Netflix of the Day

“Anyone can cook aloo gobi, but who can bend a ball like Beckham”

BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM
An old but very amusing film.

“Bend it like Beckham" is to curve a soccer ball around defenders during a free kick, a technique mastered by the famous soccer player David Beckham. The film of this title is about an Indian-British family who live near Heathrow airport. The teenage daughter is a keen and skilled soccer player, to the dismay of her family — who want her to be a proper Indian daughter and either go to school and become a lawyer or get married to someone they choose. Her mother especially wants her to learn to cook aloo-gobi, the traditional British-Indian dish. She’d rather bend it like Beckham.

Her fellow team-mate is played by Kiera Knightly. We saw the movie close to the time it came out (2002) and just watched it again. We expected it to seem out-of-date, but in fact, it’s held up very nicely over the decades! It inspired me to try recipes for aloo gobi, the cauliflower and potato dish that’s in the title. Maybe I’ll make it again soon.

Aloo Gobi that I cooked in 2009.

Anyone can turn blue…

Three Avatar movies from the past and present.

A Miyazaki Film and some nice drinks

 

Yes it is a yellowjacket on my donut.

We like to go to the cider mill every autumn and have cider and donuts.

“The Boy and the Heron”

Finally, this long-awaited movie is on streaming.

We have watched this newly released film on streaming, and I’m sad to say, we didn’t find it as charming or captivating as our favorite Miyazaki films such as “Totoro,” “Spirited Away,” “Howl’s Moving Castle,” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service.”

The Japanese title is taken from a classic book written in 1937 and
 loved by Japanese youth.

I read the Japanese book How Do You Live last year, when I was first hearing about this new Miyazaki film. Like many reviewers, when I watched, I found the connection between them to be somewhat difficult to grasp, as the plot, setting and characters are all different. I reviewed this book in detail here:

How Do You Live?

Quite a few scenes include someone making tea served with bread & butter.

Miyazaki’s films often feature a “Granny” — in this one there are quite a few grannies who crave
food and cigarettes (since it’s set during the war when shortages were severe).

KAOS

Zeus drinks beer while barbecuing.

Blog post © 2024 mae sander.

Movie images from IMDB.

Shared with Elizabeth’s Tuesday party.

June Food Stories in My Life

Food in Film and Fiction

Pixar’s “Bao”

A fun kitchen movie we watched this month: “Bao,” made by Pixar in 2018.

Bao, of course, are Chinese steamed buns — super delicious!

These bao are from a small lunch place downtown where they also show the movie over and over!
I’ve mentioned this restaurant several times, and it’s quite a favorite. Bao and a coke: perfect!

In the movie one of the bao turns into a living human-like creature.

Sherlock Holmes’s Breakfast

From Neil Gaiman’s Sherlock Holmes monster tale.

From a Murakami Tale

A mysterious business owner’s dinner in “Birthday Girl” one of the Murakami Manga.

Chinese Food from The Murder of Mr. Ma

A recent crime novel by co-authors SJ Rozan and John Shen Yen Nee features several Chinese inhabitants of 1924 London, including a reborn version of the ancient Chinese detective Judge Dee. They eat well, and I wished I could join them; for example:

“Dee and Jimmy Fingers contentedly devoured the spring rolls with copious amounts of hot mustard and, following those, a plate of steamed pork buns. The turnip cake and pan-fried noodles had arrived together … .Dee ordered a dish of clay-pot rice with sausage.”

Sweet treats from Madame Bovary

What were sweets like in France in the 1850s? The Bovary family received the following gift:

“Six boxes of jujubes, a whole jar of racahout, three cakes of marshmallow paste, and six sticks of sugar-candy … .”

Explanation:

• Racahout was a paste made from acorns and sugar, and used to make a hot drink or a porridge. 
• Jujubes are a fruit, also called red dates (not related to normal dates) — a candy made from this fruit had been invented in the 18th century. The modern candy called Jujubes does not contain this fruit.
• Marshmallows back then were made from a gelatinous substance produced by the plant called marsh mallow. The recipe for modern marshmallows made from sugar and artificial (or animal) gelatin is an imitation of this natural plant gelatin.

Fairy wine from Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

“Like the food, the wine smelled lovely, of sugared apples and cloves, but it slid eerily within the ice, more like oil than wine.”

From Our Own Kitchen this Month

Len did most of the cooking this month. This swordfish was a really delicious dish!

A Julia Child recipe: Gratin Savoyard, or potatoes cooked in stock and topped with cheese.

We worked together on this recipe, which was tasty. We chose it because we had the ingredients on hand:
pork, green lentils, onions, carrots, and tomatoes with some interesting spices.

Of the dishes depicted here, this is the only one that I cooked.

Food Elsewhere

At Sweetwaters’ Cafe. An espresso with a classic donut.

Ice cream at the Dexter Creamery.

Blog post © 2024 mae sander

Shared with Sherry’s In My Kitchen and  Elizabeth’s Tea Party.

Dinner and a Movie

A vegan dinner.

Dinner was simple and vegetarian. Then we watched a movie about the excesses of the aristocracy in France just prior to the revolution: "Delicious" (2021). According to the blurb: 

"France, 1789, just before the Revolution. With the help of a surprising young woman, a chef who has been sacked by his noble master finds the strength to free himself from his position as a servant and opens the first ever restaurant."

Really the film is more visual than dramatic, as they say, a feast for the eyes. There's a bit of melodrama, though. Historically it's a travesty; the less said about accuracy the better! 

Some images from the film via IMDB:

The French poster for the film

The French poster for this totally foodie film!
We are grateful to our friends Mary and Marty for suggesting that we watch it.