Monthly Archives: June 2013

Biltmore Estate in Ashville, N.C. – A house definitely worth a 2 day visit!


Some houses are big, some houses are insanely big – and then there’s the Biltmore. It defies description today – probably the most common reaction when George Vanderbilt – grandson of Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt – decided he needed a pied-a-tere in a remote corner of Ashville, NC.

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Talking about a good idea that got carried away. The Biltmore has 240 rooms (including closets and toilets according to our guide), an indoor pool, an indoor garden, servant quarters by the dozens – and no residents. The Vanderbilt’s only really lived there for 35 years – 2 years longer than I’ve owned my home. It took 5 years to build, many more years to furnish – and was opened to the public by Cornelia Vanderbilt (age 30) in 1930, mostly I’m guessing because the family had simply run out of money to maintain it. In any case, shortly afterwards she divorced her husband, left him to raise their 2 kids and tend to the monster of a house – and went to England. There she changed her name and lived quietly for a long time before she died. Today the home is still owned by her kids and grandkids.

All of which reminds me that money just doesn’t make you happy. Even lots and lots of money.

In the Wikipedia write-up – the authors speculate that George probably spent his entire inheritance on this house – an idea that while appealing, just doesn’t seem right. The family owned at least 4 other homes – so while this one might have been horribly expensive – in those days – it was probably considered just extravagant – but not ruinous. Nope – I think their lack of business smarts did them in, not just the house.

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Anyway – our tour. We opted to not only pay for admittance ($49 each) – and get an audio head-set (another $10) – but to take not one but two of the topic specific tours ($17 each). I’d say we’d Vanderbilt out! The Butler’s tour was up first – and our cheerful and extremely knowledgeable guide lead us upstairs and down – showing us the room where the housekeeper lived, explaining the intercom system, letting us admire the freight elevator that even the staff couldn’t use, and letting us peek into Edith Vanderbilt’s toilet, bath and shower. One oddity – there was no sink. In those days – servants brought you water in a pitcher and you washed in a bowl. Kept people employed I’d imagine.

After the tour – we ate lunch in the Stable Cafe – in a horse stall of course. I shared a huge bowl of Mac n’Cheese with my sister. It was totally yummy. Then it was on to the audio tour of the house itself.

While the butler’s tour was interesting and informative – the house tour left you stunned. How could people imagine such a place – then execute it. Four floors plus a basement, glorious art, stunningly beautiful views (it was a great day – I’m sure that helped), huge pieces of furniture. The main dining room – used for family meals as well as banquets was huge – 3 stories high, hung with tapestries bought from Europe, and for musical entertainment – a huge organ.

We toured the bedrooms, admired the wall coverings, gasped in delight at the books in the library, admired the magnificent tile work in the indoor pool, and wondered at the distance between the master bedroom, the wife’s bedroom, and the childbirth room. I suppose if you have to change clothes 4 and 5 times a day – you need a lot of private space. (Oh I can’t wear that – it’s for eating lunch – and I’m going to stroll in the gardens – how silly of you!)

Our tour us through the kitchen, the pastry kitchen, and most interesting – the laundry room. I particularly loved the drying racks for sheets. Ever wonder how often they changed the sheets in those days? We did – and we asked. Daily was the answer! Imagine a team of laundry people whose only job was to keep the bed linen cleaned. Can you imagine – and no electric washers and dryers either. All done by hand.

We took so long – they closed the house around us – and we got to watch the highly trained and extremely informative staff get searched before heading home.

As the security guard explained – it’s for their benefit. If something goes missing – I can say – I searched them – they are clean.

We finally got up sufficient umpf to leave – but realizing that we hadn’t seen the gardens, or even finished up touring the house – we decided to take the $10 next day option. We shall clearly be Vanderbilting again tomorrow.

Larkin’s on the Lake – Lake Lure, N.C. – completely perfect in every way


Larkins on the Lake is so perfect – it’s scary!

Ok – I hate to say this – but I liked Larkins on the Lake so much – I ate there 2 times in a row. I mean – how embarrassing is that for a high-end foodie? I’m completely guilty of what I complain about other people doing – staying with the safe and certain.

Reviewing note – I officially might have been at the Bayfront (what they call the part of Larkin’s that closer to the dock) – because we sat outside to enjoy the breezes – but I was assured that the menu was the same. But you might ask when you go.

In my defense – Larkin’s on the Lake is awesome. First off – the location. It hangs over Lake Lure – facing almost due West to catch the last rays of sunshine, a glorious sunset – and then you can admire the mountains in the distance. I mean – what’s wrong with that? And it was close (under 10 minutes) from our home base – so getting home after dinner – in the dark – was slow, but at least short. Given the number of deer we spotted either bounding up the sides of the road way – or standing still giving us the beady eye – going fast was not an option!

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And the food – what’s a restaurant with out good food? At Larkins, it was a mixture of traditional popular dishes (great prime rib, a Spinach Artichoke Dip, or Baby Back Ribs) with more modern classics like Sesame crusted Tuna Tataki. And best of all – they had my favorite dessert – in their case it was called Hubba Bubba Brownie – but basically it’s a brownie, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Oh man – I could diet forever to have one of those!

I had the prime rib one night – rare, perfectly cooked, super tender – and the 2nd night I opted for just an appetizer of the Tuna Tataki – nice size portion, Tuna was perfectly rare on the inside and nicely seaseme’d on the outside. Yummy.

And the service was warm, friendly, and personable. The second night, our waitress from the first night totally remembered us – and told our wait person exactly how to get us what we wanted. I haven’t had that kind of service in – well – ever!

And prices were quite reasonable for a tourist locale – from just $17 to $30 dollars per person – in a setting you will never forget.

My kind of perfect place.

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Larkin's on the Lake on Foodio54

Ashville, N.C. – Cute as the proverbial Button


What makes travel fun for me is the element of surprise – will this hotel/guesthouse/resort live up to expectations, will I find a yummy restaurant (or two), will the museum be worth visiting, will there be fun stores to shop at, is the location going to be beautiful, will it rain?

So many variables – so many chances for things to wrong – or to go right.

Good news – Lake Lure and Ashville, N.C. exceeded even my high expectations. After a rough start – check out my ‘why, oh why’ blog on travel – I finally arrived in the rolling hills and startlingly jagged stone cliffs of Western North Carolina. And how about this for a ‘I didn’t know that’ – The Last of the Mohicans and The Hunger Games were filmed right here!

But I wasn’t here to see movie sets – I was here for a ‘sister’s’ retreat. Our idea – spend time getting to know each other – without the distractions of husbands, kids, jobs. My middle sister picked me up at the Ashville Airport (tiny – truly tiny. You know it’s small when it cost $5 to park for over 2 hours), and headed out to our home for the weekend, and RCI resort called Wyndham Resort at Fairfield Mountains.

On the map – the resort is just 30 miles from Ashville – but the GPS said our ETA was an hour and a half. We soon found out why as we wound our way passed glorious scenery on a 2 lane winding road that changed elevation often enough to have us clearing our ears and allowed for a max speed of 20 mph. We drove past Chimney Rock State Park – with its gloriously huge waterfall cascading down from a rock face hundreds of feet above us. This Park is the setting for the movie – “Last of the Mohicans” – and to honor that – they were showing the film on Saturday night. For free. Got to love the price point.

Eventually we arrived at our destination – good job iphone and Telenav to discover that you needed a code for the lock box. Yikes. Good thing the guest arriving right behind us had that code – or we would have definitely been stranded. RCI – you have to give resorts the email of incoming guests. And resorts – if you don’t have the email for a guest – make an effort to get it! The good news – when we reported the ‘almost’ problem the next morning, the extremely pleasant receptionist apologized profusely – and reported the problem to her team. Nice handling of that – Wyndham people.

But all turned out OK (It wouldn’t be an adventure if nothing went wrong). We got our key, found a map explaining where our unit could be found in this huge resort, and made our way to our palace for the weekend. It was a palace at the mid-of-the road level – but the king sized bed was super comfy, and the view of the mountains from our window was awe-inspiring. My sister who loves to walk found lots of places to get exercise, and for me – hey, the coffee was great.

Dinner that night was at Larkins on the Lake – We loved it – but if you want to know why – you’ll have to check out my detailed review.

We’d decided that despite all the really neat stuff to do around Lake Lure and the Resort – including kayaking, a beach, a swimming pool, bike paths, hiking paths, etc, what we really wanted to do was to check out the Biltmore Estate – the home of George, Edith, and Cornelia Vanderbilt. (Again – want more details – that’s in another blog!)

GPS to the rescue again as we navigate our way back to Ashville by a different, and much less windy route past Bat Cave (didn’t spot Batman though).

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On Saturday – we opt to return to the Biltmore – that place is huge, and we felt we needed to see more stuff! But that afternoon – we finally manage to make it into Ashville. What a completely cute town. The shops were adorable, they had a wonderful arts and crafts market with lots of beautiful things to touch (I love the feel of wood), and my favorite – the Mast General Store.

If you are in Western North Carolina – and I’m not exactly sure why you would go there unless you were visiting the Biltmore Estate – you must go to this store. I loved it! They had everything. It was hard to decide what I just had to buy – and thus I wound up with a cast iron Bacon press in the form of a pig.

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Trust me – going thru security leaving Ashville was a hoot with that in my luggage. After they looked at it – everyone wanted to know if I even knew what to do with it. Hey – it’s my husband’s Father’s Day Present – he loves to press the Bacon!

Bottom line – Ashville has tons of stuff to do and see – lots of neat restaurants, including the Posana, the general store, cute art shops, and a young vibe that totally took us by surprise.

Go and have fun. But don’t forget the reason for your visit – in our case – the Biltmore and getting some much-needed Sister time.

Missions accomplished I’d say

Signing off – The soup lady.

Why, oh why is travel so challenging?


I must be a sadist at heart – or else why would I book another trip just a week after flying back from Korea? I mean – isn’t 25 hours of travel enough? It took me 3 days to recover from jet lag. Who needs more of this stuff? Well – apparently – I do.

Months ago my 2 sisters and I had agreed that it had been way too long since we’d had a decent conversation with each other. get-together with kids and husbands around were fun – but opportunities to actually talk – non-existent. So despite the conjunction with my trip back from Korea – we’d planned an “I’m not yet 65” birthday sisters weekend – in Lake Lure, N.C. This meant I’d fly to Columbia, S.C. on Wednesday, see my sister’s newly redesigned kitchen, then we’d drive the 2 hours to Lake Lure. Sounds great.

Bonus – when I go to check in on-line – I’m offered a $49 upgrade to business class! Winner. Amazing. Sure – I’ll take it.

So it’s Wednesday night – and here I am – at the Montreal airport – booked on a United flight thru Washington, D.C. I eat a lousy dinner at the airport – something billed as meat lasagna – but tasting more like cheap tomato sauce with meat waved in its directions and I join the suspiciously large crowd around gate C82.

Hmm – the sign doesn’t say Washington, D.C. yet – is says Cleveland.

But like most well laid plans, the weather angels decided it was a no go. Cancelled flights here, there and everywhere – just because of some rain and severe thunderstorms lasting 6 hours in a 250 mile swatch running across most of the midwest. Honestly. Is plane travel so retarded that they can’t land in a little rain? Maybe it was the cross winds. Whatever – no plane, no go. So sorry.

Options – I fly to Dulles, spend the night on my own dime (if I can find a hotel room – with canceled flights all over – likelihood not good), and fly on in the morning from there. Or – I go home, spend the night in my own bed – and just start over again on Thursday.

I opt for my own bed. Bad news – the guy who rebooked me doesn’t do it right – I lose my paid for status as ‘business class’ –

So now it’s Thursday. And with better weather, planes are at least taking off on time. I’ll manage to get where I want to go some time today.

Being a optomist at heart – I’m willing to forgive United the boo-boo – particularly because when I get to Chicago (mid-point of flight – nothing from Montreal goes direct to anywhere I want to go) – I discover what really bad looks like.

Chicago is a mess. No seriously – a mess. On Wednesday flights got canceled and delayed – and when they re-route, reschedule you because of weather – they have a lovely little pre-printed brochure that effectively says no food, no lodging, no refunds! I ran into a wonderful family of 4 that had finished a fab holiday in Spain, including a cruise, and were just trying to get home. They’d arrived in Chicago at 7:30 pm on Wednesday – I ran into them at around 10:00 am on Thursday – and it didn’t look good. They’d been re-booked onto a flight that got canceled early this morning – been standby (and clearly not made it) on two more flights – and were now officially giving up. They got an absolute booking for a flight on Friday – and were on their way to a hotel to sleep.

There are literally people everywhere – some just sitting and looking sad – some actually asleep. The stand-by lists to just about everywhere are filled – and I’m guessing that they can’t just bring in a larger plane – or 2 – or 3.

This is truly sad. On the positive side, a gentleman just got up to give his seat in this overcrowded waiting area to an older couple. Nice.

And just to make sure I’m awake – another guy just announced that there are severe thunderstorms forecast in my destination city.

If nothing goes wrong – it’s not much of an Adventure, is it?

Signing off – and hoping the plane flies…. The Soup Lady

Imadake – Japanese Pub with style (and a lot of noise!)


Follower alert – I’m back in Montreal – but not for long… Next Stop – South Korea.

The Imadake is in a great location if you are doing the theatre at Dawson – and need a quick bite to eat, but heads up on the noise level. This is a pub – and the waiters encourage the customers to scream and yell each and every time they serve them. But noise level aside – the food was quite yummy.

We ordered a variety of the appetizer sized portions – the absolute best of which was the Miso Glazed Black Code. I mean – this was delicious. The Black code was perfectly cooked – white, tender, and tough to explain – actually juicy. I loved it.

2nd best were Takoyaki – or Octopus Balls. I mean who knew Octopus even had balls? Learn something new every day I say. These ‘balls’ were deep-fried and yummy. I liked the dipping sauce too.

Also ordered was Negibuta – pork belly slices wrapped around an entire green onion. My dining partner loved this dish, but I found difficult to eat. I wanted to bite it in half – but it’s hard to bite thru a green onion.

Definitely less thrilling were the Tempura Veggies (cut way to thick), and the Ponzu Beef Tenderloin. And last and clearly least thrilling were the Udon Noodles. I really didn’t care for the taste of these.

So – some winners, some losers, lots of noise, but very fast, and for the ‘in-crowd’ who were screaming and yelling – clearly a really good time was being had. Maybe not that great for seniors though. Just saying.

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Imadake - Japanese Pub on Foodio54

PF Chang – the Montreal Version – Not quite up to snuff. Sorry folks.


PF Chang – High end Franchise opens near me – cool, eh?

My first experience with PF Chang was in Florida – I was hungry – they were there. It worked out. I thought the restaurant was beautiful, and the food quite delicious. So I was very excited to discover that they were opening a branch right around the corner (sort of) from my office.

We eagerly planned our next luncheon to be there – and since we had lots to discuss, knew it would be long lunch. PF Chang was great on at least that aspect – we could sit as long as we liked, no problems. There were plenty of empty tables (not a good sign, eh?) – and we were tucked nicely into a corner where we were out of sight – out of mind. Perfect.

Unfortunately, that was the highlight. Well, that and the Signature lettuce wrap with chicken, mushrooms, green onions and water chestnuts. That was delicious. I was not really impressed with much else unfortunately. And I wanted to be – I really did.

I will give our waitress full credit for a nice try. She was extremely pleasant, and very well-informed on the menu – nope – the problems lay elsewhere.

We managed to confuse the kitchen by mixing up our order, one of us ordered the lunch special, the other 2 ordered a la carte. Shouldn’t have been an issue – but I guess the kitchen is still working out the kinks – the luncheon special main course arrived long, long before the rest of our order – to the embarrassment of our waitress. She apologized, but it ended up meaning that one of us ate a cool lunch that should have been hot. Better – just remove the dish, and take it back. By asking if it’s ok – you put the customer into complaint mode – and my friend felt awkward complaining.

My ‘main’ course was billed as Cold Ahi-tuna Slices with a mustard sauce – way too heavy on the sauce unfortunately – couldn’t taste the tuna at all. My friend who got convinced to order a chicken dish wasn’t exactly thrilled with hers either. And the cool instead of hot main course of my friend was never going to be right.

In comparing the menu we were offered in Montreal with the menu on the US website – I think part of the issue might be that the Canada franchise isn’t offering exactly the same things as the US version – at least the menu seemed quite different. I couldn’t even find my tuna dish on the US menu – good thing to be honest. It wasn’t great.

We ordered one desert to share – the Banana Spring Rolls with coconut pineapple ice cream. It was good – but not blow you away. They ‘under-drizzled’ the caramel and vanilla sauces in my opinion, at least I couldn’t taste them. The ice cream was so cold that you couldn’t taste the coconut and pineapple – and I thought the fried banana spring rolls were terribly rich. Not a bad thing for dessert of course, but I wasn’t thrilled.

So – lovely restaurant, nice waitress, some good, some not so good food. Can’t give PF Chang an A. Sorry people. Better luck next time.

P.F. Chang's on Urbanspoon

PF Chang on Foodio54

Glee and Flash Mobs in Korea – Why Not?


You never know what you’ll see just wandering around a city like Seoul, and I guess seeing the Korean version of Glee is a perfect example of what makes Seoul such an outstanding place to visit!

We were just walking into the King Sejong and Admiral Yi Sunshin Exhibits when I spotted a sign on a stage saying – I’m guessing actually – tonight 6:30 – 7:20. I didn’t know exactly what they’d be doing – but hey – it was a nice night – we were going to be there at the right time – why not.

So when we finished seeing the outstanding exhibit on Admiral Yi Sunshin, we walked out into the setting sun and seated ourselves on the stone benches to wait for the ‘event’ to start. Almost as soon as we’d sat down, a young man runs up to us with seat cushions – oops – missed those when we walked in!

The crowd was decidedly young – I’m talking from 15 to maybe 30 – so to say we stood out would be too obvious. But hey – not the first time I’ve stood out in the last few weeks. No problems.

A few minutes later – the show begins! On stage are 2 electric pianos, a guitar, and a drum set – and the performers are from the Seoul Arts College. I’m guessing this is an end of the year production showcasing their accomplishments – from dancing (hip-hop or grunge or traditional) to singing. From the all Korean brochure they handed out – I’m guessing at least 2 have been featured on TV shows, and they sure all looked adorable.

The instruments were on stage for 3 numbers, then they were removed to allow more space for dancing. Sometimes the teams rushed on stage from the sides, but at one point the kids, who had been sitting as members of the audience – jumped up and run onto the stage right past us. At another point – a lovely group of young ladies in traditional clothes glided onto the stage and performed a very beautiful fan dance.

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Music – good, dancing – wonderful, enthusiasm – catching! Final grade – A+

As the show ended, two young ladies (22 years old it turns out) approached us to ask if they could interview us for their class. They are studying English translation at a nearby college, and had been asked to practice their interviewing skills. Both of us agreed of course – and gladly answered their questions – yes we enjoyed the show, yes we liked traveling around Korea, yes we’re from Canada, yes Korea is a great place. My interviewer was Lee Woo-I – and she gladly posed for a picture.

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We were just finishing up when the flash mob happened – it was on the square directly in front of us – and featured about 200 young people – who gathered – did a line dance (everyone does the same steps – in unison) to music from a speaker system – and then just as quickly disappeared.

Nice ending to a nice day, eh?

Signing off – the Soup Lady and the Intrepid Traveler.

Heroes of Korea’s Golden Ages – Admiral Yi Sunshin and King Sejong


“Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797)

I think Edmund was onto something here – Knowing the past (not worrying about it – that’s different) isn’t a bad thing, it’s a good thing if you use it to help in the present!

And Koreans love their heroes – and two of the most famous, and most revered are King Sejong and Admiral Yi Sunshin. There are statues of them here and there, just about every museum mentions something about them, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that they each rate an entire free exhibit, interestingly enough located in the basement of the Seoul Museum of Art. I’d seen signs for these exhibits when we’d first hit Seoul – but it took us almost our entire visit to get up the energy to go. I’m really sorry we waited. The exhibit on Admiral Yi Sunshin is fabulous, and while King Sejong’s isn’t quite as outstanding – it is remarkably informative.

First King Sejong. He was the fourth King of the Joseon Dynasty, he reigned from 1418 to 1450 (31 years!) and is most famous for having created the Korean alphabet (Hangeul). Just imagine that – until King Sejong – despite having their own language, Korean were using the Chinese pictogram system with its thousands of different images. King Sejong declared that Koreans deserved something better – and he created it with the help of advisers. He even wrote books and music in the new alphabet to help make it popular.

The Koreans went from having to learn tens of thousands of different symbols to learning just 28. Those 28 symbols (only 24 are in use today) were created by King Sejong, based on the way Korean is spoken. They are said to resemble the way your mouth moves when you are speaking Korean.

This I knew from countless other museum exhibits – what I didn’t know about the reign of King Sejong was that it was a golden age of invention. Under his inspiration, uniquely Korean musical instruments were created, uniquely Korean music was born, rain gauges were invented to help farmers, he had a manual written in his new alphabet to help farmers, there were multiple military advances, he inspired people to create astrological instruments, etc., etc.

Comparison note: Queen Elizabeth I reigned from 1533 to 1603 – 100 years later!

King Sejong passed many laws that were – for the time – extremely revolutionary, including one that allowed new mothers, even if they were slaves, time off work to care for their babies.

If you are inspired to learn more about King Sejong – and can’t hop on a plane to fly to Korea and visit this exhibit – at least check out the Wikipedia article about him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sejong_the_Great
He is amazing. Exhibit was pretty good too.

But it was the exhibit on Admiral Yi Sunshin that I found the most intriguing. Remember – the Intrepid Traveler is a Docent in Montreal – so how museum exhibits are designed is almost as important to us as the information they are trying to convey. This exhibit neatly demonstrated almost all the newest ideas about how to ‘teach history’ – in one relatively tiny space.

Quick history – Admiral Yi Sunshin lived from 1545 to 1598. He created the ‘Turtle Ship’, a completely new warship and was instrumental in defeating the Japanese at sea during the Imjin War (the Japanese Invasions of Korea 1592-1598). In one of his most famous sea battles – he faced 131 Japanese war ships with only 13 of his own – and won. Not only did he win, but he didn’t lose a boat – and his ships destroyed 33 of the Japanese vessels before the Japanese retreated. Clearly an outstanding strategist.

He was demoted several times (not the easiest guy to get along with I’m thinking), he was actually stripped of his rank and imprisoned at one point, and yet he came back again and again to fight for his country. He was killed by a bullet during his last battle.

But it’s not this history, neat as it is, that made this exhibit so impressive – it was how they tried to make it interesting that most impressed me.

There was an interactive electronic picture book that was appeared in the language of your choice, and was read to you – in your language, as you ‘flipped’ the pages electronically. Cool.

There was an interactive game that put you and a friend on the rowing oar of a ‘turtle ship’ – invented by Admiral Yi Sunshin – chasing a fleeing Japanese vessel. There was a wooden model of a turtle ship (50% size) that you could enter to see what if felt like inside (very claustrophobic), there were 2 very realistic guns and 2 slow loading cannons of the period that you could ‘fire’ at attacking ships, there was a movie about one of his famous battles with sound effects on multiple screens with English sub-titles that ended with the screen disappearing and the model of the turtle ship suddenly appearing (remember – it’s huge), in front of you – as if you were being attacked.

There was even a 4D battle movie, about 8 minutes long, that featured puffs of air, water spray and moving chairs while you watched a naval battle unfurl in front of you. Well worth waiting to see.

2 Impressive Exhibits – both free, one opened on October 9, 2009 (Hangeul Day), the other opened on April 28, 2010 in honor of Admiral Yi Sunshin’s date of birth – and both running continuously since then. I’d rate these a must see if you visit Seoul – and I wouldn’t be alone there – they have had at least 230,000 visitors since they opened!

Signing off to go watch a Korean version of Glee (see tomorrows blog) – The Soup Lady and the Intrepid Traveler

“English – Vinglish” – Great Movie – Love the Content


I can’t sleep on airplanes – in 1969 I was on a propeller plane, crossing the Atlantic ocean, when I watched one of the engines catch on fire. The plane did a slow 180 degree turn, we landed in emergency mode at Shannon airport and spent 3 days waiting for parts. Not something you forget – so no sleeping on planes for me.

Why the story? Well – I just flew from Korea to Montreal – 12.5 hours in a plane with nothing but the video system as company. So I watched 5 movies – and this was easily, hands-down, my favorite. It’s a must see movie if you travel to countries where you don’t speak the language – or if you live in a big city and have ever run into a tourist trying so hard to manage without a clue. Trust me – this movie is an attitude changer!

Here’s the link to trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnvfVKxu6oU

I leave it to better users of Google to figure out how to watch the movie – I’m pretty sure you can do it – I’m just not that good at video links!

On to the review.

The story line of “English – Vinglish” is simple – a Hindi wife and mother of 2 children living in India is embarrassed by her lack of knowledge of English – a lack that is made critical by the fact that her sister’s daughter is getting married in New York City, and as auntie she is expected to help organize the event. This puts her in New York City for 5 weeks – with literally no grasp of English and not much to do. So despite her conservative up-bringing, and very shy nature – she decides to take English lessons, one of those ‘Learn English in 4 weeks’ immersion courses. The story then follows the class and what happens there and contrasts it with what is happening in her family life, both in New York and in India.

Why did I love the movie? Because I just experienced exactly the things they so carefully show her trying to survive. Going thru immigration, ordering a meal at a restaurant and having to ‘see’ the food to order, getting flustered if the service person rushes you, and worse, getting embarrassed when you realize your stupidity is holding up a line.

Been there – done that!

The Intrepid Traveler and I didn’t have the heroine’s ability or desire to learn a language (Korean in our case) in under 5 weeks – but we did learn to avoid lines – to wait till there was a break before attempting to place an order, knowing that it might take us a bit longer. And we got really messed up on the ‘metro’ system – it’s not easy to know which train to get on – thank goodness for the kindness of strangers. Even on our last day in Seoul – someone over heard us saying where we wanted to go and kindly directed off the ‘wrong’ train and onto the right one.

Like the heroine of “English – Vinglish”, we know the palatable relief you experience when suddenly someone speaks to you in your language! You immediately go from being an idiot – to being intelligent.

The movie takes the bird-eye view on her classroom situation, and if you’ve ever taught, you can readily appreciate how frustratingly hard it is to learn to communicate complex thoughts in a foreign language.

Watching the movie – and thinking about how terribly hard and scary it can be to travel in a country where you don’t speak the language – is a bit of a game changer. And you might even be nicer the next time you realize that a visitor to your home town is having a challenge. Trust me – they will appreciate the smile, and the effort to help them help themselves!

Signing off – the Soup Lady and the Intrepid Traveler.

“Eating Pomegranates Naked” – Great Title – Wonderful piece of Theatre


The Black Theatre Workshop – also known as Theatre BTW for obvious reasons – traditionally offers a Discovery Series Performance – a one night a year in the spring ‘reading’ of a new play by an Afro-Canadian playwright. I’ve attended at least 3 of these – and found them consistently entertaining. They are always held in the cafe of the MAI building on Jeanne-Mance – a stone’s throw from McGill and St. Laurent.

I was quite thrilled to be attending another one of BTW’s public readings on April 15th. I was a bit concerned about the title – “Eating Pomegranates Naked” – but I will admit to being hard pressed to explain the title after having ‘heard’ the play. Perhaps I should have gotten up my courage and asked why “Pomegranates” and why “Naked” during the Q&A after the performance.

How does a ‘reading’ differ from a play I hear you mutter? Well, a reading – at least as interpreted by the folks at BTW – means limited reversal time, no need to memorize, no sets, no costumes, and an ‘up to the performer’ attitude towards the amount of ‘drama’. All this said – these are talented performers – and they aren’t going to just stand up there and read. Nope – these performances are very ‘theatrical’, which means that the lack of costumes and props focuses your attention on the facial expressions and nuances in the voices of the performers. The result is an intriguing performance blending low-tech with high drama.

The action starts at a dinner party thrown by 2 of the characters – and through their conversations, and through brief glimpses of their lives as couples and friends, throws a spot light on one of the key concerns of this group of 30 somethings – Having Children. To have or not to have – that is the key question, along with the complimentary concern – Can and Should you have children. Having listened to my kids explore exactly these same concerns – while slightly different in some of the details, I can feel for the conflict that the thoughts of children raise.

For one couple – the revealing discover that one of them can never parent a child is devastating, to another couple a series of mis-carriages has changed the meaning of parenthood completely, and to a third, the impossibility of finding a mate in order to have children has become emotionally overwhelming. As pairs of characters regroup to engage is one revealing conversation after another, their ‘woe’s’ mount up to insurmountable heights.

Fascinating.

Obviously – it is too late for you to hear the reading – it’s done. But the play is being produced as part of Toronto’s SummerWorks festival – and I suspect will end up on stage here in Montreal before long. Keep your eye’s peeled.

But more importantly – make it a promise to go to the next in the Discovery Series – sometime in April 2014. It’s a lot of fun – it’s generally well advertised – and if you visit the BTW website – you can even sign up to be notified by email.

http:www.blacktheatreworkshop.ca