by Tobias Skünke
Grapes, how I love thee
Munching and playing with you
Play play play, munch munch
More?
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Friday, January 26, 2007
The Decemberist's "The Crane Wife"
If you love indie rock, you probably already have this album, NPR's album of the year. Snagged it two days ago and have fallen in love with it.
The album was inspired by a Japanese folk tale, and the album is based on two "macro" song concepts, The Crane Wife and The Island, the latter of which was inspired by William Shakespeare's The Tempest. If you know me well, you can already see why I might like it. I love Japanese culture, and I love Shakespeare. It's really a beautiful album. I'm sure if you listen to the radio, you've heard the Valencia song, but trust me, the rest of the album is more and better.
But, what is the crane wife?
The Crane Wife is an old Japanese folk tale. A poor man finds an injured crane, takes it in and nurses it back to health. After releasing the crane, a woman appears at his doorstep with whom he falls in love and marries. Because they need money, his wife offers to weave wondrous fabric out of silk that they can sell at the market (the song talks about clothes, but in the version I've heard, she makes magical sails for ships), on the condition that he agrees never to watch her making them. They prosper and live a comfortable life, but he asks her to weave them more and more, as his greed increases. Unnoticed by the man, his wife's health is diminishing. As these tales go, curiosity gets the best of the man, and he eventually peeks in to see what she is doing to make the silk she weaves so desirable. He is shocked to discover that at the loom is the crane plucking feathers from her own body and weaving them into the loom. The crane, seeing him, flies away and never returns.
What I like best about this story is that the "moral" differs from person to person, and isn't so obvious.
What
The album was inspired by a Japanese folk tale, and the album is based on two "macro" song concepts, The Crane Wife and The Island, the latter of which was inspired by William Shakespeare's The Tempest. If you know me well, you can already see why I might like it. I love Japanese culture, and I love Shakespeare. It's really a beautiful album. I'm sure if you listen to the radio, you've heard the Valencia song, but trust me, the rest of the album is more and better.
But, what is the crane wife?
The Crane Wife is an old Japanese folk tale. A poor man finds an injured crane, takes it in and nurses it back to health. After releasing the crane, a woman appears at his doorstep with whom he falls in love and marries. Because they need money, his wife offers to weave wondrous fabric out of silk that they can sell at the market (the song talks about clothes, but in the version I've heard, she makes magical sails for ships), on the condition that he agrees never to watch her making them. They prosper and live a comfortable life, but he asks her to weave them more and more, as his greed increases. Unnoticed by the man, his wife's health is diminishing. As these tales go, curiosity gets the best of the man, and he eventually peeks in to see what she is doing to make the silk she weaves so desirable. He is shocked to discover that at the loom is the crane plucking feathers from her own body and weaving them into the loom. The crane, seeing him, flies away and never returns.
What I like best about this story is that the "moral" differs from person to person, and isn't so obvious.
What
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Finger Lickin' Good.
I like fried chicken, but it’s always lacking something when I get it from a resturant. KFC is way too greasy, and uses puny chicken pieces. Popeyes is too crispy, supermarket deli chicken is flavorless. So a while back when I was living at the Brooklyn house, I decided I’d fry some up myself and make it exactly how I wanted. The first effort was well received, wife and a roommate or two were impressed. Ever since then, every so often, I make some fried chicken and try to hone and perfect the recipie. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s darn good and I’m proud of it. You know you’re on to something good when you’d rather have your own version of something than a professional’s.
How I make fried chicken:
Get some boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I don’t like bones, I don’t like skin, so I might as well start it in that state, y’know? I have found smaller-to-medium sized breasts to be ideal, the big huge ones you can sometimes get are difficult to get cooked all the way through.
Take a bowl and put a small container of buttermilk in it. Add a firm couple shakes of tobasco sauce, and a generous amount of pepper (I don’t measure, nor should you). Crack and egg or two (depending on size of eggs), beat them separately, then mix them with the buttermilk marinade. Put chicken breasts in mixture, marinate for an hour or three in the fridge.
Take another bowl, pour in a box of tempura flour. Add a good tablespoon of pepper, some onion powder and garlic salt, some thyme, oregano, paprika, and seasoning salt. A doable shortcut here is to take a packet of Italian salad dressing mix and add it with the pepper in lieu of other spices. The only things I’ve found to be very necessary are black pepper and garlic salt. There are many things that will give your chicken some savor. I’ve even gone with Cajun spice mix from Winco (nice but the cayenne gives it an earthy taste). Mix spices with flour.
Then coat the slimy chicken in the flour and spices. The time tested paper bag method works fine, but I usually use a place with the flour and stuff on it, and press and work the flour all over the chicken with my fingers. The downside: fingers get coated as well. Additional downside: Kentucky fried fingers are… not as good.
Take a large pan, put it on the stove, and pour a good inch of oil into it, and let it pre heat on medium to medium high. Here’s one of the tricks I’ve learned: How “brown” the chicken gets is a function of how hot the oil is, not how long you cook it. Hotter oil = browner chicken. It will vary on your stove, of course. Takes about 10-12 minutes on the first side, and 5 on the other… if you’re unsure if it’s done, cut it open and take a look.
Take it out of the oil, and let it sit on paper towels or a pizza box (don’t laugh, a pizza box works better than paper towels, which get soaked. Dab with a paper towel to get the oil off the top. More oil you take out now, less that goes in you! Let it cool for a good 10 min… don’t try eating it right off. Nice thing about homemade fried chicken is that it’s great hot, lukewarm, or cold!
How I make fried chicken:
Get some boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I don’t like bones, I don’t like skin, so I might as well start it in that state, y’know? I have found smaller-to-medium sized breasts to be ideal, the big huge ones you can sometimes get are difficult to get cooked all the way through.
Take a bowl and put a small container of buttermilk in it. Add a firm couple shakes of tobasco sauce, and a generous amount of pepper (I don’t measure, nor should you). Crack and egg or two (depending on size of eggs), beat them separately, then mix them with the buttermilk marinade. Put chicken breasts in mixture, marinate for an hour or three in the fridge.
Take another bowl, pour in a box of tempura flour. Add a good tablespoon of pepper, some onion powder and garlic salt, some thyme, oregano, paprika, and seasoning salt. A doable shortcut here is to take a packet of Italian salad dressing mix and add it with the pepper in lieu of other spices. The only things I’ve found to be very necessary are black pepper and garlic salt. There are many things that will give your chicken some savor. I’ve even gone with Cajun spice mix from Winco (nice but the cayenne gives it an earthy taste). Mix spices with flour.
Then coat the slimy chicken in the flour and spices. The time tested paper bag method works fine, but I usually use a place with the flour and stuff on it, and press and work the flour all over the chicken with my fingers. The downside: fingers get coated as well. Additional downside: Kentucky fried fingers are… not as good.
Take a large pan, put it on the stove, and pour a good inch of oil into it, and let it pre heat on medium to medium high. Here’s one of the tricks I’ve learned: How “brown” the chicken gets is a function of how hot the oil is, not how long you cook it. Hotter oil = browner chicken. It will vary on your stove, of course. Takes about 10-12 minutes on the first side, and 5 on the other… if you’re unsure if it’s done, cut it open and take a look.
Take it out of the oil, and let it sit on paper towels or a pizza box (don’t laugh, a pizza box works better than paper towels, which get soaked. Dab with a paper towel to get the oil off the top. More oil you take out now, less that goes in you! Let it cool for a good 10 min… don’t try eating it right off. Nice thing about homemade fried chicken is that it’s great hot, lukewarm, or cold!
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