header Ottawa 3

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Got Mangos?

I have discovered paradise.

In fact, you can all discover paradise as it is easily found in this mango chutney recipe on Food Network. In an effort to deal with my chuva de mangas, I trolled the internet for mango chutney recipes and landed on this one. I guess that troll is a bit exagerated as this recipe is the first to pop up on a Mango Chutney google search, but why look any further when you know that you have stumbled across a winner? I bought the ingredients late last week, but only ended up delving into the chutney's preparation tonight. It is truly devine! The mixture of mangos, ginger, red peppers, curry, nuts, and raisins among other ingredients is a mix made for the gods. I paired it up with a small slab of meat (frankly, I have no idea how to cook meat outside of a stirfry) and, paired up with said mango chutney, the slab turned into a delectable comestible. No skill necessary! In fact, this chutney rivals the side accompaniment of my favourite dish at local restaurant Assucar - a banana, ginger and carrot purée. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

Tips from the experienced:

1. Throw the raisins in the mix ten minutes before turning off the heat. The moisture of the mixture will rehydrate them making them bites of puffy sweetness in your mouth.

2. Don't wear white pants if you plan on spilling some of the curry mixture.

Other than this, it's an easy sailing recipe, true to its time estimate and deliciousness! What more can I say? Give it a try!

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Mamulengomania

This afternoon, a friend and I headed to Olinda for its annual Arte em Toda Parte festival. Essentially a type of Doors Open event, during the twelve days of Arte em Toda Parte all the resident artists and artisans of Olinda throw open the doors to their centuries old houses and workshops, and we, the nosey people, get to enjoy the art as well as a peek at the insides of Olinda's colonial gems.


One of our stops was the newly reopened Museu do Mamulengo or Puppet Museum on Rua Sao Bento. Not stictly a workshop or atelier, we took advantage of the fact that the museum was actually open [things in Olinda tend to have custom opening hours] to pop in and admire the exhibit. Puppetry has a long tradition in the Northeast, a region in which literacy is a rather new phenomenon. The puppets usually represented the common person and the shows the situations that they would be likely to face on a daily basis. The women above are part of a larger scene in which the villagers are preparing the macaxeira or manioc or cassava which forms the basis of the Northeastern diet. I refrained from taking pictures of the rather violent puppet scene of Lampiao's men ransacking and massacring an entire village. Who ever said that puppets were all sugar & spice & macaxeira & nice?

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Rampage

Continuing on my cleaning out the closets and shelves kick, I decided to strike even deeper and clean out a few drawers. Imagine my horror as I rummaged around in one of my drawers only to find that unbeknowst to me the dust and mould mites were slowly working their way through my belongings. I emptied the drawer of its contents, removed the main culprit, discarded

the evidence and gave the whole thing a wipe with bleach. Everything is now sitting in the sun, which I hope is enough to kill whatever may be lingering behind.






As a result, today I will bid adieu to two wallets, both of which have sentimental value: the purple one I bought when I lived in El Salvador in a community of returned refugees. The women of the community had formed a small weaving cooperative and were trying to earn a living through the production of the group. The leather one I bought in the Soviet Union back when the East was barely still the East and the West was definitely still the West. Alas, they have served me well over the years. I imagine that I probably should have gotten rid of them sooner (the fraying on the purple one is wear), the mites just gave me that extra push that I surely needed! Obviously three wallets is two too many.

Friday, November 24, 2006

Only in Brazil

There's a certain brand of bottled water here in Recife that runs a "Beauties of Pernambuco" series on their labels. Usually the pictures are off colonial churches or beautiful beaches.... Yesterday, while eating lunch, the "Beauties of Pernambuco" - two jean-clad posteriors - caught my eye. Could it be? Could Lustral really be advertising the posteriors of Pernambuco on its bottles of water? As I leaned in closer and squinted my eyes, the fine print - the clothing industries of Caruaru, Toritama and Santa Cruz - came into focus. Ah, now it made more sense. But still ... one has to be pretty determined to catch that small detail!

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Cleaning out the Closets

I spent this evening pulling out my winter clothes from the closets and shelves and trying them on. Of course, this means two things:

i) I get to go home for Christmas (hurray!) and needed to decide which items to pack.

ii) I got to sneeze and sniff rather violently (not so hurray) as my actions set a lot of previously resting mould particles free.

But still, It'll be good to know if I can still hack winter! Now if I can just stop sneezing....

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

A Random Observation on a Wednesday Evening

I recently finished reading two books Bitter Fruit by Achmat Dangor - which incidently plagerises its title from a much earlier book also, surprising since we are talking about plagerism here, called Bitter Fruit about the CIA sponsored 1954 coup d'état in Guatemala,* and Beasts of No Nation, by Uzodinma Iweala, both published by Harper Perennial. The Bitter Fruit in question is about a black family's efforts to come to grips in post-apartheid Africa, while Beasts is the first-hand [fictional] account of a child's abduction by, and experience in, a brutal African guerilla army. Both uppers, obviously! Bitter was okay while Beasts was excellent. Very difficult to read, particularly the first couple of chapters, but excellent.

But these are not my observations for this evening. Rather, my observation is that the book industry is obviously trying to copy the DVD industry as these books both have "extras" tucked away for the reader to enjoy post-reading. The extras in Bitter included About the Author [Author Biography]; About the Book [The Final Days of Writing Bitter Fruit: Excerpts from a Writer's Diary; and Myth, Myth-making and Fiction]; and Read On [Also by Achmat Dangor; and Further Reading]. Beasts includes About the Author [Meet Uzodinma Iweala]; About the Book [Writing Beasts of No Nation]; and Read On [Author's Picks: Ten Favourite Books]. Both sets of extras close in at close to twenty pages. I guess that the extras are a good idea, but it pains me that the book industry should feel it needs to be in competition with the DVD industry.

* Turns out that there are lots o' books with the title Bitter Fruit - on subjects as varied as black politics in Chicago, Africa American women during World War II, Korean-Black relations in New York City, women and unplanned pregnacies and a whole slew of dime store novels. You'd figure that either the authors or the publishers would do a quick google search before agreeing to print yet another book called Bitter Fruit, but again, I digress...

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Uma Chuva de Mangas

It's raining mangos!


My Aunt Jane used to - and probably still does - have a saying that if you have to buy zucchinis during zucchini season it means that you don't have any friends. Ditto for mangos in Brazil during mango season! Late November through December is mango season and boy, are there a lot of mangos out there to be had. A friend of mine has three or four mango trees in her yard and together they give at her at least twenty mangos a day! A DAY! Or was that twenty mangos per tree per day? In any case, it was a heck of a lot of mangos. Hence the chuva de mangas here at Casa Karen. In addition to the ones in the bowl and the ones that I have already eaten, I have also gifted some along to the doormen. It's a win-win situation. Once again, I am on the prowl for mango chutney recipes -- although I seem to recollect that I was gifted one in my comments box sometime last year....

Mmmmmmmmm Mangos. Quite possibly my favourite tropical fruit!

Monday, November 20, 2006

If You Look Up Doe-Eyed in the Illustrated Larousse

This could well be the picture that you get:

Another cutie, no?

In other news, I finally received my new bank card in the mail a couple of weeks after breaking down and calling the bank. After the agent told me that I would be charged R$8 [CAN$4.25] for the card, I asked whether or not I would be charged had the card been stolen. But Senhora, you told me that you misplaced the card.... Yes, yes, the card was misplaced, but had it been stolen...? Well you would just need to fill out this form and that form and another one and give us a copy of the police report and then you could have the fee waived. Is it just me or would that whole process cost waaaaay more than the R$8 that the card is worth?? Just a thought! Am happy to be banking again though. The bets are open as to when & where I will discover my original card!

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Sightings

A year ago, I had two colleagues visiting from Canada. At one point during the visit, something happened or we saw something that made them both question the reality/logic behind the event. The fact that I cannot even remember what the event was, attests to the fact that it struck me as totally normal. My response to their question was a simple that's just the way it is and we carried on. While things tend to not surprise me anymore, this week brought three things I had never seen before:

1. A man with a full toes-to-hip leg cast riding - as best he could - his bicycle down the street.

2. A dead animal [dog?] floating down one of the city's canals [I knew it happened, had just never seen it before].

3. A small boy at the traffic lights juggling three green coconuts. To get an idea, green coconuts are about the size of an adult's head!

As they say, truth is stanger than fiction....

Poor Vancouverites

There is a water boiling advisory curently in effect in Vancouver due to all the rain and mudslides of the past week, which have contaminated the city's water supply. Even more disasterous than the potential health effects is the fact that Vancouverites can no longer flock to Starbucks for their daily venti tchai half-fat latte. According to an article in today's online Globe & Mail: Starbucks and Blenz, which also decided not to sell coffee or tea, have central distribution systems that send water directly to coffee machines. Employees are not able to boil water and then manually add it into the top of a coffee maker in the stores.

It kind of reminds me of those memorable lines in Best in Show:

Her: We met at Starbucks. Not at the same Starbucks but we saw each other at different Starbucks across the street from each other.
Him: I remember what I was drinking when I met you. It was a grande espresso.
Her: That's right. And I thought that was really sexy. I was drinking cappuccinos. Then I went to lattes, and then now, a double expresso mocchiano.
Him: I'm now a big old tchai tea latte soy milk kind of guy.
Her: Mmm. Soy. Because of the lactose. You're lactose intolerant now.

How ever will they manage?

Monday, November 13, 2006

Sideshow Karen

On Saturday morning, I headed to Olinda with my visiting colleague. After touring around a bit, we parked the car on the edge of a small plaza and headed across the street for lunch. As we were walking away, a teenager who was on a school trip started taking close up pictures of my car and its license plates with his cell phone; front, back, side views.... I hung back so that I could survey the scene. The fact that I was watching him and his friends curiously had no effect on their efforts, not even a smile or a wave. Assuming that they were harmless enough, we continued across the street into the restaurant. A few minutes later, they were gone. I continue a bit perplexed! Perhaps it was my fancy blue plates which caught their eyes.... Funny to think that my car is now the picture on someone's cell phone!

Friday, November 10, 2006

More Signs that I am Slowing Turning Nordestina

I am rather fond of Gilberto Gil's reggaeised version of "Esperando na Janela" [click on the little speaker next to song 17], one of the most popular forró tunes ever to grace the Northeast, forró being a genre of music that is not at the very top of my list of musical likes. I saw Gil, also Brazil's current Minister of Culture, perform at 3am during the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre almost two years ago. It was Gil, his guitar, and several thousand of us. Utterly amazing and worth my blurry eyes the next day.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Manna from ... Chile

Once again I have visitors this week. And once again I get to do the fun things and eat in the fun places. While it did not occur to me to put in my usual request with these fine folks, one of them, whose journey to Recife went something like Canada - Chile - Argentina - Sao Paulo - Brasilia - Recife has joyously provided a bottle of red wine. Manna from Chile! Merci!

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Goodbye Little Black Bag


In December 2004, when I was still in Sao Paulo, I purchased a little black bag (LBB). I bought it in a popular [in the Latin sense] street market a couple of blocks behind my house and paid a hefty R$10 [CAN$4.50 at the time] for it. It was acquired just prior to heading to Rio for our New Years Adventure and I ultimately chose it because of its i) size [small, but big enough for a travel guide or book as I later discovered]; ii) discreteness [black and unadorned]; iii) carryability [like a little knapsack]; and iv) price [ridiculously cheap and obviously so]. In other words, it was bought to be stolen. Should I suffer the misfortune of being robbed, I would not mourn my bag. Its carefully selected contents and my mental health perhaps, but not the bag. There would be no sentimental attachments.

In April 2006, my little black bag met its destiny. In Rio, also as predicted, although three trips later. Since then, I have been scouring the markets of Recife [and Sao Paulo when I was there in September] for a new LBB, with no luck at all. Have little knapsack-type purses/bags gone totally out of style? Was I just lucky the first time around? Am I looking in the wrong places? I've even stepped up my search to "real" bag stores in malls, willing to pay the premium. Still no luck! I admit that I did find two LBBs in Recife's Centro, but they were not big enough for my Quatro Rodas -- the Brazilian Guide book that no self-loving person should ever be without -- or even a paperback novel. They failed the test. My second theory [in opposition to the it's-simply-out-of-style theory] is that I no longer need the services of a small, discreet, carryable and cheap LBB. Perhaps I can have confidence that my current selections of bags and I will happily live out our time together. Here's hoping!

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Do You Live In Brazil?

Do you ever pick people up at the airport?

If yes, then this is the website for you. Infraero [the national airport agency] has a terrific site which reproduces the arrival and departure screens of fifty airports in Brazil. Just select your city from the drop down menu and voilà! you can gage your departures accordingly.

Friday, November 03, 2006

A Death in Brazil

Not to worry - no one has died! A Death in Brazil is just the title of the book that I have just started rereading. Part travelogue, part gastronomic tour, part history, part detailled breakdown of the massive corruption under Fernando Collor de Mello, Brazil's first democratically elected president following the 1964-85 military dictatorship, I was gifted a copy of Death when I first moved to Brazil back in 2004. I believe that I first started reading it back in Sao Paulo before beginning my Northeastern Adventures and got bogged down just over a hundred pages in when it seemed that Fernando's henchman - Paulo Cesar Farias [PC for short] - just couldn't get any worse. I've picked it up again and so far, so good. Much of the action takes place in Recife, in and around places that I know, which I think is why I am enjoying it more the second time around. I'm about the turn the corner on the hundreth page, so it remains to be seen whether I get bogged down in PC's shenanigans once again!

On another note, still haven't managed to locate my bank card. It has been suggested that I move on to Plan B, suck it up, call the bank, and get them to send me a new card!