Open Sesame

Sorry to have been away for so long, but a wicked cold knocked me out and in the middle of it, I went to a conference in Long Bach, CA. My health is returning and I'm home with the folks soaking up sun and good food now. That means time and energy again to blog!

My big Long Beach adventure was a Lebanese restaurant called Open Sesame. It came highly recommended via websites, the concierge at the hotel, and the nice lady who over-heard me asking for directions. We went with a group of seven and after and after an hour and a half (or more) of waiting, their common sense won out over my desire to try the food. So, we went down the street and had late night burgers.

On Sunday, however, I went with a girlfriend and the two of us were able to sit down immediately! It was, not surprisingly, a huge and pleasant shock. The restaurant is cozy and, especially since we were sitting in the section with the take-out counter, busy. We ordered a fried potato appetizer, a falafel plate for her, and a vegetarian plate for me.

My expectations for the fried potatoes was not high, but they were delicious! Cubed fried potato bits in a yum sauce (tomato, parsley, olive oil, vinegar, etc). The hot potatoes contrasted well with the cool sauce. My vegetarian plate was also good. It included hummus, baba ganoush, tabbouleh, falafel, and grape leaves. The baba ganoush was definitely the stand out option. The smoked flavor of the eggplant came straight through and it was delicious. The hummus, tabbouleh, and falafel were also good. The grape leaves were alright. All this for $25 was good news to us!

The food at Open Sesame was good and fresh. Whether it was worth an hour and a half wait or not, I won't venture based on what I tasted, but it probably wasn't. If anyone who waited with me reads this - my thanks and apologies all at the same time. However, if you can sit right down, it's good food at a great price! If you want to know more, check out a couple more reviews: here and here.

Keukenhof

This weekend we participated in a Dutch spring ritual: the viewing of the tulips (and other assorted and no less beautiful spring bulbs). In the past, we've taken long bike rides through the field south of Haarlem. This year, we went to the Keukenhof and had wonderful warm, sunny weather for it, too. The Keukenhof is only open for about two months a year and in that time, they receive over 700,000 visitors. So yes, it was packed. But it was also beautiful. They do some serious planting magic to insure that there are always flowers in bloom and the sheer variety was overwhelming! The flowers vary not only in color, but also in size, shape, and texture. Inside one building, they showcased loads of different varieties.

We quite enjoyed ourselves in the end, which was nice. I was a bit worried that the whole experience would be a bit under-whelming, but it really was beautiful. At the end of the day we had a special treat - a free ride back to Lisse to catch the bus home! Life could be much worse.

Reading Rut

Around the end of March and beginning of April, I entered a serious reading (and blogging) rut. Nothing was interesting anymore. I tried serious fiction (Ben Okri's The Famished Road). I tried non-fiction (a biography of Benjamin Franklin). I tried magazines (my stack of New Yorkers to be read). Nothing worked.

So, for about a week, I gave up on trying and tried to think about the best solution. A reading rut is a terrible experience if you love to read. For me, reading is my escape, my pleasure, my relaxation. If it suddenly becomes uninteresting... well, it's like not wanting to eat anymore! What do you do if someone looses their appetite? You stop worrying about what's "good" food and start making their favorites, hoping something will work.

Well, last week, I pulled out one of my favorites and I am pleased to report that it worked. As of this morning at breakfast, I have finished rereading the first four Harry Potter books and have pulled the fifth off the shelf to start today. They have, without a doubt, become my fall back for reading ruts and it works every time. It's also a special treat for myself to read them one after another. In the past, I always felt like I was missing the details when the new book came out, but was too excited about reading it to worry. Now, there's real pleasure in having the story unfold and letting the details drop into place.

My current dilemma is thinking about what book to take with me next week, when I'll be flying to the US for a couple weeks. What are your favorite plane and reading rut books?

Muji Awards

One of the blogs I read all the time, Notebookism, posted a new Muji notebook design. Muji, for those of you who have not yet had the pleasure, is a Japanese concept design store that makes you with you needed something, anything, from their collection! It's a destination for me whenever I happen to visit a city where they're located, and every time it's the same. I can spend an hour wandering around, admiring design, and wishing for a reason to buy just about any of it!

Anyway, it turns out they have an annual design contest. This is the second year and the winner is a towel. But it's a fascinating towel. That's the way Muji works! While you enjoy this, I'll go back to wishing they would finally open a store in Amsterdam...

Playing with Scissors

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered that making pillows was within the realm of sewing projects that I can successfully complete! So, of course, nothing will match because I'm too eager to find out what the different fabrics look like to actually follow a plan. That and they ran out of the nice yellow lolly pop material. But of course, that wasn't enough! It turns out I can do a pillow case in under an hour and when your sewing machine weighs a ton (OK, half a ton), you don't just get it out for a one hour project!

So the next victim was a shirt I gave F as a gift a few years ago. He's never worn it, but I'm still too in love with the multicolored stripes (some of you may notice a theme here) to let him actually throw it out. While we were cleaning out the closet, though, we found another pillow in need of a cover. I got out the scissors and we did some math (circumference of a circle, anyone?) and a few hours later, there was this:

It was an amazing feat! I was shocked when the whole thing fit together the first go. Didn't make any kind of pattern, just measured and pencilled in lines and cut. The ends matched up the first time around! Amazing. It's a bit tight, to tell the truth, but we're going to see how it works for now. In the meantime, the sewing machine has been put away for now!

2008 Reading (so far!)

I thought a monthly update of my reading list would be somehow edifying. As you can see, March wasn't just a bad month for blogging - I didn't get much reading done, either. If you only read two books from this list, read What is the What and Lighthousekeeping. Both keepers, both fantastic!

January 2008
Christina Schwartz, Drowning Ruth*
Bruce Courtenay, The Power of One
Sarah Gruen, Water for Elephants*
Robert Ludlum, The Jansen Directive
Ohran Pamuk, The New Life
Daniel Wallace, Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Majician

February 2008
John Banville, The Sea
Dave Eggers, What is the What*
Alexandra Fuller, Don't Let's go to the Dogs Tonight
Hanif Kureishi, Midnight All Day
Saskia Noort, Afgunst
Jasper Fforde, The Well of Lost Plots
Carl Hiaasen, Basket Case
Zadie Smith, On Beauty

March 2008
P.G. Wodehouse, Piccadilly Jim
Jeanette Winterson, Lighthousekeeping*
Rius, Marx for Beginners