Charlotte Gainsbourg

Charlotte555.jpg

夫の妹がシャーロット・ゲインズバーグのCDを送ってくれた。お父さんはフランス人歌手サージ・ゲインズバーグで、お母さんはイギリス人歌手、女優ジェーン・バーキン。17歳のシャーロット・ゲインズバーグが主役として「小さな泥棒」に出演しているのを見たことがある。大阪日本橋にある国名小劇で見たと思う。36席しかないこじんまりとしたお気に入りの劇場だった。ググってみて、2002年に閉館したのを今知って、悲しい。シャーロット・ゲインズバーグは今や35歳、最近このアルバム「5:55」をリリースした。音楽はフランスのエレクトロニカデュオAirが作曲し、歌詞はイギリスのバンドPulpのカリスマボーカル、Jarvis Cockerが書いている。プロデューサーはRadiohead, U2, R.E.M, The Sundays, Paul McCartney等を担当した、名プロデューサーNigel Godrichである。このアルバム、夫と私のお気に入りで、最近ほとんど毎日聞いています。どうぞみなさんも彼女の優しい歌声に惹かれて下さい(試聴はこちら)。Guardianの記事によれば、彼女はシンガーとしてステージに立つ時、恥ずかしがり屋さんなので、聴衆との間にシーツを引いて歌を歌うそうです。私達、お父さんのSerge Gainsbourgの歌も好きです。

My husband’s sister sent us a CD of Charlotte Gainsbourg。Her father is a French singer, Serge Gainsbourg, and her mother is an English actress and singer, Jane Birkin. I have seen a film, called “The little thief (La Petite voleuse in French)”. Charlotte Gainsbourg was 17 and she was playing the main role. I think I saw the film in a cinema called Kunime Cinema in Nihonbashi, Osaka. The cinema was small, having 36 seats but it was my favourite cinema. I just googled about the cinema and quite sad to know it has been closed since 2002. Charlotte Gainsbourg is now 35 and she released this album “5:55”. The music was composed by a French electronic music duo, Air, the lyrics were written by the carismatic vocalist in Pulp, Jarvis Cocker. The producer is Nigel Godrich who has produced Radiohead, U2, R.E.M, The Sundays, Paul McCartney etc. in the past. This album is our favourite at the moment – listening to it almost every day. Please be attracted by her gentle voice (you can listen to her music here). According to Guardian’s article, since she is so shy, she puts a sheet between her and an audience when she sings on the stage. We also like the music of her father, Serge Gainsbourg.

Posted in Music | 4 Comments

New Year’s Eve

Toshikoshi Soba

大晦日の夜は、年越しそばを食べにスティーブストンの一朗亭に行きました。この夜は年越しそばを食べにくるお客さんのために夜遅くまで営業していました。私達は午後10時半頃に到着し、大晦日だけのスペシャルそば、かき揚げのせ鴨南蛮茶そばを頂きました。100点満点中、120点のおいしさでした。いやぁ、一朗亭のおそばやうどんは最高です。

On the night of New Year’s Eve, we went to Ichiro in Steveston to have soba noodle (it’s a Japanese custom to have soba noodle on the night of New Year’s Eve. Ichiro was open quite late that night for those who came to have soba noodles. We arrived there at half past ten and had their special soba made out of tea with roasted duck and Kakiage (a mixture of vegetable bits fried in batter). I give 120 points out of 100 for the taste. Ichiro’s soba and udon noodles are the best.


Jyoya no Kane at UBC

お腹一杯、幸せいっぱいで次はUBC(ブリティッシュコロンビア大学)の新渡戸ガーデンに向かいます。新渡戸ガーデンは太平洋と日本を繫ぐことに貢献した新渡戸稲造氏を称える記念公園です。この公園は北米で4番目に美しい日本庭園として選ばれています。その隣には日本式の鐘があり、みんな並んで除夜の鐘を打っていました。甘酒やお餅も配っていました。私達は甘酒を頂いて、除夜の鐘を聞きながら、新年を迎えました。なんだか日本にいるような気分でした。

After being fulfilled with the delicious food, we headed to Nitobe Garden in UBC (University of British Columbia). Nitobe garden is a memorial garden which praises Mr. Inazo Nitobe’s contribution for establishing connection between Japan and Pacific. This garden is chosen as the 4th most beautiful Japanese garden in North America. Next to this garden, there is a Japanese style big bell and lots of people were queuing up for strike the bell in turns. This is also a Japanese custom to strike a bell on the night of New Year’s Eve. There were people who were giving free sweet sake and rice pastries. We had the sweet sake and celebrated the near year listening to the sound of the bell. It was as if we were in Japan.

Nitobe garden
春の新渡戸ガーデン
Nitobe garden in spring

Posted in Restaurants, Vancouver | 6 Comments

Dinner at my sister’s place

妹と彼女のボーイフレンド、リチャード(コテコテの日本人)が夜ご飯に招待してくれました。ほとんどリチャードが作ってくれました。それもメインディッシュは予行練習までしたそうです。泣ける話やで。

My sister and her boy friend, Richard (pure Japanese) invited us for dinner. Richard cooked almost everything. Moreover, he rehearsed the main dish in the previous night. What a crying story.

Tuna tartar
ツナのたたき – ゆずがのってて、おいしかった
Tuna tartar – slices of Yuzu (Japanese citrus) were on it, yum.

Chicken kabab
妹作、チキンケバブ モーロ風串焼きチキン(スペイン料理)- 弟と夫は一人5串は食べてた。
Cooked by my sister, Chicken kebab Pinchos Morunos (Spanish food) – my brother and husband were eating at least 5 skewers each.

Paellas
リチャード作、パエリア – 予行練習しただけあって、完璧な仕上がり。お鍋もわざわざ買ったんだって(T0T)。
Cooked by Richard, Paella – it was perfectly cooked, thanks for his rehearsal. He bought the pot for this dish as well (T0T).

Anchovy Pizza
リチャード作、アンチョビピザ – なんと生地から手作り。本人はもっと薄い生地にしたかったと言ってましたが、めちゃおいしかったよ〜。
Cooked by Richard, Anchovy Pizza – He made the pizza dough from scratch as well. He wanted to make thinner crust but it was very tastey.

Grapefruit jelly
妹作、グレープフルーツゼリー  – くり抜いたグレープフルーツを使った、果汁100%のゼリー。ベリグー。
made by my sister, Grapefruit jelly – she made this 100% grapefruit jelly from the grapefruit she scraped out. Very good.

ごちそうさまでした!
Thanks for the delicious food!

Posted in Food at home | 4 Comments

Christmas meal

Christmas meal

今年も夫の妹がレシピを選び、イギリスの夫の家族と同じChristmas Mealを作りました。今年は夫が料理を半分作ってくれたのでとても楽だったです。私はデザートとローストビーフを担当し、夫の担当はButternut Squashスープ、ローストポテト、オニオンチーズプディング、その他の添え野菜などでした。妹のレシピ選択はいつも素晴らしいので、今年も全部美味しく、特にスープとデザートに感激しました。良かったら、作ってみてください。レシピはこちら

My sister in law chose recipes again this year and we had the same Christmas meal as my husband’s family in England.  My husband cooked half of the meal this year so cooking was very easy.  I cooked dessert and roast beef, and my husband cooked Butternut Squash soup, roasted potato, cheese and onion pudding, and other vegetables.  My sister in law’s choice is always splendid and all the dishes were excellent this year.  Especially the soup and dessert were astonishingly good.  If you have chance, please cook them. The recipes are here.

Spicey Butternut Squash soup
Spiced autumn squash, chickpea and chorizo soup

Main dish
Roast beef, Cheese and onion pudding and vegetables (photo by my mum)

Stickey Toffee Pudding
Sticky Toffee Pudding


Tree House

このページで紹介した、木のお家。新しいドアノブとクリスマスデコレーションが飾ってあった。くすくすっと笑ってしまった。

I have introduced this tree house on this page before. It had a new door knob and Christmas decorations. It made me giggle.

Posted in Food at home | 4 Comments

Stanley Park after Storm

Stanley Park after storm

ずーっと、夫と風邪を引いておりました。やっと良くなったので、友人達と一緒にスタンレー公園に散歩に行きました。バンクーバーは2週間前に大嵐に襲われ、湾岸にあるスタンレー公園を直撃し、約1000本の木が倒れました。公園管理局は倒木の処理で毎日大変です。色んな所から倒木を購入したいという問い合わせが来ているそうですが、環境的に森のためには倒木をそのまま保存するのが良いそうです。

My husband and I had had cold for a long time. At last we got better and we went for a walk to Stanley Park with our friends. Storm attacked Vancouver about two weeks ago and hit Stanley Park which is located just next to the bay. About 1000 trees were down due to this storm. The park board office has been very busy to move these trees. They have been receiving offers to purchase the trees but environmentally it’s better fot the forest to leave the downed trees as they are.

Stanley Park after storm

Stanley Park after storm

Stanley Park after storm

友人に倒木の根の裏の前に立ってもらいました。
I asked my friend to stand up in front of the back of the downed tree.

Stanley Park after storm

嵐の夜は、私のアパートも風で揺れ、船に乗っているような揺れでした。怖かった。
On the night of the storm, our apartment was shaken by the storm. It felt like as if we were on a ship. It was scary.

Posted in Vancouver | 2 Comments

Black Books

blackbooks.jpg

夫の妹がBlack Booksというイギリスのコメディ番組のDVDを送ってくれたので、鑑賞しました。めちゃおもろい。主人公のBernard Black(写真右)は皮肉屋なBlack Booksという古本屋のオーナー。趣味は酒とタバコとお客いびり。そこで働くManny BiancoはBernardと正反対の性格で、性格が良い働き者。隣に雑貨屋を営む、ちょっと変わってる女性オーナーFranはBernardの飲み友達、いつもボーイフレンド探しに忙しい。番組に出てくる古本屋の玄関はロンドンの13 Leigh Streetに実在するCollinge & Clarkという本屋さんで撮影されたそうで(このサイトから引用)、私が通っていた大学のすぐ近くだったので嬉しかったです。

この番組の脚本は主人公を演じているDylan Moranの他に、私達が大好きなコメディ、Father Tedを書いたGraham LinehanやArthur Mathewsが書いている。

シーズン1を見ましたが、2と3もあるそうなので楽しみです。シーズン1のエピソード1は以下のリンクで見ることができます。


We watched an English comedy called Black Books which my husband’s sister sent to us. It was hilarious. Bernard Black (on the right in the photo) is a cynical person and an owner of an small old book shop, Black Books. His hobby is smoking, drinking and bullying customers. Manny Bianco who works at the shop is completely opposite to Bernard – he is nice and good worker. Bernard’s drinking buddy, Fran owns a junk shop next to the book shop and she is always busy hunting men. The front of the book shop which appears in the drama was shot at an actual book shop called Collinge & Clark at 13 Leigh Street in London (quoted from this site). I was happy to find the shop was very close to the university I went.

This comedy is written by Dylan Moran who acts Bernard and also the writers of our favourite comedy, Father Ted who are Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews.

We watched Season 1 and there are Season 2 and 3 and we are looking forward to it. You can watch the episode 1 of Season 1 from the following link.

Season 1 episode 1 – Part One
Season 1 episode 1 – Part Two
Season 1 episode 1 – Part Three

My rating: ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆(9!)
IMDB: 9.3 

Posted in Film | 4 Comments

Saveur

先週はちょっと体調を悪くしておりました。体調は悪くても、今月のオフィスランチは逃しませんでした。今回は以前Piccolo MondoというイタリアンレストランだったSaveurというレストランに行ってきました。

私はレモンドレッシングがかかったスモークサーモンの前菜とクリスピーな鶉のグリルがのったスクウォーシュのリゾット。スクウォーシュの甘みと塩味のきいた手羽先が食欲をそそりました。

I wasn’t feeling well during the last week. Although my condition was not well, I didn’t miss this month’s office lunch. We went to a restaurant called Saveur which used to be an Italian restaurant, Piccolo Mondo.

I had smoked salmon with lemon dressing as an appetizer and squash risotto with crispy grilled quail. The sweetness of squash and the salty quail wing was very appetizing.


Saveur restaurant Saveur restaurant



同僚達は銀鱈や豚肉の煮込みなどを選びました。

My colleagues chose dishes with sablefish and wild boar.

Saveur restaurant Saveur restaurant


デザートは全部注文して、みんなでシェアしました。一番美味しかったのはラムレーズンアイス付きアップルパイでした。

We ordered all the desserts and we shared them. The best one was the apple pie with rum raisin ice cream.

Saveur restaurant


お料理はとてもおいしかったのですが、BGMを変えたほうがいいと思います。ABBAが流れていました。なんでABBAやねん。

The food was very good but I think they should change their background music. They were playing ABBA when we were there. Why ABBA?

Saveur
850 Thurlow Street (map)
Tel: 604-688-1633

Posted in Restaurants | 4 Comments

Eastside Culture Crawl

Eastside Culture Crawl

Eastside Culture Crawl に行ってきました。1000 Parker Streetにあるビルには迷路のようにアーティスト達のアトリエがあり、3日間パブリックに解放されました。そのビルだけでなく、周辺にもたくさんのアトリエがあり、来年はゆっくりと周りたいなと思います。

We went to Eastside Culture Crawl. In the building at 1000 parker street, there were so many painters’ ateliers like a maze and these ateliers were opened for publis for three days. There were many other ateliers near the building. I would like to take more time next year to visit all of these.


Eastside Culture Crawl

この女の子は自分の馬のために、絵を描いて売っていました。

The girl was selling her paintings for her horse.


Eastside Culture Crawl

各アトリエにはアーティストがいて説明してくれたりします。絵も直接購入することができます。

There are artists in each atelier and they explain their paintings. You can also purchase the paintings directly.


Eastside Culture Crawl

入れ墨肌着みたいなのもありました。これを着ている人を見ましたが、本当に入れ墨してるみたいでした。

There was a shop which was selling a tatoo wear. I saw people with this clothes and they really looked like they had tatoos.


Eastside Culture Crawl

絵だけではなく、木工のアーティスト達もたくさんいました。すごい機械がたくさんありました。

Not only paintings, there were also woodwork artists as well – They had lots of heavy duty machines.




Vancouver this morning…

Vancouver, BC Vancouver, BC Vancouver, BC

Posted in Art, Vancouver | 4 Comments

It’s so cold…

Stanley Park, Vancouver

バンクーバーは11月なのに大雪です。寒い~! 先週末からイギリスから友達が遊びに来ているので、ウェルカムパーティをしました。ミセスKからこのお寿司の写真をブログに載せなさいとの命令があったので載せます。

Vancouver is snowed big time even it’s November. It’s cold! We had friends over from England on the last Friday and we held a welcome party for them. I had an order from Mrs. K to put this sushi photo on my blog, so I will.

Sushi Cake

母が持っていた押しすしの型を借りてスモークサーモン寿司を作りました。真ん中にアボカドを挟みました。テーブルに出すとみんなお菓子のケーキだと思ったみたいです。笑。他に作った中でおいしかったのは、高野豆腐ナゲット。ベジタリアンの友人がいたので、これは面白いと思って作ってみました。作ってみると本当にチキンナゲットみたいでみんなビックリしました。お子様も大好きになること間違いなしです。作り方はこちら

I borrowed a mold for pressed sushi from my mum and I made this smoked salmon sushi. I put avocado in the middle. When I served this on a table everybody thought it was a sweet cake:) The good dish in other things I made was Tofu nuggets. A frozen and dried tofu called Koya Dofu is used for this recipe. I thought it would be fun to cook it for a vegetarian friend. Everybody was surprised to know it was Tofu because it really tasted like chicken. I think kids would love this food. I translate the recipe from this site.

Koya Dofu – 5 pieces
Water – 200cc
Dashi no moto* – 1 tea spoon
(if you don’t have it you can omit it)
Soy sauce – 1 tea spoon
Sugar – 1 tea spoon


For butter
Egg – 1
Katakuriko or Corn starch – 4 table spoons
All purpose flour – 2 table spoons
Oyster sauce – 1 table spoon
Grated garlic – 2 cloves

*Dashi no moto is a fish stock used for various Japanese cuisine. You can normally buy it in a Japanese or Chinese grocery store.

Koya Dofu looks like this. Soak the Koya dofu in water. After 10 minutes, squeeze water out of the Koya Dofu. Mix water, Dashi no moto, Soy Sauce, Sugar in a frying pan (tefron is good), and place Koya Dofu on the pan. Boil with medium low heat for 40 minutes until the water is gone from the Koya Dofu (but doesn’t need to be completely gone. Please don’t burn the Koya Dofu.) Tear the Koya Dofu into 6 pieces with your hands.

Mix the butter and dip the Koya Dofu and deep fry. When the clour becomes nice golden brown, it’s ready to eat.

Tofu nuggets Tofu nuggets

Posted in Food at home, Vancouver | 8 Comments

Les Choristes

Choristes.jpg 

夫の両親が薦めてくれた映画を観た。時代は1949年、音楽教師Clément Mathieu(写真右前)は孤児、問題児用の男子寄宿学校に監督者として働くことになる。子供達は厳しい監督と体罰によって抑制されていた。Clément Mathieuは音楽の楽しみを子供達に教えたいと考える。合唱団を作り、余暇の時間に練習を積み重ねる。合唱の魅力に先生も子供達も引き込まれ、子供達との距離が縮まっていく。子供達の歌声は素晴らしく、時には笑いあり、最後には感動のお話でした。心が清らかになりました。

We watched the film which was recommended by my husband’s parents. The film was set in 1949, a music teacher, Clément Mathieu (right front of the photo), started to work as a supervisor of a boys’ boarding school for orphans and problematic children. The children were restrained under strict supervision and physical punishment. Clément Mathieu considered to teach the children joy of music. He made a choir and practiced music in their spare time. Both the teacher and the children were drugged into the attraction of chorus and the distance between them got closer and closer. The children’s voices were wonderful and the story had laughs and a moving end. It purified my soul.


My rating:☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆(10!)
IMDB: ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆(7.8)   

Posted in Film | 2 Comments