Les Intouchables

I have been wanting to watch the multi award-winning French movie, Les Intouchables, since hearing about it from someone in my French class earlier in the year, so I was very excited when I found out recently that this movie was now showing in cinemas - with English subtitles, of course. I went to see it last night with some friends, at the Palace Centro cinemas.

Les Intouchables, which has been directly translated to 'The Intouchables' for the cinema screenings in the US and here in Australia (I don't get why they didn't alter the spelling), is based on the non-fictional memoir by Abdel Sellou, titled 'You changed my life'. It tells of how a Senegalese immigrant (the author is actually Algerian), Driss (Omar Sy), an ex-con who lives off welfare benefits, gets employed as a carer for a wealthy French aristocrat, Philippe Pozzo Di Borgo (Francois Cluzet), who had become a quadriplegic after a paragliding accident. The story follows the time they spend together, the development of their friendship, and basically how their encounter affected each other's lives. It's more comedy than drama, and it views societal stereotypes - physical disabilities, race, socioeconomic status - in a light-hearted manner.

I like feel-good movies, and I really enjoyed this one. It's definitely the best French movie I've seen so far. You will leave the cinemas with a positive vibe, believing that there is a light at the end of every tunnel (but sometimes you just have to really squint... behind a pair of binoculars), and that there is a glimmer of hope still for humankind.

Now to add the book to my reading list!

Say cheese!

This morning, I whipped out from the fridge the two cheese products that I bought from the Good Food and Wine Show, the weekend before last, to try. It is a fact universally acknowledged that all soft cheeses, especially of the crumbly variety, are in want of crusty, fresh bread as their partner (I'm sure Ms Austen would agree). Hence, for this cheese-eating occasion, I bought a French stick from Coles last night, from their seemingly new freshly-baked-on-the-day, sans preservatives/artificial additives line. 

Bread and cheese, anyone?

Pictured on the left is the Pesto Fetta by High Valley Wine and Cheese, a company based in Mudgee, NSW. The only fetta cheese that I normally buy is the Persian Fetta by Southcape; however, this fetta cheese, which, as its name suggests, is marinated in a blend extra virgin olive oil and vegetable oil that is infused with basil, garlic and pepper, is actually quite delicious as well. This is why it pays to be open-minded about food and to try new products!

The other cheese that I bought is a round of 'King River Gold', produced by the Milawa Cheese Company. This washed rind cheese is a soft cow's milk cheese that tastes similar to Brie. For some reason, it tasted more creamy and delicious when I sampled it at the food show than it does at home. Perhaps I should have left it out to rest at room temperature for even longer before serving?

I feel a bit embarrassed to admit that I had the above bread and cheese for breakfast. But at least I didn't pair it with wine, right? ;)

Add some sparkle to your day, the natural way.

As a follow-up to my last post, here is a picture of my blood orange soda-making attempt that is sitting on the table in front of me, as I type. I poured a bit more than one-third of a glass of the juice, then topped it with chilled Perrier sparkling mineral water. The soda water makes the drink taste a bit more sour than the juice alone, because of the carbonic acid. I don't really like this; I guess I didn't expect it to affect the flavour that much. You can still taste the blood orange, but it's just not the same as the commercially available drink. I guess my easy way out was just too easy to work! 

For those of you trying to make your own natural homemade blood orange soda, I would recommend doing it the conventional way (uh, well, as conventional as making your own flavoured soda can be), by making a syrup to mix with the carbonated water. That is to say, boil down the juice with some sugar to form a concentrated blood orange syrup, cool down completely, then add chilled sparkling mineral water to a few spoonfuls of this syrup per glass, adjusting the amount of syrup, according to taste preferences. If you're into the full making-from-scratch thing, you could even carbonate your own water. And no, I do not mean going out to buy a carbon-dioxide cylinder to manually shake up your own, or using yeast and the fermentation process for carbonation. Too much effort; it's not the way I roll, sorry. Domestic carbonation systems are now commercially available virtually everywhere, even at Target and K-mart, with models starting from $100 or even less. These systems use carbon dioxide as well, but you just have to press a button for them to release the desired amount of gas. One of the more widely known brands is called Sodastream (www.sodastream.com). 

I guess the advantages of making your own flavoured soda are that a) you're in control of what goes into your soda; b) you can control the amount of sugar you're consuming; c) you're being environmentally friendly, by reducing material waste; and d) you can have a fizzy drink whenever you feel like it, without having to drive, or walk, out to the supermarket! 

Enough about carbonated drinks, I have to talk about my latest snack obsession - chocolate-coated coffee beans! 

Chiasso Coffee Roasters: Choc-coated coffee beans
http://www.chiassocoffee.com.au/

It all started in the Summer of 2010, when I went to visit the Kauai Coffee Company plantation in Kaua'i, Hawai'i, where I bought a packet of their chocolate-covered peaberries. Prior to that time, I've never really taken an interest in coffee consumption, bar the iced frappacinos at Gloria Jeans Coffee (which I was positively addicted to at one stage - not sure if it was the sugar or the espresso content) and the occasional iced mocha, because I'm more of a tea person. While on the topic of Kauai Coffee, I should mention that all their coffee products are 100% Hawai'ian, and, in fact, all their coffee beans are from their own estate (where I visited). The beans are grown, processed and roasted on site. I remember one of the employees there saying that their coffee is better than Kona coffee, although the latter, which is produced by their sister island, the Big Island, is more popular and famously represents 'Hawai'ian coffee'. Here's their website address, if you're interested in reading more about them: http://store.kauaicoffee.com/kauai-coffee-choc-covered-peaberries-p78.aspx. They do accept internet orders, but, unfortunately for us southern hemisphere-ites, shipping costs as much as the products themselves.

But where was I? Chocolate-covered coffee beans. Recently I've been finding that I like buying them and keeping one in my handbag, for when I'm feeling peckish or in need of a coffee hit. My latest purchase was from the Chiasso Coffee Roasters stand at the Good Food and Wine show, the weekend before last. They are a Brisbane-based coffee company, which sources beans from international locations, but roasts them locally. I had a coffee made by them too, which tasted nice, but left a slight acidic taste on the palate, a bit like the 'Feeling Woolly' blend by Black Sheep Coffee. I can't remember which blend of coffee they used, but they said something about it being the 'House special'. The chocolate-covered coffee beans are quite yummy, but I find that the actual beans in the centre are quite a bit harder than the ones made by other brands, such that if you're not careful, the hard pieces of the bean could scratch almost painfully against your gums when you're chomping on one. Sadly, I have yet to come across a brand of chocolate-covered coffee beans better than the one from Hawai'i.

Natural vitamin C goodness!

I have always loved blood orange juice and blood orange-flavoured carbonated drinks; however, I've never really consumed fresh blood oranges or their juice freshly squeezed. The fruit relies on low night temperatures to develop anthocyanin, the pigment responsible for the deep blood-red hue of the fruit's flesh, which was why I was surprised to see them make an appearance at the West End markets, over the past few weeks. Sure, we've been getting a few bad thunderstorms with heavy rain in recent days, but it is still incredibly hot, at temperatures soaring over 30 degrees C. Definitely not my kind of weather. So anyway, upon setting my eyes on this beautiful citrus fruit, I had to make a purchase. Then again the following week.

Blood oranges tend to be a bit smaller than their standard orange-fleshed cousins; in fact, the ones I bought were only the size of a tennis ball. At such a small size, I found it a bit awkward to cut them into  wedges to eat, because a lot of that lovely juice would be lost in the slicing process, and there would literally be only a single bite of flesh per wedge. So what do I do with a kilo of these, on a hot day like today? Why, juice them of course! This type of orange tends to be less acidic than the average, but can come in both tart and sweet varieties. The ones I bought were, thankfully, of the latter kind, so they were perfect for juicing, without having to worry about blending it with other fruit juices to sweeten it.  

To match the fancy orange, I had to use a fancy orange juicing device (in the sense of both an adjective and noun), aptly named Mandarin, which is made by my favourite designer kitchen/tablewear brand, A di ALESSI. And to match the device to its name, the designer of this cutie, Stefano Giovannoni, constructed it to resemble a Chinese man in ancient era attire. In case consumers do not understand the allusion, he even threw in the stereotypical squinty black eyes for good measure. The juicing cone forms the hat, when flipped upside-down, and the body forms the juice-collecting cup, which doubles as an oversized goblet, which you could either use to serve the juice with (there is a beak for pouring) or to drink from directly. The grooves, which encircle the peak of the cone, allow the hat to rest comfortably over the cup, regardless of which way up it is. Creative, huh?

Like with your standard fruit-squeezer, the juicing cone keeps the seeds and the majority of the pulp from entering the cup. You still have to be careful of the smaller seeds though. Also, if you're planning on squeezing the juice of blood oranges, I would recommend doing it in the sink, like what I ended up having to do. Otherwise, it will end up looking a bit like a kitchen massacre. I was wearing a white work shirt at the time - without an apron - and now it has purple-red speckles over the front. I also wore food prep gloves, as you can see from the picture, because the juice is awfully pigmenting, and you don't want your nails to look like you've been trying to stop a recent nose-bleed.

Rinse your juicing hat - et voila! - you've got a chic-looking juice-serving jug, ready to go. The only thing I don't like about the design, is that the rim of the pouring beak touches the 'hat', which means that you have to take it off before pouring the juice out. This wouldn't be a problem at all, if not for the fact that the juicing cone dips into the cup contents, if you plan to have it even half full, and even if you flip it around, the juice is still going to drip through the straining slits. Besides this, I love this design to bits.

And how gorgeous is the deep crimson colour of the juice? No artificial colours or sweeteners. Did you know that the aforementioned red pigment in the fruit, anthocyanin, is also an antioxidant? Hence, naturally, the blood orange contains more antioxidants than your average orange, which are important for protecting cells from oxidative damage. The vitamin C content (also an antioxidant) should be similar to other oranges, as should the other nutritional qualities, such as fibre. So there we go: unique in colour, sweet in taste, less acidic, and full of health benefits. It's no wonder why this orange is the choice variety grown in Italy now.

I am going to mix this with sparkling mineral water tonight, when I get a hand on a bottle, to try to recreate the delicious Italian carbonated blood orange drinks, like those made by San Pellegrino.

Meanwhile, I just received the Christmas catalogue from the Jo Malone counter at David Jones, in the post. I absolutely love their products. If they weren't so pricey, I would be gifting these products to everyone, to share my love for the brand. After I buy myself all the products I want, of course!

A week in review + Maru Korean BBQ Restaurant

So I ended up taking the DELF A2 test on Tuesday morning. It started at 9.30 and ended roughly at 12 noon, including waiting time between the written and speaking components. Surprisingly, there was only one other person sitting for this level - someone who is actually taking twice-weekly B1 level private lessons at Alliance Francaise. He must have felt so wronged being told by his teacher to take the A2 level, because even I felt it wasn't too much of a challenge. Having said that, I'm sure I made at least 2 errors in the listening part, and some grammatical errors in the written. The speaking part, well, I'm sure I passed it, but definitely not with flying colours. The concepts weren't hard; my French speaking skills are just very weak, as I don't get to practise speaking French at all, outside of my once-weekly French classes. I just hope that my score for this part isn't too low, or I won't really feel that I've achieved the level that this diploma certifies. 

I guess it comes to show that I can't really rely on my French speaking skills to get me around France without a tour guide. I'm sure I would be fine communicating with pen and paper though! Yes, I am planning to go on a holiday to France next year. Very exciting! I have almost a year to plan for it, so hopefully I will be able to come up with a well-planned itinerary, and improve my language skills in the meantime. Everyone else in my class have been to France before, and I suspect this is why their listening and oral expression skills are better than mine. That's the excuse I'm sticking with for cultural immersion anyway. 

On to food-related matters, I tried out a new Korean restaurant yesterday for lunch, called Maru Korean BBQ, which is located along Elizabeth Street in Brisbane City. 

Marinated beef with rice ($13.80)
Maru Korean BBQ Restaurant, 157 Elizabeth St Brisbane CBD

I went there on the recommendation of my sister and her boyfriend. Supposedly the food is better than at Madtongsan, which is where I would normally go for a quick fix of Korean food. I am not a big fan of Korean food, mainly because a lot of dishes tend to be on the spicy side, which seem to disagree with my GI tract; so I'm always keen to look out for fab, non-spicy Korean dishes.

On the whole non-BBQ option menu, there were only two dishes that appealed to me and which weren't spicy: the Korean-style dumplings and the Marinated beef with rice. The waiter couldn't suggest which was the better option, so I ended up choosing the beef option, because it comes with rice and meat. As usual, the dish arrived with a few side platters, which you can see in the picture above. There was the usual kimchi, as well as pickled white onion and some sort of savoury bean cake topped with chilli sauce. I love that there's side dishes, because you have something to nibble on, even if the dish you ordered doesn't turn out to be that great. The main dish I ordered was okay, but not unlike what I can get at other Korean restaurants; however, they give you quite a bit of sliced beef. This is probably good news for those who are big on meat. The dilemma I often encounter when ordering meat dishes is that I am not a big meat eater, but I still like to eat some meat, for a balanced diet. So when they give a large quantity of meat, more than I desire, I feel that I have no choice but to eat at least the majority of it, so as to not waste food. Thus, this factor diminishes my pleasure in eating it, and is why I  usually like eating with other people, whom I could share the food with.

If you eat alone, which I did, and feel a bit bored, you could watch a Korean music program that they show on the TV that they have in each section of the restaurant. Prices were average, food came out in a timely manner, service was good, and the lady at check-out was cheerful and asked politely how the food was. Overall, nothing special, but a nice little place to go to for a quick lunch. I will probably go back to try the Korean dumpling soup, when I next feel like eating Korean food.

Edit: 26/11/12 I went back last night for dinner with a friend, and ordered the ox bone soup with rice noodles and rice, which is also a non-spicy dish. Normally when you order beef anything, there would still be quite a bit of meat in there, but this one only had a few strips of beef. This was fine with me, since, as explained previously, I'm not a bit meat-eater; however, the carnivores out there might be disappointed. It didn't occur to me to take a photo, but the dish looked pretty bland, because there wasn't much else in the bowl of noodles except for the milky-coloured broth. In fact, it tasted a bit bland too. I think they deliberately under-seasoned it though, because they presented the dish with a little dish of sea salt, so that you can adjust the saltiness level yourself. Why they do this with this particular soup and with no other is quite beyond me. I guess it is a good thing for people who have a salt restriction in their diet, or for those who simply prefer a blander flavour.

After seasoning the soup myself, it definitely tasted better, and I quite liked how the soup is different to any other Korean beef soups I've tried before, probably because it actually tasted like they made the broth with real bones, and it was less salty. I recommend taking the soup with spoonfuls of the rice, because it tends to break up the boringness of eating the rice noodles, which, because of the light-flavoured soup base, tasted pretty bland. Overall, I quite enjoyed the dish, as well as the autonomy I was given over the saltiness of my soup. It was also nice to see that they changed the selection of side dishes too. I have yet to try the Korean dumplings, so I will be back.

French immersion through music

So I was watching The X Factor on television tonight, and jumped onto good ol' YouTube to have a listen to one of my favourite songs that one of the contestants happened to sing on the show (Dreams by The Cranberries). Then inspiration struck: since I am to practise French speaking comprehension, but am getting distracted all the time by music and the internet anyway, why not watch French music shows on YouTube to benefit from this inevitable procrastination? Brilliant! - Except that normal-speed conversational French is so much harder to understand than in practice recordings; especially when they contract and merge words together.

Anyway, I came across this beautiful French song by Zazie, which was first released as part of her second studio album, Zen, in 1995. This song is called J'envoie valser, which I believe translates to 'letting go', in English. The melody is hauntingly beautiful, and the choice of instruments wonderfully work together to create music that evokes images of romantic rendez-vouss in old world Paris. The style and instrumentals also remind me of the song, Once upon a December, from the Disney movie, Anastasia. You'll know what I mean when you listen to it. The lyrics are also very pretty and speaks of true, pure love, which requires nothing material to show for it. Regardless of whether or not you agree with the lyrics, it's still lovely to listen to a song so stripped-back that plays on the raw emotions of the listener. The idealism and innocence of the words, which seem so out of place in our modern society (and amidst the very different genres of music that people listen to these days), is still ever-relevant to the little part of us, deep, deep down, shrouded by societal expectations and disappointments in life, that secretly longs for a fairy-tale love story.  

Here is a YouTube clip of the song, along with the lyrics. Enjoy!

J'envoie Valser

par Zazie

 

J'en vois des qui s'donnent, donnent des bijoux

dans le cou

c'est beau mais quand même

ce ne sont que des cailloux

 

des pierres qui vous roulent, roulent

et qui vous coulent

sur les joues

j'aime mieux que tu m'aimes

sans dépenser des sous

 

moi je m'en moque

j'envoie valser

les truc en toc

les cages dorées

toi quand tu m'serres très fort

c'est comme un trésor

et ça

et ça vaut de l'or

 

j'en vois des qui s'lancent des regards

et des fleurs

puis qui s'laissent quelque part

ou ailleurs

entre les roses et les choux

j'en connais des tas qui feraient mieux de s'aimer un peu

un peu comme nous

qui nous aimons beaucoup

 

et d'envoyer

ailleurs

valser

les bagues et les

cœurs

en collier

car quand on s'aime très fort

c'est comme un trésor

et ça

et ça vaut de l'or

 

moi pour toujours

j'envoie valser

les preuves d'amour

en or plaqué

puisque tu m'serres très fort

c'est là mon trésor

c'est toi

toi qui vaut de l'or


 

Book signing: Ian Thorpe - 'This is me'

I've long been a fan of our Australian Mens swimming team; although, admittedly, I was more of a fan at the start of the millennium, when Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett, Michael Klim, and Geoff (Skippy) Huegill were still in the game together. In fact, this group of men was the reason I started watching competitive swimming on TV in the first place (the first sport I ever willingly watched, actually). They are such strong sportsmen and did Australia proud in the FINA swimming championships and the Sydney and Athens Olympic Games. I, along with the rest of the sporting world, was quite sad about Ian Thorpe announcing his early retirement in 2006, so when he decided to make a comeback in time for the London Olympics, I was very excited indeed - swimming had not been really worth watching anymore without him and Pieter Van den Hoogenband.

Okay, so he didn't qualify for the Olympic Games this year; but who cares? He's back in the pool, which hopefully means that, with a bit more training, he'll soon be winning gold for Australia again (no pressure, Thorpey). But in the meantime, he's just released an autobiography, titled, This is me. I only just bought this book yesterday afternoon, so I've only read the first 18 pages of it, and can't give a book review just yet. I do feel like I should have read it before attending his book signing at the Dymocks bookstore in the city today though...





The man himself finally makes an appearance!

The turn-out was underwhelming. I probably shouldn't be saying this, and it might sound a bit selfish, but this is what I love about book signings at Dymocks - other than A4 printouts of instore appearance announcements on the store windows, there is little other promotion for these events, which helps to eliminate long queues on the day. Frankly, I think I'm too old now to arrive at a celebrity signing event 2 hours in advance to line up (yes, that has happened in the past - don't ask). Of course, I realise that most writers do not attract the same type of (crazy) fans as the entertainment industry celebrities do, bar the ones who get a lot of media exposure, like those who appear on popular reality TV shows, like MasterChef, but I did expect that even with low-level promotion, Ian Thorpe, being an Australian Olympic legend with world records and several gold medals under his belt, would somehow attract most of the local sports enthusiasts. Perhaps more people turned up later after I left.

I will be honest: he didn't look like he wanted to be there. It reminded me of the time when Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris (judges in the Australian MasterChef series) came to do a book signing at the Angus and Robertson bookstore in the city, to promote their joint cookbook, Your Place or Mine?. While Gary was cheerful and lovely as always, George was quiet, unsmiling, and unhappy-looking. The Thorpedo looked at me as though surprised, unbelieving, maybe a bit amused too, when I said that it was so good to finally get to meet him (like a, "Why would it be?" look). In an attempt to make conversation while he was signing my book, I said what I sincerely meant: that I was so glad to hear that he was swimming again. Again, I received an unexpected response: he looked up at me with an unreadable expression - was it scepticism? Annoyance? It was almost as though I had said something that was somehow offensive to him. I knew he was unhappy about my comment anyway, because he didn't say anything in reply, and just looked down again to finish scribbling down his autograph.

Did I miss something? Did he already decide to give up on swimming again, perhaps? I have got to read that book!

All smiles for the photo

......But at least he smiled for the photo! Or I would have been so sad, since the whole experience was not exactly how I pictured it would turn out :(

Kinder Bueno - "Le plaisir pour les petites faims"

Recently, I had to write a few paragraphs for French class outlining the differences between Australian and French advertisements. Being both a chocolate and tennis fan, I couldn't get past the second intallment of the French Kinder Bueno television advertisement, featuring French tennis great, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and French actress, Laetitia Fourcade. You can check it out in the YouTube vid below:

Notice how there's a message displayed across the screen throughout the whole ad? It translates to, "For your health, do regular physical activity". The web address that is included at the end links to the website of Manger Bouger ('eat, move'), a national nutritional health program. Interestingly, this is because French law requires that all television and radio ads for food products must have accompanying messages about the benefits of balanced diets, or, judging by this ad, I suppose on the importance of exercise for good health.

On the other hand, I think Australian food advertising regulations only specify that advertisements are not allowed to give false nutritional information (which shouldn't need to be said anyway), and must be able to substantiate general health claims or have pre-approval by FSANZ (Food Standards Aus and NZ) for more specific nutritional/health benefit claims. I don't know if this is also the case for French regulations, but how good would it be if these two systems were merged? Physical activity, eating from all food groups, and moderating intake of alcohol and foods high in saturated fat and sugar might sound like the obvious thing to do for most people, but, believe you me, there are people out there who just don't get it, and who believe what they see and hear on TV or the radio more than what health professionals tell them.

But, where was I going with this? Ah, yes: the chocolate in question.

I had to watch the ad several times, pausing and replaying, to try to catch all the words for my transcript. You have no idea how much it made me crave for a delicious stick of Bueno, which has long been a favourite chocolate bar of mine. Admittedly, the ad itself is not that great - a bit annoying actually, if you have to watch it over and over - but, for me, the chocolate pretty much sells itself, and it helps, too, that Tsonga displays such cute and animated expressions, which you don't normally see when he's playing on court.

I don't believe there is anyone who hasn't had this chocolate bar before, but for those who haven't, this is a chocolate product by Italian confectionary company, Ferrero. It's a stick of milk chocolate-covered crunchy wafer, encasing a creamy hazelnut filling - delicious! Ferrero also makes a similar, and equally tasty, product called Kinder Happy Hippo, which is smaller, shaped like a hippopotamus, and its bottom is dipped in crunchy bits of what tastes like rice crispies. However, this product is not as readily available in supermarkets; I've only ever seen them at the counters of big warehouse pharmacies (oh, the irony).     

Having said all that, I don't think I need to explain what I bought as part of my post-dance class snack shopping last night....

Post-dance and study snacks (*ahem* very healthy choices, as you can see)

YUM. Need I say more?