food

I made seared sea scallops with ratatouille for supper tonight. I was frustrated at the outset, by not being able to find my cast iron fry pans. Then I decided, for some reason, that I was in a hurry. By not planning well, I ended up actually being in a hurry by about the second ingredient. By the time I got everything in the pan (with Cyn's help), everything went smoothly, and it turned out well. My mom says that if you get one good recipe from a cookbook, the book is worth the purchase. This recipe could be a regular, but I'm hoping to get a couple more out of the book. We got it on the cruise, and it's really a gourmet cookbook, but I hope to find a few more recipes to try once at least, if not as regulars.

I was thinking of trying the black bean soup, but Cyn said it looked like diarrhea, and she'd refuse to eat it. I don't think it looks like that, since diarrhea isn't normally black or has colorful pieces of bell pepper floating in it. (Now chocolate pudding, that's a different story!) The thing is, when you look at pictures of food (except for desserts), they don't generally look very appetizing. Have you ever noticed that? Food photographers have quite a challenge. Our dinner tonight didn't look very good, with its tomato covered eggplant, zucchini, red peppers and sauteed onion! The beef stew we make so often looks like vomit with carrot and potatoes in it. What happens is that your mind understands how good it tastes, and then that's all that matters. You just know it's tasty.

Joyce Yang and Rachmaninov

We went to the symphony last night. We noticed when they were tuning up, that they had moved the sections around. The basses went from the left side, to the back right. Second violins moved from just behind the first violins on the left, to the front on the right. The horns and percussion moved as well. I thought this was all a bit strange, since I always justified the layout of the strings, saying that bass sound is not directed, and therefore the instruments can face away from the audience if necessary. When the conductor came onstage, he took the mic and explained the changes. First, he said the basses now face the audience, because he's always felt that the whole feel of an orchestra is enhanced by the vibrancy of its bass sound. There was quite a difference in the sound of the basses, that's for sure. Conversely, I was not able to pick out the sound of the second violins, though I'm not sure how much a difference this made in last night's performances. The conductor explained that there should be a greater separation between the two violin sections. I'm sure that makes a big difference for those on or near the stage. The other sections were moved in relation to each one's need for interaction with other sections. Like the horns need to be near the brass and the woodwinds.

The first piece was Rachmaninov's first symphony. I thought it was interesting, especially the first movement. The last movement was too intense all the way through.

The second piece was one of Rachmaninov's piano concertos. Joyce Yang was the soloist. She was amazing. At the MSO, a soloist always gets three curtain calls. When she was called back a fourth time, she played a fairly lengthy encore. Then she was called out one more time. The audience reluctantly gave up the applause after that.