Sonata no 14 in C minor, K457 – Mozart
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Category: dining out
August 3, 2019
a degustation
“Lemons“ (1929)
___________
watching one of my cooking competition
shows on television the other day, the
twelve contestants were called upon in
pairs to create, each couple, one of the
six elements in a degustation menu
a degustation menu – I raised an eyebrow
at that one – is the same as a tasting menu,
but at a finer, it is implied, restaurant
the theme was citrus fruit, each service
had to highlight one of them, a mandarin,
a lemon, an orange, a lime, a tangelo,
a grapefruit, in that order
my goodness, I thought, a set of
variations on edibles, I was delighted,
not to mention synesthetically
titillated, all my senses were alive
the first course was a mandarin-cured
prawn ceviche, with pesto, something
to tease one’s palate, leaving plenty of
room, however, for what was to follow,
the second course, an equally light
lemon-cured salmon with smoked
crème fraîche and decorative
translucent radish slices, in again but
polite allotments
the third service introduces the protein,
duck with the nearly ever requisite
orange, but with beets, in this instance,
on an underlying sheen of all their
accumulated and colourful juices,
bread, I would imagine, would’ve been
gluttonously required
beef then followed, to fill the second
of the more substantial and filling
elements of the meal, with a lime
reduction and beets
for dessert, the fifth service presented
a tangelo cup with a surprise chocolate
truffle meant to burst in one’s mouth
with iced tangelo flavour, refreshing
and unexpectedly delightful, followed
by a grapefruit sorbet with chocolate
ganache and meringue shards as a
finale
not all contestants reached the heights
wished for, but some were memorable,
much as in any set of, even noteworthy,
variations
here’s Glenn Gould playing Beethoven’s
Six Variations in F major, Opus 34, each
variation is comparable to a culinary
experience, but for piano
listen, compare
these are preceded here by a late, and
haunting, Beethoven bagatelle, his
Opus 126, however, after which the
variations themselves are conveniently
spliced in the editing process to help
distinguish each movement from the
other
Glenn Gould doesn’t hit a note wrong,
but I think Beethoven’s introductory
aria, upon which the variations are
built, and which is repeated at the end
after a coda, or final interpolated wave,
is slow, a more engaging opening
would’ve been, to my mind, more
effective
I also would’ve, however peripherally,
degusted especially the lime beef
R ! chard
psst: incidentally, all Bach’s Cello Suites
are in six segments, their common
theme is dance, each one is a
scintillating Baroque example
October 12, 2018
cuisine, modern art
“Still Life. Food, Glasses and a Jug on a Table“ (1640)
_______
if I’ve been trying to show off Beethoven,
and other Romantic artists, painters,
poets, composers, as prophets in a
post-Christian, secular environment,
their modern equivalents show up in,
of all places, cuisine in the 21st Century,
where chefs have become the new, and
dominant, expression of art, if you can
believe it, but trust me
I can’t but urgently enough recommend,
should you be at all interested in the
evolution of creative genius,
“Chef’s Table“, an already 5-year-old
series on Netflix, $9.99 a month, with
a first month free trial, a show that
gives you, to my mind, a front row
seat for the manner in which an artist
becomes an expression of, a lighting
rod for, social change, a picture of
the juice it takes to produce such a
person
who could be any one of us, all that’s
needed is a conscience
and maybe, admittedly, a muse
R ! chard
psst: a few of their restaurants I’ve
virtually visited
Osteria Francescane – with a friend,
we decided we’d have the foie gras
as a starter, snails and hare with
“aromatic herbs” for our primi, but
she’d have the beef, I’d have the
suckling pig as secondi
Attica’s set menu doesn’t give you
much of a choice, though it promises
utter, and I believe them, excellence
Alinea, where eating is more than
even just a designer meal, but a
very transcendental experience
October 3, 2017
the “wall”
“A Sunday on La Grande Jatte“ (1884)
________
should you know Vancouver, you’ll
recognize, nearly immediately, the
Seawall on this video, before even
a minute has elapsed you spot the
Westin Bayshore coming at you,
nearly perilously, before the speeding
bullet that takes you on the journey
turns the crucial corner on the paved
path that wends its way afterwards
around the peninsula
on foot, this takes about three hours,
but here, inspired by the music of Pink
Floyd, on a deft reinterpretation of the
title and music from “The Wall“, their
oracular masterpiece, an inspired
cyclist brings this local trajectory to
psychedelic life, if you can stand the
unsettling disjunction between his
dizzying speed and the grandeur
of the transcendent, immutable,
coastlines
you’ll need, I suggest, a seatbelt,
but the ride is wild
the journey ends abruptly, both
geographically and musically,
just down the street from my place,
across the road from a recently
favourite restaurant, with a view,
just as transcendent, however not
at all disappointingly mutable, of
the Pacific sunset, whenever we,
family and friends, eat there
R ! chard
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