Category: Cheese

Tidy Tidbits: Mostly Local

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BOOKNOTES

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson

Author Atkinson (The Guardian)

I thought Kate Atkinson’s Life after Life was a tour de force of a novel and I loved it.  I started Shrines of Gaiety about a month ago, read about a third, and then set it aside.  I wasn’t sure I’d finish it, but every time I picked it up again, I read a few chapters, getting to know the characters better and very much appreciating the writing.  In short, I finished the novel and am glad I persevered.

Overall, it’s a period tapestry, a portrait of a particular time in London in 1926 when nightclubs and glitzy parties were the rage.  Nellie Coker, owner of a string of clubs and mother of six adult children, rules strongly over her fiefdom.  The reader is introduced to all the children and to Detective Chief Inspector Frobisher and one time librarian, now aspiring detective, Gwendolen Kelling. 

Gwendolen comes to London to try and locate Freda Murgatroyd, a sister’s friend who has disappeared. Frobisher is involved in investigating the case of several missing girls who may be connected to dancers at these clubs.  Beneath the gaiety and glitz of the clubs (shrines to a good time), is a seamier crime-laden slice of London life. 

While the reader gets to know Niven, Nellie’s oldest son, I found the other characters more sketchily drawn.  There’s a large cast of notables and undesirables and layers of society both royal and aspiring interact.  Nellie is based on the real Kate Meyrick, an owner, and queen of Soho London clubs. I didn’t love this novel, but I was engaged enough to read it through.

LOCAL THEATER & DINING

The Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help at Asolo Repertory Theatre

Sisters Becky and Linda (Asolo)

As always, the sets and the overall staging of The Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help were excellent.  The problem as the Chief Penguin and I saw it, was with the material, the play itself.  Set in 1973, it is a memory play built around a series of key moments in one week.  The narrator, older daughter Linda O’Shea, is the focal character in this family of mother, father, and younger sister, along with live-in aunt Terri and grandmother.  Practicing Irish Catholics, the O’Sheas’ morality and their reputation are monitored by the local priest. Father Lovett takes a very personal interest in his flock.  The incident of the title arises after Linda gives her sister Becky a talk about the facts of life.  

Parts of the play are very funny, but I found the first act overdone and enjoyed the second act more.  The coda summing up everyone’s future life and death was of interest, but not relevant to the heart of the play.  I’d give the cast credit for their performance, but don’t think this play was Asolo’s finest dramatic choice.

The Ringling Grillroom

We returned to The Ringling Grillroom for another pre-theater dinner.  We’ve had several lunches here and one dinner.  The food is consistently very good and much superior to the fare when it was known as Muse.  The hummus starter was creamy and fresh, and my blackened salmon was excellent. The fish had just the right amount of blackening and spices, and the rice with red pepper bits, okra pods, and corn was different and tasty.  The Chief Penguin enjoyed shrimps and scallops on a bed of polenta with a side dish of blistered cherry tomatoes in a shallot sauce.  Highly recommended!

TOP NOTCH CHEESE SHOP IN OUR BACKYARD!

Artisan Cheese Company (artisancheesecompany.com)

In her latest e-mail, Louise Converse, owner of Artisan Cheese Company in Sarasota, reported that Wine Enthusiast has named them one of the top ten iconic cheese shops in the country. That’s in all of America. Opened in 2012, the store moved to its larger space in the Rosemary District in 2018.  Here’s what Enthusiast wrote:

Its expansive selection includes such all-American standard-bearers as Jasper Hill and Point Reyes, as well as hard-to-source European producers like Switzerland’s Gourmino and England’s Neal’s Yard. The airy, industrial digs also feature beer, natural wine, salumi and more, and the café serves grilled cheese, crostini and other small plates.

As my regular readers know, the Chief Penguin and I are great fans of and regular patrons of Artisan Cheese! With their red walls, they are unmissable! Do stop in.

March Diversions

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INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Tomorrow, March 8, is International Women’s Day.  The theme for 2021 is Women in Leadership:  Achieving an Equal Future in a Covid-19 World.  IWD was started in 1910 at the suggestion of a woman named Clara Zetkin at a conference of working women in Copenhagen.  In 1914, Germany marked the day on March 8 because it was a Sunday.  Ever since, IWD has been observed on March 8, Sunday or not. It focuses on women’s rights.

It’s also worth noting that in the United States and several other English-speaking countries, March is Women’s History Month.  This month is a time to celebrate and appreciate women’s contributions to events in history both recent and past.

OUTING

Yesterday, just to get off our little island, the Chief Penguin and I went to downtown Sarasota to shop at two of our favorite stores.  It wasn’t a wine and cheese expedition, but rather one for books and cheese….and fancy butter and crackers.  Although Sarasota did not extend their mask mandate, both shops required masks, sanitizing, and social distancing.  (Not so the restaurants we passed which were packed with patrons cheek by jowl.)

Happy book buyers BEFORE Covid! (Mapquest.com)

Bookstore 1 this year is celebrating its 10th anniversary.  They have a wide selection of current fiction and nonfiction plus cookbooks, mysteries, and children’s books.  I think they are stronger on picture books than middle grade readers, but I found several volumes for a granddaughter.  I have missed buying note cards in museum shops and so was pleased to find both blank cards and greeting cards to add to my collection at home.  And I succumbed to a new biography for myself—not that I need any more books right now, but how can I resist?

Louise and two assistants (herald tribune.com)

Artisan Cheese Company, helmed by Louise and her band of knowledgeable young women, has survived the pandemic and continues to stock a wide range of distinctive and unusual hard and soft cheeses.  The C.P. goes for the soft stinky ones (Oma, for example). I’m always on the lookout to try a new cheddar with bite or another variation on gouda, gruyere, or manchego.  And the store stocks imported butters, crackers, jams and spreads both sweet and savory, as well as a variety of homemade soups, pot pies, and sinfully rich mac and cheese.  Plus wine!  Needless to say, we never leave empty-handed!

WHAT I’M READING

The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell

This is a highly touted first novel published in 2019, but it’s also a challenging read.  It’s the March selection for my book group and long.  It brings together three intertwined families and the history of Zambia from the early 20th century to present day.  I found the first section about one of the grandmothers slow going, but I am now getting a bit more into it and have read about twenty percent.  We’ll see how it goes and I’ll report back after the book group discussion.

Tidy Tidbits: Cheese & More

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PROVISIONING—Cheese and More

I grew up eating good cheese, not expensive cheese, but good New York State sharp cheddar.  In our household, there was no such thing as American cheese, a misnomer if there ever was one.  In that era in upstate New York, Black Diamond cheddar from Canada was the height of sophistication and an occasional rectangular log of it was a treat. Others in our extended family loved cheese also.  Our Midwest cousins always arrived bearing Hickory Farms’ Lebanon bologna and a hunk of nutty Ohio Swiss.  Yum! As an adult as my horizons broadened beyond the Finger Lakes, I was introduced to other cheeses; everywhere the Chief Penguin and I traveled we sampled cheese, from Gorgonzola in Italy, to Emmental in Zurich, Manchego in Spain and, of course, Roquefort in France.

Today the Chief Penguin and I delight in all the cheeses and comestibles on offer at Artisan Cheese Company in Sarasota.  Owner Louise Converse (aka Cheese Louise) has a carefully cultivated and curated cheese case with a wide variety of cow, goat and sheep cheeses from small producers across the U.S. and abroad.  My favorites in their case include a clothbound cheddar from England, a just ripe Camembert, caramelly aged Beemster Gouda, Bayley Hazen Blue from Vermont, and the store’s own pimento cheese.  

Recently, Louise managed, through good connections, to snag some Rogue River Blue.  This cheese made in Oregon beat out more than 3,000 other cheeses and was named the best cheese on the planet in the World Cheese Awards!  We bought a piece and it is delectable and simply seductive.  Creamy, not overly salty, it begs you to keep eating more.  

But Artisan Cheese offers more than just cheese.  There are distinctive crackers, very good scones, wines that are both thoughtfully chosen and moderately priced, along with prepared foods.  Not up for cooking dinner?  Try their mac and cheese, tomato pie, or one of their several soups.  The store supports an apprentice program for young women in partnership with Girls Inc.; many of these food delights are their products.  Along with all the cheeses and other treats, Louise has added tea towels as well as a selection of china and bamboo plates and mugs.  These are distinctive wares that are not run of the mill.  I have to admit I surrendered to temptation and bought several of these items—of course, for gifts!

RECENT READING:  A Sensitive Novel

Upstate by James Wood

An Englishman by birth, Wood is the fiction critic for The New Yorker and also a Harvard professor and novelist.  I’d not read any of his earlier novels, but was attracted to this one by both the title and the setting in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., a town I frequented regularly some years ago.  It’s a short novel with short chapters and is both delicate and exquisite.  

Alan Querry is English and a widower who lives there with his partner, Candace.  He has two grown daughters.  Helen, who is married with children, often travels to Manhattan for her work in the music industry.   Daughter Vanessa is a philosophy professor at Skidmore with a younger boyfriend named Josh.  She has suffered from mental issues in the past and Alan and Helen have been summoned by Josh to Saratoga to check up on her.  

I love Woods’ prose; each word in a sentence is carefully chosen whether it’s in a phrase describing the weather: “it was coming down fast, in the passive-aggressive way of snow, stealthy but relentless, insisting on its own white agenda, the soft monotony canceling all time, all resistance, all activity.” And, “white lengths of snow, like fluorescent stripes, were caught in the folds of their nylon coats.” 

Or an evocation of someone’s thoughts, Alan’s here, as in: 

 “He watched his two highly intelligent, grown-up daughters, as they approached and drew back from each other, like switched magnets. Helen, apparently more confident, acute, with her slightly sharp teeth, elegantly handsome, but also being disagreeable somehow, as if she were necessary medicine Vanessa just had to take; Vanessa, quieter, softer, with her long dark hair and slightly squinting eyes, but exact, precise in her every word and thought, and so, to him at least, quite as formidable as her more obviously intimidating sister.  How had he and Cathy produced them?”

This is a novel of a family ruptured by divorce, of sisters living at a distance who care while simultaneously annoying and needling each another, and of a father with a failing business who isn’t sure how best to help his older daughter nor initially certain if he desires to engage completely.  Each of the principal characters reflects on his or her individual life:  what does it take to be happy; how important is success versus family; what does an entire life amount to in the end?  It’s a beautiful novel, wise and moving!  (~JWFarrington)

Notes: Book cover courtesy of Goodreads.com; header photo from medical news.com. All other contents ©JWFarrington.

Tidy Tidbits: Local Fare

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BUY LOCAL

The Florida season is over, the snow birds have retreated north, and it’s quiet time for many local merchants.  If you live in Sarasota or Bradenton, remember to visit your favorite downtown shops and restaurants.  They need you and they really appreciate your business!

Two of my regular stops are Bookstore 1 Sarasota and the Artisan Cheese Company.  In addition to Stilton (a stately, elegant cheese) and creamy, nutty L’Amuse Gouda, we indulged in some soft cheese and, for the first time, tried the store’s own pimento cheese.  Now, I know of pimento cheese from Southern novels, have sampled it from several suppliers and have always been underwhelmed.  Louise said that her version flew out of the store as soon as she put it on the shelf.  Well, it’s scrumptious!  The right mix of cheese, enough bits of pimento, and a hint of heat make it positively addictive.  I’ll be back for more.

Louise & Parker Converse shop owners (www.artisancheesecompanycm)
Shop owners Louise and Parker Converse (www.artisancheesecompany.com)

At my favorite bookstore, a proper one with shelves of books and more books, magazines, a children’s section and tables of temptation, I was intrigued by at least six new novels.  I settled on two, one the latest from Lauren Belfer, while the Chief Penguin located the hefty libretto for Hamilton.  With somewhat lighter pockets, we left happy merchants and headed home.

HettyFeather_500x4003
Program cover (www.thelowry.com)

GIRL POWER  

For this year’s summer musical, Asolo Rep is presenting the U.S. premiere of Hetty Feather.  Based on a book by Jacqueline Wilson, it’s the story of Victorian girl Hetty’s tumultuous and, at times rollicking, journey from a foundling hospital to a foster home and then back to the hospital with encounters with the circus along the way.  Hetty is spunky and lively and always on the lookout for her real mother.  With exceedingly creative and clever staging (ropes, ladders and a suspended ring) and a very nimble and talented British cast, this is delightful family fare.

2016-05-14 16.22.55

SHOUT-OUT

While in New York, I finally visited Rizzoli Bookstore’s new location on Broadway not far from Eataly.  It is very spacious and all on one floor, but retains the feel of the old Rizzoli on W. 57th Street.  Dark wood bookcases, long tables of books and classic chandeliers.  I was told by one of the staff that they were able to save and re-use many of the fixtures including cases and lights, hence the familiarity.  They have a big space at the back (I’m assuming for events) with some comfy chairs and even several restrooms (another plus).  I enjoyed my time browsing and left with one of the several new novels I’d spied.  Definitely add it to your bookstore list!

WHAT I’M READING

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis.  I suggested this title (previously unread by me) to my west coast book group and found myself plodding through it.  Published in 1920 and Lewis’ first successful novel, it is the story of Will Kennicutt, a doctor in small town Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, and his younger wife, Carol.  She is from the big city and has problems adjusting to what she views as a provincial, gossipy, unsophisticated place.  She is both a romantic and a self-appointed reformer who doesn’t really know what she wants or how to accomplish her supposed aims.  A satirical study in gender roles and cultural mores in a different time, but with a perspective on social class that still has relevance.  Overall, I found it too long and very dense.

First Women:  The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies by Kate Anderson Brower.  For a relaxing change of pace, this breezy work is about the bonds, the correspondence, and the unlikely friendships between these First Ladies.  Each is unique in personality and style and each, as wife of the president, made the White House her home.  Not a lot of new information here, but an engaging look at the times they inhabited and the roles they played—from Jackie Kennedy to Michelle Obama.  Brower’s earlier book is The Residence about those who staff the White House.

 

Note:  Header photo and Rizzoli image by JWFarrington (some rights reserved)