Pret-a-por-tea

... a few green (yes, my favorite colour!) sugary treats directly from the "cakewalk":

Mint and Strawberry tart with a cup of Tie Guan Yin tea at Yauatcha


Vanilla Rooibos tea and Green tea & chocolate cupcake from the Hummingbird Bakery at home...


...accessorized with vintage "crinoline lady" china

East meets West

Credit crunch compliant patisseries at Yauatcha

How to spend a day eating only at Alan Yau's restaurants whilst ensuring, at the same time, total gourmet diversity and a balanced budget:

Breakfast - Princi
(Cheap)

Yau's collaboration with upmarket baker Rocco Princi has resulted in the first London branch of this Milanese bakery chain. Pop into Princi for a lovely brioche, pastry, a gourmet loaf, or for a coffee and cake. This place kicks the mass market asses of Boulangerie Paul and Le Pain Quotidien. During our visit (on a Sunday evening), while munching on the yummy sample pizzas that were being handed out to the crowds, we spotted the man Yau himself - or was it a Yau clone?

Lunch - Cha Cha Moon
(Cheap)

This Chinese noodle canteen follows on from Yau's Wagamama days, though I do sincerely hope Cha Cha moon does not go for the "expand till explode" concept, which invariably leads downhill. At least for now, Cha Cha Moon offers a lot more style, quality and far better value for money than the bland Wagamama. Lunch here can cost as little as a fiver (try the Taiwanese beef noodle soup for GBP 3,50 with a pot of Oolong tea at GBP 1,50). Avoid peak times as queues can be horrendous.

Tea - Yauatcha
(Moderate)

This dim sum/tea house is pricier than the two spots above - but totally worth it! GBP 27 will buy you a complete afternoon tea set which includes all the trimmings and more: a hot drink, sandwiches, scones, exotic fruits, cakes, cookies, chocolates and mini patisseries. Alternatively you can save GBP20 (blame it on the credit crunch...) and have a pot of tea and a patisserie for around GBP 7.

Dinner - Sake No Hana
(Expensive)

"Sake No Hana" is Yau's version of a Japanese Izakaya (a Japanese "tapas bar" of sorts). In winter go straight for the slowly cooked "pork ribs with sugar snap", a melt in your mouth casserole that's perfect for sharing. The usual suspects score very highly too: sashimi is delicious, the tempura is perfect and crispy.

My only worry is the eventual phasing out of some of the more authentic Japanese menu items, given that the last time I visited the sea bream "Chazuke" - a type of savoury rice porridge - was unavailable. That would be a shame because authenticity (and excellent sake!) is what puts Sake no Hana on a level above its competitors (Zuma, Nobu). Say no to boring "black cod" and "chocolate fondant & green tea ice cream" and yes to "Chazuke" and "mochi"!

Adieu Shipp's Tearooms

I had not returned to Shipp's Tearooms since that post about good value, informal tea houses a while ago, so last Thursday, finding myself in the vicinity of Borough Market and with a couple of hours to spare, I decided to treat myself to a cuppa and a cupcake. But once I got there I discovered they had ceased to trade because of problems with their lease. Nooooooo!!!

It is a great loss for the London tea circuit as I can't think of another establishment that is half as pretty and unique. The owners told me the idea for these tea rooms came out of a desire to put their extensive collection of antique tea sets and tea things in to good use. As they are now unable to continue trading, this entire collection of amazing hand painted tea sets, and all sorts of fine bone china and glass tableware must go. If you are into collecting teapots and tea cups, forget the Portobello market and head straight into this place. You won't be able to resist taking home a vintage tea cup or two.

For more information visit: www.shippstearooms.co.uk

101th Post, 101 References...

Kenneth MacMillan's Rite of Spring (Picture source: The Telegraph)

... from the first 101 pages of Alejo Carpentier's swansong novel: The Rite of Spring.

Yep, that's one cultural reference per page. There are many more in fact but I daren't refer to the more obscure or double citations (Luisa Miller anyone? I googled and found it's an early Verdi Opera based on a Schiller play), some of which have surely passed me by.

Coping with the overwhelming amount of name dropping in this 500 page novel in part explains my reduced blogging mode these days. Why so many you ask? Apparently, Carpentier's idea was to write a truly "baroque" novel, full of twists and turns, highly ornate and equal parts fiction/essay/autobiography.

Whether he also intended to leave his readers with a "Dummies Guide to the Intelligentsia" is unclear, but hemorrhaging one name after the other does make us lose focus from the central plot: a love story between a Cuban architect and a Russian dancer who meet during the Spanish civil war and end up playing a central role in the Cuban Revolution. But "The Rite of Spring" is also a story about obsessions written by an obsessive mind. And that's why I simply must finish reading this book one day...

Lewis Carroll
Igor Stravinsky
Tchaikovsky
Goya
Robespierre
Paul Eluard
Picasso
Van Gogh
Duke Ellington
Louis Armstrong
King Vidor
Hubert Robert
Tolstoy
Tomas de Torquemada
Toulouse Lautrec
Maurice Chevalier
Cecil B. de Mille
Julio Antonio Mella
Nikolay Gogol
Ortega y Gasset
Marcel Prevost
Marcel Proust
Marcel Duchamp
Holbein
Leonardo da Vinci
Diego Velazquez
Diego Rivera
Beethoven
Mondrian
Georges Braque
Cezanne
Chardin
Juan Gris
Napoleon Bonaparte
Guillaume Apollinaire
Duke of Berry
Carpeaux
Prokofiev
Georges Balanchine
Sergey Diaghilev
Salvador Dali
Jean Cocteau
Brancusi
Le Corbusier
Robert Desnos (not to be confused with Robert Doisneau)
Chopin
Watteau
Wagner
Mahler
Ivan Goll
Rimbaud
Comte de Lautreamont
Marquis de Sade
Victor Hugo
Hyeronimus Bosch
Edgar Allan Poe
Baudelaire
Jules Verne
Giacometti
Gustave Moreau
Hegel
Marlene Dietrich
Luis Bunuel
Josephine Baker
Andre Breton
Serge Lifar
Lenin
Man Ray
Rabelais
Tristan Tzara
Shakespeare
Julien Brenda
Rodolphe Berger
Karl Marx
Django Reinhardt
Benito Mussolini
Camille Claudel
Anton Webern
Fritz Lang
Franco
Gabriel Garcia Lorca
Cervantes
Goethe
Franz Liszt
Lucas Cranach
Walter Gropius
Paul Klee
Kandinsky
Schiller
Johan Sebastian Bach
Leni Riefenstahl
Sigmund Freud
Heinrich Himmler
Hans Wieland
Verdi
Charlotte von Stein
Lazlo Moholy-Nagy
Dante
Friedrich Nietzsche
Heidegger
Novalis (or Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg)

My Japanese food heaven

Japan Centre's Morinaga "Hot Cake" mix. Fool proof and idiot proof!

Bye bye Fortnum and Masons, boo to Daylesford Organics and farewell to Whole Foods. None of them compare to my new favorite food shop, Japan Centre. I am currently so addicted to it I no longer want to eat out. And I get really cranky when my value sushi bento box (a steal at around GBP5 - bigger & better than at Itsu too!) is sold out by the time I get there from work.

But delicious take away sushi and other bento box meals (their "katsu curries" are 10,000 times better than Wagamama's) are not the only reasons I shop here so often...

It's also because:

1) They sell the best pancake mix in the world, which yields perfectly thick and fluffy pancakes every time (see above picture). I am never going back to soggy Bisquick.

2) You won't find just one type of ice tea in their chiller cabinet, you will find a million: light, strong, premium, no caff (Mugi cha or Soba cha), with milk, with fruit, with milk and fruit, with flowery flavour, with or without sweetener, etc. etc... In fact you can also find lots of exotic flavored waters, energy and fermented milk drinks - the other day I tasted one with bits of "nata de coco" (coconut flesh) and I swear it was just like summer in a bottle!

3) They have an awesome in store bakery stocked with the weirdest and most delicious buns, from chocolate brioche to green tea muffin, from curry "pans" (a type of pain au lait) to yakisoba sandwich (I dare anyone to try this!).

4) They stock yummy black sesame pudding and all kinds of "agar agar" fruit jellies which are packed with fiber and much healthier than our western desserts.

5) One can find fresh Asian veggies such as Yam and Lotus Root. And also fresh Oba (or Shiso) mint leaf which you can infuse in hot water to make Asian mint tea or simply add to your sushi.

And most important of all, because unlike the typical hard-to-decipher Asian food store, all of their products contain an English tag with a brief description and list of ingredients, so you are never left wondering what the heck you are buying!

Eddie Vedder solo tour at the NJPAC

Picture source: Boston Globe

It was an unforgettable gig and - thankfully, very thankfully indeed!! - mr. R and I were there to witness: Eddie Vedder adorning the NJPAC theatre with his golden voice and a generous 3 hour set list, including songs from his Golden Globe winning soundtrack “Into the Wild”, alongside various covers and even some Pearl Jam material (check out the complete setlist at Metro Distortion).

The first big moment in the evening came as soon as Eddie stepped onstage, with a tidal wave of applause flowing from an adoring crowd. As soon as he was able to thank us (after several attempts to break the standing ovation) Eddie said it was still too early and that he still needed to “earn all that applause”. He then asked us to brace ourselves for a long evening of music, following in the tradition of a certain Bruce Springsteen. Woo-hoos and deafening applause all over again...

Eddie kicked off with Daniel Johnson's Walking the Cow and the audience gawped at the theatre’s state of the art acoustics. Quite simply I had never heard anything like that. Loud and clear, there and then was the proof that Eddie Vedder really is one of the most powerful and versatile voices in modern music. He sang with such clarity and purity that the music flowed through our every pore.

This purity of sound was most evident in poignant tracks such as “Dead Man Walking” or “Man of the Hour” (from Big Fish), or in urgent songs like “I Am Mine” (which sounded reinvigorated in its unplugged version), “ Masters or War”, “Setting Forth” and “Rise” (this one had the audience literally rising up to the chorus). Even Eddie acknowledged how amazing the acoustics were and claimed that the NJPAC was going straight into his list of favourite places to play. Which made me think about how perfect this theatre would be for a Pearl Jam “unplugged” evening à la Benaroya...(Please?)

There was also the usual cool Eddie banter and extras sandwiched between songs: we had the opportunity to ask questions (which some concert goers wasted with song requests – for shame people!) and Eddie gave us some answers, including an earnest account of what's hidden behind that most mythical of PJ songs, Yellow Ledbetter. He also experimented with new sounds, debuting a fresh off the peg song ("Unthought Known") and layering vocals for a tribal-like effect in “Arc” (from Riot Act).

29 songs later and after a radiant set closer ("Hard Sun"), I came out of the theatre so uplifted I felt I was skimming over the sidewalk. This performance demands to be released as a live CD, for Eddie is not only one of “the great voices of our time” (as Time Out NY put it), he is also one of the greatest artists.

China Picspam - Part 2 (Shanghai)

...continuing from my previous post:

Oriental Pearl TV Tower by night,
the ultimate postcard from futuristic Shanghai

The guy on the left just had to ruin my
picture perfect vision of Pudong with his ugly elbow... (sigh!)

Another "glimpse of the future" moment at
the Aqua Bar (Sun with Aqua, 6 on The Bund)

Yet more tea! Green tea & barley "bubble tea"
and iced coffee with "healthy" jelly at cafe R B T
(can you please open a London branch asap?)

Stacks of buildings

A walk through the street markets
in the "Old City"...

... leads us to the overly touristy &
wholly unoriginal Yu Gardens Bazaar...

... but at least the dumplings were pretty good!

China Picspam - Part 1 (Beijing)

Long time no write!

I have just returned from a fantastic trip to Beijing and Shanghai with a suitcase full of exotic teas (see last picture below), memories and pictures! Here are just a few of them while I recover from the jet lag and gather my thoughts for a proper post:

The Lama Temple (Yongchegong)

Rooftop detail at the Lama Temple

A foggy and rainy day at the Forbidden City

The yummy Xiaolongbao (or Siew Long Bun) is a Shanghai
specialty but can also be found in Beijing (we tried it at Din Tai Fung restaurant)

Brown rice milk tea at Chamate, a Taiwanese tea house chain,
with loads of milk & bubble teas on the menu

Glutinous rice with sesame filling from the Yunnan region at South Silk Road
(a restaurant in the Hou Hai area of Beijing)

The beautiful and compact Ri Tan Park

I could have spent all day sipping tea and watching the world
go by at the peaceful Stone Boat Cafe (Ri Tan Park)

Killer hike at the Great Wall: 10km of ups and downs from Jingshanling
to Simatai, both unspoilt locations


Tea madness! Clockwise from left:

Tie Guan Yin (Fujian), "Red Robe" Oolong,
Roast Tie Guan Yin (Hong Kong), "Osmanthus" Oolong,
the "usual suspect" Jasmine flavored tea,
Pu'er (Yunnan) and Dragon Well (nutty green tea)

Thou Shall Have Lousy Seats

Pearl Jam tickets:
notoriously hard-to-get, even for The Simpsons

When I heard earlier this week that Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, the ultimate baritone rock god was going to do a mini North America solo tour I knew I needed my share of it. I am a dedicated PJ/EV fan and this is his first solo tour EVER! Those who follow his side projects and are familiar with his Golden Globe winning soundtrack for the movie "Into the Wild" know this is a huge deal!

So off to the Internet to check my remaining BA miles availability, sort out accommodation in New York, etc. etc. All good. It was just the "small" matter of getting the tickets. I knew that part would not be easy, having previously gone through a via crucis to secure a pair of tickets for the 2003 Pearl Jam concert in MSG/New York and another for the club fan gig they did in London two years ago. Getting these tickets was ten times more stressful (but also ten times more rewarding) than my job - and I am a banking lawyer!

In case you don't know, New Yorkers and their neighbours are crazy about all things Pearl Jam (such good taste they have!). I suspect the Tri-State area has one of the biggest concentrations of hard core, old time Tenclubbers (ie. the fan club members). Out of the 3 gigs Eddie is scheduled to be playing I only needed tickets for the New Jersey one, for which I thought there would be less demand. But as soon as the tickets went on sale I realized my naivety: having initially secured excellent seats, the browser just keep crashing on me and off went my goodies basket. Each time I tried to log back in I felt like a surfer caught inside a big set of waves, having to dive down to avoid the whitewater scramble. The modest New Jersey Performing arts centre online systems just could not cope with the stampede. Phone lines were dead. How I missed the sturdiness of Ticketmaster...

In the end Mr. R and I had to contend with the bread crumbs as usual: the high-up-in-the-gods, bring-your-oxygen-masks type of tickets, but at least we did not leave empty handed! As I left the NJPAC site I went window shopping at the ticket brokers' and saw markups of 200% on good seats. Ouch!

No matter how limited ticket allowances are, the touts always seem to get good seats to resell, I wonder if there is any kind of poetic justice for cyberspace? Still, I am very much looking forward to hearing Eddie's velvety voice live once again...

The End of the Affair

Remember that Sex and the City episode where writer Berger breaks up with Carrie via post-it note (it said: "I'm sorry, I can't, don't hate me")?

Well imagine if Carrie Bradshaw, in her emotional turmoil, had decided to contact various women of different backgrounds and professions: a lawyer, a dancer and several performing artists, a journalist, a literary critic, a mother and even a rifle shooter, asking each of them to give their personal interpretations of the end of the affair (and the peculiar mode of communication)?

That's exactly what real life conceptual artist Sophie Calle did when her boyfriend (like Berger, also a writer) sent her a break-up email. She compiled 107 responses she got from her female allies and set up a multimedia exhibition, which appeared in the 2007 Venice Biennale and more recently in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris:





If you missed the exhibition's final round you may still want to try this nifty pink catalogue. Containing illustrations, bound-in booklets, bright green envelopes with DVDs and even Braille and Morse code versions of the dreaded email, it's a precious item for anyone who has ever obsessed about matters of the heart...

One, Two, Three... Singing by numbers

Carry the Zero (Built to Spill)

Made first, never forget (Tahiti 80)

One (U2)

First It Giveth (Queens of the Stone Age)

First Wave Intact (Secret Machines)

Once (Pearl Jam)

Expresso 2222 (Gilberto Gil)

I am Two People (Morrissey)

12D3 (Gorillaz)

3's & 7's (Queens of the Stone Age)

Four Sticks (Led Zeppelin)

Four Walled World (Temple of the Dog)

Two Hundred More Miles (Cowboy Junkies)

Cinco Minutos (Marisa Monte)

Il est Cinq Heures, Paris S' Eveille (Jacques Dutronc)

Five Ten Fiftyfold (Cocteau Twins)

Six Shooter (Queens of the Stone Age)

Six Barrel Shotgun (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club)

Dead Road 7 (the Kills)

Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes)

Driver 8 (REM)

Eight Line Poem (David Bowie)

Cloud 9 (George Harrison)

Nine Million Rainy Days (Jesus and Mary Chain)

A Thousand Hours (The Cure)

AF607105 (Charlotte Gainsbourg)

Back to the 101 (Albert Hammond Jr.)

Before Three (the Cure)

Blister 2000 (Violent Femmes)

Lot 105 (Blur)

M62 Song (Doves)

Neighbourhood numbers 1/2/3/4 (Arcade Fire)

No 13 Baby (Pixies)

Obstacle 1 & Obstacle 2 (Interpol)

One Hundred Years (The Cure)

Pop Song '89 (REM)

Rebel Music - 3 o'clock (Gilberto Gil)

Revolution 80 (Tahiti 80)

Room a Thousand Years (Soundgarden)

Seventeen Seconds (The Cure)

Song 2 (Blur)

Song Seven (Interpol)

Ten Years Gone (Led Zeppelin)

The Big 3 Killed my Baby (The White Stripes)

Three Days (Jane's Addiction)

Twenty Four Hours (Joy Division)

Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones (The Hives)

Um a Um (Tribalistas)

Veinte Anos (Buena Vista Social Club)

Voo 2364 (Nana Vasconcelos)

Walls n. 3 (Tom Petty)

With My Own Two Hands (Ben Harper)

You Only Live Once (The Strokes)

1/2 Full (Pearl Jam)

5:55 (Charlote Gainsbourg)

5:15 (The Who)

12:51 (The Strokes)

15 Minutes (the Strokes)

22 Grand Job (The Rakes)

25 Minutes to Go (Johnny Cash)

40 ft (Franz Ferdinand)

50 ft Queenie (PJ Harvey)

666 Conducer (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club)

300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues (The White Stripes)

1921 (The Who)

1992 (Blur)

Wrong Number (The Cure)

If your life were a movie, which director would film it?

Your Score: Woody Allen

Your film will be 77% romantic, 38% comedy, 26% complex plot, and a $ 38 million budget.

Be prepared to have your life story shot entirely in New York City -- though lately Woody's been loving shooting in London [NB: how obliging!]. Also, your music soundtrack is all jazz from before 1949. Filmography: Annie Hall, Manhattan, Stardust Memories, Everyone Says I Love You, Match Point, Scoop, etc.

Woody has released one film per year consistently for the past 35 years. For the past 15 years he's been trying to make films like his older, funnier ones, just like characters in his Stardust Memories film suggest throughout. Regardless of his personal life, his films are American classics.

Try it yourselves: The Director who films your life test

Holding My Breath For Tim Winton

Laird Hamilton at Jaws
(source: stills from Riding Giants)

You know that recurring dream where you are faced with an impending test you have not studied for? Well, in a more naturalistic version of this dream, as I stand by the sea, I am faced with a fearful big wave surging upwards and I feel half powerless, half spellbound. That may sound at least as scary as the school test, but oddly enough I always wake up from it feeling stress free and sunny. The more I am dwarfed by that wall of water, the biggest my fascination. Sometimes during my dream the wave will stand still for a moment and I manage to look at the beast in the eye and then outrun it (barely!) before it explodes onto the shore with feral force.

The fact that I grew up in Rio de Janeiro partly explains my obsession with the sea. Over there agitated waters are a constant and it can be fun to gather around the shore to watch big swells (my paternal grandmother was also fascinated by them). Sometimes the raging Atlantic causes mayhem, as waves lick the ocean drive and cars and passers-by are sprayed. Occasionally tragedy strikes such as the late eighties swell which claimed the life of British young dancer Graham Bart, who drowned engulfed by a furious wave as he watched the ocean from a dangerous spot. Me and my family had often seen him in performance and I remember we were very saddened and in complete shock.

Big mouth: Laird and the biggest "lip" at Teahupoo

I see rough seas as a contradiction of nature: so threatening and at the same time so harmonious, as waves may rise and peel down beautifully (see Teahupoo picture above). That's why I have always found surfing so fascinating, initially purely as a spectator (to me it has the same aesthetic appeal as dancing - surfers are to water what dancers are to music) and many years later as an occasional participant - but one strictly confined to gentle waves. I have absolutely no aspiration, or skill, to tackle anything seen as "big" and thus I am happy to take my dose of radical sports adrenaline purely from watching or reading the surf adventures of demigod Laird Hamilton or those of Jeff Clark at Mavericks.

Man and Beast: where is Jeff Clark?

While there are plenty of interesting documentaries about surfing (Riding Giants, Step into Liquid, Endless Summer, Thicker Than Water...) it's hard to find compelling, well written books on the same topic. Other than short stories (Zero Break) or collected surf magazine articles (such as "The Big Drop") the best I have come across until now is Daniel Duane's "Caught Inside", a memoir of his "year spent surfing" and doing little else in Santa Cruz. Sounds very simple yet this is a book so eloquent and full of poetic imagery it earned Duane the moniker of "Henry David Thoreau on a fiberglass board". Agreed, but that's still a personal memoir, not fiction.

How refreshing then to stumble upon Tim Winton's latest novel "Breath" - which according to the Times Literary Supplement tackles surfing as a radically aesthetic life choice and dwells on the themes of fear and friendship, loneliness and boredom, the lure and danger of life lived intensely. Sounds compelling enough. Time to park all the feminist prose I have been reading of late (thanks to the arrival of Persephone Books in Kensington!), and embrace a sea change. More later...

5 Cool Things to do on a rainy day in Covent Garden...

Brace yourselves for another sunny summer!

... that do not involve flighting your way through the overly crowded, overly touristic, overhyped central market area:

1 - Stock up on exotic confectionery sourced from all over the world at Cybercandy. There's always something to keep you safely away from candy bar boredom. Some of my favorites: Green Tea Kit Kats from Japan, Cherry Ripes (a cherry flavoured Aussie version of the Bounty bar) and M&Ms in "Razzberry" flavour.

2 - Find yourself some vintage treasures at Rokit, Pop Boutique and others

3 - Sample a mix of Brazilian and Portuguese comfort food at Canela cafe (the chicken pie is simple and delicious) or, if it's sugar you crave, pop in for an impossibly cute candy muffin at one of London's most colorful coffee shops: Candy Cakes.

4 - Window shop at unashamedly girlie designer stores Koh Samui and Orla Kierly

5 - Cut the distance between audience and actors by half at the pocket-sized Donmar Warehouse. There's always a quality production on.

You Dress up for Armageddon, I Dress up for Polar Winter

Chaotic yet chic: the Hives

Let it never be said that I am not a person of diverse interests. And this week in particular seems to have been all about polar opposites, having finally managed to shake off my recently found Sky Plus addiction (why-oh-why, did it take me so long to discover TV that you can pause, rewind and fast forward?) and get out of the house!

WEDNESDAY: FRAM AT THE NATIONAL THEATRE

On Wednesday a quick stint through the north pole with Fram, a new play by Tony Harrison about the expeditions of 18th century Norwegian humanitarian and "hero" Fridtjof Nansen. The play, which has just premiered at the Olivier stage, feeds off various sources - such as Greek theatre, photography, video installations and even ballet (ex Royal Ballet principal Viviana Durante dances a small piece by Wayne McGregor called "Aurora", a reference to Nansen's beloved Northern Lights) - to show us Nansen's journeys from the north pole of the earth to the north pole of the soul, his life focus changing from deepest isolation to full involvement in humanitarian causes.

Having managed to break through thick ice and conquer Northern Norway with his ship, the so called "Fram" (forward in Norwegian), Nansen is then seen trying to break trough the ice of the human heart in campaigning various humanitarian causes (from the 1921 Russian famine to Greek refugees in 1922) but in the end, the pessimistic message of the play is clear: the ice age is here to stay.

I thought this was a well written and well staged production, with plenty of depth, shifting from funny to touching, from philosophical to disgusting. As I walked from the Olivier back to Embankment station the cold wintry night reminded me of the play's final image: a video screen projecting London' south bank entirely covered in ice. Nansen WAS right, at least in London there's definitely no sign of anything but everlasting winter...

THURSDAY: ROYAL OPERA HOUSE - PREVIEW TO NEXT SEASON

The next evening put me amongst an audience of mainly sexagenarians at the Royal Opera House, for an interactive talk about some of the Operas and Ballets coming to Covent Garden next season. It was presented by music writer Daniel Snowman, members of the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera and interspersed with a few live arias (unfortunately not remarkably sung) and ballet extracts (these were beautifully performed by promising young dancer Yuhui Choe).

Not that I mind being one of the youngest in the audience (and I am not that young after all...), but this taster of "what's coming next" seemed like the perfect opportunity for the ROH to bring in a fresh crowd (which they seem so intent on doing, as seen in recent press articles) and yet, unless you are a regular Opera/Ballet goer you would not have seen this event advertised anywhere, not even on the ROH's trendy Youtube and Facebook pages. Shouldn't they be trying to preach beyond the converted?

FRIDAY: THE HIVES AT BRIXTON ACADEMY

From Norway to Sweden. And from sitting with a mature crowd to dodging flying beer bottles at Brixton Academy last Friday...

The Hives were back in town promoting "The Black and White Album", a title which seems to herald a band thriving on extremes. How can they sound so loud yet so crisp and clear? Even when Howlin' Pelle Almqvist (you gotta love the name!) is screaming at the top of his lungs you can still discern the lyrics perfectly. Their garage pop is irresistible and completely conducive to half-rebellious, half-joyous dancing.

They are hilarious as well: dressed in elegant suits and ties the whole band "freezes" on stage for exactly one minute halfway during the aptly named "You Dress Up for Armaggedon". And at one point a disheveled Pelle pleads to the roaring audience: just give me a second to adjust my hair, it is crucial that my hair looks very tidy as the next song is very fast (or something like that). He then slicked his hair back into shape and started howling again. To me that just seemed to summarize the way the Hives sound: ironic, chaotic and chic at the same time. And cool as Swedish ice...

Blindness - Is it worth seeing?

I am torn between the eagerness to see one of my all-time favorite books adapted through the usually sharp lenses of director Fernando Meirelles and my fear of seeing way too much...

How much will Meirelles leave to the imagination? And how much will he show of the stomach-churning events that unfold in the book when "ordinary" people start to lose control of their lives? Will he put us in the same uncomfortable spot that José Saramago put the doctor's wife?

Like Alice in Wonderland, the below teaser leaves me "Curiouser and curiouser"!

Iconic people

Picture: Madonna as a Raphael Madonna

Q: What do the following people have in common?
(Other than their varying degrees of "iconicity")

Vaslav Nijinsky, Leni Riefenstahl, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Anna Pavlova, Drew Barrymore, Louise Brooks, Arthur Miller, Babe Ruth, Greta Garbo, Madonna, Jean Cocteau, Virginia Woolf, Irving Berlin, Fred Astaire, Isadora Duncan, George Clooney, Gary Cooper, Cecil Beaton, Claude Monet, Jessie Norman, Lance Armstrong, Kate Winslet...

A: Their timeless portraits are sharing the same walls until end of May at the "Vanity Fair Portraits" exhibition. Go and gasp!!!

A thank you note

I am very honoured that Linda from Mirando el Catalejo has named Monomania Diaries one her favorite blogs.

Linda stumbled upon this blog by chance when she was searching the blogosphere for posts on a certain petite Romanian ballerina I idolize.

Now the funny thing is: Cojocaru is the reason I first stumbled upon Linda's own blog too, way before we even started reading each other's blogs regularly ... What can I say, we both have great taste, he he!

The hedonist's guide to winter - Part 2: Hot Chocolate

I had been meaning to write about hot chocolate, one of my instant cures for winter blues, for a while and when I had finally compiled a list of London's worthiest purveyors a few weeks ago, Time Out stole my thunder by publishing their own. Not fair...

However, this fresh spate of chilly weather - reminding us that winter is not over yet - and the fact that that Time Out's list seemed far from definitive, encouraged me to revisit the topic: while I give TO credit for introducing me to chocolatier Paul A Young's wonderful spicy hot choc, I disagree with their pick of Carluccio's and here's why: powdered cocoa mixture, thickened with corn/maize starch does not result in proper hot choc. I appreciate this is the Italian method, which gives the drink a gloopy consistency, but taste-wise, it's a no go.

When it comes to hot choc, expertise lies with the Mexicans (as most of you know, they invented the stuff and plus that trademark hint of cinnammon is genius!) and the French (pure chocolate thickened with cream and more cream, none of this starch nonsense).

So, which ones are truly worth wasting your calorie allowance on? In my opinion:

1) Konditor and Cook

Very dependable, choc-tastic hot choc from this mini chain of patisseries. A real pick-me-up. I love it even more with some of their Kipferl biscuits on the side.

2) Paul A Young

Thanks for the tip Time Out! You can add whichever spice mix you fancy (cinammon, cardamon, nutmeg, chilli, everything...) to this exquisite dark chocolate blend. Their other chocolate treats and cakes are glorious too!

3) La Maison du Chocolat

Choose between a darker or lighter blend. Either way, there's no need for adding extra sugar as both versions are quite sweet. Great for takeaways.

4) Laduree

Perfectly thick and gooey. Not too sweet, not too bitter, just right and heavily caloric!

5) The Wolseley

You can go with the basic hot choc or add extras (whipped cream, alcohol, etc.). Much less thick than the options above but they score top marks for presentation (beautifully served in a tall glass and silver tray) and lovely surroundings.

Try at home:

In a pan or on microwave: mix a generous amount of melting dark chocolate flakes or pieces (good buys: "Prestat" or "Hotel Chocolat" flakes, "Cool Chile Co's" Mexican hot choc pastilles) with full fat single cream. You can use half dark, half milk chocolate for balance. Add hot milk to taste (but watch the consistency!) and blend with a hand mixer to froth the whole thing up. Finish off with cinnamon on top! Yum, yum!

See also: The hedonist's guide to winter - Part 1: Cupcakes

Sunny days in London

The month of February brought an unusual and welcome guest to London: the sun!!

All of a sudden, the cold did not matter so much and I felt like those lucky New Yorkers with their winter bright skies. For about 2 weeks London was just perfect (well, almost: transport was still as chaotic as usual)!

Don't believe me? As sure as my camera is my witness, I swear...