Running Remedy: My Workout Playlist

I hate running.

Any mention of the word sends me running in the other direction.  Er, walking... but emphatically so.

What to some would be considered chasing that endorphin high is for me nursing that stubborn side stitch and cursing my feeble respiratory system.

I've always found people who run on a consistent basis very admirable and wish I shared the same motivation.  Honestly, I understand why people run and the numerous health benefits associated with it, but I have a hard time understanding how people enjoy it.

To people who love running: How do you do it?  How do you get past your burning lungs, your aching joints, your throbbing muscles...?  Is it really the act of running that you love or is it the result?

When it comes to exercise, I much prefer activities that keep your mind distracted, like martial arts, aerobics, dancing, hiking, Wii tennis... Also swimming is great if you don't mind oxygen deprived environments.  Yoga is great for people who have the patience.  Biking is great if you are coordinated enough not to run into other people (ahem...)  And competitive sports are fun.  I get why people like all of these things.

But running... really?  I just don't get it.  When I run, I can't stop myself from thinking the whole time about the pain I'm in and wondering when the physical torture will be over.  It's a game of mental endurance as much as it is a physical one.

But let's face it - when it comes to exercise, running is the most convenient and effective exercise out there.  You don't need a video or an instructor or a machine or a team.  And though there are hardcore runners out there with their pedometers and fancy shoes and training agendas, you don't necessarily need a plan or even a destination in mind.  You just need to make up your mind to do it, which for me has always been the biggest hurdle.

So I've started running again recently, mostly as a means of combating my predominantly sedentary existence when I return home from work.  Like I said, it's convenient and effective.  And though I wouldn't go so far as to say I love it, I've found it's not so bad, contingent upon one very important factor:  THE PLAYLIST.

For me, it's the one remedy that makes running tolerable.  If I find a good song with a good tempo, I can zone out enough to where I'm not thinking so much about what I'm doing.  I can actually forget the pain and focus on matching the rhythm of my steps to the rhythm of the music.

But it's all about having the right song for the right moment.

That said, a workout is very personal, and the songs are even more so.  I tend to work out at a very gradual rate, which looks something like this:

Warmup - Power Walking - Jogging - Running - Cool Down

I've been playing around with my workout playlist for awhile (as in the past week) and so far it's worked out pretty well.  Here is an example of songs I've been choosing for each type of interval:

Warmup:





Power Walking:





Jogging:





Running:





Cool Down:





So this is a sampling of what I've been listening to.  I'm sure it's very different from your routine and your playlist, and I'd be very curious to know how it differs.

I know it's only a matter of time before I start getting bored of these songs and I have to start a new list.  I'm worried that I will literally run out of songs before March is up.

What kind of songs are on your workout playlist?  If you have any suggestions for me, please let me know!

oo,

REVIEW: "The Night Circus"

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I am back, reporting another great read:  The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

Basically it's about two competing (real) magicians who fall in love.  But they're not competing out of free will.  And they don't realize until later that only one of them can come out of the competition alive.   Also central to the story is the creation of the Night Circus (where the competition takes place), which is untraditional in many ways and seems to have a life on its own.

Here is the summary as described on Goodreads since my own seems grossly inadequate:

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. 

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. 

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. 

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

Maybe it's just me, but it's almost as if Water for Elephants and The Prestige got frisky one night, and The Night Circus is their love child.

Overall I was extremely captivated by this book.  The tone is a smidge dark and a bit tragic, but mostly whimsical and enchanting.  But what I really loved about it is the writing.  Erin Morgenstern has this magical ability to transport you to an entirely different place with her words, with originality brimming from the first page to the last.  Her descriptions are stunningly visual, making you feel like you are inside the circus.  I'm not normally a fan of wordy prose (and this book definitely abounds in it), yet I was drawn to every detail within it.  In many ways, it reads like scenes in a film, with short chapters following a number of different character perspectives, and not always in chronological order.

The circus Morgenstern creates is a unique world of its own, popping up unannounced in cities across the globe.  It's not so much a scheduled show as it is a maze of dazzling spectacles and enchantments.  As this Washington Post review writes:  The animals on the carousel gallop halfway between wood and flesh, a garden of ice grows and blooms, scarves shift color and change into doves, and, most beautifully, poems run down the trunks of trees. If this novel is just cotton candy, it’s cotton candy spun from strands of edible silver.  I have to say, this is the first book I've read that is more about the setting than it is about the plot, and somehow it works really, really well.

The romance between Celia and Marco is passion-filled and alluring, though it does take some time to develop, so some may find this a bit slow-going at first.  Also it's surprisingly tame in the "physical" sense, with most of the tension built around the "forbidden" aspect of their affair (so lots of "I love you but I can't be with you" type stuff).

To be honest, though I was definitely drawn to the magicians' story and their "star-crossed love" dilemma, I will say their characters were kind of flat, with not much of a character arc to lift them off the page.  I found the minor characters (i.e. their mentors, Widget, Poppy, etc.) to be much more memorable and felt they lent more color and depth to the story than anything else.

Also, I think the competition itself could have afforded a bit more dramatic tension.  Instead of trying to "outdo" one another, Celia and Marco use their illusions as an outlet for their emotions.  So it's not so much a fierce rivalry as it is an amiable exchange of ideas and feelings, leaving us sinking comfortably in our seats rather than suspended on the edge of them (so to speak).

But there is definitely enough conflict built around the fate of their romance and the circus itself that keeps you absorbed in the story and speculating how the competition will end.  

Summit Entertainment (the studio responsible for Twilight) has already snatched up the movie rights for this book.  Not surprising since this story is driven by spectacle and has so much visual potential.  I would be very curious to see Erin Morgenstern's details brought to life, although her writing is so vivid they practically already dance off the page.

Read this book!  (Or at least read this excerpt.)

oo,

Ratatouille Love

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

What kind of grand plans do you have for today?  Patrick and I will be celebrating tomorrow since today will be a bit hectic at work.  You can imagine working at a fancy restaurant on a day like today.  Just spreading the love one dish at a time :)  

Speaking of spreading love through food... I wanted to share my latest dish.  You might recognize it from a certain Pixar movie...

Ratatouille

That's right - it's Ratatouille!  I made it gratin-style like in the movie.  Traditionally everything is chopped up, but this version is inspired by a dish called Confit Byaldi, which Thomas Keller (who served as a food consultant for the movie) adapted for Ratatouille.  

I made it in my heart shaped casserole dish, which I received from Jessica over at Word&Play for my wedding shower a couple years ago.  Needless to say, I always get a sudden urge to use it this time of year.

But of course, any baking dish will do.  I loved making this because it is beautiful, yummy, low in calories, and high in nutrition.  It's also easy to make (though a bit time consuming if you don't have a mandoline to slice all the vegetables.) 

I ended up adapting both Thomas Keller and Smitten Kitchen's version of this dish.  

It starts out by making a tomato sauce.  Saute some diced onion, diced red bell pepper, and garlic in olive oil.  Add some crushed tomatoes and some herbs (I used thyme and bay).  Simmer for about 20 minutes.

Cover the bottom of your dish with your lovely tomato sauce.

Slice a Japanese eggplant, green zucchini, yellow zucchini, and about 3 plum tomatoes.  Line up the vegetable slices like fallen dominoes.  (They didn't have Japanese eggplant at my store, so I had to use a regular one, which is fine, it's just a little wider.  So I quartered my slices to make them roughly the same size).

Stop to admire the pretty colors.

The closer together you place the vegetables, the better it will look.

Brush the top with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, and some herbs (I used fresh thyme).

Cover with foil or parchment paper.  As they don't sell heart-shaped parchment paper, I traced the bottom of my baking dish to get the right shape.

Bake at 375-400 degrees or until the vegetables are tender.  Remove the cover and cook for an additional 30 minutes or so until the liquids evaporate and the vegetables get slightly golden.

While it is still hot, I recommend grating some parmesan cheese over the top... because why not?

Serve with about any starch or grain imaginable.  Over a toasted baguette, tossed in some pasta, with mashed potatoes... I ate mine with some brown rice since I had some leftover.  It was spectacular!

This can be served as a side dish or the main entree.  If you're like my husband, you may need to add some protein, like a side of grilled shrimp or chicken.  This would be an awesome dish for a pot luck.  

I'm thinking since this dish is so low in calories, that means my next heart-shaped venture will involve sugar and chocolate... like brownies or deep-dish chocolate chip cookies?  Hmm...

Happy Valentine's Day!  :)

oo,

Panko-Crusted Salmon with Lentils

I'm experimenting with bigger pictures.  Because why not?

Here is my attempt at Ina Garten's Panko-Crusted Salmon with French Lentils.  I've been trying to make a point to eat fish once a week, and since I've never been a huge fish eater, I've been searching high and low for recipe ideas.  I love Ina's recipes because they're so easy to make, yet still manage to be elegant and satisfying.  And this one was no exception.

I ended up using Trader Joe's ready-to-eat lentils since I couldn't find any dry ones.  They were very convenient (just microwave for 2-3 minutes), but I found them a bit on the mushy side compared to how I usually like them.  Next time I'm going to find dry ones.  Ina uses French green lentils but just use whatever you can find.

The nice thing about this meal is that it's incredibly healthy.  Salmon is high in protein and rich in Omega-3's.  And lentils, which are high in protein and fiber among other things, are frequently listed as one of the world's healthiest foods.  (Note:  If you're living with someone who's not a huge lentil fan, try mixing them with white or brown rice.)

Other than the pre-cooked lentils, I followed Ina's recipe pretty closely.  Although I didn't use a turnip and I substituted celery for leeks, which are $4 each at my grocery store... I don't think so!  Also, my salmon didn't have skin on it, so I didn't find the initial searing in the pan necessary... I just skipped that step and slipped it right into the oven.  The salmon itself takes only 5 minutes to prepare and 5-7 minutes to bake.  As Ina would say - "How easy is that?"

Panko-Crusted Salmon

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup panko (Japanese dried bread flakes)
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons good olive oil
• 4 (6- to 8-ounce) salmon fillets, skin on
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• Lemon wedges, for serving

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix together the panko, parsley, lemon zest, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Drizzle with the olive oil and stir until the crumbs are evenly coated. Set aside.

Place the salmon fillets, skin side down, on a board. Generously brush the top of the fillets with mustard and then sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Press the panko mixture thickly on top of the mustard on each salmon fillet. The mustard will help the panko adhere.

Heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a 12-inch cast-iron skillet or large heavy, ovenproof pan. When the oil is very hot, add the salmon fillets, skin side down, and sear for 3 to 4 minutes, without turning, to brown the skin.

Transfer the pan to the hot oven for 5 to 7 minutes until the salmon is almost cooked and the panko is browned. Remove from the oven, cover with aluminum foil, and allow to rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Serve the salmon hot or at room temperature with lemon wedges.

Warm French Lentils

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons plus 1/4 cup good olive oil
• 1 leek, white and light green parts, sliced 1/4-inch thick
• 2 carrots, scrubbed and 1/2-inch-diced
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 cup French green Le Puy lentils
• 1 whole onion, peeled and stuck with 6 whole cloves
• 1 white turnip, cut in half
• 1 teaspoon unsalted butter
• 4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Heat the 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium saute pan, add the leek and carrots, and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute and set aside.

Meanwhile, place the lentils, 4 cups of water, the onion with the cloves, and the turnip in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes, or until the lentils are almost tender. Remove and discard the onion and turnip and drain the lentils. Place them in a medium bowl with the leek and carrots, and add the butter.

Meanwhile, whisk together the 1/4 cup of olive oil, the mustard, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Add to the lentils, stir well, and allow the lentils to cool until just warm, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve. The longer the lentils sit, the more salt and pepper you'll want to add.

oo,

REVIEW: "Jellicoe Road"

When left to my own devices, I tend to spend hours at the library flipping from book jacket to book jacket in search of an intriguing read and, despite the age-old adage, will likely end up with a pretty cover and a lousy story.

Enter Mikala.  She is currently writing a young-adult fiction book, and as a means of studying her craft, she reads a lot.  (If you're interested, you can read about her latest experience at the 2012 Writer's Conference on her food-blog-turned-writing-blog here.)

Since we share the same taste in literature (more or less), I now have someone to weed out the good from the bad.  So once one story ends, I'm just a phone call away from my next read.  So far she hasn't let me down.  (So far.)  

Jellicoe Road was her latest recommendation.  

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Jellicoe Road is one of those books that loses you, and then grabs onto you tightly until you're on the verge of tears.  (I *may* have cried a little towards the end.)  It's not an action-packed thriller by any means.  It moves you through its endearing characters and their complicated relationships, which are both heartwarming and heartbreaking.

You should know going in that the first few chapters are rather disorienting (I had to reread them three times), and I now realize it's because the author provides practically no exposition.  And the little exposition she gives has no context.  She jumps freely between the past, the voice of the main character, and her dream, and then she throws out words like "Townies" and "Cadets" and instances like "the time the Hermit killed himself," and it's like we're expected to just know what she's talking about.

But we're not.  That's the idea.  We're supposed to catch just fragments of the story, like shaded, green puzzle pieces that are indistinct on their own, but once you start piecing them together, you realize they form the canopy of a tree.  That kind of thing.

Some of the fragmented storytelling made for a very interesting read.  Other parts I found to be unnecessary.  But everything reveals itself in the end, and the end is worth reaching, which is all that matters.

The story is about a seventeen-year old girl, Taylor Markam, who was abandoned at 7-Eleven by her mother at the age of 11.  At the beginning of the book, she is appointed the leader of her boarding school in what's known as the "Territory Wars" in which her school, the Townies (the kids from public school) and the Cadets (who set up camp in the area during the summer) fight for possession of certain territory.  It's meant to be a clandestine game, played out only at night and hidden from teachers and supervisors, but it often ends in insults and fist-fights.  Taylor's concentration on leading her school becomes hindered by two distractions - Hannah, her caregiver, disappears without a word and the leader of the Cadets turns out to be a mysterious boy from Taylor's past (cue romantic subplot).

Interspersed throughout this storyline are excerpts from a novel written by Hannah that she has left behind.  While these excerpts at first feel tangential in nature, they eventually become relevant to the main storyline and influential in the way Taylor comes to terms with her past and her future.

This book is very emotional, featuring a lot of "tortured" characters with tragic pasts.  I tend to get annoyed when characters just sit for long periods of time and wallow in their misery (I swear I wanted to shake Bella all throughout New Moon and tell her to just snap out of it and pull herself together).  But while Taylor exhibits her share of teen angst, these moments are understandable given her tragic past and help make her feel real.  Plus this is a young-adult book after all, and the author does a good job keeping these moments to a minimum.

Speaking of the author, Melina Marchetta is an award-winning young-adult writer who hails from Australia where she has quite the following.  Her writing style is heavy in dialogue and voice, and I was impressed by her ability to compact a lot of feeling into the shortest of passages.  For instance, the opening paragraph:

     My father took one-hundred and thirty-two minutes to die.
     I counted.
     It happened on the Jellicoe Road.  The prettiest road I'd ever seen, where trees made breezy canopies like a tunnel to Shangri-la.  We were going to the ocean, hundreds of miles away, because I wanted to see the ocean and my father said that it was about time to four of us made that journey.  I remember asking, "What's the difference between a trip and a journey?" and my father said, "Narnie, my love, when we get there, you'll understand," and that was the last thing he ever said.  

At this point, you don't know anything about Narnie or her father, but admit it, you feel a little sad right now.  It's only the first paragraph and you're already emotionally invested.

I recommend this book if you like sentimental stories about friendship, romance, and mysteries about people's pasts.  So mostly to girls.  If you can get past the confusion laid out in the first few chapters, it's definitely worth a read (and requisite re-reads to figure out what's going on in the beginning).

oo,

Chickpea Sliders

Chickpeas have always been one of my favorite legumes.  Unlike beans, which are mushy in texture and took many years of meticulously picking them out of my chili before I finally resigned myself to liking them, chickpeas have a nice, nutty bite to them.  

Last week I made this Sausage, Kale, and Bean Soup, but I substituted chickpeas instead of the beans.  (If you end up making it, I recommend adding a splash of red wine vinegar and some red onions). 

Since I was only cooking for myself, I still had half a can of chickpeas hanging out in the fridge for the rest of the week, awaiting their fate.  So I decided to get creative and make them into chickpea sliders.  Kind of like a falafel in slider form.  

Initially my idea was to use whole wheat mini-pitas (like the kind that you can find at Trader Joe's).  But I didn't have any and a trip to the grocery store was a full four-mile drive away, so I decided to use some whole-wheat naan bread that I had hibernating in my freezer for occasions such as this.  I re-heated it in the oven and used my smallest biscuit cutter to make slider-sized rounds.  (And then I kept the trimmings to dip into hummus later.  Waste not, want not.)  

For the toppings, I visualized some roasted red bell pepper, mixed greens, feta cheese, and tzatziki sauce.  After a quick perusal of my fridge, I then modified my vision to hummus, red onion, tomato, and baby romaine lettuce leaves.  

The results were even better than I had expected.  And no deep-frying required.  In the future, I might try using dried chickpeas soaked overnight to see how it compares since falafel is traditionally made that way.  I definitely recommend these sliders for parties or if you want to try something new.  It's also a great option for vegetarians or for "Meatless Mondays," which a lot of people are partaking in nowadays. 

Chickpea Slider 

(Obviously looks a lot bigger in this picture than it really was...)

Chickpea Sliders  (Makes about 10 sliders)

Ingredients 
1 15-oz can Chickpeas (drained, rinsed, and ground in a food processor)
1 Garlic Clove (minced)
2 tbsp Parsley (finely chopped)
2 tbsp Flour
1 Egg
A pinch of ground cumin and/or coriander
Salt + Pepper
Whole wheat pita/naan bread (mini or cut into rounds)
Toppings  (Suggestions: hummus, mixed greens, tomatoes, red onion)

-Combine the chickpeas, minced garlic, chopped parsley, flour, egg, cumin/coriander, and salt/pepper.
-Form into small slider patties and sauté in some oil over medium heat until browned on both sides (I used canola oil).  Drain on a paper towel.
-Warm the naan bread in the oven.  If necessary, cut into rounds using a biscuit cutter (or cut around something round with a knife).
-Build your slider with desired toppings.

oo,

A Pledge for Healthy Eating

Or as Patrick puts it:  Monica's Treatise on Healthy Eating

You know that phrase that used to be uttered around the playground when we were young – “When you point your finger at someone, you have 3 fingers pointing back at you”?  I can't help but apply this to a lot of the criticism being thrown at Paula Deen in the wake of her type 2 diabetes announcement earlier this year. 

Known for passionately promoting food laden with butter, sugar, mayonnaise, and other artery-clogging ingredients, now she's admitting that she was diagnosed with diabetes three years ago and kept silent about it.  Many are condemning her for continuing to promote unhealthy eating during this time, and others are angered by the fact that she timed her truth-telling to coincide with an endorsement deal for the drug she's been taking and with the start of her son's healthy cooking show, "Not My Mama's Meals." 

But is any of this really that surprising?  It’s as if we needed Paula Deen herself to tell us that the food she cooks is bad for us and can potentially lead to diabetes.  Or that she’s the first to benefit monetarily at something harmful to our health.  Or that she's the first person to change her ways only because their health condition forces them to.  I’m not trying to let her off the hook – it’s hard to support someone's change of heart when it has a clear financial motive behind it.  But rather than cast stones, we can definitely learn from her experience and realize that Paula Deen is not the problem with our society, but a product of it.   

Like many, I’ve never been a fan of Paula Deen’s cooking.  Her appeal is built upon a sort of sinful “We know it’s wrong but we do it anyway” approach to cooking, frequently featuring highly fattening foods that are euphoric going down, but feel like a heart-strangling punch to the gut later on.  Consider her restaurant’s "brunch burger" - a burger topped with cheese, bacon, and a fried egg and wedged between two Krispy Kreme donuts:

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Appalling?  Yes.  Unacceptable that anyone should eat this or offer it on their menu?  Yes.  But an isolated incident?  Sadly, no.  She’s not the first celebrity chef (or any chef for that matter) to feature butter, cream, and bacon prominently in their recipes.  She just happens to be notorious for it. 

But at least in her case, it’s an obvious, smack-you-upside-the-face kind of unhealthy, so when you sit down to this type of meal, you know very well the toll it’s going to take on your body.  But the reality is, there are a lot of chefs serving comparably unhealthy dishes that are not as upfront about it or are not being criticized in the same manner.

As the New York Times writer Frank Bruni states : “When Deen fries a chicken, many of us balk.  When the Manhattan chefs David Chang or Andrew Carmellini do, we grovel for reservations and swoon over the homey exhilaration of it all.  Her strips of bacon, skirting pancakes, represent heedless gluttony.  Chang’s dominoes of pork belly, swaddled in an Asian bun, signify high art.”  (And I would add cute cupcakeries to that statement as well.)

That said, consider all the chefs who prepare high-caloric food on TV and indulge in a few bites before the cameras turn off, leading us to believe this is how they eat on a daily basis when in real life they are all on strict, pervasively green, or juice cleansing diets.  (Giada De Laurentiis immediately comes to mind… there’s no way that tiny woman can eat all those desserts and pasta dishes on a regular basis and look the way she does.  For more on this, read this interesting article).  

Just like in Paula Deen’s case, unhealthy food is a business. Having just graduated from culinary school, where many classes felt like an education in how to utilize butter, cream, duck fat, and sugar in a new way, it’s pretty clear we were preparing for induction into an industry more concerned about sales than the rising cholesterol level of their customers. 

And let’s be honest, great-tasting foods sell.  So chefs are going to do everything they can to make sure a constant stream of customers are walking through their restaurant doors.  The problem is, this type of food is meant to be eaten in moderation (as in not on a regular basis).  But unfortunately, while restaurant-going was at one time reserved for special occasions, it is now not uncommon for people to eat out 3-4 times a week. 

So are restaurants culpable for the high incidence of obesity in our society?  I’d say just about as culpable as grocery stores are for selling butter.  I don’t think we can entirely blame restaurants for offering unhealthy dishes.  I think it’s ultimately up to us to be responsible for how we eat and to be aware of what we are consuming. We’re at a point now where we have a pretty good idea of what is good and not good for us (or our kids, but that’s a whole other blog post…).

At the same time, I do think it’s necessary that society as a whole also start acting more responsibly about health and start advocating for better eating options out there.  Again, I have to defer to Frank Bruni on this one:  “… we are too fat and must address that.  But getting Deen to unplug the waffle iron doesn’t strike to the core of the problem any more than posting fast-food calorie counts or taxing soft drinks do.  A great deal of American obesity is attributable to the dearth of healthy food that’s affordable and convenient in low- and even middle-income neighborhoods, and changing that requires a magnitude of public intervention and private munificence that are unlikely in such pinched times.” 

But I do think we are trying (very gradually) as a society to be healthier and more mindful of what we eat, and we need to continue to grow in this struggle.  Mark Bittman recently wrote that there are growing rates of people cooking at home.  And these days there are so many great blogs dedicated to our well-being - it's just a matter of making an effort to access them.  

Conveniently, this whole Paula Deen debacle coincides with my own pledge to eat healthier.  From this point forward I’m going to try to start being more mindful of what I eat and regularly share recipes on here as a resource for those who also want to start eating better.  I'm out to prove to myself and everyone else that there is an approach to healthy eating that doesn't require ingredients like butter to taste great but also doesn't require ridiculous substitutes or deprivation.  Hopefully others will join me in this endeavor to transcend the rising diabetes and obesity cases in our society and help make it so that wholesome eating is the norm, not the exception.  

oo,

"Close to the Sun"

About three weeks ago, Patrick received an unexpected call asking him to put together a screening in our area for a Chinese film, Close to the Sun.  

Close to the Sun is an independent film about a young French woman who is dying from an unnamed illness and travels in search of a final resting place.  She winds up in a remote village in Guizhou, China among the Miao ethnic minority group.

Over the past year, this film has picked up numerous awards, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography at the Sedona Film Festival.

I was surprised to learn that the director of the film, Chou Chou, who graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 2002, was born in 1983 (only one year before me) and is considered China's youngest female feature film director.  Close to the Sun is her second undertaking in filmmaking, which she developed from concept to final product.  Chou Chou's family originates from the Dong and Miao ethnic minority groups in Guizhou, China, who are a central focus of the film.  

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These days, Chou Chou and some of Patrick's associates from his days working at the OSU Chinese Flagship Program have been hard at work promoting the film at a dizzying rate in cities across the U.S., and were hoping to squeeze in a stop in the DC area along the way.

With only a few weeks at his disposal, Patrick immediately went to work in search of a free venue.  Thanks to the help of friends, he was able to find a lecture hall at the University of Maryland through their Chinese Student and Scholar Association.

Once the venue was successfully taken care of, however, the one thing we could not predict was attendance.  We crossed our fingers and hoped for at least 30 people to come...

... And ultimately we were very excited when close to 70 people showed up, including representatives from the Chinese embassy. 

My thoughts on the film:  

Chou Chou set out to shine a light on the unique rural charm of her people and has definitely succeeded in doing so.  The story itself is slow-moving, but appropriately so as it reflects the simple, unhurried lifestyle of a culture that has somehow managed to elude the outside influence of industry and technology for years.  

This film is a break from the fast-paced, digitally enhanced dramas and thrillers we are accustomed to watching.  In this case, the plot and dialogue are overshadowed by gorgeous scenery, haunting music, and lengthy scenes showcasing the peculiar customs and rituals of the Miao.  There is a peaceful, meditative quality to this film as well as a sense of authenticity, especially since the film features local villagers in lieu of professional actors.  All in all, it is a befitting representation of its people and their way of life, and by the end it left me wishing for escape to a similar sanctuary, removed from the complexities and pressures of modern civilization.  (Although this could be influenced by the fact that as I'm writing this, a constant drone of drills and hammers and tractor trucks is surging through my open window from the construction site next door).  

Following the film, there was a Q&A with Chou Chou.  Since her English ability is limited, Patrick provided the translations.  Here is a short clip of him in action.  

I'd say the evening was a success, and I'm very impressed with Patrick and those who put together this event on such short notice.  

The evening's coordinators

A random collection of people in attendance.  

I'm on the far right while Patrick takes center stage

(although he insists it was an accident).

And we were glad that a bunch of our friends made it to the screening as well, including Jim and Tamara :)

On Saturday, we went to dinner with Chou Chou and some of the organizers at Sichuan Pavilion - the go-to place for Chinese food in downtown DC.  We've eaten here before, but this time we ordered off the "authentic" menu, which apparently you get to do when you're with a bunch of Chinese people.

As is customary in Chinese banquet settings, the "host" will order all of the dishes and everyone shares by way of the "Lazy Susan."  Check out our awesome spread.

Hot And Sour Soup, a personal favorite

The night was spent discussing the film (in Chinese of course... luckily I had a good translator on hand) and celebrating the weekend's success over a series of toasts.  (Apparently it's customary to drink only when the host does.)

At the end of the night, we received some lovely gifts: a hand-made cloth representing the Buyi culture in Guizhou...

... and this hand-embroidered silk that depicts a dragon (coincidentally Patrick's Chinese name has the character for dragon) that we plan to have framed.  It was apparently made with the "two needle stitch" technique that is unique to the Miao and has been passed down through thousands of years.

The weekend was a very memorable experience, and I am even more excited for April when we plan to visit Guizhou, China and see the villages in person!

oo,