Food, Friends, and Music

Spent the whole of last Saturday grocery shopping and cooking. Had people over for dinner. No, the chocolate on this page isn't mine - it's Charles'. He's a REAL pastry chef - as in - he makes his living from it. And he was nice enough to let me photograph him at work.

My Dinner Party Menu:
Watercress/Mango salad (from epicurious.com)
Braised Spare Ribs - from Simple to Spectacular
Carrots Simmered in Orange Juice and cumin
Wasabi Mashed Potatoes

Ming Ruey brought roast duck, Wolf and M brought dessert and Tom was the bartender/ ipod jog-dial jockey.

The best part of the afternoon - being in the kitchen chopping, cutting, browning, and listening to Daniel Barenboim, this year's Reith lecturer, speak about the connection between life and music.

There are five lectures, each done in a city that has figured heavily in his life: Chicago, London, Berlin, Ramallah (that was later switched for security reasons) and Jerusalem. How better to spend a Saturday than listening to a very intellectual, very thought-provoking conversation in anticipation for an evening with some really good friends.

Daniel Baremboim is the Musical Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He also started the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, made up of equal numbers of Arab and Israeli young musicians. The CSO contributed hugely to my classical music life, and by extension, my social life, when I was in grad school in Chicago - thanks to five-dollar student tickets to the performances. So, it made the lectures, streamed in my pre-dinner party kitchen, all the more relevant. I highly recommend the taking a listen. My faves were lectures 1 and 4.

Check them out and let me know what you think. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2006/lecture1.shtml