May 29, 2005
Cities have only one day at their disposal

I am afraid of cities. But you mustn't leave them. If you go too far you come up against the vegetation belt. Vegetation has crawled for miles towards the cities. It is waiting. Once the city is dead, the vegetation will cover it, will climb over the stones, grip them, search them, make them burst with its long black pincers; it will blind the holes and let its green paws hang over everything. You must stay in the cities as long as they are alive, you must never penetrate alone this great mass of hair waiting at the gatesl you must let it undulate and crack all by itself.

— "Nausea", Jean-Paul Sartre.

For O. :)

Posted by sniffles at 11:04 AM | Comments (3)

May 21, 2005
Lemon, lime and bitters revisited

Living abroad is never truly easy. I've gotten a little more immune to the usual "you have a different accent, where are you from?" way of having to introduce myself, and I even season some humour into it these days. ("Oh, why did I come to Canada? The spiders here are friendlier ...") One of nice things that I miss from home is lemon, lime and bitters — especially now that the weather has gotten warmer.

Two summers ago I'd tried grabbing the ingredients as mentioned in the above link and mixing my own. It was a popular hit at MJ's housewarming way back when — especially with designated drivers for the evening. So popular that someone started calling it a "Charlie" because, well, let's face it: "lemon, lime and bitters" is one damn mouthful after a couple of beers.

What had bothered me then was that I could never quite get the mix right so that the colour floated to the top. No matter how diligently I tried following the method as described, the liquids would always mix. Doesn't make a difference to the taste, however — you'd never think something non-alcoholic could taste this good.

Last autumn, I'd nailed the presentation for the Malaysian dessert simply known as "sago pudding". Having no access to real sago here, I replaced it with tapioca, and the end result is fairly similar. The topping consists of palm sugar syrup and coconut milk. After a few experiments, I found that the layering effect is nicely achieved if you pour the sugar syrup over the chilled tapioca pudding first, then gently scoop the coconut milk over the top. Simple science, when you stop and think about it: it's merely the difference in the density of liquids.

So, that got me to re-assess the order of liquids poured to achieve the layering effect for your humble lemon, lime and bitters. A couple of comparative liquid density tests later, the correct order is this:

1. about a shotglass' worth of lime cordial
2. ice, and I typically throw in a slice of lime for aesthetics
3. Sprite (that's "lemonade", if you're Aussie)
4. a few dashes of Angostura bitters (bad website alert!), enough to cover the ice

Et voilà. :) Admire, stir and enjoy.

(And yeah, I drank all the failed experiments too.)

Posted by sniffles at 06:51 PM | Comments (9)

Grand Vin de Bordeaux

Posted by sniffles at 09:57 AM | Comments (1)

May 19, 2005
A list of things to say

• I've been busy, but good. It's been good busy, tired busy, hectic busy, fun busy — you get the idea. The new job's going great, but I have a pile of loose ends to tie up so I might still be quiet-ish for a while longer.
• Last week's revelation: The insides of all the world's telco buildings could very, very possibly look identical.
• This week's revelation: Luxury is having the entire lift to yourself during the lunch hour rush. (That's "elevator" for the North American folks who prefer to use more syllables than necessary for something that just goes up. :) Well, okay. And down.)
• I'd be the happiest girl in the world right now except for the fact that I can't seem to find a bathmat that:
  1. matches the shower curtain and
  2. doesn't clash with the odd colour of the bathroom floor.
• So ... hope y'all are doing great :)

Posted by sniffles at 11:10 PM | Comments (1)

May 08, 2005
Abandonment

Posted by sniffles at 09:42 PM | Comments (1)

The inevitable end of three-line stanzas

the fire of the world falls
between the slits through the blinds
of my window

and the trees swing
in rhythm to the silk song
of spring

time passes by the click
of the unsteady metronome and between
the notes of your guitar

so I shall remain slave
to real-world things and real-world order
(and three-line stanzas)

until the final cadence
settles

and signals
that the wait
is over.

Posted by sniffles at 04:41 PM | Comments (2)