February by Lisa Moore

The last of the long-listed Man Booker finalists from 2010 that I read (just in time to start on the list for 2011), and I did so while I was in London, which surprisingly added to the atmosphere of both the book and the place.
This is the diary of loss. A young woman lost her husband in an accident at sea. The story is told when she is in middle age, with her children grown, yet it is steeped in that moment in all their lives. It is mournful in a way that isn't depressing but rather buoyant at the same time. Cal, the lost husband and father, did not leave behind the feeling that others should suffer because of his loss. So while the family doesn't move beyond it--and have significant issues with intimacy as a result--neither do they dwell on his death. It is just there. They can't help but trip over it all the time. It is a beautifully written book that unfolds the layers of effect that such a dramatic loss can have, and shows quite subtly how that will ripple into the next generation.
Why did I like this so much? I think because it demonstrates the inevitability that trauma has an effect--you can't expect to go back to a tie when it hasn't happened. But you can go on to a place that is good.

Her Soup Kitchen, Iowa City

This is my current favorite sandwich place in Iowa City. They have 12 sandwiches on the menu (plus five breakfast egg sandwich combinations). I have tried 5 of them (the Cuban, the chicken salad, the sweet avocado chicken, the turkey club, and the tomato mozzarella) and they are all excellent. These are sandwiches that you would need to have an assortment of ingredients to build at home, so even if you are an enthusiastic cook it would be difficult to put together a sandwich of this quality, and almost not worth it for one person. Her SOup Kitchen takes making a sandwich seriously, and the dedication to detail pays off--these are spectacular.

There are an abundance of salads to choose from if you do not wish to have a sandwich, and I suspect they are well done as well, because the side salads are excellent. The restaurant is family owned and very friendly--the service is swift and cheerful. They serve a complimentary cucumber water that is delicious, and they do so with an eye to conservation as well as convenience--you get a small glass and a carafe of water--so you pour a small amount of water at a time and don't leave so much on the table un-drunk. The only problem, which is avoidable but regrettable given the name of the restaurant, is that the soups are not good--I have tried three of them, all sounding quite good and none of them coming even close to what I could make at home. They are thin and bland--this is fixable, I am sure, but for the moment, have the side salad rather than the soup, and try all the sandwiches on the menu--I am well on my way to that goal.

Day of Honey by Annia Ciezaldo

The subtitle of this book is 'A Memoir of Food, Love, and War'--and it is about all that. Fantastic in many ways, the thing I loved about it was that it gives a glimpse of what life in Baghdad and Beirut were like in the past decade--what people did in everyday life, what mattered to them, and of course, what they ate. While the book centers on the author, and is in every sense a memoir, it is beautifully written and broad in scope so that I was sad to see it end--I wanted more. The same can be said for the recipes that follow the writing--more! Here is one of them:
Batata Wa Bayd Mfarakeh (Slow cooked onions, potatoes and eggs)
10 ounces onions (about 2 medium-large), diced (about 2 cups)
2 tablespoons canola or olive oil
3 pounds russet or Idaho potatoes (about 4 medium-large), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 4 cups)
1-2 teaspoons sea salt, plus more for salting potatoes and to taste
Optional: 2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs such as oregano, rosemary and/or thyme (I used parsley)
8 eggs
Directions:

1. Saute the onions in the oil in a heavy or nonstick pot over medium heat. Stir frequently and do not let them burn. Once the onions begin to soften, after 2 to 3 minutes, cover the pot and turn the heat down to medium-low. Check the onions and stir every 10 minutes or so to keep them from sticking and burning. Do not let them brown at this point; you want them to caramelize very slowly. When they start expelling a lot of liquid and are turning translucent, turn the heat down as low as possible.
2. While the onions are cooking, sprinkle the potato cubes generously with salt, toss, and let them sit for about 5 minutes. Rinse very well under cold water.
3. After about 30 minutes, the onions should be starting to turn dark gold. Increase the heat to medium and remove the lid to evaporate as much of the liquid as possible. Add the 1-2 teaspoons of salt and the potatoes and mix. If you're using fresh herbs, add them now.
4. Turn the heat to very low and cover. Sweat the potatoes until they are soft -- usually 10 to 15 minutes -- stirring gently and tasting every so often. If you like the potatoes crispy, turn the heat up, add a bit more oil, and let them crisp for a few minutes between stirs. The potatoes are done when they just begin to disintegrate around the edges and you can pierce them easily with a fork. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
5. Crack the eggs into the pot. Stir until they just begin separating into creamy curds. Take the pot off the heat and keep stirring until the eggs are done (they will continue to cook for a minute or two in the pot). Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper or whatever else you like.

White Wedding (2011)

tHe tensions of a man and a woman about to get married are universal-especially when the family and friends are not entirely sure this is the best match. In this movie, however, the specifics are strictly South African. Ayanda (Zandile Msutwana) urges her intended, a sweet lug named Elvis (Kenneth Nkosi), to hurry to Capetown from Johannesburg and Elvis thinks he has all the time in the world — five whole days to cover a few hundred miles — but he's not counting on buses that leave without him, a best man (Rapulana Seiphemo) whose girlfriend slashes their tires, and a granny who decides she'll skip the wedding but send a goat instead.
Oh, and then there's the hitchhiking English tourist (Jodi Whittaker) the groom and best man reluctantly rescue in the middle of nowhere. Having just discovered that her fiance slept with her best friend, she launches into a lengthy why-would-anyone-get-married? rant before discovering her rescuers are heading to Elvis' nuptials.
It's easy to imagine how wrong this movie could go: how it could become all about race, how the groom's misadventures could make it feel like The Hangover played sideways, how the five languages spoken in the film could make the story splinter into pieces.
But White Wedding is about connections, and it has the good sense to pull them together in a film that's sweet, inclusive and sunny, a charmer filled with people who seem every bit as surprised as we are when they manage to look past surface differences, and find reasons to bond. The movie is sweet rather than slick and that makes all the difference.

Oklahoma Joe's

This is it. The best place I have had BBQ. Ever. Anthony Bourdain put it on his list of "13 Places to Eat Before You Die' and he is not exaggerating. It is that good.
I read a review of it which said that prior to Oklahoma Joe's entry there were numerous arguments about what was the best BBQ in Kansas City--Arthur Bryant? Gates? Jack Stack? Now, there is no arguement--it is definitely Oklahoma Joe's. I have to agree. The ribs are great, as is their pulled pork, but their brisket is sublime. Smokey, moist, sliced microplane thin, and when mixed with BBQ sauce and put on a bun (the Z-Man sandwich piles a couple of fried onion rings on top, and while that might not sound appetizing, it was fantastic).
The only downside to this place is that the lines are long, no matter when you go. We called ahead for carry-out, which allows you to essentially avoid the line, and I highly recommend that strategy. We brought home a pound each of pulled pork and brisket and 2 slabs of ribs, and have been eating BBQ for a week. On the one hand, it has been fantastic--but on the other, it is probably just as well that we live 4 plus hours away. Occasional BBQ orgies are probably acceptable but as a steady diet it is likely to cause problems down the road.

Water for Elephants (2011)

This is a movie (based on a book that I didn't read, so anything that is irritating about it based on it's inconsistencies with that did not affect me) is about a number of things. The underlying theme is the desperation that came with the Great Depression, a time when 1 in 3 men were unemployed--something we would do well to remember as we struggle with the most recent financial debacle. Men who seek great riches are not about the greater good. Let's not forget that.
The story is told by Jacob Jankowski (Robert Pattinson, of 'Twilight' fame--he is solid but not brilliant in this role). He drops out of vet school when his parents are killed in a car accident and he discovers there is no money left. So he hits the road and gets hired relatively quickly by a second rate circus run by the masochistic August (played with convincing anger and malevolence by Christoph Waltz), whose wife Marlena (Reese Witherspoon) is both the star of the circus and the victim of her husbands paranoia and violence.
The star of this movie is Rosie, and elephant that August purchases to bolster his show. She is presumed to be dumb as a post, and while August treats her with the same violence he reigns down on everyone else in his path, Jacob soon tumbles to the fact that Rosie is in fact quite smart. She wants some water that is across the tent from where she is tethered, so she uses her trunk to pull up the stake holding her down, ambles over for a drink, then goes back to her original spot, using her trunk to put the stake back in the ground. She isn't about to run away, but she is going to be comfortable.
She is the central character--she is the good to August's evil. He underestimates her, and he pays the price.

L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon--London

On my recent trip to the UK we had very few meals to eat, so we made each of them really count. For lunch one day we ate at this two Michelin star restaurant in the West End. We were seated at the bar, which startled me at first--the restaurant was empty and it seemed reasonable that we cold perhaps score a table--but I soon saw the error in my thinking.
At mid bar, you can see everything that is happening in the open kitchen--it is cooking as theater. And to begin with, everything that was being made was being made for us. So much fun to watch it being assembled before you, then you get to eat it.
The fixed price menu is a good deal, so I would recommend sticking with that. Here are the five dishes that we shared and what we thought:
*Egg cocotte topped with light wild mushrooms cream
Very flavorful mushroom sauce, and the egg appeared to be cooked sous vide--delicate, earthy and rich
*Razor clams from Colchester stuffed with shallot butter and flat parsley
These were my favorite, and they were very simply prepared--beautifully presented, but the contents are really clams, bread crumbs and shallots cooked in butter, and lots of fresh parsley. The flavor of the clams and shallots dominates, but the crunchiness of the bread crumbs works well with the chewiness of the clams. Very balanced seasoning as well.
*Langoustine ravioli with Savoy cabbage and foie gras sauce
The fois gras sauce was amazing--no liver flavor at all, and the richness of the langoustine married well with it.
*Pan fried scallop with ricotta cheese, romaine lettuce and basil
Scallops that are meticulously and individually pan-fried are marvelous--the rest of the dish was very flavorful, and added good textures, but the scallops themselves were the star of the dish
*Milk fed lamb cutlets from Pyrénées with fresh thyme
Served with fantastic mashed potatoes and green beans--delicious!
The amuse bouche was a fois gras custard with a fruit reduction sauce on top, with a fois gras foam-which was fantastic, maybe the most interesting dish that we ate. We finished with cheese that was served far too cold, but was otherwise nice.
I think I prefer the one Michelin star restaurant to the two, just because there is too much hoopla around the dining experience, but every once in awhile hoopla is kind of nice. I would go back!

Win WIn (2011)

This film is hard to categorize--it is part drama, part sports movie, part comedy, and not easily pigeon-holed, but it is wonderfully entertaining without being formulaic.
The center of the movie is Paul Giamatti as Mike Flaherty, an attorney whose life is unraveling because his business failing. When his daughter Abby (Clare Foley) is told by mom Jackie, the family's moral center (Amy Ryan), that her dad is out running, her immediate reply — "From who?" — and this is more on the mark than any of them know.
As if Mike's business problems weren't bad enough, he also volunteers as a coach for the remarkably unsuccessful high school wrestling team.
So what does he do? He does something sleazy. He petitions for guardianship of a client under the false pretense that he will do a better job than the state, but turns around and immediately turns around and does exactly what they would do, and pays himself to do so. How does this end up well?
Out of nowhere, Kyle, the client's grandson, shows up and he is one enigmatic, phlegmatic young man. His mother is in drug rehab, and her boyfriend has beaten him up, so he takes a chance on the grandfather he doesn't even know. All he has is that his mother hates him, so maybe he is actually a good guy. He has one ace up his sleeve (besides his genuine affection for the grandfather). Wouldn't you know it, the kid is one terrific wrestler. (McCarthy, who co-wrote the story with Joe Tiboni, took a chance and cast a real-life high school wrestler who'd never acted before, and Shaffer shows what a wise choice that was.)
Kyle moves in with Mike's family, they actually come to adore him, and he makes a real difference to the team by not only wrestling but coaching his teammates and playing the part of a leader who seemingly doesn't have any ego in the mix.
Watching all these permutations work themselves out is so enjoyable it is easy to forget that "Win Win" has adroitly hooked us into a story whose impressive moral trajectory deals with issues of fallibility, culpability and more. The director (who did the wonderful film 'The Visitor') puts over these big issues with a graceful feel for tiny moments, for a wealth of sly and subtle looks between actors. He manages to be respectful of and sympathetic to all his characters' diverse viewpoints while having a strong position of his own. It is a win-win situation indeed.

Two Fat Ladies--Glasgow

This is a wonderful restaurant--there are two in Glasgow, and we went to the one in the West End because the people who we were sharing our table with were staying in the West End--we wanted to be nice--and it was not a mistake to do so (isn't it great when you do something to be kind and it ends up being a win win?). The place itself is tiny. I mean seriously small. The kitchen is on the right as you walk in the door, and you can stand outside and watch them cook and plate every meal--which is a joy to do--kitchen as theater, I believe it has been called, and it is just that--dinner and a show--if you are inclined to be entertained by that. But size was the only thing small about this place--everything else was done on a large scale.

We arrived early, but we were seated without delay and without having a complete party (I really do dislike having to wait for everyone to get there to settle in for the meal, so appreciated this nicety). The menu is largely fish and seafood. I started with scallops on bacon and pea risotto--outstanding dish, and one that could be prepared at home (if you have access to good scallops)--pan fry the scallops with a bit of olive oil and put them atop the risotto prior to serving.
The main course that I liked best was the sole, which can be served on or off the bone, but we had it off--it was pan-fried in butter with tarragon and orange, then served with sections of orange on top, and a squeeze of lemon--simple and remarkably delicious. Highly recommended restaurant, plus some good ideas for things to make at home. I wish we had more fish....

22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson

This very engaging and traumatic book is about the people from a country invaded, defeated, and occupied in WWII--Poland. Silvana and Janusz are young before the war, just starting out in their marriage, having a child when Hitler starts to eye Poland as his first invasion. The book focuses largely on what happens after the war, but it flashes back to the things that happened in the midst of it all. Those are the things that interfere with being able to go into the future with a clear and optimistic conscience.
Janusz left Poland early on--it was clear that Poland was falling and he traveled with other Polish soldiers to France, which also fell, and then he made his way to England where he established himself after the war as well and started to look for Silvana and their son, Aurek. Find them he does, but they are like prisoners kept in the basement without food for years on end. They have lived in the woods in Poland for what is essentially Aurek's whole life, and they do not adjust immediately to the safety of England.
But that is not the only problem--both Janusz and Silvana have big secrets that they are not sharing with each other. These secrets are very typical of protracted and brutal wars, but not talking about it makes the transition back to family life impossible. It is a well constructed story, well written, and well worth the time to read it.