Nothing like the urge to complain to drive one to post

[petronia]

Dear Olive & Gourmando:

Cast-iron tea sets seem neat-o until one attempts to serve tea in them at which point one discovers that

1) cast iron is way more heat-conductive than porcelain OUCH,
2) cast iron is way heavier than porcelain and thus conductive to tipping over if balanced incorrectly on a wooden tray with legs
3) dude, doesn't tea react chemically with cast iron?

The darjeeling was delicious but honestly, hipsters. And all of it overpriced.

OTOH the other day I wandered up to Caffe Art Java that astrael_nyx has been waxing poetic about for a while. I had a cappuccino and lemon cheesecake and texted Ced to say so (this is why I don't have Twitter - the temptation to inform people of what I'm eating would be too great). The cappuccino is as good as a good cappuccino in Italy, which I guess makes it excellent for here, and they do foam art. XD The lemon cheesecake was cleverly served with a honey drizzle which allowed me to pretend that I was having something honey-and-lemon-based and thus good for the cough, instead of milky coffee and cheesecake which is definitely bad for the cough.[1] The cough however was not fooled.

Erin and I are supposed to go back to Mount Royal tomorrow or the day after in order to hit up the cupcake boutique. XD I recognize that I'm going to end up paying like 5$ for a frosted cupcake but whatevs, the window display is beautiful from the outside. ...Actually it gave me the urge to make Nigella Lawson's recipe for what she calls fairy cakes. Maybe Tania's nieces would be interested. XD;

The bouquinistes' fair is back in the Old Port, I bought four books on lunch break:

Boileau-Narcejac, Au bois dormant
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Terre des hommes
Marguerite Yourcenar, Le Coup de grâce

The fourth (and most expensive) being a collection of historical documents, critical notes and essays revolving around The Little Prince. I'd reproduce points of interest but it's in French so may be a bit overboard. XD

The only proper book I've read recently is... Steinbeck's East of Eden. I picked it up to flip through and ended up reading the whole thing standing right there, hefty tome and all. It's a lot more compelling (and relevant to my interests) than I'd've guessed. Primo - Cathy steals and swallows the scenery whole, she's almost like a femme fatale version of Johan out of Monster[2]; secundo - nobody ever mentioned this book was self-aware intertextual metafiction but it is, even if the only other book in it is Genesis; tertio - one of the major secondary characters is Chinese-American, shokku. Steinbeck can be sort of a lot essentialist: I was going to write that Lee is a Good Negro if the epithet could be applied to Chinese but it occurs to me that he's also a classic Asian Overachiever long before the phenomenon was identified. XD What else would you call a mammy character who studies Hebrew and avenues of philosophical inquiry in his spare time on the farm, srsly. In context this is all kinds of awesome and lulz.



[1] One of these days if I get bored I'll write a cough drops review. Mexican Piña Colada Halls: surprisingly tasty!

[2] Potential line of inquiry here re: how Monster ducks the sexuality question in some indefinite way. And it's probably the other way around, isn't it - safe bet Johan's character was inspired by Cathy Ames.

Comments

[bell]

Dunno about anybody else, but I'd like to see the excerpts of interest about The Little Prince. :D

[motorbike.livejournal.com]

I will take your French points of interest gladly! I can't remember the last book I read in French; I suspect it was Harry Potter 5. I need to get back up to speed.

Was this the small-type cast-iron teapots they tend to sell in asian tea shops? I wanted a moss-colored version for the longest time until I arrived at the same conclusion. HOT BAD.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, small-type cast-iron teapot (though I've never seen one in an Asian tea shop myself). The teacup is more problematic than the teapot itself. >_>

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

....Does tea react chemically with cast iron? I didn't know tea was very reactive.

[dipping_sauce]

The tannin in the tea reacts with the iron and rusts it.