Archive for the Wines Category
have a cuppa! [international tea day]
Posted in Mountains, Wines with tags FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization, health benefits, International Tea Day, sustainability, tea, United Nations on May 21, 2026 by xi'an
Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi
Posted in Travel, Wines with tags Ancona, DOC, Italia, Italian wines, Marche, Vallesina, Venezia, verdicchio, white wines, Zattere on May 20, 2026 by xi'an
a journal of the Aregenua years
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel, University life, Wines with tags affogato al caffè, archeology, Black Plague, boarding school, book reviews, Caen, Channel, conspiracy theories, Courseulle, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, Dark Ages, FBI, Gallo-Roman culture, ghost story, gothic novels, half-marathon, Iranian regime, Islamic Republic of Iran, Journal of the Plague Year, museum, Roman Empire, Russian invasion, Stand Up To Trump, thriller, Ukraine, Vieux-la-Romain, Vieux-la-Romaine on May 10, 2026 by xi'an
Read The Moth Diaries, by Rachel Klein, presumably following a recommendation in The Guardian or on Tor’s Reactor blog. This is a 2002 book, labelled as gothic horror by the review I read then. However, there is little horror in the novel and much more of a diffracted snapshot of a perturbed pupil at a US boarding school, traumatised by the suicide of her father. As the story is told through and only through the diary of that pupil, most facts being reported second-hand and not always coherently, it becomes quickly impossible to separate truth from fantasy, especially the veracity of another pupil being a vampire. Or just the new best friend of the narrator’s former best friend. Which makes the book much more interesting, if unsettling. (Especially regarding how a sexual assault by a teacher on the pupil is not reported by her as such.)
During a May 01 trip to Caen, if not for the half-marathon, next month!, I visited the nearby fish market in Courseulle, where I tasted fantastic, local, oysters, possibly at the height of their growth, despite the warning to avoid oysters in months without R’s! I also taught a restaurant waiter how to make affogato! And visited the amazing archaeological site of Aregenua, in the tiny village of Vieux, of which I had never heard. This Gallo-Roman city was the centre of local power in the early centuries, when Caen hardly existed, with 5000 inhabitants, temples, a forum and a theatre. All of which gradually vanished in the Dark Ages… The site is now protected from pilfering, but a large fraction remains un-escavated. (Too bad the museum boutique was not selling garum!)
Watched some episodes of The Night Agent (2), rather efficient copycat of the Bourne movies, but also requiring a huge suspension of belief in its accumulation of coincidences and the ability of the agents to operate in completely new environments. With a completely implausible reception at the Iranian Embassy. (And a DGSE agent with an awful French.) But the tension in the cat & mouse “game” is there, to the point I had to split episodes when it got too intense!
a journal of the no-end-war year
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel, University life, Wines with tags Allied troops, Benito Mussolini, Black Plague, book reviews, Buenos Aires, Campo del Ghetto Novo, Cannaregio, colomba pasquale, Corto Maltese, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, Ethiopia, fascism, foccacia, fumetto, ghost story, Hugo Pratt, Isola le Vignole, Italian, jatp, Journal of the Plague Year, Korea TV series, laguna, Murano, panetonne, Russian invasion, Stand Up To Trump, sunset, Ukraine, Venice on May 6, 2026 by xi'anRead my first book in Italian!, namely the fumetto Favola di Venezia (Sirat Al-Bunduqiyyah) by Hugo Pratt. Which I bought in the nice bookstore of the Santa Lucia train station rather than in the new store dedicated to Corto Maltese, in the Ghetto. It took me a while, as I had to get through word by word, rather than rushing through the dialogues as in French BDs or US comics. But this was most appropriate for a fairly oniric story that is more an homage to Pratt’s childhood place than a political mystery (even though the growth of fascism is also impacting the story). Going through each block that slowly further made me try to recognise some places (without checking websites that identify each real location!). As a coïncidence, The New York Times published a long review of… Fable of Venice and Other Adventures (other meaning “The Secret of Tristan Bantam,” “So Much for Gentlemen of Fortune,” and “The Seagull’s Fault,”) which goes over Pratt’s childhood, in Venice, his family (a grand-father joining early the fascists, via Mussolini’s Fasci Italiani di Combattimento, a father moving the family to Ethiopia in 1937 as an overseer of a fascist labour camp, later dying in an Allied prisoner camp), his adventures as an errand boy in an Ethiopian brothel, then as a translator for the Allies occupying Venice, and later moving to Buenos Aires to work for a publisher… (Incidentally, I realised during that trip that Milano and Torino only got liberated on 25 Aprile 1945, a few days before the official end of WW II in Europe. Venezia and Padua got liberated on 28 Aprile.)
During my last trip (this semester!) in Venezia, I was (almost) kidnapped for a dinner at la Trattoria alle Vignole, located on the Isola le Vignole, which I had never visited before. (It is located east of Murano, facing the entrance to the Arsenale.) Which proved exceptional in many ways, from the isola(tion), to the absence of any other customers, to the ferry ride, to watching the sunset on Cannaregio and Murano, and of course to the endless flow of sea-food and fish dishes (not mentioning the company!!)… After tasting (or rather devouring!) a colomba pasquale (for Easter), I also brought home several versions of the similar foccacia veneta, for a battle of bakers!
Watched Phantom Lawyer, a rather silly, heavy going, Korean TV series featuring a struggling lawyer who can see ghosts and bring their cases to a satisfactory conclusion. With the usual conflicts of interest, massive coïncidences, and hopelessly slow romantic entanglements.
Pfersigberg [Wolfberger]
Posted in Wines with tags Alsace wine, demi-sec, foie gras, Gewurztraminer, grand cru, peach tree, Pfersigberg, white wine, Wolfberger on April 20, 2026 by xi'an
