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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2013 2:16:05 GMT -5
Good morning to you all! Due to unprecedented demand from around the world, everyone reading The Third is cordially invited to breakfast this weekend (10:00 GMT). The breakfast menu includes single estate coffee, pastries and fried eggs. Join us!  www.somersethouse.org.uk/plan-your-visit/eating-and-drinking/fernandez-and-wellsIf you cannot make it in person, do not worry at all! BBC Radio 3's Breakfast Show is currently waking everyone up with arguably the finest classical music in the best performances.  www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tmr6Nutritional experts have referred to breakfast as the most important meal of the day, citing studies that find that people who skip breakfast are disproportionately likely to have problems with concentration, metabolism and weight. Yet what is the meaning of breakfast? Is it the best meal of the day? A new book looks at the idiosyncratic – and delicious – dimensions of the morning meal. Seb Emina concludes thus:  www.ft.com/cms/s/2/7fe0de76-6b3c-11e2-9670-00144feab49a.htmlNow come, everyone reading The Third, and have breakfast! I propose some toast: to all of you! Three cheers from kleines c and the gang (breakfast coffee)! |
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Post by neilmcgowan on Feb 2, 2013 11:21:59 GMT -5
Nutritional experts have referred to breakfast as the most important meal of the day, citing studies that find that people who skip breakfast are disproportionately likely to have problems with concentration, metabolism and weight. It certainly is. Breakfast is too important to be left to breakfast-time. I find it best to postpone it until the early evening.
"You cannot eat breakfast all day!
Nor is it the act of a sinner,
When breakfast is taken away
To turn one's attentions to dinner!"('Trial By Jury' - WS Gilbert) |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2013 3:21:37 GMT -5
Here is a recipe for a stress-free full English breakfast for everyone reading The Third this morning. www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/stressfreefullenglis_67721Of course, breakfast could be delayed until evening, Neil McGowan, but in terms of health, this could be a mistake. It is more important to eat something in the morning, if only to get you going. I would be inclined to have less to eat in the evening! Anyway, times are hard; kleines c finally lands a job as a refuse collecter. One of the stops on my round is a Chinese restaurant in the heart of Chinatown at six o'clock in the morning. I look around, but cannot find a bin anywhere.  Suddenly, a Chinese chef comes out of the back door of the restaurant, so I ask him, "Excuse me, but where's your bin?" The chef replies, "I've been to Hong Kong." "No, where's your bin, please?" "I've been to Hong Kong." "No, what I mean is where's your wheely bin?" Somewhat frustrated, the chef replies, "I've wheely bin to Hong Kong!" The chef then goes back into the restaurant, and makes a call. Suddenly, kleines c faces London's Chinatown minder, who draws a gun. Then he recognises me. "What are you doing here, kleines c? Did you want a job in the kitchen? We need a better chef!" "Thank you very much indeed." Later that morning, the Chinese restaurant is visited by some restaurant critics and inspectors. "Why is the restaurant so good?", asks the three star Michelin man. "We've never tasted food as good as this before!" "Ah, kleines c," the waiter replies. "What is kleines c doing here?" "He was concerned about The Third! The old chef said that the wheely bins have really been taken to Hong Kong, so kleines c created a new menu for breakfast this morning." "Dim sum?" At this point, kleines c enters the restaurant to meet all his new customers. "A dimmer sum than usual, we hope. Did you enjoy your food?" "Yes, but how come you make such a delicious dim sum?" "Ah, I've really been to Hong Kong. Look here!"  www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d48611be-72ed-11e1-9be9-00144feab49a.htmlI commend Chinese Cricket Club to everyone reading The Third today. Cheers, all (dim sum)!  www.chinesecricketclub.com/ |
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Post by neilmcgowan on Feb 5, 2013 14:08:25 GMT -5
"Yes, but how come you make such a delicious dim sum?"
"I specially bought a solar-powered calculator, but the display is barely visible in the kitchen... Now I wheely go to Hong Kong" |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2013 14:51:42 GMT -5
Welcome to the Year of the Snake, Neil McGowan! The Chinese New Year was ushered in last weekend in more subdued fashion than normal, with toned-down displays of fireworks and quieter restaurants following a government drive for frugality. Writing in the FT, Simon Rabinovitch reports that the crackle of fireworks still resounded throughout Beijing and illuminated the night sky to ring in the Year of the Snake, but the pyrotechnics were restrained compared to past holidays.  www.ft.com/cms/s/0/12fd059e-7354-11e2-9e92-00144feabdc0.html Richard Pratt didn’t choose China – “China chose me”, he says. In 1990, he was sent on a four-year Voluntary Service Overseas stint at a teacher training college, initially in rural Hubei province. The place got under his skin. He was 23 when he left the UK for China, but it was there that he believes he got his true education. www.ft.com/cms/s/2/46fab7b0-6b9d-11e2-a700-00144feab49a.htmlAs for the future, China is inevitably going to flex its muscles over the course of the twenty-first century, if only because China is poised to overtake the United States of America (USA) as the largest economy in the world. As the centre of gravity of the global economy moves inexorably westwards across the Pacific Ocean at the turn of the third millennium, China is bound to dominate the Far East, economically, politically and, increasingly, militarily. For breakfast, I can only suggest dim sum! The FT leads today on China's inequality: plan to spread wealth must be matched by hard targets. The Gini is out of the bottle. China’s leaders accept that income inequality, measured imperfectly (and in Beijing’s case dishonestly) by the Gini coefficient, is one of their biggest challenges. The State Council, or cabinet, has issued a 35-point income distribution plan aimed at narrowing a gap worse than Russia’s. At least in theory, Beijing is making a welcome shift of emphasis from crude top-line growth to more meaningful economic development. Everything, though, will depend on execution. Inequality lies at the heart of social unrest in China. Ordinary Chinese distrust the process by which some in government or with close connections to power have accumulated vast wealth. Nice cars and fancy watches have quickly gone from signs of prestige worthy of flaunting to evidence of corruption to be hidden away. Last week, the government continued its supposed war on graft by banning advertisements that tout luxury items as “gifts for leaders”. The salmon pink newspaper concludes thus: www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e5e12096-71ef-11e2-886e-00144feab49a.html |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2013 3:32:28 GMT -5
I commend Chinese Cricket Club to everyone reading The Third today. Cheers, all (dim sum)! The only problem with that is that it does not seem actually to be in China! Here is the Hong Kong Mariners' Club: www.marinersclub.org.hk/In the Old Days I would hustle up that Peak in the background daily . . . And here is the Tsim Sha Tsui Young Men's Christian Association, so convenient for going over by the Star Ferry: www.ymcahk.org.hk/sales/html/e_location.htmWhat times they were! |
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Post by neilmcgowan on Feb 12, 2013 4:20:32 GMT -5
The Chinese New Year was ushered in last weekend in more subdued fashion than normal, I believe the Lunar New Year was more widely celebrated than in the People's Repression of China alone  From Singapore, to Mongolia, to Burma, people greeted the Lunar New Year. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2013 4:07:27 GMT -5
I always suspected that you might be something of a colonial, Sydney Grew, but I was surprised to learn that you used to live in Hong Kong. Out of interest, were you born and bred in Sydney?
As for Neil McGowan, I suspect that you, like me, are a Londoner, born and bred. I know that you studied Music at the University of London and that you worked at English National Opera (ENO) during the 'eighties (if only because you told me online). Out of interest, do you now intend to stay in Russia for good?
As for myself, I should perhaps confess that I have had to walk around the block a few times, both before and after breakfast. As it is Ash Wednesday, however, we are supposed to fast for the next forty days (Lent), or at least give something up. I shall naturally be giving up a full English breakfast, not to mention pancakes, if only for Lent. How about you?
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Post by neilmcgowan on Feb 13, 2013 7:14:45 GMT -5
Since you ask, kleines... although I keep an open mind about future plans, I am not planning to move from Moscow in the near future. I've been here for 12 years now. My musical career was quietly stagnating in the UK, whereas here in Moscow I'm relatively busy, and am asked to stage and perform new projects in 'proper' venues. Last year I had my debut at the St Petersburg Philharmonia as a soloist, and the concert went excellently - especially considering that Schoenberg isn't widely appreciated in Russia, so it was an uphill struggle  I have a 'Russian premiere' of a major music-theatre work at the Moscow Conservatoire in May. My partner is a soprano with a growing international career. It may happen that she has to move abroad for career reasons (she has already spent half-year periods in Britain, at Glyndebourne), but my career is portable enough to tag along with her. We will be dividing our time between Berlin and Moscow from Autumn this year, as she is on contract with the Komische Oper for the remainder of the season (the lead in a new production, and main roles in two revivals). Die WalküreToscaThe Russian Orthodox Church takes the Lenten Fast very seriously Personally I am not a believer of any sort, and could probably be called anti-clerical in my views. (We had a bit of a run-in with Arch-Deacon Chaplin in Moscow, over a production of Midsummer Night's Dream on which I worked as an Asst). However, my family go along with the requirements of the fast. The rules are slightly different to those in catholic or protestant countries - for example, sugar and sweets are permitted, but no animal produce at all... it's primarily a vegan diet for 40 days. Since I am a lifelong vegetarian I take this comfortably in my stride, and in fact it's a happy period - all of the city's restaurants come up with special Lenten Menus, so we can eat out in places where the veggie fare is more typically frozen mushroom lasagne  Russia has had these fasts (there are several during a year - the Lenten fast is merely the longest, there's a big Advent one too) for centuries, so there are many dishes specially prepared for them. Siberian dumplings (rather like ravioli in style) come with different fillings, including potato & onion, forest mushrooms, and salmon (there is a dispensation for fish on some of the holidays that fall within the Fast). I also make quite a lot of Indian vegan food at home, and this varies the bill of fare a little during the 40 days. But because of the calendar mis-synch between Catholicism and the Orthodox Church, our Fast doesn't start for a week or two yet We have a Belarussian Farm Shop near our house, run by authentic Belarussian Babushkas.. I see a large hock of smoked ham has taken up residence in our fridge as of yesterday |
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I have a 'Russian premiere' of a major music-theatre work at the Moscow Conservatoire in May.