New Yorker in London

The End, Abruptly

2009-07-08T09:29:00.002+01:00

It’s time for this blog to die. In the next few weeks, I’ll be packing up as my husband and I prepare for an unexpected move back to New York. (New job, nothing bad.) And although I’m sad to be leaving London, I am also happy to be returning. A few things I’ll miss: the smell of Cornish pasties in the subway, the architecture lit up along the river at night, tiny green parks that pop up where you least expect them, the vast array of Indian ingredients available at regular grocery stores, and heated towel racks.

This will be my last blog post here, but if you’re interested, head over to snyppet to see what I’ve got planned next.

And thanks for reading.

Random Atmospheric Photo

2009-07-07T09:25:00.003+01:00

Flower box on St. Thomas Street, outside of London Bridge Station. London Bridge itself is having an anniversary this Saturday with a “fayre” featuring “activities and entertainment designed to give a flavour of life at the time of the Bridge’s opening 800 years ago.”

Neighborhood Find: Del’Aziz

2009-07-06T09:19:00.003+01:00

As they say on their website, Del’Aziz is “a delicatessen, bakery, brasserie and gift shop offering an array of products, from freshly baked breads to pastries, olive oil and vinegars, chocolate and confectionary,” and the list goes on. It’s also a restaurant, where you can have a full meal or just a snack (that’s my carrot cake below, which was unorthodox—no cream cheese frosting and not many carrots—but tasty, shown with a gigantic cappuccino and a small one).

And the sign out front promises cocktails and belly dancing. So this is, needless to say, a welcome addition to what was once our up-and-coming neighborhood of Bermondsey but is now pretty well established as a rather fashionable place (or so it seems to me). I also bought a bag of taralli (to which I am addicted) and was tempted to buy some fruit preserves and jasmine tea pearls. But there’s plenty of time for that, I figure. Because I plan to make this a regular stop in the neighborhood.

A Time for Humor

2009-07-03T09:32:00.005+01:00

I’ve seen these Mr Jones watches only online, but I love the way they display (in addition to the time) a distinctly British sense of humor. I especially like the Accurate model and the Mantra.
And here are some thoughts from Ricky Gervais about the differences between American (optimistic) and British (pessimistic) humor. And here’s what Simon Pegg thinks about how irony works in the two countries.
Whatever it is, British humor (humour) is one of the best things about living in the UK.

Random London Photo

2009-07-02T09:28:00.006+01:00

A display of minimal kids’ building blocks yesterday in the Muji store on Tottenham Court Road. (And I noticed their porcelain incense holder in the shape of Battersea Power Station is now on sale. It makes me smile every time to think of tiny wisps of smoke coming out of those tiny chimneys. Get it while it’s hot and while you're here: the power station doesn’t appear to be available in the US store.)

Restaurant Recommendation: The Park Terrace

2009-07-01T09:23:00.007+01:00

Take advantage of London’s first-ever official heat wave and head over to the casual (but elegant) Park Terrace restaurant on the ground floor of the Mandarin Oriental. Outdoors and enclosed by green hedges and with a view of the trees across the street in Hyde Park, this small patio restaurant offers up a small menu of tasty items, such as poached salmon, Thai green curry, or a platter of beef carpaccio (friends who ate this said it was great). It did look nice. I, however, started with a selection of sashimi sprinkled with jalapenos before moving on to a slab of miso-marinated black cod.

Both of my dishes were good, but were they as eye-openingly good as the original preparations, which, I think, come from Nobu in New York? No. I did, however, sample a lovely summery British wine that I’d never had before: the Chapel Downs Bacchus, made in Kent. Give it a go. Perfect for a night outside in the heat.

(There are also these summertime cocktails from restaurants in New York that sound pretty good. Coconut martini: yes!)

See more reviews at

City Map Gift Wrap

2009-06-30T09:18:00.004+01:00

Take a look at this stash of wrapping paper printed with vintage maps of London, New York, Paris, and a scattering of other cities. There must be a ton of things you could do with this paper (such as create a travel journal—or wrap a gift, maybe).

And if you’re really handy with paper manipulation, check out these instructions (from pop-up master Robert Sabuda) for constructing your own pop-up cards. I love the reindeer head for Christmas.

Mini Guide to Bruges

2009-06-29T09:09:00.005+01:00

Stay at the Kempinski Hotel Dukes' Palace, which is a modern and luxurious hotel in a converted and restored small palace and centrally located (but everything is centrally located in this tiny tourist town).

Eat at The Chocolate Line. This is just a chocolate store, but the variety and flavors are supposedly the best around. (Our hotel concierge confirmed it.) The basil, tomato, and olive truffles taste like mozzarella salad. The wasabi ones are green and tingling. The lemongrass is addictive.

Visit Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child at the Church of Our Lady. A rare example of Michelangelo’s work that exists outside of Italy, I read on the information card. It was lovely. The freaky Basilica of the Holy Blood was more interesting, architecturally.

Overall, I found Bruges a little too cutesy and tourist tacky. The architecture is charming but repetitive. Not a lot of cutting-edge Belgian design or interesting artwork going on here (though I desperately tried to find this artist’s studio, after reading about it in my Time Out guide, but couldn’t locate it). A friend told us, before we went, to go to Ghent instead—but we didn’t.

Blog on a Break

2009-06-25T06:43:00.001+01:00

On the train to Bruges. (One of the many reasons why poets take trains: “poets are notoriously bad drivers.”) Back next week.

Thinking about Shopping

2009-06-24T09:37:00.004+01:00

It’s time for the summer sales in London. But I have to say I’m not that excited by the prospect of everyone descending on stores at once and scrambling for bargains. I prefer the American way: the casual (and constant) browsing of the clearance racks and the daily shopping that can occur, at a moment’s notice, by popping in to your favorite place just to see what’s on sale. (While being aware, of course, of the hazards of overconsumption and the problems of sustainability.)
The last time I went into Banana Republic here on Regent Street, I felt oddly dissatisfied because there was no discounted section at the back with last month’s merchandise. Everything was full price. I bought nothing. (Living in the UK has made me much less of a consumer. Maybe the US should try this method? But decreasing consumption is probably not what the retailers have in mind, in either country.)
And I noticed while on Regent Street that Anthropologie will be opening up nearby, in the fall. Maybe I'll visit when the winter sales start.

Signs of the Times

2009-06-23T09:23:00.002+01:00

One of my favorite UK stores, Pedlar’s, now has in stock some vintage “notices from New York”: signs that say “closed for lunch” and “no checks cashed” and the like. They’re all pretty plain and call out for an ironic, ornate frame. But I could see one in a kitchen or a home office: maybe “no gambling allowed.”

If You Have Five Free Minutes in Wapping

2009-06-22T09:29:00.002+01:00

Worth a look if you’re in the neighborhood is the small exhibit of previously unseen Guy Bourdin fashion photos at the Wapping Project, where you can also eat dinner (I love the industrial atmosphere here, and the food is generally good, if inconsistent). The exhibit is getting some international attention, and the large-format photos are sometimes glamorous, sometimes enigmatic. Beautiful shoes and some nudity appear throughout.
The Bourdin show is on until July 4 (and it’s free). Also worth a look is the tucked-away rooftop lily pond with views of surrounding buildings and a lime-green panel unexpectedly inscribed with a Tennyson poem.

A Look at Canary Wharf

2009-06-19T09:22:00.006+01:00

Part of the BBC’s How We Built Britain series, this video does a nice job of capturing the “arrogant buildings” in the “mini Manhattan” of Canary Wharf (before the video veers off course and goes into the suburbs).

I’ve always liked the architecture of Canary Wharf, though it’s not as grand or as towering as that in New York. And it lacks the grit at ground level and that combination of struggle with soaringness that makes New York so appealing. Canary Wharf, really, is just buildings.

Website of the Week: Un Jour a Paris

2009-06-18T09:33:00.003+01:00

I have fallen in love with Un Jour a Paris, a blog that showcases moody, beautiful, off-kilter shots of daily life in Paris. (I first read about it in this post over at Inside Out, which is worth a click because they have a great interview with the photographer/blogger. Inside Out also has this interesting interview with the author of Paris: Made by Hand, which I haven’t read yet, though it’s on my wishlist.)

And Paris, by the way, was just voted the Number 1 city “brand,” with London coming in at Number 3 and New York at Number 5. But none of them appear in the top 10 on this 2009 list of the best cities to live in. But Dusseldorf? Really?

Midweek Summer Recipe

2009-06-17T09:29:00.003+01:00

I love the restaurant Moro. I love this Moro cookbook (and they have more). And I love this Moro recipe for pea soup. Perfect for a summer evening—even in London, where I still have to wear my sweater when dining al fresco.

And all the ingredients are easy to find, which is nice. Because I recently failed to locate a couple of food items that I never expected would be so elusive: yellow summer squash (for a squash soufflé) and hard peppermint candy (just because I had a craving). Probably both of these things go by another name here.

More Maps (Literary This Time)

2009-06-16T09:43:00.002+01:00

Take a look at this fantastic literary map of New York, in which fictional events are pinpointed on the grid (with excerpts). Here’s the story behind the map (and information about how you can contribute to it).

And here’s a different sort of literary map for London (and some suggestions for a long literary weekend, which seems to require a lot of walking and drinking, but not too much reading).

A Quick Glance at Some Subway Maps

2009-06-15T09:23:00.003+01:00

Here’s an unusual way to look at the world’s subway maps: as line drawings that also function as Rorschach tests.

And here’s another way to look at the London one: subway map as mirror. (Wouldn’t that be distracting? What if your mind starts wandering up the Northern line to Chalk Farm and Burnt Oak and wondering what could be out there?)

And then there are these card-sized stainless steel maps of subways (London, New York, and Paris) to keep in your wallet. But I have to tell you, I’ve looked at these up close and they’re hard to read (it’s nice when all the lines are color-coded). Even so, these would be handy to have around and certainly better than nothing if you find yourself, unexpectedly, in one of these cities and, for some reason, without a regular map, an iPhone app, or a cab.

Random Atmospheric Photo

2009-06-12T09:23:00.002+01:00

This is 10 Trinity Square (with a bit of bus).

A Taste of the States

2009-06-11T09:30:00.005+01:00

For the next four weeks, McDonald’s in the UK is offering “great tastes of America: four weeks, four states, four burgers.” First up, the New York Special, which will contain “100% beef patty, streaky bacon, two slices of smoked cheese, crisp lettuce, onions and onion mayo all in a chilli, chive and sesame bun.” I, for one, have no idea why that’s considered a New York burger. Anyone? To accompany its burger description, McDonald’s also lists three must-see sights in New York (city, by the way, not the state): the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, and the Empire State Building.
      I’ve never been to the Statue of Liberty and feel no need to go there, having ridden past it on a boat, which is surely the best way to see it. So what three NYC experiences would I recommend to people? Here’s one small slice of the city: a walk down Bleecker Street, starting at Abingdon Square and heading south into SoHo and down West Broadway into Tribeca; shopping (probably only window shopping) at moss instead of going to a museum; and then the Empire State Building.
      And for London: a ride on the Eye, a visit to the British Museum, and a walk around Borough Market. (Fourth thing: Eurostar to Paris.)
      What do you think? Your top three picks for either place?

Daily Life Typography

2009-06-10T09:23:00.003+01:00

In the new book Design Your Life (which is a collection of short essays about design in everyday life rather than a how-to guide), I read that Gill Sans is “Britain’s most popular sans serif typeface” and “is known as the Helvetica of the U.K.” Maybe it needs its own movie. In the meantime, this lovely little video (in French) will have to do.

And I have no idea what typefaces are involved in this chest of drawers or this floor lamp (select Camus Floor Lamp to see what I'm talking about), but I can’t stop looking at them, imagining what life would be like with them, reading into them.

Fragment of the Shard

2009-06-09T09:20:00.001+01:00

As production proceeds on the Shard at London Bridge, new fencing with glamorous pictures of the future development has gone up around the site, and yesterday I noticed that one section of the wall is featuring “your pictures” of the Southwark area. What a great idea. Much better than those drab fences that say “post no bills.”

Restaurant Recommendation: Bodean’s

2009-06-08T09:21:00.006+01:00

As a southerner transplanted to NYC, I always struggled to find good barbecue there (I think I liked Daisy May’s the best), and I never expected to find anything remotely resembling southern barbecue in London. But then, flipping through my London Zagat Guide, I discovered Bodean’s, which is a chain of “American” restaurants serving BBQ and ribs. I looked at the menu online and was intrigued by their offer of a pulled pork sandwich and the mention of a Carolina BBQ sauce (I am from South Carolina, and this combo was a staple food of my childhood). The Zagat’s Guide gives Bodean’s a food rating of 18, which isn’t that exciting (and going there would violate my personal code of never eating at a new place found in Zagat’s with a rating lower than 20). But sometimes you have to take a chance, no? The Zagat, as always, was accurate: I would give Bodean’s an 18 as well.
Here’s the deal: my pulled pork sandwich was excellent, with tender, well-seasoned, smoky meat and a soft bun (I had been fearing a hard, crusty roll), and the “Carolina” sauce—which was not a South Carolina sauce—was vinegary and tasty, but red (I had been craving the mustard-based one). Here’s what the sauce looked like:

Here’s what I grew up with:

My sandwich came with coleslaw (fine but a little watery and I like a finer chop) and onion rings (awful, tasteless, soggy). Dan had ribs that were great, but his sides, too, were disappointing: same coleslaw, uninspiring French Fries (but it was so nice to see them called French Fries rather than chips, for a change). The menu had other southern sides that I’ll have to try next time: creamed corn, mac and cheese, cornbread. And there are tasty sauces other than the Carolina one to pour on your meat: a regular, red, Texas-y kind of a sauce and a chipotle version.

We went to the Tower Hill location early on a Friday night, and there was plenty of room in the basement dining room, which had dim lights and fake red leather banquettes. A bit of a bordello vibe. There’s a takeaway counter and a “deli”—which seems to mean tables where you can eat your takeout—upstairs. I’m thinking they must get a lot of tourists over from the Tower for lunchtime.
But if you’re a tourist, why would you pick barbecue in London? If you live here, however, this is a great place to know about if you need a barbecue fix. Just don’t get too excited about all the trimmings.

See more reviews at

City Quilts

2009-06-05T09:26:00.004+01:00

You might be thinking you’re not really a quilt kind of person, but take a look at these urban quilts by Amy Ahlstrom. (I first read about her work at this Apartment Therapy post.) Incorporating the iconography of New York (I love the one with the ICON parking sign) and other places, these pieces are, to my mind, mind-blowing. (According to her website, quilts featuring London imagery are “in the works.” I can’t wait.)
If this has made you rethink quilting, you might also want to check out the magazine Quilting Arts for further inspiration. I read this whenever I’m at my mother’s house (another amazing quilter), and I’m always inspired by something in it, even though I know nothing about quilting and its associated arts. (But creative sparks can cross disciplines.) I also like Selvedge for all sorts of textile discussions. The current issue is their literary issue, which covers such topics as “how Tracy Chevalier spins a yarn” and how “textile terms are woven into everyday language.” Maybe you can weave it into your weekend.

Seen in the Tube Station (Bond Street)

2009-06-04T09:25:00.004+01:00

I admit I haven’t been to Pennsylvania in a while, so I have no idea what’s going on there. But this ad doesn’t make me want to jump on a transatlantic flight.

Funny Finds

2009-06-03T09:24:00.003+01:00

I was searching for birthday cards at the Design Museum shop earlier this week (they have some quirky ones) and ran into a few other things that caught my eye and made me laugh:

the pessimist’s pencil,

the tea towel that looks like a piece of notebook paper,

and the “wake me up at” Tube stop stickers (I like the one that says, “Wake me up at anywhere but Brixton”). Though, really, I don’t see a lot of people sleeping on the subway here. Not the sprawled-out, I’m-here-for-the-long-haul kind of sleeping you see in NYC. (The seats here, with arms, are not conducive to it.) But the stickers are still funny.

Obelisk in the City

2009-06-02T09:08:00.006+01:00

While reading an article in the New Yorker about Greek poet Cavafy, I discovered that a pair of obelisks called Cleopatra’s Needles were taken from Alexandria in the 19th century and installed across the world: one on Victoria Embankment, here in London, and one in Central Park, in New York. The one here is flanked by a couple of sphinxes, which I had always wondered about as we drove past. Here's my shot from the moving car:

The obelisks were constructed around 1460 BC and make even the usual ancient London architecture feel recent. If you're interested, read about how the one on the Embankment traveled to London. Or read about the obelisk in New York.
And if you care about Cavafy, try this biography or a more academic study called Merrill, Cavafy, Poems, and Dreams, which explores the influences of Greek poetry on a variety of poets, including James Merrill.

I Love NY but London Kills Me

2009-06-01T09:16:00.003+01:00

Check out this print of a mixed-media collage containing an iconic NYC plastic bag (discovered on the Oh Joy blog, which also has some more info about the artist, Kat MacLeod, here).

And what about this throw pillow (what the Brits call a cushion) from London Kills Me. Love the combination of the calligraphy, the sentiment, and the sedate little silk pillow: so British.

Henges Here and There

2009-05-29T09:26:00.003+01:00

Don’t forgot to take advantage of Manhattanhenge, happening tomorrow, if you’re in New York. (This is when the sun lines up with the city’s grid.)
And if you want to investigate the cityscape from another angle, take a look at Manhattan Timeformations, where “interactive animations” are used to “depict the dynamic relationship between Manhattan’s skyscrapers and other layers of urban information” (via Flavorpill).

Meanwhile, here in the UK, the real Stonehenge has just been voted the Number 1 attraction of Britain’s “seven wonders” (who knew we had seven).
Summer solstice at Stonehenge happens on June 20 this year (and will surely be a bit of a scene).

Product Recommendation: City-Lit London

2009-05-28T09:19:00.003+01:00

In A Writer’s World, Jan Morris noted how, upon flying into Heathrow,

one by one landmarks appear that are part of the whole world’s consciousness, images familiar to every one of us, reflecting the experience of half mankind.
It is the city of cities that we have flown over. Like it or loathe it, it is the daddy of them all. If New York is ethnically more interesting, Moscow or Peking ideologically more compelling, Paris or Rome more obviously beautiful, still as a historical phenomenon, London beats them all.

This is from the first selection in a new anthology of writing about London in the city-lit series from Oxygen Books. The London volume mixes fiction and non, old writers (Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf) and new (Julian Barnes, Will Self), and accounts from both residents and visitors to create a collage-like portrait of London life. Most of the pieces are pretty short, and although they are organized into topical chapters (transportation, the East End), you can also just dip in and read a bit whenever the mood strikes. This is the kind of thing I like to pack before traveling to a new city—or once I’m established somewhere and need a reminder of how much I still don’t know about it.
The city-lit series is new, with only a couple of guides out so far, but more are on the way (Berlin, Amsterdam), and it looks like the New York volume is scheduled for next year. I think these are going to be a nice supplement to my other favorite travel guides.

Postcards from Wales (and Places to Stop)

2009-05-27T09:25:00.011+01:00

Even when the literary Hay Festival isn’t happening, secondhand bookshops fill the town of Hay-on-Wye—worth a stop if you’re in this part of Wales.
And then, after a day of browsing, you can relax at The Drawing Room, a “restaurant with rooms” about thirty minutes out of town. This is a lovely three-room inn with friendly proprietors who oversee every detail and prepare breakfasts and dinners using local ingredients. (I first read about it in this Travel and Leisure article about country inns in Wales.) Here’s what breakfast looked like:

A couple of hours north (and a world away) is the bizarre Italianate fantasy village of Portmeirion, on the coast of Snowdonia—also worth a visit, but I wouldn't go out of my way for it. The place is all façade and no content (the buildings house gift shops and snack bars, for the most part), but the architectural fragments are nice to photograph and it’s a pleasant enough place to stroll around. There’s a hotel on the grounds, and the setting on the estuary (especially at low tide) is magnificent. It’s a nice change of pace from all the grey stone towns and sheep farms in the rest of Wales.

To see the grey stone architecture, green hills, and sheep, take a hike through the Elan Valley. (See a list of more great British walks/hikes here.)

Finally, not in Wales, but right over the border in England, is the Small Breeds Farm Park and Owl Centre. I went for the small breeds but stayed for the owls, which are amazing in their variety. Baby owls are born on the farm every few days, apparently, so you can see them at all stages. You can also, unexpectedly, stroke several specimens.

Website of the Week: Seen Reading

2009-05-22T09:31:00.003+01:00

Over at the “literary voyeurism blog” Seen Reading, writer Julie Wilson spots people reading “in the wild” and then documents the occasion. As always, be careful what you read in public.

And I, for one, am hoping to grab some new (used) books over the long weekend at the Hay Festival in Wales, which runs until the end of May. You can browse the program and buy tickets here. And here’s a list of the secondhand bookshops in town. (You can also just stay home and watch it on TV.)

Have a nice long weekend.

Restaurant Recommendation: Patara

2009-05-21T09:29:00.006+01:00

I feel that London has a good array of dependable, beautiful Thai restaurants (I’m always happy to go to Busaba Eathai and Isarn, for example)—unlike New York, where it was always a struggle. And now I’ve added Patara to my list of go-to places for “fine Thai cuisine.” This is a chain of sleek places, and the one on Greek Street was packed with sleek people, among the white orchids and red candles, at 10 o'clock on Saturday night. (Upstairs is nicer, dimmer, and more romantic than downstairs.) They serve what I call contemporary takes on traditional Thai food (and with a British vibe: there was lots of New Zealand lamb on the menu, as well as a wild boar curry, and some sort of osso bucco curry—none of which I tried). What I did have was tasty and nicely flavored: green mango salad with soft-shell crab (crispy and not greasy, for which I was grateful),

spicy sliced duck with crispy basil, with some sautéed green-skinned eggplant on the side,

and some prawns and betelnut leaves (who knew you could eat these?) in a thick, sweet yellow curry that we scooped up into our plates before I had time to take a picture of it. My only complaint is that the sticky rice was a little dried out. But I was able to work around that.

See more reviews at

Twitter Haiku

2009-05-20T09:21:00.002+01:00

Do you Twitter? (I just can’t get into it.) Do you write haiku? (Here’s a great guide for how to do it.) Do you commute through King’s Cross station? If so, then check out this Londonist post that describes how you can enter a Twitter haiku contest that will have fellow Londoners reading your work this week—for a few minutes, at least.

And here’s another interesting use of Twitter to deliver literature: Félix Fénéon’s Novels in Three Lines are being transmitted through Twitter. Nice idea, but what if you’ve already read the book? (See my mini review of it over at goodreads.)

Restaurant Recommendation: L’Anima

2009-05-19T09:21:00.004+01:00

Lured by the promise of “the finest of contemporary Italian cuisine” (and by Food Snob’s review from last year), I had high expectations upon entering the glass-walled (yet intimate) space of L’Anima. With its white leather chairs and white roses in square vases on tables, this place felt like a New York restaurant to me, though not any one in particular.
      And so I was relieved when the bread arrived and it was good (focaccia, which has been verging on stale everywhere I’ve had it lately in London). Here, it was warm, soft, and salty. And with a dish of olive oil and a bottle of Barbaresco, I didn’t really need anything more all night. (The restaurant had an extensive, expensive wine list—mostly Italian bottles—and included some surprises, such as a bottle from this small producer who also runs an agriturismo that we stayed at recently in Tuscany.)
      But I persevered past the bread and wine and moved on to fried zucchini (courgette) blossoms stuffed with baccalà mousse: delicate, crisp, and delicious, but then I always love a bit of baccalà. (Dan had a satisfying plate of burrata with roasted aubergine, also wonderful: really, how could you go wrong with this?)
      You can then choose a small pasta course before moving on to your main, if you like, or just have a larger serving of pasta and be done with it—since we are in the UK and eating pasta for dinner is perfectly acceptable here. It’s hard for me to resist pasta for dinner, so I ordered the taglierini with chili and crab, which was luscious, though I could have used more of both the chili and crab, and I have to admit that it did make me long for that superior pasta concoction with crab and sea urchin at Esca, but what can you do. (Well, you can make it at home; the recipe is in this cookbook: The Young Man and the Sea: Recipes and Crispy Fish Tales from Esca.)
      Dan had a vitello tonnato that was, he says, “very nice, well-balanced, and restrained.” But “not revolutionary,” and he compared his meal to the food at Craft, where each dish is perfectly turned out without being overwhelmed by sauces and other extravagances. A side dish of sautéed peppers and potatoes was “very, very nice,” he added.
      By the time we got to gianduja cake, I can’t remember much except that it was unexpectedly light and I’m pretty sure it was good. That is, we ate all of it.

See more reviews at

Last-Minute Theater Alert: Madame de Sade

2009-05-18T09:23:00.004+01:00

You may still be able to grab a ticket (it’s always worth a call to the box office on the day of a show) to see the Donmar’s Madame de Sade (written by Mishima and beautifully translated, in my opinion, from the Japanese by Donald Keene), which runs until May 23. There were a few empty seats (but not many) on Saturday night—maybe because most of the critics hated this show. But I loved it and especially appreciated how a Japanese sensibility (and Mishima’s particular obsessions) added an odd, stylized quality to this story about aesthetics and philosophy.
Set in Paris around the time of the French Revolution, the show is also about the struggles among the Marquis (who never appears on stage), his wife, his mother-in-law, his sister-in-law, and two neighbors as they all try to understand his behavior and as they struggle to define their own lives. The costumes and set are sumptuous. Mishima’s preoccupations—transgression, ritualistic behavior, blood, death, transcendence—color everything, and by the end of the show, the characters are all wearing silver clothes and white hair. The cast was excellent, although the characters they played were mouthpieces instead of fully realized people—which I’m sure is how Mishima intended it. And there is no action, only talk—or, rather, words.

Words are a medium that reduces reality to abstraction for transmission to our reason, and in their power to corrode reality inevitably lurks the danger that the words will be corroded too.

—Sun and Steel (Mishima)

And here’s something interesting: the theater has produced a study guide to download before seeing the show (meant for students and teachers but pretty informative, generally, about Mishima and the Marquis de Sade.) And if you care to read more about either man, I can recommend Francine du Plessix Gray’s biography, At Home with the Marquis de Sade, John Nathan’s Mishima: A Biography, and Mishima’s own Confessions of a Mask (as well as his many other books).

Neighborhood Find: Blue Plaque for Keats

2009-05-15T09:25:00.004+01:00

I didn’t just discover this blue plaque; it was one of the first things I saw when we moved into Bermondsey two years ago. (The plaque is located on St. Thomas Street, near the intersection with Borough High Street, if you’re looking for it.) But as I was walking around here recently, coming home after a visit to the bookstore, where I had been flipping through a copy of Posthumous Keats: A Personal Biography (and am now waiting for the paperback), I stopped for a moment. To look at this bright blue sign you can see all the way down the street for the poet who thought his epitaph should read (and it does), “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” My second thought was “and apothecary”: every poet needs another occupation.

You can read the first chapter of Posthumous Keats here, by the way. And poems by Keats here.

A Taste of Marmite

2009-05-14T09:32:00.005+01:00

I recently sampled some Marmite (on crackers) and thought it was all right. I neither loved it nor hated it, despite the fact that most people seem to feel pretty strongly about it. (Check out this ad that runs on TV here, featuring a pigeon who spits the stuff out.) So when I saw these new Marmite-coated cashews, I had to give them a try. And they’re really good. Kind of addictive, actually. (You can skip the Marmite-coated rice cakes, however, which I also sampled, because those are a dry, dusty mess. What were they thinking?)
And if you do happen to be a Marmite lover, take a look at the shop of nicely designed stuff over at the Marmite website: I really like this swish T-shirt and these funky egg cups (I would use them to hold junk rather than eggs) and this colorful artwork for your kitchen. If you're an expat living in New York, wouldn't this make you feel at home?

And I know you can get Marmite at Myers of Keswick in New York, because I’ve bought it there in the past for an Australian friend in need (who then complained about it because what he really wanted was Vegemite). But I don’t know about the Marmite cashews. You might have to wait for a trip to England for that.

Keeping On

2009-05-13T09:19:00.002+01:00

You know how the Keep Calm and Carry On posters have been everywhere in the last couple of years and people are now sick of them? (Read the comments on this blog post if you don’t believe me.) Well, I just received an email from the people at that wonderful store called Pedlars to announce that they have reworked the slogan to something more appropriate for our era: Now Panic and Freak Out.
Even better, however, is this poster telling us to Get Excited and Make Things by Matt Jones.
(And I still covet this metallic gold version of the original idea.)

An Encounter with the Espresso Book Machine

2009-05-12T09:29:00.006+01:00

Alerted by my friend Tom to the presence of the Espresso Book Machine at Blackwell's bookshop on Charing Cross Road, I rushed out to it this past weekend to give it a go. I’ve been hearing about the Espresso machine for a while now, and was eager to befriend this thing that would print and bind books for me while I wait. The store offers two prices: about £8 for shorter books and £15 for larger books (the page limit is about 800, I was told). The machine doesn’t otherwise distinguish among titles, as the used books market does. And it doesn’t, of course, print off books that you can buy, for more money, elsewhere in the bookstore. So I went in armed with a list of out-of-print books that I’ve been wanting but are a little expensive on the used-books market, at the moment. Unfortunately, the Espresso failed me—because the books it currently prints have to be both out of print AND out of copyright. (Try thinking of a book that meets both of these criteria, one that you’d like to buy on the spot, one that you can’t already access online for free. I couldn’t do it, and so the book machine had nothing to spew out for me.) The staff says that arrangements with publishers will soon allow out-of-print books still under copyright also to be printed in store. In the meantime, you can check out what’s available for immediate printing at this site.

I looked at a few copies of books that had been created by the Espresso Book Machine, and they were fine, but not great. The interiors were nice and clean and looked like regular paperback book pages, but the color covers were not as sharp and expertly trimmed as “real” books. You would buy an Espresso book, I think, if you needed the text and didn’t care about its package, if it was something you couldn’t access online for yourself, and if it was a book you couldn’t find used for a few pounds (or dollars).
The staff at Blackwell’s was very friendly and helpful with my whole aborted process, however, and even took the name of an out-of-print (expensive) book I’ve been wanting for years and promised to call me when it becomes available on the Espresso. Which, when it happens, will be wonderful.

(Over in New York, I thought there was an Espresso Book Machine at the New York Public Library’s Science and Technology branch, but their website doesn’t say anything about it.)

Website of the Week: Platina

2009-05-11T09:28:00.002+01:00

I discovered the website of contemporary jewelry gallery Platina in Stockholm after attending a talk by one of the gallery owners and designers, Sofia Björkman, last week at the Fashion and Textile Museum. Take a look at their innovative wedding ring designs (as well as their regular ring designs).
The talk at the museum was in conjunction with the current exhibit about Swedish Fashion (on until May 17), which includes a small section showcasing art jewelry. Björkman had some interesting things to say about jewelry and art and how they converge and why people wear jewelry and what they hope to communicate with it. She called jewelry “thumbnails of life’s content” and said that “jewelry tells us who we are and who we want to be.” She also asked the audience to write down our answers to this question: “What is jewelry?”
What do you think? (Here’s what I said: “Jewelry is a poem that can’t be paraphrased.” What I meant, I think, was that jewelry should be its own thing, self-contained. For me, jewelry should be understandable—and ornamental—at first glance though it doesn’t have to be entirely conventional and reveal everything at once. There is room for surprise and contradiction and storytelling.) Do you even wear jewelry? Interesting to think about why—or why not. What are you trying to say?

Neighborhood Find: Blue

2009-05-08T09:26:00.011+01:00

Last week I was browsing around Flickr and discovered that another tenant in our building had posted thousands of pictures (8,000) of things in our neighborhood, of signs and buildings, of water mains being replaced, of sidewalks and stores, of cars sitting in our garage, of all sorts of things that I never thought to look at twice. It was eye-opening. For a couple of days after discovering this trove, I wandered around looking at everything as pieces of a larger composition. Each detail became interesting (I am already inclined to value fragments over the whole anyway), and I noticed that a lot of blue gets used in our neighborhood—for signs and architectural trim, for garbage cans (rubbish bins) and advertisements—and inspired by my neighbor on Flickr, I took some pictures. Blue is, apparently, the world’s favorite color, and these splashes of it in Bermondsey are good against the gray stones and skies.

The Art of Overlapping

2009-05-07T09:25:00.002+01:00

Wow: Take a look at these moody artworks by Steven Spencer, over at the Eyestorm gallery. Even though they “have a feel of Gotham City about them,” these pieces were created by merging various images of European cities.

And over in the real New York City, photographer Peter Funch creates photo composites of street corners and sidewalks that are not so much moody as hilarious. Take a look at all the people yawning widely and at once. Don’t tell me you haven’t done it. (Thanks to Sharon for passing me the link.)

Crime Deterrents

2009-05-06T09:25:00.005+01:00

Crime prevention in London seems to focus on trying to convince people that if they commit a crime, they will be caught later—rather than on trying to stop them in the first place. And so we have the CCTV cameras on every corner instead of beat cops patrolling the streets. And now I’ve noticed a couple of new attempts at deterrence in the neighborhood (maybe because those CCTV cameras aren’t really that effective). I was intrigued by this sign that just went up on our street and alerts thieves that “premises are forensically protected by Smartwater.” Whatever.

I looked it up, and Smartwater appears to be some sort of liquid that you spread on your valuable property so that it can later be unfailingly identified. (How does this stop someone from taking it in the first place and keeping it hidden? Unclear.)

Even better is this sign, promising a curse if you don’t do what’s right:

But maybe I shouldn’t be making fun of such methods. So far, I haven’t been the victim of any crime in London. (Can’t say the same for New York.)

Website of the Week: Art Meets Matter

2009-05-05T09:20:00.005+01:00

Online shop art meets matter has a nice array of products inspired by London and literature. I especially like these greeting cards that use maps of London with highlighted street names to send the appropriate message and these ceramic wall tiles that feature abstract designs taken from the Tube map and this Abbey Road wallpaper.
Does the London cityscape inspire more design than other places? I’m always stumbling on something that incorporates its features.

Signs of Spring Over the Weekend

2009-05-04T09:20:00.007+01:00

Expensive flowers at Borough Market, which was (relatively) uncrowded on Saturday. Looks like people went away for the long weekend.

Wrong! They actually went to the Columbia Road flower market, where the plants are cheap (relatively), but the crowds are the worst. I’m pretty sure this is the most crowded place I’ve ever been in London, maybe on earth. (Well, except for the 6 train when things aren’t going well.)

And because it's May, we cooked outside: shrimp and scallops (with roe, which is how they’re generally sold here) on the barbecue. (All from Borough Market: go early if you want fish because the good stuff always seems to sell out by the afternoon.) It was too cold to actually eat outside, however, which is how it’s been for our two British summers here so far. But this year there is talk about it being truly hot and dry. We'll see about that and, in the meantime, have our dinner inside.

Theater Alert

2009-05-01T09:28:00.002+01:00

If I had to pick one, I’d say my favorite play is Waiting for Godot. Such existential perfection on the page. And two productions have just started, one in New York and one in London. Both have amazing casts. (Tickets seem to be still available for both shows.) I wish I could be in two places at once. “Nothing to be done,” however.
And there is, perhaps coincidentally, an entertaining review by Anthony Lane of the new volume of Beckett letters over at The New Yorker. (I’m not a fan of reading volumes of an author’s letters, but I like to read the reviews. I also enjoyed this Beckett biography a few years back. If you’re looking for something to do.)

Vladimir: That passed the time.
Estragon: It would have passed in any case.

Restaurant Recommendation: Alfie’s

2009-04-30T09:27:00.007+01:00

In my neighborhood of Bermondsey, we now have a new hotel (the Bermondsey Square Hotel) and a new restaurant to go along with it: Alfie’s Kitchen (and bar).

The restaurant is small and sleek, the food is modern British, and it’s a welcome addition to the neighborhood. I started my recent meal there with some Cornish mackerel on a beet and orange salad and loved the combination of fresh tastes. (I also had a nice glass of Pinot Grigio rosé to go along with it, which may be my favorite warm weather drink.) Then, lemon sole with tiny shrimp and broccoli mash and mushrooms. It looked rather boring but tasted delicious.

Dan had a soul-satisfying, old-fashioned veal stew with mash (the stew was fantastic; the mash was fine, but you know, I’m not a big fan of mashed potatoes, frankly).

To finish, a creamy, yummy apple toffee trifle, which didn’t seem to suit the season, but we managed to get over that.
Service was friendly and attentive. Prices were reasonable but not cheap (mains were all less than £20, if I recall correctly). The atmosphere was warm and romantic. Plus, the new Shortwave cinema has just opened right across the courtyard from Alfie’s, so you can make a night of it here at the end of Bermondsey Street. I’ve been waiting a long time for a cinema to open in our neighborhood, and although this one doesn’t seem to be playing first runs, it still looks promising (and better than nothing).

Neighborhood Find: Foxes

2009-04-29T09:26:00.005+01:00

Those glowing eyes capture the eeriness of coming upon a fox on the street at twilight. Apparently, however, foxes aren’t that unusual in London. (And better than coyotes in California.)

A Few Things to Do in Kent

2009-04-28T09:22:00.006+01:00

While eating seafood in Whitstable over the weekend, I discovered a couple of attractions so nearby (if you’re in a car) that I felt compelled to go see them as well. If you're in the area, don't miss

Canterbury Cathedral, in the middle of a cute university town. Both town and church are worth a wander around.

The white cliffs of Dover. These aren’t that exciting, frankly, unless perhaps you recall Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” while looking out, but from here you can see France (my cell phone said: Welcome to France!) and the huge ferry operations running across the channel.

And finally, the seaside town of Deal. This is one of the Cinque Ports, and it doesn’t have a lot of tourist action, as far as I can tell, but it does have a squat castle and some old wooden fishing boats hauled up to the pebbly beach. This boat below, a local told us, is the oldest and most famous, whatever that means. (An editing rule I learned long ago: never use the word famous, and now you see why.)

Quick Trip to Whitstable

2009-04-27T09:23:00.006+01:00

I read about the small seaside town of Whitstable, in Kent, a few months ago in this article in the New York Times, and I’ve kept it in mind as a place to go to one sunny day (it’s only about an hour and half away). We went on Saturday, which seemed pretty sunny and warm in London, but was windy and chilly on the coast (as always, of course). Still, it was a fine day for eating seafood, which seems to be the main attraction in Whitstable. Although I’d also recommend a walk along the pebbly beach, where you can watch small sailboats race around and whip up and down in the wind (no big boats with a deep keel, however, because the water is too shallow).
For a late lunch, we popped into Wheelers Oyster Bar in town and were offered a couple of seats at the counter (there are only four seats at the counter) because the main room was full. We sat down in front of the seafood arranged in cups and platters and didn’t realize how lucky we were until our waiter told another couple that one should make reservations about five weeks in advance. So plan ahead before going to Whitstable! (I’m pretty sure all those places mentioned in the Times article demand some planning, and I know for sure that the Michelin-starred pub, the Sportsman, requires reservations because I called them.) But back to Wheelers: fantastic. Fried oysters in a Guinness batter, then truly the best crab cake I’ve ever had (meaty and creamy but light and almost frothy and crispy and deeply satisfying—England has the best crab, every time I have it), and then a large and heartwarming plate of smoked haddock and sprouting broccoli and potatoes in an eggy chive sauce. (I wonder if these recipes are in their cookbook, which I failed to look at while in the restaurant because I was too involved in eating my food.)
While seated at the counter, I discovered that Wheelers also does a brisk business serving up bags of whelks and cartons of tiny shrimp to local customers. I was tempted to take some fresh shellfish back to London but decided against it. Better to get myself over to Kent when I need a fix, and it’s not a bad drive if there’s no traffic in London, but of course there always is.

Interview with an Expat: Jazz Singer Lisa Kirchner

2009-04-24T09:39:00.002+01:00

Lisa Kirchner is a jazz singer who moved from New York to Paris a few years ago and now splits her time between the two cities. Her third solo album, In the Shadow of a Crow, was released on March 1 and includes both American and French jazz classics as well as original compositions. Visit her website to learn more.

New Yorker in London: One of your reviewers, writing in the JazzTimes about an earlier album, said, “Admiring Lisa Kirchner's all-American elegance, you expect to hear lady-like delicacies done up with vanilla frosting. Instead, out pours this astonishing mix of ash and gravel.” He went on to praise your “rustic world-weariness,” and I'm wondering if living in Paris has pushed you further in that direction?

Lisa Kirchner: I am still world-weary, perhaps more so. (This is the theme of the songs, “In the Shadow of a Crow” and “Manhattan Under the Paris Moon.”) But I have found that, while living in Paris, the gaps in time, space, and culture have also informed my music, providing new metaphors. The picaresque and surreal aspects of a restless intercontinental life are now finding expression in my songs.

NiL: What are the advantages of living in Paris over New York?

LK: One of the advantages is something I have not been able to take advantage of! That is the proximity to other countries. As a musician, the ability to tour Europe can be a real asset—the opportunity to experience many cultures and languages and to have such a global sense of life. Paris itself is a sensorial overload! But the culture has to be excavated. People are not so extroverted, as they are in the United States, and it is not so easy to get a read on things. It takes a while to see what is going on.

NiL: Advantages of living in New York over Paris?

LK: New York still to me feels to me like the center of the world—where it is happening. There is palpable energy there, a vibrancy and liveliness. People are animated, yet relaxed and still disciplined. They are consumed with their lives and their goals, but cool and able to get along in an amazing way. Culture seems to drive the city. And there is so much positivity.

NiL: What’s one thing you’ve discovered about being an expat that you hadn’t expected?

LK: The biggest unexpected thing is how much more of a “pat” I am than I had thought. I feel such an affinity for France, and in fact, all of Europe, which I have always felt, but I am overwhelmed by my American-ness. I realize the fantastic benefits we have had in our society, in schools, in the tempo of the states, in our training to believe we truly can do, be, and accomplish anything. This “I can do anything” principle with which we are inculcated in the first years in grade school is not a given around the world.

NiL: Tell us one of your secret places in Paris.

LK: If I told you that it wouldn't be a secret! I will just say that Ile Saint-Louis, the 5th arrondissement, old Paris, the medieval buildings that house clubs and cabarets, Notre Dame—all are sensationally beautiful. To be on a bridge over the Seine from 5 to 7 in the evening is too extraordinary. And to be at Pont Alexandre in front of Les Invalides at night almost justifies a move to Paris.

NiL: What are your musical plans in Paris and New York?

LK: I am planning to promote the album for radio and press in Europe, and then to continue in the U.S., where the album is already playing. I will work on getting dates in Europe, and I will see about concerts in and around New York. This summer, I will play at Harvard University, a favorite venue. I am beginning work on my next album and hope to have something within a year. While finishing up promotion of In the Shadow of a Crow, I intend to revisit One More Rhyme and When Lights Are Low, which never had a European promotion. I am also working on a theater concert moving toward multimedia that deals with some of the themes touched on in this interview and am just now writing the lyrics.

Thanks, Lisa!

To read about how other musicians have been inspired by their cities, check out these interviews over at the Banana Republic site.

London Colouring (Coloring) Book

2009-04-23T09:21:00.003+01:00

I don’t usually take notice of things for kids, but this caught my eye: the London Colouring Book. Because it looks like such a fun idea. Wouldn’t this be a great way to entertain kids while traveling through all of the city's history and architecture? Find the coloring book here at Amazon.
I also think this is a fun book for kids who travel, who are beyond the coloring-book stage, or for their parents, maybe: Storybook Travels: From Eloise's New York to Harry Potter's London, Visits to 30 of the Best-Loved Landmarks in Children's Literature.

New Bookstore Find: Persephone Bookshop

2009-04-22T09:28:00.005+01:00

Although I set out to find it, I almost missed the tiny entrance to the Persephone Bookshop on Kensington Church Street. But I’m glad I didn’t because this place is a gem. Persephone Books is a publisher that reprints “forgotten classics by twentieth-century (mostly women) writers,” and their store showcases these elegantly designed, reasonably priced books right up front. Shelf tags summarize the various titles, so you can tell at a glance what each is about. (Here’s the complete list of titles: “Each one in our collection of eighty-one books is intelligent, thought-provoking and beautifully written,” according to the website.)
The bookstore also stocks what seems to be a highly curated, tiny selection of other new and notable books, of various genres.
I bought one of Persephone’s own titles (The Carlyles at Home by Thea Holme) and, upon checkout, received a bookmark specifically for this volume, with an image that matches the book's endpaper and includes a book summary: how charming!

Fill in the Blank Walls

2009-04-21T09:18:00.003+01:00

Oh man, I think I have to have this notebook in which you can jot down ideas and to-do lists on pictures of blank New York walls (instead of blank paper). Every snippet now raised to the level of graffiti: surely this would spark some fascinating new thoughts. (I found this via the fantastic blog of Inside Out magazine, by the way.)
I’m also thinking this notebook might be something I could make for myself, and yesterday I began taking pictures of blank London walls. Will it work? Or will I turn back to regular notebook paper, unable to mar the beautiful blank walls with inconsequential thoughts.

Website of the Week: Book Inscriptions Project

2009-04-20T09:28:00.004+01:00

There is something strangely compelling about reading the notes written in other people’s books over at the Book Inscriptions Project, and I’m going to have to think twice about what I jot in the next book I give out as a gift. (Do you still put inscriptions in books?) I, for one, love to get a book with a note in the front. Or a book signed by the author, of course—and it’s even better if you can tell the author what to write in it for you.
Send a picture of your favorite inscription over to the project, and they might post your piece online, along with all the other “personal messages written in ink (or pen or marker or crayon or grape jelly) inside books” that they can find.
Here’s a favorite from my own library, an inscription to me from my whole family, before I moved to New York after college. It appears in The New York Times World of New York: An Uncommon Guide to the City of Fantasies, which includes an excellent essay by James Atlas about prowling around used bookstores, which is the only place you’ll find this book these days, unfortunately.

Chocolates in London

2009-04-17T09:23:00.003+01:00

I recently discovered the confections of chocolatier Paul Wayne Gregory—whose motto seems to be the straightforward “indulgence is everything”—at the Chocolate Festival at the Southbank Centre a couple of weeks ago. The Paul Wayne Gregory stall was one of the busiest at the food market: the people manning it were happily handing out tons of samples and asking customers to tell them how they really felt about the chocolate they were tasting. Too crowded for me to slip in my opinion, but I would have said something about how the flavors are subtle but lingering, smooth and fresh and sweet but not cloying. (I bought a box of truffles with the three flavors of rum, salted caramel, and coffee.) Right now, you can buy these chocolates at Harvey Nichols, but they’re planning for larger distribution (I was told), so sign up at their website for updates. Really fantastic tastes (though the bespoke chocolate artistry is a little scary).

Postcards from Tuscany (and Places to Stop)

2009-04-16T09:29:00.005+01:00

Siena, for its unexpectedly grand cathedral and unexpectedly good panforte. (I thought it might taste like fruitcake, but it was really more like almondy orangey gingerbread.)

Pienza, for all kinds of pecorino: fresh, semi-fresh, aged, more aged, with truffles, with peperoncino, etc. I never knew how much I loved pecorino until we stocked up the car with it and later tried a tasting platter at the Locanda di San Francesco in nearby Montepulciano, a lovely hilltop town with wine vaults within the old city walls and plenty of chances to taste the Nobile di Montepulciano (not to be confused with the also tasty Brunello di Montalcino, from another lovely nearby wine town).

Just minutes from Tuscany’s main airport in Pisa is the Leaning Tower, which is more impressive in person than you might think.

And Florence, for many things, such as stationery from Il Papiro and a contemporary meal at Gustavino, which also has vineyards and sells its own excellent wines (from prosecco upon sitting down to vin santo at the end) to fill out your meal. Here, I tried lardo di colonnata with an accompaniment of chestnuts in grappa; black tagliatelle with sea urchin and pesto (not a combination that sounds immediately appealing, but it was delicious); pici (a thick-cut spaghetti, a Tuscan specialty) served with a guinea fowl sauce, chunks of bitter chocolate, and shavings of parmesan; and the best biscotti ever with a glass of vin santo, which you can buy a bottle of at the table. (Benefit of living in London: no limit on the amount of wine and food you can haul back from Europe.)

Restaurant Recommendation: Gourmet Pizza Company

2009-04-08T09:24:00.011+01:00

I’ve walked by the Gourmet Pizza Company on the edge of Gabriel’s Wharf, on South Bank, many times but had never eaten there because the line was always way too long. But on Saturday, at the in-between hour of 3:00, the line was reasonable and after only a few minutes of waiting, we had an outdoor table, overlooking the Thames.

The menu was large, but my meal was small. All I had to eat was half a pizza (hoisin duck with scallion) and a Diet Coke, but it was delicious. Thin crust, crispy with no sogginess, just the right amount of toppings (that is, not too much). If I recall correctly, the long and interesting menu also featured pizzas with such toppings as beetroot and blue cheese or Thai chicken. I’m sure it’s not as good as this place, but for London, it was better than expected. (In looking for a website for the Gourmet Pizza Company—and failing to find one—I noticed a lot of less-than-glowing reviews, but I thought the pizza was about as good as it gets here, and I loved it. Maybe I was really hungry. Was my experience a fluke?) In any case, I will be happily going back there

when I return from another holiday. See you next week.

See more reviews at

If You Have Five Free Minutes in Southwark

2009-04-07T09:25:00.005+01:00

Step into Southwark Cathedral, the oldest Gothic church in London, for a glimpse of the soaring architecture: all sweeping stone arches paired with intricate stained glass. There’s also a section showcasing archaeological remains, including segments of the Roman road that ran to London Bridge (from Kent) and a statue of at least one pagan god. There is a memorial statue to Shakespeare, whose brother Edmund is buried here (somewhere). And Enligh poet John Gower is also buried inside (Gower was a contemporary of Chaucer, whose pilgrims to Canterbury began their journey in Southwark). Obviously, you can spend more than five minutes here, but if you're in the neighborhood for something else, such as lunch at Borough Market (next door), it's worth a quick look inside.

Website of the Week: Classics at MIT

2009-04-06T09:17:00.003+01:00

While on vacation a couple of weeks ago, I did a lot of reading (not so different from not being on vacation), and I discovered in the bibliography of Anne Fadiman’s At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays this fantastic resource of ancient texts at MIT.

Here’s a sample of what you can glean from a glance through the collection (from The Art of War by Sun Tzu):

If it is to your advantage, make a forward move; if not, stay where you are.

Mini Guide to St. Lucia

2009-04-03T09:18:00.006+01:00

Stay at Anse Chastanet for its rustic luxury and perfectly situated black-sand beach. No TVs, phones, Internet connections, and other such impediments to peace in the rooms. Plenty of hiking and water sports. Scuba and snorkeling from the beach.

Eat at Dasheene at the nearby Ladera resort, for the innovative (that is, expensive) and good Caribbean cuisine but mostly for the view, up close of the Pitons (which are now a World Heritage Site). At night, it’s all just black, so go before sunset.

Visit the Fond Doux Estate to see a small-scale cocoa production operation. Most of the cocoa is sent to Hershey’s, according to our guide, but they do keep back a small percentage to make cocoa stick, which the locals grate and mix with spices and sugar to create a tea, which sounds a lot like hot chocolate. The lush estate features all kinds of plants—nutmeg trees, citrus, tamarind, etc.—and is worth a walk through. You can also sample the cocoa stick and then buy it in the tiny gift shop, where you might also be tempted by a jar of banana and cocoa jam, which I highly recommend for putting on toast back home when you want to feel like you’re still in the islands.

Read Derek Walcott’s Omeros, a book-length epic poem that reworks Homer and expands it into a Caribbean journey. (Bonus info discovered on this trip: Walcott is not the only Nobel Prize winner to come from St. Lucia. Sir Arthur Lewis won for economics in 1979.)

Spring Image

2009-04-02T09:21:00.003+01:00

I spotted this image yesterday, on a walk to the post office (where there was no line!—at least one positive outcome of the G20 summit), and it struck me as so lovely and British that I had to snap it. London seems so charming and green after a bit of time in New York (where our cab took the city streets to the airport to avoid traffic, and I discovered that Atlantic Avenue is one dismal drive). This red telephone booth turned out, however, to be a fake, part of a photo shoot in our neighborhood.

Back from New York

2009-04-01T09:37:00.012+01:00

I’m back from a quick trip to NYC and reminded of this poem from Harvey Shapiro. I don’t want to reproduce it without permission, so just click it and celebrate the start of National Poetry Month—in the States, at least. (The UK has National Poetry Day, in October.)

A few new discoveries while away:

Eat at Matsugen, which is Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s new place focusing on “soba cuisine” as well as other Japanese dishes: fantastic sea urchin in yuzu jelly, shrimp cake on eggplant slices, sushi (marinated tuna, salmon, scallop: all made me swoon), and hot soba in dark broth with tempura on the side rather than in the bowl, which I thought was a nice touch (it didn’t get soggy).

Shop at the Museum of Arts and Design gift shop for a wide array of contemporary jewelry, among other crafts. But the focus, or so it seemed to me, was really the jewelry, and this is a place I’m going to keep in mind for gifts. (The store online currently doesn’t offer much and, inexplicably, no jewelry that I could find.)

Take a break at the Roasting Company for coffee. You pick your bean from a selection that they roast and grind on site, you pick your preparation (cappuccino, café au lait, etc.), you pick your milk, and you’re good to go. There are also pastries and other treats. The best part (aside from the coffee, which was lovely): cookie dough shots in small plastic cups.

Marvel at the 24-hour construction happening over at the World Trade Center site. This looks about the same as it did two years ago to me, but apparently, progress is being made:

A Bit of a Break

2009-03-13T09:24:00.004Z

I’m off for a couple of weeks. See you again on April Fool’s Day.

The need to travel is a mysterious force. A desire to go runs through me equally with an intense desire to stay at home. An equal and opposite thermodynamic principle. When I travel, I think of home and what it means. At home I’m dreaming of catching trains at night in the gray light of Old Europe, or pushing open shutters to see Florence awaken. The balance just slightly tips in the direction of the airport.

—from A Year in the World by Frances Mayes

Restaurant Recommendation: Ground

2009-03-12T09:42:00.004Z

Ground is a one-off variation on the Gourmet Burger Kitchen idea, and their sole restaurant is in Chiswick, which, according to Wikipedia, is where the first V2 rocket landed in London.
The menu is the usual list of various beef burgers (the Hawaiian burger, the New York deli burger, and the chili burger, for example), but there other options as well. I had a chicken sandwich with pineapple and spicy mayo (it’s a grilled chicken breast, not a chicken burger) that was perfectly tasty and filling (though it could have been spicier, frankly). The fries were delicious: thin and crispy. None of those thick-cut chips that you usually get (and that I’m not really a fan of). I also tried the onion rings, which were good, although the coating was a bit too crunchy, if that’s possible (reminded me of lacquer, actually). My dining companions all wiped their plates clean of the lamb burger, salmon filet sandwich, and black-bean burger, and they all said they were satisfied. Not sure it’s worth a special trip to Chiswick, but if you’re in the area and want a low-key lunch before walking around this part of London that reminded me of Greenwich, Connecticut, then you might want to check it out.
Ground has desserts on the menu as well, but we bypassed these in favor of coffee and tarts at Patisserie Valerie, down the street. (Which I have a love/hate relationship with: I’ve had some of the best pastries here, and some of the worst: different branches, at different times of the day, seem to offer up different experiences.)

See more reviews at

A Visit to Freud’s House

2009-03-11T09:28:00.003Z

Sigmund Freud lived here, in northwest London, for only a year, his last year, but the rooms—filled with the items he brought over from Vienna after escaping from the Nazis—feel as if they were inhabited for longer. the study is “saturated with antiquities,” as it says in my brochure, which also points out that Freud used “archaeology as a metaphor for psychoanalysis.” The study showcases his original couch, where he invited patients to recline, as well as all those hardback books he brought from Europe.
The upper floor of the house includes a room devoted to Anna Freud (she was a “keen weaver” apparently and her loom is here) as well as various other items, such as souvenirs from Freud’s travels. The explanatory card for a selection of museum guides makes you start to analyze your own situation and motivations: “Museums play a leading for the tourist: they are where travels in space intersect with travels in time.”
The highlight of the museum, however, is the video room, overlooking the backyard garden, where you can view Freud’s home movies (narrated by Anna Freud). Nothing really happens in these silent, black-and-white snippets shot in Vienna (outside shots show swastikas on the awnings) and Paris and London. It’s mostly friends and relatives (and dogs: he had chows) milling around and sitting in gardens. But there really is something eerie and fascinating about seeing Freud onscreen in the house where he lived, on this pleasant residential side street of red-brick buildings, in the 21st century. Certainly worth a detour if you’re in the neighborhood. Maybe even make it a destination.

From another museum card, quoting Freud:

When one first catches sight of the sea, crosses the ocean and experiences as realities cities and lands which for so long had been distant, unattainable things of desire—one feels oneself like a hero who has performed deeds of improbable greatness.

Website of the Week: Academic Earth

2009-03-10T09:30:00.004Z

Why would you spend money to go to college these days when you can watch online videos of actual lectures at major universities at Academic Earth? I tried out one of the lectures presented by Amy Hungerford at Yale in her course about the American Novel Since 1945, and it felt like I was back at school—with a screen on my lap. (I listened to the Jack Kerouac lecture, number 8 of 26, in which she compares, for example, a footnote from The Waste Land and the footnote from Howl, which is a pretty interesting way to begin a discussion of the Beats and how their aesthetics broke new ground.) This is an especially appealing website if you’re the kind of person who likes to listen to lectures, then read and think. If you can do without the discussion aspect of things (which I, for one, am happy to dispense with).

Perhaps I was so thrilled to discover this site because I’m currently reading
The Last Samurai, which is by far the best book (in the fiction category) that I’ve read in a long, long time. Woven into the story of a single mother (an American in London) rearing a genius child is the story about a life of learning, the love of ideas, and the world of opportunities. (Bonus: you can practice your Greek or Japanese while reading.)

Restaurant Recommendation: Royal China (part 2)

2009-03-09T09:31:00.003Z

I’ve written before about how much I like Royal China at Canary Wharf, but now I’ve tried another branch (on Fulham Road), for dim sum, and I feel I have to mention it as well. I’m really not getting enough Chinese food in London, so this really hit the spot. (And I depended on a Chinese friend—from New York but now living here—to go with me and assure me that this is about the best she’s found in London. Is it as good as what she’s used to in New York? No, but good enough.)
The dim sum menu at Royal China isn’t huge, in my opinion, but everything we had was good. A few of my favorites: sticky rice in lotus leaves, fried rolled-up prawn dumpling (that may not be its official name) with peach sauce (I’d never heard of such thing before, but it was delicious), steamed pork buns (perfect! light and airy), rolled noodles with prawns, and the usual various steamed dumplings. I was eating so fast that I forgot to take pictures. And I even liked dessert (I usually skip Asian desserts): steamed buns with sweet custard filling with a whiff of coconut about them.
This branch of the Royal China chain, like the one at Canary Wharf, has a gold and black décor, and fancy chopsticks, and there is no Chinatown rushing and yelling back and forth. But it’s crowded with customers (no reservations) waiting for tables, so get there early.

See more reviews at

Quick Fix for a Bad Outlook

2009-03-06T09:26:00.002Z

What a great idea for rooms with no view: city skyline wallpaper. I would totally put this up. In blue.

A Non-Pub Place for A Drink

2009-03-05T09:25:00.003Z

The lobby bar at One Aldwych is “bang in the middle” of the city, according to its website. And not only that: the place is “buzzing, fun, chic.” It’s even better than that: modern and airy, sleek and high-ceilinged, but with cozy corners and candlelight. And it’s a nice change of pace from meeting in a pub for a drink. Although it can be hard to grab a seat when it’s crowded, and priority is given to guests of the hotel, which must be a fabulous place to stay and is featured in my copy of Hip Hotels. (Hip Hotels also runs a gorgeous website, which I’m sure must be cutting into their book sales.)

Website of the Week: Photographic Dictionary

2009-03-04T09:31:00.002Z

Have you ever wanted something more inspiring than those little line drawings in your dictionary? Then take a look at the Photographic Dictionary, which provides an interesting illustration along with each word definition. (One big problem: not very many words are included in it.) I looked up two of my favorite words but couldn’t find either one (tarnish and crash). I settled for gold, which I was quite happy about it. (I also really liked the photo for plastic-bag, which I wouldn’t spell with a hyphen.) If, like me, you’re one of those people who regularly flips through the dictionary to see what’s in it, this provides a nice change of scenery.

Restaurant Recommendation: J. Sheekey

2009-03-03T09:31:00.010Z

We took a chance on Friday night and walked into J. Sheekey, without reservations, at the theater hour, thinking we might be able to snag a table as people were heading out. And we did, though we were also warned not to count on this tactic: the place is usually fully booked. (A sign of the times that it wasn’t on this particular Friday night? Because J. Sheekey isn’t cheap: you’ll more than likely spend more than £20 for your main dish. But there is a nice list of half bottles of wine, so that helps.)
J. Sheekey is supposed to be one of London’s great seafood restaurants, a place I felt I should visit at least once while living here. But I liked it well enough that I plan to go back next time I have some theater in the area. Because the food was just what I had in mind: standard but wonderful. (But was it better than Esca in New York? No.) Here’s what we tried: razor clams with chorizo and butterbeans, a soothing combo of smoothness and spiciness (though the razor clams could have been a tad more tender, and they made me remember some more succulent versions from Barcelona); fantastic spiced brown crab with garlic toasts (my portion was stuffed into one large crab shell, but I could have eaten a whole bowl); smoked haddock with mash and a poached egg, and this was certainly some of the best smoked haddock I’ve ever tasted (and I regularly taste it); cod wrapped in prosciutto on saffron risotto, which was good though not as good as the haddock, and the proportions didn’t entirely suit me: too much cod, too little risotto. See for yourself:

The atmosphere at J. Sheekey was sort of clubby and Old World, or at least earlier in this century, when money flowed more freely. Inside, with people drinking champagne in long, chilled glasses, and platters of oysters passing by, it didn’t seem, for a couple of hours, that the world was falling apart outside.

See more reviews at

Scenes from the Weekend

2009-03-02T09:29:00.009Z

To kick off its new Picasso exhibit, the National Gallery last week lit up its entire huge façade with rotating images of paintings, providing a good reason to stop for a while in the middle of Trafalgar Square on a Friday night:

This sort of reminded me of the Jenny Holzer projections in New York City a few years ago. I really like the idea of getting art out of the institutions and onto the outside of buildings, once in a while. Although I did also try to go inside and see the actual show at the National Gallery (it’s open late on Friday nights), but the electricity went out and closed down the museum—something that happens mysteriously regularly around London, I’ve discovered.

Last-Minute Theater Alert: The Stone

2009-02-27T09:28:00.002Z

Looking for a show for tonight or tomorrow? Try The Stone at the Royal Court Theatre (the last performance is tomorrow night). Just saw it this week and I loved the tense, condensed, one-hour play about three generations of women living in and out of a house in Dresden. The shifting among time periods (the play moves from 1935 to 1993) was seamless, and the intricate fitting together of memories and characters against a bare-bones stage set created interesting resonances (and revelations). I thoroughly enjoyed the puzzlelike aspect of the whole thing. (Here’s someone who didn’t, however, and who makes it all sound more complicated than it is.)

Website of the Week: American Citizen Services

2009-02-26T09:23:00.002Z

I’ve just discovered the blog of the American Citizen Services section of the U.S. Embassy, which offers up a wide range of info, from the useful (what to do if you need a copy of your birth certificate) to the fun (notices of upcoming theater and music events with some sort of American angle) to the essential (don’t carry a pocket knife in London; it’s illegal, apparently). The blog is only a couple of months old, but I keep going back to see what new information I can get from it. Might be worth a look even if you’re not a U.S. citizen.

Upside of the Recession

2009-02-25T09:19:00.002Z

Last week, listening to WNYC, I heard Richard Florida say that both New York and London should weather this recession fine because they are open, diverse, creative centers. You can read his entire article in the Atlantic about how different places will respond to this financial crisis, which he sees as a time of opportunity as well as devastation.

Well-educated professionals and creative workers who live together in dense ecosystems, interacting directly, generate ideas and turn them into products and services faster than talented people in other places can.

A British Muffin Concoction

2009-02-24T09:22:00.005Z

These are welsh rarebit muffins from Nigella Lawson. That’s cheddar cheese and Worcestershire sauce sprinkled and drizzled on top. I don’t usually eat a savory muffin, but this one is lovely. Tender and salty. (By the way, I didn’t use the rye flour the recipe calls for; I used buckwheat, which I had on hand. I don’t see why you can’t use regular white or brown.)

Need a reason to celebrate and have a warm pint with your muffin? How about: today is the 500th post of New Yorker in London. Go crazy. Try the Britannia pub in Kensington. I recently visited it and loved the cozy, modern, dark-wood, low-light atmosphere. All I had was a glass of rosé so I can’t really comment on the food and drink selections. But I really liked the vibe there. (And thanks to Mark and Lina for introducing it to us.)

A Trip to the Mall

2009-02-23T09:24:00.005Z

I finally broke down and went to the new Westfield mall, supposedly the largest mall in Europe. (Personally, I’m fine without a mall around. In New York, you learn to live without them—and yes, I know we have the Manhattan Mall, but that’s really a dismal place, isn’t it?) But if you’re living in Britain and craving an American-style mall experience, then Westfield is where you want to be. There’s the usual array of British high street stores, plus a couple of American ones, like the Gap and Nike, but don’t get excited and expect to find Crate and Barrel or Banana Republic or J Crew or Ann Taylor. There are several spiffy food courts: we tried a duck burger from Croque Gascon and some Vietnamese spring rolls and spicy salad from Pho, and all were better than anything I’ve ever had in a food court. There is an Apple store and a Buttercup cupcake outpost and a photo gallery where we toured the London Through a Lens exhibit. There is not, however, a decent newsstand (only the usual sorry offerings from WH Smith). And you have to pay for parking (a lot, it seems to me: we spent £5.90 for 3 hours).

Random Atmospheric Photo

2009-02-20T09:35:00.007Z

City areas with flourishing diversity sprout strange and unpredictable uses and peculiar scenes. But this is not a drawback of diversity. This is the point ... of it.

—Jane Jacobs

New Bookstore Find: The School of Life

2009-02-19T09:22:00.007Z

In the spare, Nordic-feeling School of Life bookshop—or “cultural apothecary,” as it calls itself—you can browse for books organized into such categories as Love, Work, and Play. This place is stocked with what I call literary self-help, titles such as Alain de Botton’s How Proust Can Change Your Life and Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One's Own. But beware: this is not an overstuffed bookstore full of hidden gems. There aren’t that many books in stock, frankly, and they’re all out in the open, with plenty of space between them. But it is a nicely edited selection, with both old and new titles, all focused on how to live a good life. It’s certainly a worthwhile stop for a quick browse. (I bought a tiny tome called Work and the Art of Living, in which I discovered that Adam Smith is featured on the £20 bank note: "It is astonishing that the main culprit responsible for the toils of modern work is celebrated on the twenty-pound note.")
The School of Life is not only a bookshop, however. It also provides courses, holidays, lectures, and bibliotherapy, among other things. (What a great job: bilbiotherapist! If anyone would like to pay me to recommend a few books, please let me know.) You can check the whole range of offerings at their website.

But Do They Have a Facebook Page?

2009-02-18T09:30:00.002Z

Ever wondered what it would be like to read a blog by Thoreau? Here it is.

Prefer something more aristocratic? Try the queen’s new website, where you can brush up on the history of the monarchy or view the virtual rooms of Buckingham Palace.

Website of the Week: The London Company

2009-02-17T09:23:00.004Z

I once saw these greeting cards composed from London street names in a stationery store but could never find them again when I actually needed a greeting card. Now, here they are, online at The London Company. And that's not all they've got: look at these stickers making fun of the Tube! And this mug that is “the perfect gift for the crazy person in your life!” A one-stop shop for trinkets for London lovers.

Eye Color

2009-02-16T09:26:00.003Z

Does the Eye change color with the holidays or other events? This has been bothering me ever since we’ve arrived here. Because the Eye certainly changes colors, though I have no idea on what schedule. (It was a good dark red on Valentine’s Day night.) Is it like the Empire State Building, with a schedule of color patterns planned far in advance and that you can read about every week in Time Out? Sometimes I look at the Eye, in wonderful purple or bright blue, and wonder why. What does it signify?

Paper and Pearls

2009-02-13T09:36:00.004Z

Walking through the underground mall that is Canary Wharf last week, I spotted an exhibit of artwork made from book pages. Of course, I went to inspect it straightaway, and in the crowds of rush hour, I had a moment of calm, looking at the torn and manipulated pages (you can take a look online here). According to the artist’s biography, “Thurle's delicate, often dizzyingly repetitive and complex paper works stem from an interest in the systems and structures of language, in the ordering of knowledge, and in the storing and accessing words. She transforms pages from books, atlases, dictionaries, and newspapers into small, fragile units and reconstructs them into structures and patterns, creating entirely new meanings.”

I’ve been a bit obsessed lately with developing some new jewelry designs using paper. (I’ve got a stack of vintage French paperbacks calling out to be torn apart and reborn.) So I’ve been flipping through the always inspirational Art of Jewelry: Paper Jewelry. I’ve been browsing online, discovering this necklace made from a taxi receipt and these samples of recycled paper jewelry.
And this is what I’ve come up with: a ring featuring cut paper (from a book by André Gide, I believe) on a sterling silver ring blank with freshwater pearls. To do it yourself, you’ll need a ring blank with a loop at the top (I wish I could tell you where to buy these, but my supplier went out of business), a stack of paper circles with a hole punched in the middle, and some freshwater pearls and 28-gauge silver wire. Thread the wire through the ring loop, and through the paper stack, string on some pearls, then push the wire back through the hole, wrap around the base of the loop and secure by pushing the ends back through the loop, under the paper. Et voilà. (Don’t wash your hands while wearing it.)

A Bit about the Financial Crisis

2009-02-12T09:25:00.005Z

Here’s a bit of British history I’d never heard of but just discovered in the Financial Times (in an article about the grilling that current bankers are undergoing):

In the early 18th century, after the bursting of the South Sea bubble, a parliamentary resolution proposed that bankers be tied up in sacks filled with snakes and thrown into the Thames.

I wonder if the signs in the Paris metro still advertise:

Learn to Speak
Wall Street English.

My Favorite Falafel

2009-02-11T09:33:00.002Z

Lately, every time I go to Borough Market around lunchtime, I can’t resist the falafel with crunchy pickles from the Arabica food stall. Maybe it’s because they’re made right in front of you and have no time to get soggy. Maybe it’s the mix of hot sauce and tahini. Maybe it’s the vegetable pickles. I don’t know. But I'm pretty sure it's the tastiest I've had here. (Every time I go to Paris, I try to get some from L'As du Fallafel, but it has never been open when I've shown up.)
Back at Borough Market, I never have enough patience to push through the crowds and stand in line to buy spices and salads and such from the prepared foods side of the Arabica stall (sort of like a very mini Kalustyan’s), but one day, I will gather the energy to battle it out for the hummus and zatar.

City Photographs

2009-02-10T09:29:00.003Z

Take a look at the black-and-white photographs of city landmarks by artist Dave Hacker, over at the Eyestorm gallery. These smudgy, reversed images—“as when you look down through the view finder,” exlains the artist—seem ancient and fascinating. As if the photographer is documenting a lost civilization. As if he has unearthed something we should investigate.
I especially like the shot of London’s City Hall and this one of an NYPD car, blotchy and smeared. The images “also have my unique fingerprint stamp on them—of the dust and marks that have formed on the ground glass,” says Hacker.

And then there are these clean, color photographs of buildings and cityscapes by photographer Alexander Scott (discovered in Monocle magazine). The shots of anonymous buildings glowing at night are my favorites: irresistible. I can’t tell where they are located. The artist explains on his website: “Too poetic to be strictly representational and too rigorous to be purely 'artistic,' these works exist, as much of my work does, in uncertain territory.”
Every shot looks vaguely like New York or London, but I think they’re not. Each building is unremarkable but captivating. Like your own life, perhaps.

Theater Alert

2009-02-09T09:15:00.004Z

Tickets are still available for the next couple of weeks to see Shun-kin at the Barbican, which has this to say about the show: “Moving between the neon glow of Japan and the vanished world of Meiji, Shun-kin discovers the moments of light in a world of darkness. Emerging from traditional Japanese culture, this powerful performance shows us just how close beauty and violence can really be.” This production is based on the work of Tanizaki (whose In Praise of Shadows is one of my favorite books about Japanese aesthetics), so I was quite excited to see it this past weekend. And I was not disappointed as I sat somewhat mesmerized during the highly stylized production, which tells the story of a blind beautiful shamisen teacher (Shun-kin) who abuses/loves her faithful pupil/servant. (Note: The show is in Japanese with English subtitles.) I thoroughly enjoyed it.
A quote from my spine-cracked copy of In Praise of Shadows will put you in the proper mood:

If light is scarce, then light is scarce; we will immerse ourselves in the darkness and there discover its own particular beauty.

Restaurant Recommendation: Dockmaster's House

2009-02-06T09:23:00.004Z

What used to be a staid, standard Indian restaurant at Canary Wharf has changed into the wildly elegant Dockmaster’s House, which has recently reopened after months of refurbishment (and new management). The food is still Indian but more innovative and delicious: tiny sesame naans, saffron prawns on kedgeree, sea bass in a crust of coriander seeds on a base of crayfish mash, and a traditional tender lamb biryani: just lamb, rice, spices, and crust—plus raita to mix inside. Portions were large. Service was extremely attentive and friendly. (The dining room was somewhat empty, so perhaps service won’t be quite so personal once the pace picks up.)
After dinner, we got a tour of the renovated 200-year-old Georgian house (now with contemporary accents) and visited the private dining room and the comfy lounge bar upstairs, which you can rent out for private parties. A large downstairs bar will open on February 14, I’m told. I’m sure it will be beautiful. So if you haven’t made reservations yet for Valentine’s Day, this would be a wonderful choice. (Or do you prefer to stay in on Valentine’s Day? That’s become my habit over the years. And if I’m lucky, Dan cooks something delicious.)

See more reviews at

Valentine’s Gift Idea

2009-02-05T09:07:00.002Z

What about this custom-made heart map, created from a vintage map of someplace that means something special to your loved one? I like it! (Of course, this would be easy to DIY, if you can get your hands on the appropriate map. In London, I've seen cheap maps in bins at the South Bank book market—though there are tons of places to get antique maps here. In New York, I’m pretty sure Argosy Books can supply whatever you need.)

Neighborhood Find: Manzes Pie and Mash Shop

2009-02-04T09:36:00.009Z

The small, old storefront of Manzes Pie and Mash Shop on Tower Bridge Road (the oldest eel and pie shop in London, maybe anywhere) had a line of locals out of the door on a Saturday afternoon. Inside, there’s the choice of potpie, mash, or jellied eels. (But I didn’t see any eels; the pie and mash are right up front and being dished out as you order them.) I asked what was in the pie: beef. Um, no thanks. But there’s a vegetarian option! All right—one pie plus mash (although mash really seems like overkill if you’re eating a carby, crusty potpie, but whatever). My vegetarian potpie looked exactly like Dan’s beef pie, but I detected no hint of beef, so I was satisfied. I'd expected carrots, potatoes, etc., but it turns out to be soy mince in a brown sauce, manipulated to look as much like beef as possible. It’s quite good, actually, though I could have done without the parsley gravy (or “liquor”). I tasted but didn’t eat the mash, which was just a big slathering of potatoes that could have used some butter or salt and pepper. (There are condiments, such as mustard powder, salt, vinegar, on the tables.) Even so, this was a nice change-of-pace place to duck into on a cold winter’s afternoon, and as we were eating, I could imagine that this would have been our regular fare had we moved to London 20 years ago, whereas today it’s just a novelty (for us, at least; there seemed to be plenty of people there for whom this was not a lark). Maybe you have to be truly English to get excited about a soy mince potpie overwhelmed by mashed potatoes on a regular basis.

In the same way that you need to have lived in New York for a while to find this Lego artwork depicting life in that city to be hilarious. I couldn't stop smiling.

See more reviews at

Snowstorm

2009-02-03T09:26:00.004Z

The reports yesterday were dire: “Britain faces a week of paralysis,” said the Times. (Not the New York Times, which was basically making fun of us instead.) Things are looking up today, what with a few buses running again. As a radio presenter pointed out this morning, if only the Germans had waited for a little snow, they could have taken the city. (The buses, which stopped working entirely yesterday, managed to stay on their routes during the Blitz.)

How To Be a Happy Expat

2009-02-02T09:24:00.005Z

The Financial Times last week ran this interesting article about what it takes to be an expat.

You can’t compare everything to home. It’s irrelevant. “You have to be adaptable,” says Harriet Holden-White, co-director of County Homesearch in Surrey, England. “You can’t get upset about little things like not having garbage disposal.”

Or, in my case, I should learn how to use the garbage disposal. After living without one for all those years in New York, I just can’t stop throwing food in the trash can (rubbish bin).

Even so, I’d say I’m a pretty happy expat, so here are a few of my own tips:

Concentrate on what is available where you are (and not available elsewhere). This makes the time away feel special, as if you’re on vacation. In London, for example, this means seeing more Shakespeare plays than I would normally consider attending, visiting free museums with treasures plundered from around the world, eating British cheese and drinking local beer. Focus on the kind of things that you can imagine one day missing when you're not here.

Take advantage of the new travel opportunities. And discover how your new home base fits into the larger context. Traveling around Europe has helped me understand a bit about how Britain fits into the EU. Traveling around the English countryside has given me a sense of the role London plays in British life. (Bonus: when you return from traveling, your new flat will feel like home.)

Keep some of your old routines (and possessions), as the FT article suggests, but don’t rely on them entirely. I download US TV shows from iTunes, but I always watch whatever new British shows I see advertised around town. I subscribe to a few US magazines—and was devastated to hear Domino is going out of business—but I also read the British equivalents. I cook dinners regularly from my old cookbooks, carefully converting ounces to grams, but when I buy I new one, I buy British and then relax in knowing I can find all the ingredients at Waitrose.

Find some personal pathways and form some habits. Here, I always buy my mozzarella from the same Italian guy and we chat for a minute. I always look at the new artwork for sale in a small artist’s shop on one of my regular back streets, and sometimes I duck in to buy a handmade postcard. I walk through the same park almost every day, watching the seasons change with the roses. Creating patterns creates a texture of permanence—or so I think.

Finally, read magazine ads and watch TV commercials for valuable information about logistics and daily living. I figured out how to put the limescale remover in my washing machine from a TV commercial. I learned what the equivalent of Nyquil is called here (Night Nurse). I discovered how to put my mail on vacation hold (Keepsafe). Before moving to London, I don't think I'd watched a TV ad in years (thanks, TiVo), but now I am grateful for the information.

What else? Tell us!

Restaurant Recommendation: Cha Cha Moon

2009-01-30T09:24:00.004Z

Fast-moving long lines, fast service (items arrive within a few minutes of sitting down), communal tables, loud atmosphere, cheap prices, and a variety of noodle dishes: all this at Cha Cha Moon. When I asked my server what kind of noodles were in some particular dishes, he said “regular” noodles. What does that mean? He couldn’t say. In all the dishes? Yes. Well, no. Dan had a spicy chicken soup with some sort of thin egg noodles. It was spicy but without a lot of depth of flavor, unfortunately. I had aubergine and tofu with a spicy black bean sauce on flat rice noodles, which was excellent, just what I wanted. Chicken and prawn wontons to start were good. Sauteed shiitakes with dried scallop and ginger sauce were horrible and soggy. And so, I have mixed feelings about Cha Cha Moon. I would give it another try. Because I really like the idea of having a cheap Chinese-y version of Wagamama around as a restaurant option.
If you’re in the neighborhood (near Carnaby Street) and craving quick noodles, it might be a good place to stop. But not worth a special trip, I think. (And I like Wagamama better, frankly.)

See more reviews at

Crazy Place Names

2009-01-29T09:28:00.005Z

The UK is full of bizarre proper names, so I was not surprised to read this article about various rude English place names around the country. (Thanks to Dan, who pointed me to this link.) But even if you never venture into the countryside, the street names in London alone provide plenty of entertainment and opportunity for speculation. Poultry, for example—not Poultry Street or Poultry Road, just Poultry—always makes me chuckle (the name comes from the fact this is where poultry was once sold). Which makes me wonder what events happened on these streets in my own neighborhood:

Maybe I don’t want to know.

Website of the Week: Wave Poetry

2009-01-28T09:35:00.004Z

If you have some time to kill at work today and want to do something creative, head over to the site of Wave Poetry, an independent poetry press in Seattle, where you can create your own poems by erasing selected source texts. To try it out, select Erasures from the main menu and follow the easy instructions. You can then save your poem, if you like, and email it to your friends. Or just make it public on the website, so various passersby can enjoy it. I, for one, always love this sort of OuLiPo-inspired textual experimentation, and you can see my attempt at an erasure here, based on a snippet of Clouds by Aristophanes.

Product Recommendation: Travel Guides

2009-01-27T09:29:00.004Z

Before leaving for Berlin last week, I went in search of that city's volume from my favorite new series of travel guides, the Luxe City Guides, but failed to find a copy at any bookstore. So if you’re traveling, order one in advance!
The first time I ever used these compact, cheeky little guides was in Thailand (thanks, Nina, for the recommendation), and I fell in love with them. Each one provides a “greatest hits” list of places to stay and eat, things to do, and shopping itineraries, all in an easy-to-carry, accordion-book format. Much more to the point and less conspicuous than a thick Fodor’s or Lonely Planet. (But beware: the Luxe Guides have no maps and are useful for only a certain sort of tourist—say, not a backpacker.)

Another series that I always like to check out before going to a new country is Travelers’ Tales. These aren’t guidebooks exactly but rather anthologies of essays that provide an introduction to a new culture through the stories and adventures of other travelers. The series also contains several titles about general topics, such as food or spirituality or women’s journeys, that span the world, if you can’t find a specific guide for where you’re going.

Mini Guide to Berlin

2009-01-26T09:44:00.008Z

Just back from a long weekend in Berlin, which I really liked, even though the streets were empty and the temperature was freezing. At least there were no long lines for any attractions. Here's my quick roundup of recommendations.

Stay at the Radisson SAS, which is a large hotel with a corporate feel, yes, but also one with a fantastic central location and this view of the Berliner Dom from your room window:

Eat at Maxwell, in a lovely converted brewery, for relatively light, contemporary German cuisine made from local ingredients (such as sautéed cod on slivers of beets; perfect, slightly pink slices of duck with strips of tender potatoes; or pigeon on a pine-nut ragout).
For heartier, traditional fare, Lutter & Wegner served me a massive, crisp and delicious wiener schnitzel (with warm potato salad) in an evocative old-world dining room.

Shop at Do You Read Me for a nicely edited selection of international art, design, and fashion magazines. (I bought issue no. 2 of apartamento: an everyday life interiors magazine.)
And a few doors down, there is In’t Veld, which stocks subtle, luscious chocolates in glorious packaging. So beautiful that I’m saving some of my wrappers to frame for the kitchen:

Visit the Altes Museum for its eye-opening collection of Egyptian antiquities, including the Berlin Nefertiti, the Green Head, and a roomful of detailed papyrus scrolls.

Parliament Square

2009-01-22T09:30:00.001Z

My favorite place in London to stop at a traffic light.

Website of the Week: Zendesk FM3 Buddha Machine Wall

2009-01-21T09:30:00.002Z

I like street noise to seep into my apartment, but my London neighborhood is particularly quiet. (What I do NOT like, however, is noise from other apartments: this makes me insane. But I feel comforted by the sounds of traffic, dogs barking, sirens, and trucks rumbling. Just like Woody Allen.) So, when my flat gets too quiet, I like to put on some nondescript background music, and I have a few so-called “zen” selections, which are a step up from those white noise generators. Now, however, I’ve discovered something even better, the Buddha Machine Wall, which produces sounds that are soothing without being annoying, with enough variation to disguise both silence and random noise from others. It took me a while to figure out how the wall works, but then I found this explanation of the Buddha Machine, which I recommend reading first.