A different walk

 

Our Sunday walk in Lumpini Park today was very different from one we regularly took almost one year ago in Scotland, at the start of our three week break, which was extended twice because of the flooding in Thailand.

 

 

Unusual breeds of sheep, with several in suitably autumn-coloured wool

 

 

are almost as mysterious as the stonemason, creating drystone egg-shaped follies.

 

 

Several garden benches are placed in the divided rooms of the garden

 

 

allowing views of the upper pond

 

 

and from this end, to the bench in the distance on the other side of the pond

  

 

or views from a higher level of the garden to the hills in the distance.

 

 

And then back through a set of gates to the house and a warm fire. 

 

 

Whereas here our sojurn completed, we returned to the flat after about 1 1/2 hours and cooled ourselves in a long shower, having had the equivalent of a vigorous workout, (in the 34C temperature).

In the frame

 

My dear friend in Hong Kong with whom we stay on our visits, shares my passion in art collecting, although we have quite different tastes in many respects. That notwithstanding we do share views on specific pieces, and most recently I have dissuaded him from buying a picture we both liked very well, (French 1930s, signed) but which I felt was hugely overpriced.

 

 

He has said that he is quite often drawn to a picture by its frame, and of course I agree with that - "display", as in a frame, is important - but of course it should never be the overriding criterion for buying a picture. The two most recent pictures I bought came with frames that I liked hugely - the first a C19th watercolour of Hong Kong attributed to George Chinnery, and the second an C18th portrait by John Hoppner. In both cases the frames are not in the best condition, but the watercolour's only has surface cracking on the gilding. The oil's however has a break in the lower right hand corner, and will be repaired when I next have a sufficient period of time in the country where they are stored.

 

There were three pictures I bought earlier where I did change the frame.

 

 

 

The William Stott of The Royal Maundy in 1936 had a rather cheap and nasty construction. The original poor framing in fact turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it made the picture look unimportant, (a factor compounded by the auctioneer describing it as being of Prince William),

 

 

 

and the pair of C19th China Trade pictures with their heavy blackwood or rosewood frames. In the case of the latter I had them reframed to suit my interior design requirements, but I have kept the original C19th frames, in case I should ever want to sell them, as I'm sure they would help in providing a fillip to the sales price achieved.  

O sole mio

 

I'm using the word sole loosely in two senses: it's an unusual looking sun, and I didn't use sole for my Lemon Sole Florentine. In its place (not plaice), I used a local white fish similar to sole. The recipe is very easy and delicious.

 

Ingredients:

2 large lemon sole filets (or equivalent)

juice of 1/2 lemon

salt & black pepper

45g butter

45g plain flour

450mls milk

750g spinach

30g grated Parmesan

 

Method:

Place the sole in a flat dish and squeeze the lemon juice over it and season. Leave it to one side. Make a white (bechamel) sauce using the butter, flour and milk. Add a pinch of nutmeg.

Heat through the spinach; I used a packet of frozen.

When cooked, layer an oven proof dish with the spinach.

Pour over half the white sauce, then place lemon-marinated sole/fish on top of that.

Pour the remainder of the white sauce over the layered fish, and sprinkle with the cheese.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200C for 30-40 minutes.

 

We served with sauté potatoes. The dish would be well-accompanied by a chilled Pinot Grigio, but as we're on the wagon, l'eau de table had to do.

 

It has been a busy few days of culinary experimentation. We also made a veal scallopini recipe that I read from Lindaraxa's blog here, except as is so often the case, there was no veal scallopini at the butchers on the day I specifically decided to buy it, so we adapted and used pork tenderloin, thinly sliced, and substituted yoghurt for the cream. It was excellent, and very quick and easy to execute.

 

We make risotto quite often, so I was interested to read Mon Avis, Mes Amis and her recipe for pumpkin risotto. I made it last night, and the pumpkin does add a delightful velvet texture to a dish that permits creativity, and works with many variations providing you follow the principle of coating the arborio thoroughly, and stirring the stock in gradually and when it's hot, allowing the rice to cook and soften.

 

So I encourage you - dig out those recipe books and whilst you don't have to do a Julie & Julia number on them, you will be surprised how easy and delicious some of them are, and for those of you in northern climes, winter's a good time to be doing that sort of thing n'est pas?

One's picture

 

The Royal Collection has purchased a series of Andy Warhol screen prints of Queen Elizabeth II, as outlined in this article from the Telegraph. Really rather makes sense doesn't it?

Cutting edge lunch

 

Friday's lunch idea began with "let's have a salad", but grew a little more creative as our thought processes began. The salad above was pomelo, a terrific combination of sweet and sour, salty and tart. See a recipe here; as Mrs Beeton might have said, "first catch your pomelo" - I realise it is not available everywhere, but grapefruit can substitute it. We also had some left over aloo ghobi that I had made previously and this was transformed into a chilled soup, by mashing it up and adding milk, turmeric, and chicken stock.

 

 

Not your everyday soup and salad lunch. But in the midst of doing this, there appeared a man, as if from nowhere, at one of the kitchen windows using a razor to remove the flecks of paint and primer on the glass left by the recent repainting of the building.

 

 

The terrifying factor that slowly dawned on me was that he was standing on the ledge, unattached to any safety cord, ("what's that?" I'm sure his employer would have asked).

 

 

The picture above illustrates this point, as his swing dangles behind him, and he attends to the lower windows in this section. 

 

And then when finished, he clambered on to his swing, and was lowered to the floor below.

 

 

Here's the ledge he was standing on, (and the drop, more than 30 floors below).

 

I can't say it was the sort of excitement I needed at lunch time, but both it and the food proved to be shall we say a different experience to the normal.

Canute, Catherine and me

 

My Canute-esq attempt to have the monsoon turned off seemed to be working. It actually did not rain for one day. However, the following day, and today it has resumed, with the volume turned up.

 

 

So however much you try to control some things, be it the sea, the papparzzi or the rain, it's best to acknowledge the sentiments requested in the Serenity Prayer.

 

I do however detect the slightest change in the weather pattern. I managed to leave to run some errands as it began to rain, and return in the dry, and weak sunshine. The fact that it's Friday made the potential traffic improvement barely discernable. Bangkok. Traffic. Friday. Serenity.

River city

 

The beautiful bright sunshine we experienced on our trip in Tokyo

 

has been replaced by daily torrential rain in Bangkok

 

causing some unease that we may experience a repeat of the flooding that blighted the entire country this time last year.

 

These are random photos taken in the immediate vicinity of our hotel, showing the diversity of the newly laid out areas of Marunouchi

 

and the main avenue in Ginza, which is closed to vehicular traffic on Sundays and open to all manner of life instead. (The building with the clock tower is the famed Wako department store.) Instead this is the rather gloomy view from the balcony

 

 

this morning, of the Chao Phyra river, which is looking more like a lake, and upon which small ships are gliding down, (right to left), as if powered like speedboats. And after lunch according to the current weather pattern, we shall have several hours of heavy downpours. You can almost set your clock by it, and I should have been in tune with that when I ventured out yesterday afternoon, firstly forgetting that en route there was a demonstration outside the US Embassy in sympathy with other voices of Muslim displeasure around the world, (and therefore abandoning that element of my day's errands), and then meeting a deluge on the return from my next appointment. I've officially had enough of this monsoon season. Now can it please cease, and give way to the best season of the year?

Dramatis personae

 

On one of our evenings in Tokyo we had dinner at a robatayaki (literally "fireside") restaurant, in Roppongi, an area famous for its nightlife and favoured by foreigners.

 

The chefs squat on a stage behind an assembled array of foods on woven trays or live fish in a tank, and according to the menu you have agreed, cook those dishes on a fire, and then serve them to you on a paddle.

 

Our chef was the sumo-like man, who said he was a wrestler, but then later confessed that this was part of his role.

 

Anyway, not a claim I wanted to question, and indeed, he was charming and looked after us well. Robatayaki cuisine is enjoyed by tourists for its theatricality, but it comes at a price, and one at the time we thought well worth it, (after several tokkuri's of sake). Reviewing the bill the next day did elicit a few expletives.

 

We also sampled the bar life of Shinjuku, which because of the minuscule size of the premises, are by nature rather intimate. In one we met a couple from Bangkok with whom we exchanged contact details and may see again here.

 

The rather poor quality images are from my phone camera. Other diners seemed to carry paparazzi-sized lensed equipment, which I suppose is allowed if you're not staying in a private chateau in Provence.

Architectural assurance

 

One of the architectural gems I liked in Tokyo is this neoclassical office building, for Meiji Life Insurance, which is located opposite the Imperial Palace. It was built in 1934

 

and the rear of the building is now within a glass canopy that provides a cool space (in both senses) between the old and the new building.

 

This lobby on the ground floor has been refurbished, using the existing classical design, but combining it with sharp and stark modern elements, quite similar to the effect we created in our condominium lobby here in Bangkok.

 

An obvious attraction for me are the external Corinthian columns.

A fishy tale

On our second last day in Tokyo we visited the famed Tsukiji Fish Market. We passed up the dubious pleasure of attending the frozen tuna auction

as this requires registration at 5 am for the two auctions that take place between 5.30 to 6.15 am, with only limited spaces available for visitors.

Instead we ambled along at around 10 am, to watch the rather quieter, and somewhat less interesting sights and sounds. One does have to be rather careful because there are many vehicles of varying sizes zipping around, and the expected Japanese politeness is certainly not evident, for the very good reason that they have a busy job to complete.

The small stalls and shops in one area sell fresh seafood, but it was too early for me to eat, and there were already eager customers waiting to sample the fare. Instead we paid our homage at the Tsukiji Honganji Temple, 

which is built in the Indian style, and then retreated to an air-conditioned taxi to complete some shopping, before having a more salubrious lunch in comfort and seclusion.

Missing a chalice from the palace

The only thing missing from our visit to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Saturday was a brew that need not have been true, but certainly cold, to alleviate the extremely hot weather that the city is experiencing.

Nonetheless, we have made the most of our brief visit to Japan to visit and re-visit places that are landmarks, or to drink in the wonderful changes that are taking place, mainly in the form of restoration of some of the outstanding architectural gems. This version of the palace is itself a reincarnation of Edo Castle, the seat of the shoguns, when they ruled Japan from the C17th-C19th, before restoration of the imperial system, (the Meiji Restoration) in 1868.

Tokyo Station is also undergoing complete renovation and rebuilding, adding a further storey to the structure that was first erected in 1911.

Perhaps what strikes a visitor most is the efficiency of every aspect of day-to-day life. But it's not an efficiency that offends, as it is accompanied by unfailing courtesy. It helps to be visiting with my better half, so that mundane activities are taken care of, (such as carrying money), but even as a non-Japanese speaker, it is easy enough to communicate, although I do have the emergency back up translator, so I have no real way of knowing.

Tomorrow we return to our eyrie on the Peak in Hong Kong for a couple of nights, before our final leg back home to Thailand.

But there are more tales from the land of the rising (and rather hot) sun, which I shall share after I return to base.

Pucci, Gucci and Marunouchi

As you might expect, (well if you are familiar with Tokyo), and especially in the central area in which we are staying, every high fashion designer label is in the immediate vicinity, in Ginza. It is an extraordinary experience, and one we are enjoying for its fantasy, rather than the availability of the merchandise which would doubtless make a fashionista weak at places higher than their knees.

Yes, Pucci and Gucci but unless you know Tokyo, the area between the Imperial Palace and Tokyo station, called Marunouchi, (formerly an exclusively business district), has now been developed by Mitsubishi Real Estate in to a beautifully laid-out shopping district, that is quite enchanting, and has changed my preconceptions about the concrete jungle that used to diminish my enthusiasm for visiting a city that deserves a pre-eminent reputation with its peers, such as London, New York and Paris.  

We shall elaborate further, but the cocktail hour is sounding like a siren, and it would be foolish to disobey, don't you think?   

Just looking

Our shopping expeditions in Hong Kong have largely been confined to two mercifully short forays into the Central District. The first was to search for a Molton Brown outlet, which used to be housed in the old Lane Crawford department store, (Hong Kong's oldest). But like the franchise in Bangkok, this is no longer available in Hong Kong either. Happily the absence of my favourite shower gel (Suma Ginseng) will be rectified when we go to Tokyo tomorrow.

Nonetheless, I was impressed with this shop display in Lane Crawford, with a neoclassical façade housing shoes and handbags. The staff in the store were less impressed with my endeavours to photograph, but my feigned ignorance prevailed.

And then this rather splendid dinosaur in Harvey Nichols window made up entirely of coat hangers rather caught my eye.

My needs and wants from shopping were rather modest, but apart from the Molton Brown, they were met quite quickly and without having to endure too much of the congestion that overrides any pleasure in the activity.