Category: Books

Tidy Tidbits: Food for Body & Soul

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RESTAURANTS.  I’m passionate about food and love dining at casual places, fancy restaurants, and even at home.  Here are my takes on several local restaurants, two new ones, one repeat.

DINING FIND

Element in downtown Sarasota is part of Duval’s group of restaurants and is their upscale dining spot.  We went for dinner on a Saturday night and it was moderately full when we arrived.  The space is elegant and contemporary in the way that Louie’s Modern is, and the menu, like Louie’s, pushes the Sarasota envelope beyond the traditional.  There are lots of good restaurants in our region, but most of them skew toward standard fare; therefore, it’s refreshing that Element offers creative cuisine in the form of small plates and sharing plates as well as full size entrees.  And if you are a serious carnivore, there are a number of sizes of filets, strip steaks and pork chops, as well as the option to pre-order a whole suckling pig.  Talk about sharing!

Robert, our waiter, was pleasant and knowledgeable and provided good service.  Another staff member, the new assistant manager from DC, stopped by the table see how we were enjoying our food—a plus for service.  Overall the food was very good!  The bread was warm and came with two flavored butters, and the charred radicchio was excellent as was the caprese salad with homemade burrata and lovely wedges of heirloom tomatoes.  We followed these dishes with the swordfish, crab meat, and potato cake which was very tasty and the pork agnolotti.  The pasta was chewy (it shouldn’t have been), but the tomato sauce was nicely thick with chunks of pork.

The Chief Penguin liked the look of his Old Fashioned as soon as he saw the single large ice cube, and I enjoyed my glass of Chardonnay, a generous pour fitting the price.  On the house, we sampled the apple cake which was lovely.  We were shown to a table in a side area all by ourselves, but overall, we enjoyed a very nice meal and will return.

NEW ITALIAN ON CORTEZ ROAD  

We dined with friends at Eat Organico in one of the little strip malls in Bradenton (the one with Thai Palace) and thought the food was very good.  Several of us sampled their veal preparations—with mushrooms, the piccata, and saltimbocca.  This is real veal—paper thin and tasty!  The house salad had a slightly tangy Thousand Island-like dressing, and there was also a Caesar salad.  Others in our group enjoyed penne with salmon and zucchini and penne Bolognese.  Most entrees came with a choice of penne or spaghetti with tomato sauce.  The sauce was good, but not stellar.  Portions are modest size, but fine for us.

It was a Friday night and other tables were occupied, but not all.  Service was slow and a bit ragged as it took a very long time to get our salads, let alone the glasses of wine we’d ordered.  I’ll chalk this up to it being a new place that hasn’t yet worked out all the kinks.  Will definitely give them a second go!

RETURN VISIT

It’s been awhile since we last ate at The Coolinary in Sarasota and decided it was time to go back.  The Chief Penguin had praise for their Old Fashioned and I tried a Chardonnay I hadn’t had before.  The signature dishes here are Hungarian.  The C.P. sampled the slightly spicy sausage which was excellent, and I had their chicken in paprika sauce with homemade spaetzle— lovely comfort food.  We began with an order of the cauliflower fritters with blue cheese dipping sauce and a tray of toasted nuts and blistered shishito peppers, the peppers a favorite of ours. The owner stopped by the table several times, and we were treated to a taste of sweet wine with the Dobos torte we’d ordered.  We remembered why we like this restaurant and vowed that even though it’s on the second floor, we should frequent it more often.

 

READING:  LATE IN LIFE ROMANCE? 

Author George Eliot, in real life, Marian Evans, was George Lewes’ common-law wife for twenty-five years.  After Lewes’ death, at the age of 60, she married Johnnie Cross, a young man of 40.  In order to avoid calling attention to themselves, they left London to honeymoon in Venice.  

The Honeymoon, a novel by Dinitia Smith, is a recounting of that fateful honeymoon, but even more Marian’s reflecting on her life from childhood to young womanhood to old age.  The novel is thoroughly researched, and the reader learns about all the prominent men Marian was acquainted with (philosopher Herbert Spencer and publisher John Chapman, just two examples), as well as those with whom she was intimate—either by choice or seduction.  It’s an engrossing portrait of a woman who, not beautiful, but very accomplished and literate, craved love and attention.

 

 

SAXY TIME  

One of the pluses of the Sarasota-Bradenton area is the number of concerts presented at local churches.  Many of them have regular music series.  This week we were at a concert by the Washington Saxophone Quartet at First United Methodist Church.  I didn’t know there was this kind of group, but I like the sax and thought it would be fun.  WSaxQ is celebrating its 41st year and, if people know it, but don’t know they do, it’s because the quartet provides the theme and interlude music for NPR’s All Things Considered.  They play music from all eras and deliberately work not to sound like saxophones!

The members of the quartet have each played in one of the US military bands for part of their career.   Among them was a soprano sax, straight with no bell and shaped more like a clarinet; an alto sax of a beautiful copper color; a tenor sax with a prominent bell; and lastly, a seriously big baritone sax.  The concert included music by Bach, Gabrieli, Ravel, Leonard Bernstein, and Duke Ellington among others.  Tenor sax player Rich Kleinfeldt  provided chatty and informative commentary about the pieces and the group.  It was a most enjoyable afternoon.

Note:  Eat Organico photo from TripAdvisor.com; Evans and tenor sax images from Wikipedia.

Tidy Potpourri

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BIRDS

This week we’ve had several early morning low tides with a wide expanse of mud.  Perfect for the birds.  One day there was a flotilla of pelicans (white ones in a ring), the usual gulls, several groups of ibis with their heads and beaks mostly in the down position, and far out in the water a dense cluster of ducks.  Other days, I’ve watched a lone great white egret or two just standing still or a great blue heron stalking the water’s edge.  This morning it was a bright pink sherbet spoonbill by itself bobbing and darting its head into the water foraging for food.

(broadwayworld.com)

PROVOCATIVE COMEDY

Reactions to Asolo Theater’s Morning After Grace were mixed.  Some didn’t like it much and others didn’t need to see the lead character’s “naked ass.”  Actually, said actor was nicely toned.  All that aside, I liked this play and thought it was funny and very well done.  And it had a touching theme about all of us needing to be appreciated and loved, no matter our age.

It’s a three-character play with Angus, a new widower; Abigail, a grief counselor who has also been divorced for three years; and Ollie, a retired pro baseball player who also happens to be gay.  Their ages are 70, 62, and 68, respectively, which is key to the actions of the play. It’s a bit slow at the start with a few too many racy jokes, but these are probably needed to set up the extended dialogue that follows.  Overall, I recommend it!

 

WONDERFUL NOVEL

The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish

I loved this 500+ page novel!  And my librarian and archivist friends would find it fascinating too.  It’s about being a female academic in the 21st century, about doing scholarly research using primary documents, and about the Portuguese Jews who left that country for Amsterdam in the late 17th century, some of whom then emigrated to London.  One 17th century London resident is Ester, a young woman who, contrary to all the allowed roles for women, is tasked with being a scribe for a blind rabbi.  She is very smart and begins to question the rabbi’s views of the faith.

I admired the level of detail and the elegant and nuanced portrayal of the three main characters:  unmarried professor Helen Watt, soon to be retired; Aaron Levy, the somewhat conceited, but also confused doctoral student; and the accomplished and tortured Ester, who though ruled by her intellect, still contemplates passion and love.  There is a mystery to solve about Ester and it is this which drives Helen and Aaron’s laborious journey through a newly discovered trove of letters and manuscripts.

(miamibookfair.com)

In reading about Ms. Kadish, I discovered that she had an unusual speech impediment growing up that made it almost impossible for her to say certain letter combinations.  She learned to be very deliberate in her speech and to think ahead about different words to use other than the ones that would trip her up.  But, when she took pen to paper, she was liberated and could freely use any word she chose.  Perhaps that’s partly why this novel is very long.  I found it compelling, engrossing, and informative as I knew nothing about this aspect of Jewish history. (~JW Farrington)

 

Note:  Spoonbill header photo from carolinabirdclub.org

Tidy Tidbits: Art & Books

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IDYLLIC ST. PETERSBURG

With the incentive of an evening event in St. Petersburg, the Chief Penguin and I decided to drive up early and do a bit of exploration.  We had whizzed by the city exits in the past, and once, years ago, we stayed at the famous pink palace hotel on St. Pete Beach, but had never ventured into town.  We only explored a small part of the waterfront overlooking Tampa Bay, but we were charmed!  It was a perfect day weather-wise, sunny and pleasant.  The water beyond inviting Vinoy Park sparkled, and the nearby streets were lined with small shops and restaurants, while tourists in shorts and tees sauntered along or dined at sidewalk tables.

We cased Locale Market, an upscale food emporium with restaurants, founded by celebrity chef Michael Mina (San Francisco) and another chef, for future visits and an herb foccacia to take home.  For part of the afternoon, we checked out the Museum of Fine Arts and were impressed by the eclecticism of the permanent collection.  In some ways, it was more interesting than the Ringling Museum of Art.

We dined at the Parkshore Grill in one of their event rooms and thought the appetizer grilled shrimp were excellent and the grouper entree with asparagus and mashed potatoes tasty.  The chocolate bar dessert (not a candy bar) was sumptuously rich.  St. Petersburg also boasts the Dali Museum, a Chilhuly Center and several other museums.  We need to make a return visit to see more!

Contemplation by Jacques-Emile Blanche, 1883
Still Life with Flowers by Jan Brueghel the Younger
Portrait of a Lady by Michiel Van Mierevelt, 1615

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RECENT READING

MEDICAL THRILLER

Brain on Fire:  My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan

I’ve read a number of memoirs recently by individuals who knew they were going to die soon from their cancers.  This memoir has a much happier ending and is quite the adventure story.  What makes it so readable is that Cahalan is a reporter and brutally honest about what she endured from the onset of her disease through her slow recovery.  However, she doesn’t have any substantive memory of her 28 days in the hospital and so had to do lots of research as well as interview her family and friends, her doctors, and others to reconstruct how she acted during that time.

What is amazing is how close she got to dying and how fortunate she was that finally the “right” doctor was able to identify her rare disease and get her the required treatment in time.  She is incredibly candid about herself, her feelings of dependence at various points, and her divorced parents’ unfriendly relationship.  Her parents rallied enough to share in their care of her and never lost hope that she was still Susannah somewhere inside. This interview with NPR provides a brief look into her experience. (~JWFarrington)

SEA MONSTER

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

This 2016 novel was proclaimed one of the year’s best in the U.K. before being published in the U.S.  Perry’s second novel is set in 1893, mostly in the small village of Aldwinter, Essex, and concerns the villagers’ belief in the reappearance of an ancient serpent in the nearby waters.  The Essex Serpent is then thought to be responsible for the death of a young man, the disappearance of a young girl and other strange happenings.  Set against this, is the arrival of the widow Cora Seaborne and her strange child, Francis. Cora is something of a naturalist and, fascinated, thinks that the serpent may be a new species of some sort.

She makes friends with the local vicar, William Ransome, who puts little stock in the creature, and his fragile and sickly, but dazzling wife, Stella.  Cora and William become friends and, against their better selves, are attracted to each other.  How their mutual attraction and the suspicions of the townspeople regarding the serpent play out form the locus of the novel.

I found the novel’s premise intriguing (there really was news about such a serpent in the 17th century) and Cora an appealing character, but, for me, it bogged down.  I finished it out of curiosity to learn about the serpent’s true identity, but wasn’t bowled over.  (~JWFarrington)

Notes:  All photos by JW Farrington; header photo is La Lecture (Reading) by Berthe Morisot, 1888.

Diaries in Life and Fiction

JWF Leave a comment

DIARIES. As someone who has kept journals of one sort or another most of my life, I’m  also interested in the diary as a fictional device.  Here are a few words about my journaling and notes on two recent novels where diaries are key to the underlying story.

My first diary, which I no longer have, was the size of a paperback book with a bright pink plastic cover and came with a key to lock it. I was probably 11 or 12 when I started writing in this and know that my entries began, “Dear Diary.”

Recently I re-discovered a journal I began when I was seventeen and midway through my senior year in high school. I vowed in it to try and write every day. Early entries record my responses to teachers and classes as well as petty annoyances with friends. I am transcribing this journal as a Word document with the thought that perhaps someday my granddaughters might be interested in reading it. This is in keeping with a larger project of transcribing other journals.   I’ve completed our first European trip in 1971 and another one from 1990 when the Chief Penguin was appointed dean of engineering.

DIARIES IN FICTION

The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner  

Meissner presents Mercy Hayworth, a teenager in Salem, Massachusetts, who is a victim of the witch trials, to her readers solely through her diary. In the present day, college student Lauren Durough is hired by octogenarian Abigail Boyles to transcribe Mercy’s handwritten diary. Abigail is distantly related to Mercy, hence her interest in having it transcribed. Lauren, from a rich family, is sorting out her own life and worrying over how she judges or, more often, misjudges others’ actions and intentions.

I am not sure why I liked this novel as much as I did. In some ways, the premise that Abigail and Lauren would develop a closeness is an unlikely one and, one might also question why Mercy’s diary has such a dramatic impact on Lauren. The diary itself is well conceived and convincing, however, and I kept on reading to the end. (~JW Farrington)

The Summer Guest by Alison Anderson  

This is a beautiful novel that deserves to be savored like an extended afternoon tea.  It unfolds slowly focusing on the diary kept by Zinaida Lintvaryova during the several years Anton Chekhov and his family spent summers in the Ukrainian countryside.  Zinaida was a real person, the eldest daughter in her family, and a doctor. She developed a brain illness and began suffering headaches and gradually lost her sight. The Chekhov family did summer in Sumy in the late 1880’s, but the diary is this author’s creation.

In it, Chekhov talks candidly with the now blind Zinaida about the novel he’s working on. Linking the diary to the present are two other women: Katya Kendall, a publisher in London, who sends the Russian manuscript of the diary to an established translator, Ana Harding, based in Switzerland.  Katya is desperate to save her business and hopes the diary will do that.  Ana, who spent time in the Ukraine in younger days, becomes caught up in Zinaida’s diminished life, her friendship with Anton, and their far ranging conversations about life, literature, and philosophy.  For each of these women, Zinaida, Katya, and Ana, the diary prompts a reckoning with her own life—its disappointments and joys, its sorrows and shortcomings.

I was curious about Alison Anderson and aspects of her life show up in Ana.  Like Ana, she lives in a Swiss village and is a translator as well as a novelist.  Obviously, her work as a translator informs the depiction of what getting works to translate involves.  And, since this is yet another historical novel that features a famous author, I found this article in LitHub theorizing why there are so many of these novels of particular interest.  It’s by Helen Mcalpin.  As you might guess by now, I loved this novel! (~JW Farrington)

STRONG CINEMA & GOLDEN GLOBE WINNER

Three Billboards outside Ebbing Missouri

This is one of the most intense films I’ve seen recently. When Mildred Hayes, angry and grief-stricken that the police have not made any progress on solving the rape and murder of her teenage daughter, rents space on three billboards to publicly question the chief of police, she sets off a powder keg of hate and violence. Fights, fires, and general unpleasantness color everyday interactions.

Frances McDormand is magnificent as the mother. You want to sympathize with her pain and yet can’t condone all of her actions. You feel for her son and her estranged husband and also for Willoughby, the “good old boy” police chief, and eventually even for immature, misguided officer Dickson who exhibits racist tendencies.  Definitely worth seeing!

Note:  Header photo from www.brandsgifts.ae; other photos by this author.