Lily's Blog

The Hungarian State Opera House is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. It first opened to the public on the 27th September 1884.

It seems 1884 was a good year for creating cultural institutions. A little later in 1884 – on the 1st November, the GAA, (Ireland’s biggest sports organisation) was founded.

The Hungarian State Opera House is a beautiful neo-Renaissance building located in central Pest, on Andrássy út, (út is the hungarian for street). Designed by Ybl, a major figure of 19th century Hungarian architecture, it is a richly-decorated building and is considered one of the architect’s masterpieces.

In size and capacity, the Budapest Opera House is not among the world’s greatest opera houses. But in terms of beauty and the quality of acoustics, it is considered to be amongst the best in the world.

In front of the building are statues of Erkel, (composer of the Hungarian national anthem, first music director of the Opera House and founder of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, in other words a busy man!), and of Liszt, (the best known Hungarian composer).

The three of us really enjoyed our night at the Opera House, last night.

We went to see Nabucco by Verdi.

Nabucco follows the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian King Nabucco. The best-known number from this opera is the ‘Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves’.

We had great seats in a box near the centre. (These were our neighbours). Just to give you an idea, three tickets for excellently positioned box seats cost €38 in total!

I’d hazard a guess that as the Irish boys plotted and planned in that upstairs room in Hayes’s Hotel, 125 years ago, they didn’t realise that they were following hot on the heels of the Hungarians. And vice versa.

1884 was the year that two very different cultural institutions were formed, two cultural institutions which have stood the test of time in their respective countries.

Here’s to another great 125 years for both.

Noah’s Compass by Anne Tyler

This book tells the story of a year in the life of Liam Pennywell, a man just past sixty and recently let go from his teaching job. Widowed re-married and divorced, Liam is the father of three daughters, though close to none of them. Tyler describes Liam as a man who has learned to dodge issues and skirt adventure in life.

I found I needed to very much slow down to the pace of this novel. I wondered, would I find the subject matter depressing, but didn’t. This novel is very subtle and beautifully written.

Something occurs after Liam downsizes to his tiny out-of-town apartment that causes him to battle a temporary memory loss. He seeks the help of Eunice, an unusual 38-year-old woman. As their relationship develops, he very much questions his own life.

Recently, I read an interview with Sean Rothery, an 82 year old architect, artist, writer and climber. His latest book ‘Snow on the Equator: An African Memoir’ has just been published. In the interview he said, ‘The secret of a long life is to stay alive; to be engaged with life and never to sit back. There is no such thing as taking it easy – you might as well drop dead.’

It struck me that Rothery’s take on life is the complete antithesis of that of the main character in this novel. (I have to say I find myself very much agreeing with Rothery.)

Having read and enjoyed this book, I would be interested in reading more books by the same author.

When I get time!

Photo owned by emreterok (cc)

I plough a lonely furrow.

I’m the only female in a family of five. The rest all have been blessed with good direction genes. I haven’t a direction gene in the world, so to speak.

My lack of direction genes is part of our family folklore. Stories like the time I went wrong not once, but twice, while driving from Nenagh to Sligo, a journey I had done many times. My simple explanation was that when I’m driving on my own, I get lost in my own thoughts, and just keep driving straight ahead. Twice on that journey, I forgot to turn right.

The journey that should have taken three hours, instead took me five.

Well I had a lot to think about.

When I first moved to Limerick I developed my own mnemonic for remembering Limerick’s main streets.

We Think Rice Can Get Mushy.

WIlliam St, Thomas St, Roches St, Cecil St, Glentworth St and Mallow St.

To this day, I still (have to) use it.

I’m taking heart however.

… when the pilots of Northwest Airlines flight 188 became distracted, it had … serious consequences. They overflew their Minneapolis destination by 240km (150 miles). “They were in a heated discussion over airline policy and they lost situational awareness,” the US National Transportation Safety Board said. When the pilots got their “situational awareness” back, they turned the Airbus A320 around and landed it safely on Wednesday evening,

That’s it. I wont be “get lost’ anymore. I will just “temporarily lose my situational awareness”.

Sounds so much better!

The Time Traveller’s Wife
Audrey Niffenegger

She who must be obeyed writes a blog. She who writes a blog asked me to write a guest post. And since she who must be obeyed, must be obeyed, here goes the guest post – a review of the above book.

I received this book (and others) from someone who loves me, as a birthday present, so I have been slow to criticise, but now that I have a very responsible job, I must be truthful and honest, and no, this doesn’t mean that I’m ungrateful to the person who gave me the present, who is also the person who writes the blog.

I had never heard of Audrey Niffenegger, this book, nor indeed the film which the little silver circle on the cover tells me – “now a major motion picture” (as opposed to a minor still one, I suppose?)

Let’s cut to the chase. I didn’t enjoy this book. You shouldn’t bother reading it. There, I said it. Now let me sum it up for you. Don’t worry about it being spoiled for you by me telling exactly what happened. That doesn’t really matter. There’s not much story to it anyway and if you have sense you won’t be reading it anyway.

Here’s what the back cover says:
“This is the extraordinary love story of Clare and Henry who met when Clare was six and Henry was Thirty six, and were married when Clare was twenty two and Henry thirty. Impossible but true, because Henry suffers fro a rare condition where his genetic clock periodically resets and he finds himself pulled suddenly into his past or future. In the face of this force they can neither prevent nor control, Henry and Clare’s struggle to lead normal lives is both intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.”

Let me clarify. It is not “extraordinary”. It is bizarre. For “unforgettable”, just leave out the “un”.

This kind of story would one time have been classified as “Science Fiction”. Not sure what it is today. But good science fiction either amazes you with fantasy or takes you places which might exist if some particular premise(s) were true. Someone often quoted as a great exponent of this is Arthur C. Clark. He begins by making some assumption about an invention or some law of nature being different from what we are used to. But having done that, he then goes on to recount what could easily happen. You find yourself dragged in, believing everything is real… you’ve bought into the original premise, everything else follows logically. You’ll never find yourself saying “But how can that be… he shouldn’t be able to do that/see that/whatever.”

This book falls at this hurdle. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the assumption that this guy time travels. It’s what this leads to and what does and doesn’t happen, that I object to.

We are asked to believe that he gave stock tips to some of his friends which they could use to make a fortune but they, for some reason, don’t.

We are asked to believe that he lives in Chicago and appears out of nowhere, naked and has therefore come to the attention of the police as a trouble maker, but all of the time, there are a number of people (including a doctor) who know of his condition but keep it to themselves. The word doesn’t get out? No Sky News, CNN or NBC. It only takes the “report” of a child disappearing in a balloon for the networks to get their knickers in a twist; can you imagine trying to keep this story hushed?

There are many more examples but I won’t bore you. The bottom line is that the book is not consistent within itself. The characters are not believable, and whether you’re into soaps or Shakespeare, you know it doesn’t work, if they are not.

Incidentally, (not wanting to break the flow of my rant), the book is about the time traveller and his wife. I would guess that the decision to name it as “The Time Traveller’s Wife” was taken based on what sounded best for the shelves or the assumed readership but “The Time Traveller” would have been more accurate.

So, there you are. Don’t bother to read it. Read something worthwhile or instead go out for a walk, run or whatever.

And you thought Ms Picky was bad! But lest you think your reviewer just got out of the bed at the wrong side today, and to leave you with a positive recommendation, don’t just not-read-this-book, go out and buy/beg/borrow either of the following by Kazuo Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day or Never Let Me Go. You won’t regret it.

In this post I’ll include the three salads I made at the weekend. I’m then on a break from the experiment for mid-term. Spending it in Budapest. Even my readers will get a salad-free week! Next post from Budapest.

First up

Minted petit pois and Swiss chard with lardons

I’m not going into huge detail on these three salads as it would make this post very long. This is the salad I had done to death for the family before I ever started this experiment. I will leave this to the two family emigrants to cast their votes, by way of comment. They have had it many times!

Please note the background. My two home guinea pigs up in arms!

Next up

Moroccan couscous

Denis and I both voted this salad 4.5/5. (I left out the photograph as I didn’t have a proper photograph).

Couscous was cooked and allowed to cool and then diced red and green pepper, and thinly sliced celery added.

Ground coriander, cumin, chilli powder, raisins were gently warmed in olive oil on a frying pan and white wine vinegar added in and the whole mixture added to the couscous. Chopped coriander and parsley were then sprinkled on top.

I would definitely consider the recipe for this salad to be wrong where it calls for 125ml of olive oil to be added to 1 cup of couscous. I really think this amount of olive oil is miles too much.

On reflection, I wonder could it be that for the purposes of this book, the recipes used in the cafes, were adjusted to feed four people, but not with enough care? (It says in the Introduction that ‘All recipes feed four unless otherwise stated’).

I used a fraction of that amount of olive oil, about 1.5 tablespoons and it was perfect.

Final salad was Roast fennel and pepper with mangetout

We voted this 4.5/5. For this salad fennel and peppers were roasted in olive oil. The vegetables and juices were mixed with sherry vinegar, garlic and parsley and supposedly a small amount of cooked mangetout, .

There was no mangetout left when I went shopping. I decided to go ahead however as planned and make the salad without mangetout. Denis and I rated it bearing that in mind. We loved the mixture of fennel and peppers with garlic and oil.

Only eight more salads to go!

Last night was the turn of Seared spiced beef with Asian greens and noodles

I had fun looking for star anise. First I looked up Wikipedia to learn a bit about it. ‘Star anise is a spice that closely resembles anise in flavor, obtained from the star-shaped pericarp of Illicium verum, a small native evergreen tree of southwest China’. I found star anise at the Chinese supermarket in Henry St, thanks to Marian.

There I also got the pak-choi. I also looked up this ingredient. ‘Pak-choi is similar to celery in its mild taste, and can be eaten raw either by itself or in a salad.’

The first step was to cut steak, (sirloin in recipe, I used fillet) into thin strips and combine with five-spice powder, star anise, garlic, chilli, ginger and soy and leave aside for a few hours.

Next I prepared the vegetables; pak-choi, baby spinach, finely chopped scallions and sliced mangetout. The amount of vegetables in the picture, (on a big serving plate), is actually less than that called for in the recipe. The recipe calls for 225g, (almost 1/4kg), baby spinach. The bag I had contained 150g and I only used about half the bag.

The beef was then stir-fried. Noodles were then cooked, cooled and mixed with the vegetables. The beef and juices were then added along with sesame oil and red wine vinegar. Chopped coriander, beansprouts and sesame seeds were sprinkled on top.

The final result

We voted it 3.5/5, 3.5/5 and 4/5. I’ll go with the majority of 3.5/5. The recipe called for 180g of beef for 4 people, yet 4 heads of pak-choi, almost 1/4kg spinach, a bunch scallions and 150g mangetout. I felt a different balance of the ingredients would have been better. In my opinion there was just way too much greens.

The picture in the Avoca book beside the recipe shows a different proportion of ingredients to that in the recipe.

It appears I’m not the only one with discipline problems! Here’s an account of Tom Doorley trying out one of Julia Child’s recipes.

The experiment is a question of persistence now to get to the end. I’m determined to finish what I started. Youngest guinea pig, though now well over the piggy ‘flu, is on a ’salad go-slow’!

Photo owned by sophiea (cc)

I’m lucky Denis is around this week and he’s still eating … salads!

Spiced lamb and couscous

SERVED HOT! Well the spiced lamb and couscous were anyhow!

The list of ingredients for this recipe is long. The first line in the method tells me to ‘combine the lamb steaks with the next nine ingredients’. It’s a good example, where a long list of ingredients would put me off.

The next nine ingredients were olive oil, lemon or limes, smoked paprika (great aroma), ground coriander, ground cinnamon, chilli flakes, dried ginger, ground cumin (also great aroma) and cayenne pepper. In the photograph, a teaspoon of smoked paprika is at twelve o’clock and then it’s clockwise from there. Each was either a teaspoon of, or a pinch of …

I then put the lamb aside for a few hours.

My collection of spices has improved because of this experiment. I never before possessed smoked paprika. Paprika yes, but not smoked paprika. It smells exactly that, smoked!

The couscous was prepared by adding boiling water. Olive oil was stirred in, then chopped scallions, chopped chilli, sultanas and prepared butternut squash, parsley and coriander.

Again I don’t really remember cooking butternut squash before and it tasted really great.

Yoghurt was then combined with crushed garlic, grated cucumber and chopped mint.

The lamb steak was supposed to be grilled (I pan-fried) on each side, served on top of the couscous, with the yoghurt on the side.

Ms Picky noticed that the list of ingredients includes flaked almonds but they were later forgotten about in the method. I used them as a garnish.

Vote from the two guinea pigs was each 4.5/5! Another win.

Maybe I’m late, but I hadn’t come across newspaper bags before.

I got this bag when shopping at the market the other day. The website of the NGO which makes them is here. These very eco-friendly bags are made from recycled Indian newspaper.

The card attached to the bag states: ‘The organisation was started in 2004 by street children who wanted to give something back in return for the opportunities which had allowed them to escape desperate circumstances. These elder children, now married with children of their own, generate an income by making newspaper bags and jute items. This allows them to take care of thirteen street children that they have saved from the streets surrounding Delhi train station. Support for this wonderful project means that these children can enjoy going to school and playing, rather than pulling rickshaws, shoe polishing, rag picking and worse.’

I have seen the street children at Delhi train station and it’s truly disturbing.

I was wondering what exactly was written on the newspaper, dated 2007. Sorry, picture was the best, I could get. It’s probably written in Hindi since Hindi is the most commonly spoken, of the 22 official languages, in India.

PS Whilst I was cooking for Day 18 of the Julie & Julia experiment, I was listening to a discussion on a proposal for a paper bag levy, on Radio 1. Apparently paper bags are also quite harmful for the environment.

Newspaper bags were mentioned in the discussion.

It appears that … Tommy and Patrick are needed,

but not John.

According to a recent Guardian article ‘there are fears that gingers may be extinct by 2060 because only 2% of the world’s population are gingers, and that number is shrinking. There are campaigns to save the ginger, and to encourage gingers to replicate themselves (both parents have to carry the ginger gene to have a chance of producing a ginger child).’

Patrick and Tommy, ye know what ye have to do now to save the planet …

Well the future of red-heads anyhow!

Red hair occurs in people with two copies of a recessive gene on chromosome 16.

Thinking about it, John, you could be carrying one copy of the recessive gene for red hair on yer chromosome 16, so on second thoughts, stick around, you may be needed too!

Denis bought this piece one time at a Christmas market in Budapest. It’s a woodcutter, (sorry his axe is hidden in my pic), kissing his wife, some significant female in his life! It’s made from wood and wood shavings, and cost the princely sum of about €3. I love its simplicity

I was thinking if this salad was suitable for a Ploughman, it might also be suitable for a Woodcutter!

Diced celery, green and red apples, red onion, parsley, French dressing were mixed and cubed cheddar cheese was sprinkled on top. As simple as it gets!

The recipe calls for Kilmacanogue french dressing from page 22. Yet when I go to page 22 there is only Avoca French dressing, which I assume I’m to use. More proof-reading needed, me thinks!

I had this as a quick lunch. I’m confused as to what to vote it though. I’ll go with 4 since anything above 4 goes into the ‘will repeat’ list. But as a salad meriting being included in this book, I’m not sure.

Whilst 1) I have the utmost respect for Ploughmen (and Woodcutters!), and 2) I love the simplicity of lots of the salads in the book, this salad is so simple, I’m not really sure I’d have included it.

I think that most people who would actually buy a salads book, would know this apple, celery, cheese combination.

In other news, I’m losing guinea pigs. I assume from all the symptoms that Tommy has the swine ‘flu. Though I’m very much not laughing because last night he was quite sick. I found it difficult to get and keep his temperature down. Happily he’s feeling much better this morning.

This exact week last year, John landed in hospital with meningitis, (thankfully only viral). This year Tommy’s sick. What’s it about the week before mid-term?

I’ll only keep the experiment going this week, if the patient is okay and my nursing duties aren’t too onerous!