Goings on

This has been an insanely quiet weekend. Yesterday we didn't even leave the apartment--not once. But that was good. Sometimes I need to experience laziness, revel in it, and get horribly sick of it, all in one day, so that I can appreciate activity when it comes around.

Plus, last night I got around to making my favorite red sauce, which is just sheer happiness for me. I glow when I eat it.

Not too much of a thrilling nature going on today. Now I am making spaghetti picchi pacchi, or spaghetti with tomato and anchovy sauce. I am not sure I am convinced the tiny anchovy bones are edible. Earlier we found a really nice cafe here called Red Shift, in the Bays Galleria building just north of Gulshan-1. They do weekly showings of cool, sort of indie films. This sounds delightful to me, who is starved of such standard artsy big-city activity fare. Plus, they have excellent chocolate-frosted donuts--of course, a secondary concern to a rarefied aesthete such as myself. I am just noting this fact in case anyone else might be interested in it.

Brilliant

Found at the completely fabulous An Aesthete's Lament:

"Only the banal need a home."

-Lady Cunard (aka Emerald, née Maud Alice Burke, 1872—1948), British arts patron, socialite, and hostess.

This is true. I am thrilling unbanal, you know.

Snacky snack

I feel like I have been planning my life around food lately. Last night: port-wine cheddar fondue (with French bread, apples, potato cubes, and green peppers for dipping), salad with orange-red wine vinaigrette, glazed lemon cookies. Today: Western omelet with hash browns (I am having major ongoing problems with my omelet technique, however--lately they've been browning too much. Do I need fewer eggs? A larger pan? A better burner? I am mystified, since I never had this problem before). Teatime was fruit salad (pineapple, orange, grapes, pomegranate seeds) and more glazed lemon cookies.

Tonight I am definitely going to work on my grandmother's pasta sauce. That's my favorite of all. But first, I think I'll go read Bon Appetit on the couch.

I was supposed to cook my grandma's pasta sauce today

And instead I went drinking. Oops.

I am so tired this week. I think it's the feeling of being behind--so far behind I'm not sure how to catch up. Well, maybe behind is a bit exaggerated... it's more that there's so much going on I just can't wrap my head around it all. Does that make more sense?

If not, blame it on happy hour.

I love that our new china reminds me of a Vermeer painting. I love that the American Club has two for one cocktails 5-8pm (and that they only cost $2.20 to start with). I love that my bed is soft and has nice fluffy pillows. I am going to commune with it right now.

I should really get off the couch and brush off these potato chip crumbs.

Tired... somehow this Friday was pretty busy, despite the fact that usually, they are not. But after a day of brunching with friends, waiting for the devious internet repairmen, seeing some art, and hanging with the ladies, I am too tired to continue my dedicated slog through Nabokov, which I resumed last night after a lengthy hiatus. I also clipped recipes from two issues of Bon Appetit, though I still have a third one to do before I'm done.

Oh, the thrilling life I do lead.

I was also really proud of myself for skipping dinner tonight, when it occurred to me that, since I substituted half a bag of potato chips instead, I really didn't come out ahead. Not so much.

Amazing dinner

So for our second anniversary, we decided to stay in and cook dinner, to be served on our new set of china. We got the Ostindia pattern by Rorstrand, a Swedish company (the ones that make the china for the Nobel Prize dinner). Bangladesh manufactures a lot of china, often producing things for expensive Western brands that go for a fortune in department stores in affluent countries. Thankfully, though, they sell the overstocks here. I was pretty happy with the purchase (well, gift from James, actually--the second anniversary is the china one, conveniently enough), but I got even happier when I looked up the prices European department stores are charging--the sugar bowl alone is 150 euros. Um, wow. So we got a deal. It's quite nice, too:


Continuing the Scandinavian theme, we made chilled cucumber and dill soup with smoked salmon and creme fraiche (okay, fine, in Bangladesh we had to use thick yogurt instead... it was still amazing):


Of course, this was served with French champagne, courtesy of our charming visitor and favorite parisien, Alex:


Then onto the main course: seared duck breast with cherries and port. Also really, really, really delicious. We served it with rosti (sort of a giant potato pancake) and green beans, but those were less photogenic:


And we finished with a lovely orange cornmeal cake. I finished it with confectioner's sugar myself. Can you tell I'm proud of how this all came out? Pretty, tasty food:


How did we get all the ingredients in Bangladesh, you may ask? The Commissary was a big help. We did have to substitute yogurt for creme fraiche, and we had to leave the parsley off of our potatoes because, unlike in the U.S., parsley is only available here when it's in season, which is not now. Someone was musing to me once about how we are suddenly forced to eat locally and seasonally, not because it's trendy but because that's what people do here and that's what's available. And it's true. But that doesn't mean I won't take credit for it in self-aggrandizing, smug, Bay-Area fashion.

Tired

Is it really only Sunday?

On the plus side, Tuesday is our second wedding anniversary. Hooray! We've decided to stay in a cook a nice dinner together. We'll see how it goes. It's pretty nice to be able to outsource the chopping to the housekeeper, but we're trying to figure out how much we still have to do ourselves for it to count as cooking. Obligatory wedding photo:


In other news, I have horrible blisters from tennis. Ouch.

Musings on a career

Sigh. A bit stressed out. Not sure whether to go in to work today. I think I've leaned toward no--I would really need to write one email, and I feel really bad that these people will have to wait until Monday morning their time to get an update, but I am kind of a weekend-is-sacred person. The really nice thing at our Embassy is that our senior management tends to feel the same way. Of course, I work on the weekend if something is urgent. But today, I've decided that what needs to get done just doesn't meet the urgency threshold. Sometimes I do think that if I could muster the right frame of mind to sacrifice my weekend from time to time, I would be less stressed out because I would be caught up on things. But I really lately feel like I need the weekend to recuperate from work and life in Bangladesh.

This makes me think about the future of my career in general. The Foreign Service has people on both extremes--super-ambitious types who want to be Ambassador in twenty years or bust, and people who like the lifestyle of living abroad on a constant federal government paycheck and don't worry about their career trajectories. And of course, there are many people in between. The great in-between is home to many, and I think it may be my home as well...

In other, unrelated news (well, maybe related to me enjoying my lifestyle), I had my housekeeper make penne with sausage, eggplant, and feta the other day, and I have already decided it's one of my favorite dishes ever. Yum. It's hearty and delicious and I think I'm going to go eat it right now.

Oddity

A thing that is very weird: there is a pretty-ish sort of lake with a park around it in my neighborhood, and yet today was the first day since arriving 15 months ago that I have actually walked there.

Perhaps this is a sign that I need to get out more. It is certainly a sign that I need to move more, as suddenly all my clothes feel tighter than they did a year ago (and a year ago they were all tighter than the year before...).

I am a huge fan of this article, about a woman reading a book a day for a year. While I feel like I am reading for pleasure far more than I did during college, and more than I did immediately after college in New York (where there was, you know, stuff to do), I am not sure I am ready for any such experiment. While I love to read, I have discovered that I have a woefully short attention span.

We are planning our next big vacation, our second R&R (R&R is State Department speak for "We give you a free plane ticket." I like R&R.), for January. Nothing like a bit of escapism to get me through a few months. Any thoughts on great hotels in Bali or Sydney?

Glitter, baby, glitter

It's been a very out-and-about weekend for me in Dhaka. Last night I attended Glitter Ball, which is the expat event of the season here. I must admit, I had no intention of doing so--it requires costumes, and that just seemed like far too much effort for me. But friends of ours had some stomach issues of the sort all too common in Dhaka and were looking for people to take their tickets, so we did, and it was really delightful fun, though I suck at putting costumes together and am secretly pretty happy I got to skip doing that step myself.

Our table's theme was "Samurais and Geishas"--it was supposed to just be geishas, but some men (though not most) objected. Here we are, a vanful of (mostly) geishas off to the Radisson:


It was pretty hilarious when popcorn sellers came up the car while we were stopped in traffic, caught a glimpse of us, and started screaming.

James and I in costume (James's beard sadly did not stay stuck on):


Overall, a very fun night.

Tonight, we visited Nagasaki, the best Japanese restaurant here (you know, out of two, so it's a 50-50 chance). Soba noodles... yum.

Flamenco in Dhaka?

Unlikely, I know, but there we were last night at the Westin, at a party/flamenco performance organized by Dia Asiana, a fashion magazine here. The dancing was really good! The dancers were imported from Spain and looked quite correct snapped without a flash spinning under the stage lights:


And plus, nothing like a reason to do your hair and put on lipstick, as my grandmother would say:


Three-day weekend yessssssssss. Thanks, Chris!

Out and about, like I do

Back after a short hiatus due to work travel in northwest Bangladesh. It's quite pretty, really:


Plus, I finally snapped a photo of the elusive former tourism slogan: the frank and winsome "Visit Bangladesh Before Tourists Come":


It is always good to get out of Dhaka and remember that this country is truly beautiful, though still crowded anywhere you go. Note the photo above--we thought we were visiting a quiet island, off in the middle of the Padma River. Then we got there, and it's like, who isn't out on the island? Laborers collecting wood, children who got boatmen to take them over, picnickers...

Before I left, I had a lovely day with the new group of U.S. Fulbrighters, running an orientation program for them and having them over for a little reception. They are a great group, and I'm looking forward to having them around this year! In other news, my housekeeper is quite talented at making quesadillas, in addition to her standard spring rolls.

P.S.

Yes, we ate Cambodian food too, I swear. Fish amok is pretty delicious, in my opinion. Actually, a great fusion dish we had (at the tasty and fun Blue Pumpkin in Siem Reap) was fish amok ravioli, in a delicious creamy coconut milk sauce. Also, while I am not sure I was behind every dish in the seven-course Khmer tasting menu at Meric in the Hotel de la Paix, Siem Reap, I was 100% behind that gorgeous, gorgeous hotel... out of our price point, sadly, though by New York standards, the restaurant was pretty reasonable.

Shoot, I already used the title "Holiday in Cambodia"

Vacation update, part II: Cambodia. We started in Phnom Penh, where we took very few photos, it seems. I'm not sure we were the most adventurous tourists there, given we found our hotel quite pleasant and it rained a lot of the time we were there. I've already described the genocide museum. The Royal Palace was nice, though sort of a less grand version of the one in Bangkok:


Otherwise, we focused on eating and relaxing. Pacharan had really good tapas. We also bizarrely went out for Russian food (at a place called Irina Russian Restaurant), which was tasty and well-accompanied by shots of vodka.

And then, the temples at Angkor. Pure fabulousness. I felt like Indiana Jones or something... it was especially cool to feel like you were discovering a temple that had been taken back by nature. Like so:


I am sure many others have taken far better photos of these temples, so I'll stop here. One note for those who are considering a visit: it can be strenuous! We climbed a few of the step-pyramid-style temples, and we had some pretty serious muscle aches afterwards. Not to mention that some of the stairs are insanely treacherous--crumbling steps at a, say, 70% incline. Pretty crazy. It was really fun when I would climb up and then decide I was too scared to come down. That's a bit tricky.

Anyway, this was a great trip, and I loved both countries. We definitely hope to come back and explore the north of Vietnam since we missed out on that and have heard great things.

Lines stuck in my head

"Ada, our ardors and arbors."

"Szukaliśmy sprawiedliwości myląc ją z pięknem." [We sought justice, confusing it with beauty.]