shhhht! Belle de nuit was here!

Got an anonymous comment on my Belle de nuit story...It seems that, in the meanwhile, she came up with a blog.
Unfortunately it is only for those who understand Romanian/ the Romanian actuality.

IN NEED

gotta have this ASAP as my new chariot arrives!

they have it.

I also like food! Good food is good!

...and worths every little penny.

If I haven't had this Oblomov like day, ended watching Nikita Mihalkov's Oblomov, of course, I would have gone out, to brunch, lunch or dinner, either of them.

Too bad I didn't make a reservation to the Mezzaluna, in Bangkok, before I read about the "Epicurian Masters of the World II" dinner. An experience valued at one million baht ( approx. 30,ooo $) that broke out such violent reactions ;)

Anyway, the restaurant manager said, according to the IHT, they were not selling a meal, but a whole experience. Some fifteen international high-rollers from the world of real estate, casinos and shipping whose identity was not revealed by the hosts, at their request, benefited the experience of the black-tie dinner and so did Médecins Sans Frontières and the Chaipattana Foundation — a rural development charity set up by the king, where the money would be going to.

The event wouldn't have been possible, of course, without the six three-star Michelin European chefs skills, and some of the world's finest wines, that were flown in specially for the 11-course extravaganza at the rooftop restaurant.

They say though, that the best food in Thailand costs just 30 baht and is cooked in a wok welded to a street cart and served at a fold-up metal table on the pavement.

More about Mezzaluna here, where I found the pic too

have a nice Saturday!

Judging by yesterday's temperatures, I should jump into the car now, with a picnic basket and enjoy the Saturday somewhere at the seaside...
Like they did!

Kaolin- Partons vite

love and the desert

" Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well, yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless." The Sheltering Sky

She and him....
Voyagers, not tourists...Tourists in the seek of their love..those days and these days..from a hotel to another...mysophobia in a glass of ice, for the coke that couldn't be diet. Fever, shivering, love cried in a hotel door.. a cruel bullet shot from the hills, blood, love shown in a small, dark house.
Desert as you could see with your eyes.



Two couples in Africa, in the verge of their separation. One shown by Bernardo Bertolucci in The Sheltering Sky, one by Alejandro González Iñárritu in Babel.
The American artist couple Port and Kit Moresby travels aimless through Africa, searching for new experiences that could give new sense to their relationship. The Journey leads, yet, only deeper into dispair. The typhoid fever kills Port, the journey throuhg the desert ruins Kit's minds.
Excellent acting: Debra Winger,John Malkovich and wicked Timothy Spall.
Lovely scenes: Kit and Tunner dialogues, Kit trying to find a hotel for ill Port, Kit held hostage.

Susan and Richard travel to Morocco, trying to reinvent a couple broken by the death of a baby.
What was the Japanese guy doing in Morocco? Why did he give his riffle to his guide, as a present? Why did the guide's kids take the riffle and then play on the hills, shooting cars? A shot, and the whole world shivers: Susan, American mother of two, is hurt. She and her husband are not able to get home, in time, to their kids. The nanny can't go, now, to her son's wedding, in Mexico, so she takes the little ones with her. And the Japanese's daughter is the one that found her mother dead, after she shot herself in the head, with the same gun. Each storyline deals with family and conflict from the inability to communicate or to understand.
Excellent acting: Rinko Kikuchi, Gael García Bernal ( still haven't seen the La science des rêves :( ), Elle Fanning ( yes, Dakota's sister) and especially Boubker Ait El Caid( playing little Yussef, the plot and bullet trigger)
Lovely scenes: Japanese deaf girls in the disco club, Richard helping Susan pee, American kids discovering Mexico, Debbie's and little Mike's faces when they see the headless chicken .

I've seen both movies in the same day...and the same half moon over the same desert.

Exactly in the day I programmed to see again Casablanca.
This is synchronicity, huh?

pic found here
Music to listen: something from The English Patient sountrack, in Count Almassy's mother tongue

prepare your tastebuds

New-yorkers who like to try something special every night are welcomed, as NY Times says, where the walls are marigold, the tablecloths goldenrod and the egg yolks spilling into moist corn-colored mamaliga: yellow, yellow, yellow at Acasa in Sunnyside, Queens.

Proudly introducing you traditional Romanian food, go here and read but especially Acasa, to try!

pic taken by Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

sunny day

getting into the black and white mood. Preparing for Casablanca. Later...

zen mom

There is really nothing you must be and there is nothing you must do. There is really nothing you must have and there is nothing you must know. There is really nothing you must become. However, it helps to understand that fire burns, and when it rains, the earth gets wet.

-Zen saying

got it by mail, from the daily Zen stuff...

is my mom behind all these words?