• 17 Nov 2009 09:33

  BlogApril2009 (!) BlogNovember2008 BlogDecember2009 Tues 17th November 2009 Blogging Gap... This blog started in December 2001, and the website started as a Wiki in March 2001, and the first entries now hosted here are from my university pages which started in 1994! I've just had the largest gap in updating since I started, because I've been particularly busy. I've moved house, helped plan a great wedding, been on Honeymoon, and, of course, got married Anyway, I normally blog about public events(see ), rather than my personal life, so that's enough of that, back to the blog! Saturday 7th November 2009 If you visit Moseley or King's Norton Farmer's markets, you might have noticed the Japanese food stall, run by Rie Hayashida, which sells very tasty Teriyaki Chicken Burgers, sushi (including vegi) and cakes. Rie also runs a Japanese food evening at Leverton & Halls Deli in Bourneville, you need to book, and I got a place for today Rie is from Nagasaki, and many of her recipes are from her mother and her great-aunt. This means you're getting home-style, Nagasaki-style food, rather than just sushi or the Anglicised "Japanese influenced" stuff you get at Wagamamas. The deli itself has a cafe in the back room, and for tonight it's been decorated in Japanese style, with paintings, wall-hangings and nice table decorations. There's a fixed menu, with the option to cater for vegetarians and pescatarians. Japanese cooking often uses stock made from kombu seaweed and either bonito flakes (dried tuna) or shiitake. Here we had a delicious rich stock made with shiitake, so there's no hidden fish for those who care about these things. We started with Pressed Sushi with Simmered Shiitake and Beautiful Rolled Spinach with Sesame Sauce. This is one of the dishes you can get at the Farmer's Market. The colours aren't quite right on the picture, the omelette slices weren't so yellow and the spinach was a fantastic green, and so perfectly presented that at first I mistook it for a little sauce jar! I'm a big shiitake, and the umami taste goes so well with rice These tofu balls were great - why haven't I seen them at vegetarian restaurants? The soups was lovely too, rich and tasty with soft aubergine. Aubergine Soup Gyoza are widely available, Japanese dumplings, normally lightly fried. Nice to see some home made ones: Another pretty and delicious soup, this time with lotus root dumplings, and teriyaki salmon with Rie's own sauce. I'm starting to get quite full now... Finally, some Japanese Cakes and Deserts Red Bean Cake with Matcha Ice Cream Want to eat some? See Rie's pages at: Eat Well Japan , and if you know me, ask me along! BlogApril2009 (!) BlogNovember2008 BlogDecember2009

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• 23 Jun 2009 13:12

  BlogGlastonbury2009,

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• 25 Apr 2009 21:21

  Thursday 23rd April 2009 Perrott's Folly Perrott's Folly is one of the Two Towers which inspired Tolkein's book Lord of the Rings. It's rarely open to the public, but the Ikon are using it for an exhibition by Sofia Hultén. To be honest, I was so fascinated by the tower itself, that I was a little distracted from the work. The tower dates back to 1758, and consists of a steep spiral staircase (20 steps between floors), and a series of relatively small rooms. It's kind of kitsch castle in design. Whilst I was there a man and a small boy of about 7 arrived, the guy told me he'd lived in the area for 50 years, and never been inside. It was so nice to hear him and his son exploring this local landmark The installation is there till the 24th of May (Thurs to Sun, 1pm till 5pm). The Ikon re-opens the space on the 4th of June for Yukio Fujimoto'sThe Tower of Time which runs until the 26th of July. Wednesday 22nd April 2009

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• 25 Apr 2009 09:49

  Weds 22nd April 2009 Ikon Gallery Visited the Ikon for the first time in a while, and really liked some of the videos by John Wood and Paul Harrison. _Shelf_shows a seemingly infinite white shelf on which random objects appear - some paint tins, little figurines, HB pencils etc. Sounds boring, but is actually fascinating and humorous. Later I saw part of another film of theirs, in which a steadily panning camera reveals an long sequence of concrete rooms. In each room, "something" happens with ball. They fly in though a window, or fall from the ceiling or emerge from a hidden space. The anticipation and surprise almost made me laugh out loud in places. They have a lot of relatively short films on display too, but I will have to return to check these out. Also showing is a large series of woodcut prints, Tale Pieces by Thomas Bewick, dating back to the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Ikon kindly provides large magnifying glasses so you can see the details in these small works. They generally deal with country scenes, featuring a small number of people, often a lone individual. Fishing, egg collecting and dogs turn up often, as do beggers, travellers and hangings! A rather odd insight into a past world.

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• 22 Apr 2009 17:40

  BlogMarch2009BlogApril2008 BlogMay2009 Monday 13th April 2009 Bill's A couple of people recommended this place to me. There's no table reservations, just a long queue but luckily I jumped this by turning up late, allowing my friends to do the queueing! They do very nice food, in a relaxed atmosphere, with amazing looking cakes. Unfortunately I was so full from all the other great food that I didn't sample them. Side by Side Peered in through the windows of what I think was an art college at an exhibition called "Side by Side - Fine Art Sculpture", and spotted a couple of interesting pieces. One of which reminds me of Antony Gormley's Field Homage to Field? Lose yourself in a cup of tea Scrambled Eggs The eggs at Paskin's Town House persuaded me that my egg scrambling skills were in need of improvement. A quick bit of research pointed me at Mr Breakfast's in-depth egg-scrambling experiments . I needed to cook on a lower heat and with less stirring. Now I can do perfect eggs! Sunday 12th April 2009 Terre a Terre I'd heard of Terre a Terre before - the Observer featured it (along with Birmingham's The Warehouse Cafe and Kitchen Garden) as one of the best ethical restaurants in the UK. So I booked ahead to ensure somewhere nice to eat on Sunday night Decor-wise, it's warm and bright, the staff are friendly and helpful and the food is excellent (with quite generous portions too). I got to try the Arapas Mojo - cornmeal / sweetcorn cakes; the Smoked Sakuri Soba - a spiral pile of soba noodles and vegetable spaghetti, with smoked tofu , wasabi cashews and a thick satay sauce; the Tikka Kachumber - Halloumi kebab in indian spices; the Porcini Pudding - steamed suet-style pudding filled with wild mushrooms in a red-wine sauce, served with truffled mashed potatoes - delicious. Arapas Mojo Haloumi Kebab Porcini Mushroom Pudding Soba and Tofu Graffiti Brighton has some great Graffiti, mainly commercial / council sponsored, though there is an independent sticker scene. Chimney Totem Pole Grand Master Chess Map Please do not feed the Humans Heroin Vending Machine Poster Dog Stickers Pavilion The "oriental" style pavilion is striking building, and has had an obvious influence on other architecture in the city. There are also some lovely gardens, which are even open at night. Forget-Me-Nots, Brighton Pavilion Gardens Pompoko Driven by a paucity of Japanese restaurants in Birmingham, I ate Japanese for the second time in two days, this time at Pompoko. I got a nice Unagi Don (eel and rice with shredded ommlette) and a cup of green tea for about £5. Pompoko, Brighton Ebi Don Unagi Don Sat 11th April 2009 Brighton I've never visited Brighton before, but I've heard good things about it, so this Easter weekend I headed down there. It's four hours on the train from Brum, though on the way back we made it in closer to three. I booked a guest house using Trip-Advisor, which always seems to have trustworth reviews of even the most obscure places, even if it doesn't know the availability for the smaller ones. I ended up as Paskin's Town House, quite a posh place, which sells itself on it's Art Deco styling. The other great thing about Paskin's is the breakfasts. Have a look at the menu online, it's not your standard "greasy eggs and squeeky toast". There's homemade marmalade, duck's eggs, some of the best scrambled eggs (with or without smoked salmon or anchovies), and the veggie and vegan breakfast options feature home made sausages and patties. To be honest, it was rather a disappointment having to leave the breakfast table to go out and explore the town. Vegi breakfast Perfect Scrambled Eggs The Lanes, and North Laine The Lane's were the main thing I'd heard about in Brighton, aside of course from the pier and the "rock". The Lanes and North Laine ("Laine" being an old world for a field, I discovered) have lots of small, independent, shops and cafes. Much of it is pedestrianised, and the cafe's spill out across the streets. There's a general sense of relaxed, slightly trendy, fun. Typical shops are Jewellers ("craft","hippy" and "trashy"), trendy clothing boutiques and nick-nacky gift shops. When the outline planning permission for the new Bullring came up, my submission suggested that we have something similar in Brum, rather than a single monolithic building which would need demolishing in 30 years or so, but sadly, these niceties are not for Brum Moomins Overload Pick and Mix Religion TV is Evil T-shirt Il Bistro Looking for a quick meal on Saturday afternoon, I popped into Il Bistro on (or in?) The Lanes. They had a fixed price two course menu for about £7/8, I got a nice soup and some good quality (though not stunning) fish and chips. It's a pretty looking place, and won a Brighton City in Bloom award for it's frontage. Oki-Nami This Japanese restaurant is very close to the pavilion. They served some nice sushi and sashimi, and interesting Japan inspired cocktails. Unfortunately, I was too interested in the food to remember to take photos of it I did capture the matcha ice cream tempura though! Deep Fried Macha Ice Cream Brighton Pier at Night Brighton Pier - Long Exposure, Waterfall Brighton Pier - Long Exposure, Swirl and Ghost BlogMarch2009BlogApril2008 BlogMay2009

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• 16 Mar 2009 15:19

  BlogFebruary2009BlogMarch2008 BlogApril2009 Saturday 14th March Sita Sings the Blues I linked to NinaPaley in my fourth ever blog post, back in December 2001(!) - though some content on this site dates way back to 1994! Anyway, Nina Paley is a great animator and strip cartoonist, I first noticed her political stuff like Binge-o , and I see she's now active on copyright issues , releasing Sita Sings the Blues under a "Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License" - I.e. you can copy the film, show it, even re-use bits to create new work, all without asking or paying, as long as you acknowledge that Nina Paley as the author of the film! Now if you want to give her money , you can. The donations go towards getting 1920's songs used in the film out of copyright jail I really enjoyed the film, showing as part of Flatpack 3 . It retells the (indian epic) story of Rama and Sita, and took Nina five years to make, following the break up of a relationship when her partner decided he liked India more than her (at least, that's the story). watch it online , and why not donate the price of some pop-corn, or a bit more! Friday 13th March 2009 Lunar Lights Wandered along to the Floodgate Kino, cafe, chill-out and art-space for Flatpack, to see Moon Dreams, a collection of films about the moon (and the stars). Repeated from Weds, was Georges MeliesLe voyage dans la lune (YouTube with english commentary or french and piano ). Also showing was Scott Johnston's atmospheric film of Brian Duffy's Optophonic Lunaphone (YouTube) performance, in which star-light was transformed into sound. Really made me feel like I was there, which was great as I was unable to attend the original as I was out of the country. I was praying for rain in the UK, so they would defer it to the next week when I was back! The evening was rounded off by Andrew Smith, author of Moon Dust, reading his account of Apollo 11 landing on the moon, with the un-edited film from the lander, showing exactly what the astronauts saw. It was a hairy landing, and very well read. Think I'll get hold of a copy of his book. Weds 11th March 2009 Curzonora with the Destoyers Part of Birmingham's great Flatpack Festival , Curzonara featured some of the earliest films to be shown (and made!) in the city. Waller Jeffs is cinema entrepreneur, setting up his amazing "moving pictures" in the (now demolished) Curzon Hall. Initially, the shear novelty of anything moving was enough, but Mr Jeffs guaranteed audiences by going out and filming the people of the city (who, we know, according to The Destroyers, have to learn to live as one ). Speaking of The Destroyers , they provided music for all the films, including many specially composed pieces, and really showed their musical versatility. My favourite film of the night had to be an early "Lassie" style short, in which a dog rescues a stolen baby. Nice pictures of "slum" style housing, and an amazingly well trained dog! BlogFebruary2009BlogMarch2008 BlogApril2009

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• 03 Mar 2009 18:23

  Sat 28th February 2009 Sushi Kaji Sushi Kaji is listed as one of Toronto's top Asian restaurants, and probably one of the two best Japanese restaurants in the city (the other being the Kaiseki restaurant, Hashimotoread this post about Sushi Kaji with more pictures if you'd like! The location is not what you'd expect, opposite a Baskin Robbins and a Tim Horton's (Canada's ubiquitous coffee house), and in the same block as a nail parlour. Step inside, however, and you are transported back to Japan. The chef and staff are all Japanese, and the food and service are good and very authentic. Sushi Kaji Chef Sushi Kaji offers three fixed price menus, and no a-la carte, however they were happy to cater for my no-meat request, and remembered the other instructions I'd given when booking. Each menu includes Sushi and Sashimi, desert plus a couple of other dishes. I went for the mid-sized Waka menu with about 6 courses. Service started with hot towels, something which every decent food place should offer, but often don't. Dishes I recall include: Sushi with Sea-Urchin - never tried this before and it was lovely. I've heard of people eating them straight from rock-pools, with a little lemon, which is a bit too fresh for me! This was delicious, superbly tender. Sea Urchin Sushi Beautifully presented Sashimi - the Sea Bream sprinkled with Yuzu rind was heavenly. The Crab on a Potato Mountain was actually topped with gold! The presentation was superb. Sashimi Sashimi Sashimi Sashimi - Octopus and Sea Bream Snow crab in Broth - this was memorable for my error. I'd previously read somewhere that the shell was balanced on a pile of salt, however this didn't prevent me from taking a spoonful to work out what it was! Snow Crab and Taro Potato in Ginger Sauce Finishing with a light version of the classic Green Tea Tiramisu, or a Cute Grape Mousse Green Tea Tiramisu Grape Mouse Throughout the meal, we drank very fine green tea, though this was the one point where the service could have been better, there were no automatic refills, we had to ask each time. (Though I'm not complaining - it's just that there weren't hovering, watching, waiters) A great place to eat, and I'm already looking forward to my next visit. One note, the table next to us had a woman who didn't eat raw fish or several other things on the menu, though her companions assured her that "Sushi is rice and vegetables", was slightly hysterical and rude to the staff - saying in front of one waitress "she doesn't speak English". I thought they dealt with it flawlessly, and managed to provide her with a personalized menu. Delhi 6 This Indian film featured some low-key Bollywood song and dance scenes, and followed the story of an American born man who's Grandmother wanted to return to the community she had left behind in Delhi. as a device, it works well, as it allows the director to explain various aspects of life there to an unfamiliar audience (i.e. me). Delhi 6 is an area where muslims and hindus mix, as do their religions - one shopkeeper has a picture of Mecca next to one of the "monkey god" Hanuman. Our protagonist too, is mixed - his father's and grandmother's family is Hindu, whilst his mother is a muslim. For a while, all is good, but family tensions over marriage and modernity surface, the "Black Monkey" is on the loose, attacking people, and cast and religious tensions begin to rise. Almost a film in two parts, it's a romantic look into street-life in one of the world's liveliest cities and both enjoyable and thought provoking. You can .

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• 06 Feb 2009 18:20

  BlogFebruary2008 BlogMarch2009 Thursday 5th February 2009 The Girl Who Could Leap Through Time The Birmingham International Film Society runs at the Library Theatre, filling some of the gap which the closure of The MAC left in Brum. Tonight they showed a Japanese "Magic Girl" film, but one set in modern, real-world, Japan. The street scenes reminded me so much of my visit to Japan back in 2007. Our heroine finds, as you might guess from the title, that she can travel through time - she literally has to leap in order to do so, and typically ends in a heap. Initially, she uses her gift for small things, like getting home before her sister eats her pudding, but as time goes on, she needs to spend more of her leaps trying to sort out the repercussions of her interference. One of the things I liked about this film was that there were several points at which I thought "This must be the end, what a great end to the film", only to be proved wrong. You can see (at least some of it) on YouTube Monday 2nd February 2009 Purple Potato Pakora Today I made Purple Potato Pakora, something I'd been thinking about for a couple of weeks since I discovered a stall in the indoor market which sold purple potatoes. Here's a picture of the finished product: Purple Potato (and Courgette) Pakora There's more pictures and a rough recipe here. BlogFebruary2008 BlogMarch2009

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• 03 Feb 2009 14:56

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• 30 Jan 2009 16:46

  Between Me and You Between Me and You

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