Archive for parnsip

a journal of the conquest, war, [snow] famine, and death year

Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 24, 2024 by xi'an

Read yet another novelette by Aliette de Bodard, The citadel of weeping pearls, set in the same universe of a Viêt Nam inspired galactic civilisation, which proved somewhat equal to the previous ones,  with the plus of digging into mother-daughter and sibling relations and the slight minus of involving time travel [which, surprisingly, rarely fails to annoy me]. Right level for filling the nightly wake-ups I encountered while in Les Houches, despite a reasonable amount of physical activities since I totalled 79km of running that week and a few thousand meters of positive climb.

Made very little cooking while in Les Houches, obviously!, although we brought back a nice collection of very local cheeses, or the obvious reason of having evening meals at the workshop hotel together with the other participants. Nothing spectacular to report on that front, except for a limited vegetarian offer, incl. failed risotto and dhal, and more than substantial portions presumably calibrated for ravenous skiers (rather than regular runners!)… But had a lunch stop on the [high]way back home at [Ratatouille’s inspiration] Bernard Loiseau‘s bistro, Loiseau des Sens (and not the Michelin Côte d’Or**!). While the dishes were made from unsophisticated ingredients, their perfect preparation really proved worth the détour (and light enough to avoid falling asleep on the remainder of the drive home!!!)

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Watched House of Shinobi (忍びの家) on Netflix, following the paradoxes of a family of ninjas facing the modern Japan but somewhat unwillingly keeping their duties and honour code, which proved predictably cartoonesque but involved comic relief, as well as including the actors Eguchi Yōsuke (playing a similar role in the series of Kinshin films) and Miyamoto Nobuko (who played in the excellent 1980’s Tampopo). And Happiness (해피니스), yet another Korean zombie series, lengthy and easily forgotten.

back to roots!

Posted in Kids, pictures with tags , , , , , , , , , on January 21, 2017 by xi'an

As the season moves towards winter days, I find myself buying more and more roots at the local farmers’ market, as not much else is available around. Except for pumpkins and all kinds of squash that are still on sale there. Over the break, I thus cooked vegetables I had never tasted before, like capucine (mashua), cerfeuil tubéreux (chervil), topinambourg (Jerusalem artichoke), oca (yum), persil tubéreux (root parsley), poire de terre (yacon), chou rave (kohlrabi), scorsonère (black salsifi) and rutabaga…  Such a variety of choice (besides carrots and parnsips) makes for great meals, plus table games, as even our parents who grew up in rural Normandy have never heard of those.