Duck Fat

I have a feeling this new job is going to keep me running. On the morning of my 3rd day, Wednesday, my alarm was set for 4 o'clock so I could make a 6:30 flight to Los Angeles, where I met a colleague from the Washington, a major client and a whole scad of other people. That said, I haven't had a chance to give you any edifying posts until now. This one will only be useful to those of you in/near Chicago, but it's worth it.

Saturday, George and I went to Hot Doug's (The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium) for lunch. It's a sausage/hot dog joint in the middle of industrial/commercial nowhere on the NW side of the city. You drive along these empty streets until you see a place with a line out the door and around the corner. Now I had heard great reviews of their homemade specialty sausages and the Fri/Sat specialty of Duck Fat French Fries, but I had no idea I'd be spending 40 minutes in line waiting for them. It was worth it. We waited in line, mostly with folks who looked like hip Bucktowners getting over their hangovers. We were the only ones with combed hair and un-ironic shirts. We got recommendations from the 20-something bleach-blond guy in skinny jeans in line behind us, and ordered from the list of daily specials. Our favorite was the Saucisse de Toulouse with carmelized onions and brie.

Cooking for One

I recently picked up a book called, "Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone." There's great freedom in cooking for yourself - you have no one to please, you don't have to sit at the table, use a fork or turn on the stove.

When I'm alone I eat one of the following:

• Pasta, with a sauce made from what's in the cupboard or freezer
• Bread and cheese
• A huge pan of roasted asparagus

One time I had some hard boiled eggs on hand, so I spent the entire evening making empanadas to use them up. (I'm sure there's an easier way.)

So, what do you eat/cook when no one else is looking?

Politics, Religion & Theater

Mom and I saw a very interesting play on Sunday, Passion Play by Sarah Ruhl at the Goodman Theater. It presents plays within the play, showing the towns, actors and politics around putting on Passion plays in Elizabethan England, early Nazi Germany and post-Vietnam US.

Elizabeth was anti-Catholic, but mostly just trying to get both politics and religion under her control. In Nazi Germany, Hitler visits the passion play in Ober Ammergau, and congratulates the town for its emphasis in attributing blame for Jesus' death on the Jews rather than the Romans. In post-Vietnam US, the actor playing Pontius Pilate wonders why Pilate doesn't take responsibility, and Ronald Reagan says he, like the play, will bring hope to the country.

How much of politics is theater? How is the theater used for political ends? How is religion used in the discourse of politics, now and through the ages? How does politics influence religion, in a time when pulpits have been used to endorse candidates? Is there a separation between religion and theater in the Passion Play?

What does the most recent famous version, Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson, say about our time? He has been accused of anti-semitism, and indeed his portrayal of Pilate and the Jewish crowd are similar to the one portrayed in Nazi Germany. He emphasizes blood, gore, death and suffering, not resurrection, hope and rebirth.

I'm reading a book review in last weekend's WSJ of The Stillborn God by Mark Lilla. The book explores the history of political theology, noting that Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was the first one to try to separate politics and religion. In the 1960's books were being written predicting the end of religion altogether, but the last quarter of the 20th century to the present has seen religion take a major role in politics in Iran's Revolution, the Christian right in the US, and the Hindu nationalist BJP party in India, to name just a few.

Salade Nicoise

Here is a beautiful blog entry with pictures and recipe for a Salade Nicoise. It really is the perfect meal, combining so many of my favorite things - green beans, tuna, tomatoes, potatoes, and olives. (Admittedly, sometimes I skip the hard-boiled egg.)

George made a confession a while ago, that he had thought for many years that Nicoise was a misspelling of Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus where he grew up. So, he never tried it because, of course, he already knew what a salad from Nicosia would taste like.

Terracotta Warriors in London

For any of you who have not been to China, but might be going to London any time soon, be sure to go to the British Museum, where the largest ever exhibition of the terracotta figures outside of China will be held until April 6.

I visited China in the summer of 2000 with my mother. It included a few days in Xian, where the army was discovered. When the figures are first unearthed, they are quite vividly colored, but the paint quickly fades with exposure to the air. They are leaving some portions of the army unexcavated, in the hopes there will be better technology/methods to preserve that color in the future.

In Tribute to the Late Great...

Pavarotti singing Ave Maria by Schubert. Enjoy!

Slav Clarification, More Dubrovnik & Zagreb

My good friend Ron, who knows much about many things, including Russia, Slavs and European history, left a comment that I'll reproduce here. In my last post, I'd been blathering on about northern and southern Slavs as if I knew something about the subject. (Thank you, Ron, for educating me.)

Russians btw are Eastern Slavs, with the Belorussians and Ukrainians while the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks are Western Slavs.

Here are a few more Dubrovnik pics. Also, here are some pictures of Zagreb, which I'll admit that I knew zero about, but figured it would be very communist looking. We spent just 1/2 a day there, between a flight from Dubrovnik and a train to Ljubljana (of which, more soon.) What I, unfortunately, do not have pictures of are the wonderful fruit & veg market in Zagreb in a central square and the lanes and lanes filled with outside tables of coffee shops.

A view from the walls of Dubrovnik to a fortress protecting the western approach.

A view of Dubrovnik's harbor from the walls.

A famous Zagreb church with (questionable) roof tiles from the 1890s depicting the crest of the city.

The Zagreb cathedral.