Mouse Woman and the Vanished Princesses by Christie Harris
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I always loved mythology. As a boy, I started with Greek mythology, went onto Roman and then the Norse gods too. Eventually I devoured pretty much everything I found, from all parts of the world. I liked the epic tales that had reached me after centuries, and that they brought me to foreign lands. So, it was a pleasure as no longer a boy to read a copy of this book that a friend of my mother had left for her in the hospital, recovering from a head injury. Ah, the passage of time. At that time, Mom was so present in my life, in charge of the kitchen, encouraging my reading, an intriguing presence, but loving. And now I was back home, in British Columbia, to tend to my sick, elderly mother.
Come to think of it, I wonder if my mother’s friend had thought about the resemblance between Mouse Woman, the heroine of these tales, and my mother. Feisty and principled, somewhat underestimated because of her size, stubborn in her adherence to what is right, there is much to admire in her. As there was in Christie Harris, I understand, who was given the gift of these stories by First Nations people, and is recognised in return for the gift she gave back to them: their stories brought to light, representing a proud culture, during times when some First Nations people were worried about losing their culture, or had become disconnected or fallen prey to poverty and hard times.
The myths in these stories follow a pattern, and so there is much repetition in them, down to the exact same sentences and phrases in a number of them. It is, as I understand, a way of imparting lessons and telling stories, and I found the messages of these stories deeply heartening: that nature must be respected, that there must always be balance and exchange. But there was also so much that was surprising. The shape-shifting legendary gods that could become mortal, the ways they shed their animal coverings, the descriptions of the people and their customs. And moreso, a hat with a bird on top that would twist around and create a powerful oceanic whirlpool; a giant family of snails with shells so large their houses were larger than the other god-animals and when human their skin was as pearly and luminescent as the inside of a shell.
So, a small set of easy-to-read beautiful, powerful, surprising and memorable tales. I’m glad to have stumbled across them. Ah, and the drawings, by Douglas Tait, are gorgeous.
Looking over the menu, it felt pretty expensive, but we decided to share two items off the ‘sharing’ section of the menu. Things got off to a poor start. Considering the amazing coffee you can get in Sydney, the lack of coffee art on this seemed like a real fail.
And then our share plate of charcuterie was a good portion and delicious, and all up for the two us, lunch was not as expensive as I thought. Zomato has taken away the ability to give half stars recently. I’ll lean towards a 4/5 rather than a 3/5 as the food really was quite OK.
Is Beijing Legend legendary? Maybe not. But it’s pretty great food. Located in a part of Pyrmont I’m unfamiliar with, it’s basically above the John Street Square stop on the light rail. I don’t know the history of the light rail but this entrance looks like nothing else in Sydney, almost like descending into a Disneyland ride. What else lies beneath the surface of this neighbourhood?
My favourite dish, as recommended by Eddie, our host, was the oxtails simmered in tomatoes and wine. It’s a family favourite of ours. The meat of oxtail, cooked long enough, is deliciously tender. I think all the bones can freak out some people though. I loved this one.
I’ve always been a fan of hot and sour soup, so this was my one disappointment of the night. Not tons of flavour.
Pretty can, anyways.
The Cantonese villagers who moved to Vancouver in the 1900s populated Chinatown and opened up Chinese businesses. One of them was the ‘Hong Kong Cafe’ which apparently was located at the 
Apple tarts seem to have been their most famous legacy. My brother remembers the apple tarts as being two for 35 cents. They are a kind of flaky pastry, round, with an apple filling, that tastes of real apples, perhaps like a spoonful of apple pie. The layers are light around it, almost like a donut. The flaky coating, a sugar crust, is similar to a nice French pastry. It is certainly not particularly Chinese, but probably found nowhere else in North America, so is an original Vancouver Chinese-Canadian creation.
Walking to the hospital, I am noticing the plain, boxy apartment buildings of Vancouver of the 40s and 50s, none renovated, in colours of pastel and forest. I can hear the voice of a friend Bert who left the city years ago, moving to Calgary. ‘Everyone says Vancouver is so beautiful but look at the buildings. If you picked up the whole city and plunked it down in the middle of the Prairies, people would notice how ugly it is without the mountains and the water’.
Lai Heng took me here for lunch once, and I didn’t manage to blog it, so am glad to get an opportunity with a lovely dinner with some friends from the United World Colleges. We did the $70 banquet menu (and has some *lovely* wines with it) and thought it was a great variety and very decent-sized portions.
To start, a Sydney rock oyster each and then delectable little bites of potato rosti with smoked eel, sour cream and chives (one of my favourite dishes, top of the page).
The duck liver pate with pear jam, served with grilled bread, was, as you can see glistening. My homemade patés never get so smooth and creamy (but are tasty nonetheless).
The two mains were ricotta gnocchi with king brown mushrooms, black russian tomatos, cavalo nero, black garlic and reggiano…
And NZ Greenstone Creek scotch fillet with horseradish butter and fried onions. Very tasty. Is the photo fuzzy because I was salivating over the scotch fillet. Perhaps. It came with some very crispy hand cut chips and a bit of salad too.
For dessert, a chocolate mousse with campari caramel, raspberry and coconut and a pretty much perfect baked lemon tart with vanilla cream.
I needed a little sustenance on my way to a pottery sale at Claypool. And this pastry shop looked very appealing. Ringing with the authentic sound of French accents, it looks like they serve up classic pastries and savouries too, and do catering in the area. I didn’t see a croquembouche anywhere though.
My latte was of the very creamy variety but not in a bad way; it still had the right hit of espresso, but was frothy and milky too.
Izakaya is, I think, the original degustation, but much less formal. Originally Japanese pubs that served small plates of food, it’s a great way to get a varied selection of tasty treats. And basically everything that we tried that night was very delicious and beautifully presented.
I love that they have a little sake tasting set; it was only $10 for a taste of three. We had a set each and both opted for the two dryest, Karatamba and Jumnai Chokra, and a fruitier variety, Jumnai Daiginjo. Very nice.
We were particularly amused at how pretty the plating was – and the salmon roe tasted good too.
This looks like a really cute place to hang out for a drink and a snack sometime. Appealing design. Cosy. On Chippendale’s eat street, which I think is a phenomenal success in terms of urban design.
We didn’t know at the time that this bar is owned by the same brothers as own Koi. For $13 each, we had a KOI Bobba, and I think it’s an interesting decision not to compete with the pastries next door. This was a sort of complicated dish with Thai ice cream, tapioca pearl (that you get in bubble tea), a light-as-air hazelnut sponge cake, torn into pieces, freeze-dried mandarins (yum!) and salted coconut ice cream.
We liked it, though I don’t know how I managed to take such a fuzzy photo! Oh well. The staff were young and eager to please. Looks like the place got sledged in some early reviews with some problems in service and people expecting this to be a sit-down restaurant, appropriate for dinner. It’s not: it’s drinks and snacks, and I’ll be back to try some more.