed scenes of the Texas War of Independence painted on the sides of the containers.

I arrived that the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site. The site commemorates battle of San Jacinto which after the Battle of the Alamo and “Runaway Scrape” in Washington-on-the-Brazos cemented Texas’ independence from Mexico.

Sam Houston and his poorly trained Texans were at a strategic loss after these military defeats and could not continue against General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the President of Mexico, and his troops without an advantage.

Advantageously, Houston and his men arrived at Buffalo Bayou around the location where the loop 610 currently crosses the waterway.  There they learned that Santa Anna was camping further downstream, separate from the bulk of the Mexican army, and Houston and the Texas troops were able to capture Mexican provisions to provide desperately needed supplies.

A close up looking up the column

Upon his arrival at nearby San Jacinto, Santa Anna tried to draw the Texans into battle and subsequently learned that Houston’s men outnumber his after a few skirmishes that night. Then began a few days of psychiatric warfare – Houston played a waiting game with Santa Anna – the Mexican troops were tired from staying up all night to be prepared for a Texan attack at first light which never happened.  In turn, Houston’s men rested and ate up for strength.

After three days on April 21, 1836, about 500 more Mexican troops arrived in the morning, Houston sent men to destroy a bridge to delay any reinforcements. That afternoon Houston assembled his troops and sprung the frontal assault using the element of surprise, while two other group of Texans flanked the Mexican camp. The Texans advanced to within 300 yards of the Mexicans before they hollered "Remember Goliad! Remember the Alamo!" and the battle ensued. By the end of the day, Houston was wounded and nine Texans and 630 Mexicans died or were mortally wounded.  Houston had handed Santa Anna a tremendous defeat, though the Mexican President had managed to escape. Not risking Santa Anna’s regrouping with the remaining Mexican army, Houston sent out scouts and they captured the President who was disguised as a private by noon the following day.  With his capture, Santa Anna ordered his troops to withdraw from Texas, securing independence for the Republic of Texas.

Today, at the battle site, the over 567-foot high column stands to commemorate this decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. It is the world's tallest monumental column and is home to the San Jacinto Museum of History, which focuses on the history of the Battle of San Jacinto and Texas culture and heritage. The monument has an observation deck located immediately below the 220-ton Lone Star of Texas which offers northern, western and southern view including vistas of Houston, the USS Texas and the Houston Ship Channel.

Outside the MFAH

However, Texas history was not the impetus for my visit; the main drive behind my travel was the King Tut exhibit in town.

Harrison Ford welcomes you with a narration introducing Tutankhamun - the Golden King and the Great Pharaohs. Anxious and excited, I can’t wait for the reveal.  After Ford’s preamble, the exhibit is opened to us and we enter in awe.

Hours before I sat in a lecture with David Silverman, the Eckley Brinton Coxe, Jr. Professor of Egyptology and Curator of Penn Museum's Egyptian Section.  He is one of the leading authorities on ancient Egypt and its civilization.  Dr. Silverman was the national curator, advisor, and academic content creator for the blockbuster exhibition "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, ” and he was also responsible for the curatorial content in the original 1977 "Treasures of Tutankhamun.” This man knows his Egyptology.

He addressed the small group of us on work as the curator of Tutankhamun - the Golden King and the Great Pharaohs and we followed onto his an additional lecture about the Curse of the Pharaohs.  His thought and grand scheme that went into planning the exhibit was beyond compare.  While it’s obvious that a great exhibit has a compelling story and good layout, this was an extraordinary exhibit.  The attention to detail was impressive. 

This is the behemoth statue

The entrance into the show with Ford’s monologue set up the anticipation.  The open space of the exhibit lends to better maneuvering throughout the exhibition and having 360° of access to the items, like being able to examine the backside's hieroglyphics, adds a richer dimension.  The presentation of the artifacts staged in position alludes to the design and the interior of the tomb.  The exhibition is a voyage from Egypt’s pharaonic history to the contents of Tutankhamun’s final resting place.

The division of the show between the accounts of Tutankhamun’s father, Amenhotep IV (later Akhenaten) through to Pharaohs beyond and the drama of entering Tut’s tomb to learn about the phenomenal articles found in the burial chamber is set up by Bill Kurtis’ exhilarating reading that represent you virtually with the sixteen steps into Tut’s tomb.

The exhibit hosts many wonders from ancient Egypt including a behemoth statue of Tutankhamun standing about 17 feet tall from his tomb (that eerily looks like Michael Jackson a la "Remember the Time."); King Tut’s golden sandals; the funerary mask of Psusennes I, an amazingly detailed golden mask covering the head, chest and shoulders of the mummy of Psusennes; and the collar of Princess Neferuptah, a wide collar of 6 rows of alternating feldspar and carnelian beads finished with two falcon head fastens discovered on the body of Neferuptah, daughter to Amenhotep III.

Funerary mask of Psusennes I

 After seeing these remarkable artifacts, the exhibit finishes with a replica of King Tut’s mummy.  National Geographic, a partner in the exhibition, displays the science behind the show.  Medical doctors have examined his mummy extensively and diagnosed him with a litany of maladies including an under bite, a club foot and fracture below the knee.  The break in his leg has led some scientist to postulate that a blood infection due to poor healing may have caused his demise.

While the mysteries of Tut may have not all be answered, the treasure of Golden King and the Great Pharaohs leave an indelible mark on the visitor.

Tutankhamun pictures courtesy of Dr. David Silverman.