Slow movie weekend

This weekend I rewatched Sofi Coppola’s Somewhere and I saw Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive for the first time. I can say that these where two of the best movies I saw in 2011.

Both can be called slow, but I’d rather describe them as movies that try to tell a story or convey emotions visually instead of through dialogue or a lot of scenes. This is achieved through a combination of beautiful cinematography, long takes, an amazing soundtrack and minimal dialogue. I really like these kinds of movies, they get stuck in my head and I love how there are so many details to the story that are left to the viewer to piece together.

This ends the similarities between both films since their story is very different. Somewhere is a drama that follows Johnny Marco, a famous actor that despite having money, fame, professional succes and regular casual sex with beautiful woman still manages to be trapped in an existential crisis. When his ex-wife suffers an unexplained breakdown and goes away, she leaves Cleo, their 11-year-old daughter, with him. They spend time together and her presence helps Marco mature and accept adult responsibility. As important as the main characters is the setting, the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, a well-known Hollywood hotel.

Drive is a crime neo-noir drama film about a Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a getaway driver who has a contract put on him after a heist gone wrong. Drive is very much a movies movie, a film full of influences and references to other movies. It reminded me the most of movies and TV-series that Michael Mann use to make in the eighties, like Miami Vice or Thief. Not just the setting or story, but also because of the music and the air of undeniable cool that is prevalent throughout the movie. Despite these influence, Drive still feels fresh and contemporary. It’s a violent crime movie without over the top car chases or shout-outs. The bloody violence, when it comes, is sudden and realistic making for some very intense viewing.

I highly recommed both movies, it is nice to see that movies like this still get made and are successful in this age of mindless 3D blockbusters.

Goje vla ies dun van laer en diek van sjmaer

The title of this blog is a Limburg expression in dialect meaning: “a good vlaai should have a thin bottom and a thick filling”. For people who are unfamiliar with vlaai, it is a pastry that is associated with the southernmost Dutch province of Limburg. So much so that it is often called Limburgse Vlaai.

Vlaai has been on my mind a lot these past weeks because my girlfriend had to write a column about it for a Japanese website that covers sweets from all over the world. Since in Japanese one character equals one word, what on first sight appears to be a short column can actually contain a lot of information. That requires a lot of research and as the housemate from Limburg I was the first person she asked. I have been eating vlaai my whole life but it was quite surprising to realize how little I actually knew about it.

Vlaai is a circular pastry and consists of a thin bottom of dough (usually around 27 or 30 cm wide) of which the sides are made to stick out. It is then filled with sugered fruits like gooseberries, cherries, prunes, apples, abricots or rice porridge. The top of the vlaai can be left open or (partially) closed with crumble or strips of dough. After baking, the top of the vlaai is often decorated with wiped cream, chocolate or crushed nuts. The main difference from other pastries is the bottom: the vlaai dough is much lighter than other pastries and has more the consistency of bread. Because the vlaai has a firm bottom, it is not uncommon to just eat a piece out of your hand without a plate or cutlery. Vlaai should been eaten as fresh as possible, than it is the best.

Vlaai has been around for a long time, it probably was first made by the Germanic tribes that populated the Northern parts of Europe before Roman times 2000-3000 yeas ago. They used to make pastries filled with honey or jam. Vlaaien are also pictured in a painting of the Belgian painter Pieter Brueghel (1525) and a recipe for a vlaai was found in a cookbook dating from 1593.

The vlaai as we know it today originated in the early 1900’s in the southern Dutch town of Weert. A woman called Maria Hubertina Hendrix used to sell them at the railway station. From there it spread to the rest of Holland and became very popular, although not has popular as in the south. Backing and eating vlaai is a tradition in Limburg. Housewives use to bake loads of them for birthdays, weddings, village fairs and baptisms. Nowadays, most people just buy them at the bakery. When you visit people in Limburg don’t be surprised if you are offered a piece of vlaai. A typical vlaai is cut into 8 or 10 points, so individual pieces are pretty large. That is one of the differences between the south of Holland (catholic) and the north (protestant), where people are considered more modest and stingy. A common expression in Limburg is that in Limburg you get a piece of vlaai, and in Holland (the north) they offer you a chocolate sprinkle and say “have a bonbon”.

While French and Italians tend to gush about their bread and patisserie and make it appear more sophisticated than it actually is, Dutch are more modest. It’s cultural and vlaai is considered a simple dish for the common man, so there is not much to tell about it. “Do maar gewoon, dan doe je al gek genoeg” is also a well known Dutch expression that basically means one should act without attracting attention to oneself.

I for one do not share this opinion and am currently planning to open a vlaai shop in Omotesando. I might not be able to compete with stuck up French patissiers at first, but I should be able to take on Starbuck, Mister Donut and those awful noodled-filled buns or hot dog croissants.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

I have just finished reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, and it is trully one of the best books I have read in a long while.

It is a historical novel set during the late 18th century in the VOC (Dutch East Indies Company) trading post of Dejima in the harbor of Nagasaki, Japan. The book tells the story of Jacob de Zoet, a Dutch clerk who is assigned to Dejima and his encounters with corrupt traders, scholars and officials. He experiences Japanese culture and (of course) falls in love with a beautiful Japanese woman. I can relate.

I have always been very interested in History, and lately I have been reading up on Japanese history. But like everyone else, I started by reading about the periods of the warring states and World War 2. This mean I did not know much about the so called Sakoku period during which no foreigner could enter, nor could any Japanese leave the country on penalty of death. This period lasted from 1633 until 1853 and during this time the only European influence permitted was the Dutch factory (trading post) at Dejima.

I learned a lot of things I didn’t know about by reading this book and doing some research online using Wikipedia. Like the collapse of the VOC due to greed and corruption. Or that for four years during the Napoleonic Wars, when Holland was occupied by France and the VOC possessions where taken by Great Britain, Deijima was the only place in the world where the Dutch flag still flew. Also, there are a lot of little known incidents that happened during this period. The role the Dutch played during the Shimabara Rebellion, the Breskens incident when a Dutch crew was seduced by 11 Japanese woman or the bombardement of Dejiman and Nagasaki by the Britisch warship The Phaeton.

It is also interesting to look at Deijima from the Japanese perspective. For hundreds of years it was known throughout Japan as a center of medicine, military science, and astronomy. It was the only window to the outside world and knowledge. As a result many samurai traveled there for "Dutch studies" (Rangaku).

As a Dutchman, it has been very interesting to read about this period of shared history between the Netherlands and Japan. The overall story of the book is very good too, although the turn the books takes during the second part does resemble something you would except in a cheap airport novel. Fortunatly, this part is not long and doesn’t outstay it’s welcome.

Another point of criticism is that the pace of the story is quite high. It often feels like an highlight reel and left me wanting for more. I would have like more details about daily life, culture and history. I think a writer like James Clavell would have done more with this subject. But these a small critisms of a extremly well written and engrossing book.

Sushi Bento in Leiden

As I wrote in a previous blog, it can be difficult to find good Asian food in Holland, especially sushi. Most sushi places are cheap all-you-can-eat places where you get big chunk of rice with cold, tasteless fish that as been kept in the fridge for too long. Good sushi should be made ready to order with fresh fish and be served lukewarm. There are exceptions, restaurants with a good sushi bar like Okura in Amsterdam or Kobe in Maastricht, but these are very expansive and out of the way. I had almost giving up my quest to find good sushi in Holland for an affordable price. So it was a great surprise to discover Sushi Bento in the Haarlemmerstraat in Leiden.

Sushi Bento first caught my eye when I saw it was listed as the number #1 restaurant in Leiden on the rating site iens.nl. It’s location on the main shopping street is inconspicuous, and once inside the interior looks a bit like a snack bar with just half a dozen of tables where you can sit. Sushi Bento also provides take-away and delivery from the same counter. so it can take a little while for your order to be done. But don’t let appearances deceive you, there is some great sushi being made here and the wait is definitely worth it!

I was surprised to see a woman preparing the sushi. In Japan, a sushi chef is strictly a profession for men since women are believed to have a higher body temperature, which mean they cannot serve sushi at the optimum temperature. I however couldn’t tell the difference between sushi made by a man or a woman. Everything tasted great.

It appears they don’t have a license to serve alcohol on the premises, beer is only sold “to go” so we choose green tea instead which also goes very well with sushi. We started with some Edamame (soybeans in the pod) as an appetizer and followed with a sushi set consisting of a selection of nigiri (piece of fish on rice), maki (small roll wrapped in seaweed) and pieces from a bigger roll with advocado and spicy salmon. After this we where still ungry and ordered some more nigiri, gunkan (piece of sushi wrapped in sushi), a tempura roll and some miso soup. Everything was delicious. Usually the “California rolls” are too western for my taste, but these where amazing, especially the tempura roll which was very crispy and tasty.

The only points of criticism were that the Edamame was too salty and the sushi rice a bit too loose. The pieces broke apart far too easily when picking them up with chopsticks. Thankfully it is perfectly acceptable to eat sushi with your fingers. However, these are really very small complaints. The final bill for 3 persons was 69 euro, very cheap for the amount and quality of sushi we had!

I can honestly say that this was the best sushi I have had outside of Japan. Even my Japanese partner and her friend who as lived in Japan for 5 years where impressed.

[Disclaimer] the pictures in this blog where taken with my Blackberry. On my next visit I will take better pictures which do more justice to the dishes.

Moesashi

Last Saturday afternoon I was in Amsterdam with friends. To escape the rain and the crowds from the Gay Pride Parade we dropped by Lambiek. Named after a character from the Belgian comic Suske & Wiske, this "comic gallery, antique- and bookstore" (as they describe it themselves) was opened in 1968 and is the oldest in Europe. It’s also the largest comic book store in the Netherlands with a great collection of mainstream and underground comics. The store looks a bit disorganized with big piles of comics everywhere and bookcases full to bursting, but I find it a pleasure to browse there. It's a nice touch that the comics are organized by author and not by title, it shows a great deal of respect for the creator and makes it a easy to discover unknown works.

I picked up Moesashi by Bert van der Meij, a Dutch cartoonist. I didn’t know the comic nor the artist, but the Japanese medieval setting appealed to me immediately. Moesashi tells the story of the legendary Miyamoto Musashi, a 17th century samurai who never lost a duel and wrote the famous book Go Rin No Sho (The Book of Five rings). The comic begins when the bandit Takezo is captured by the priest Takoean. Takezo is locked up in a dark library where he begins to study. He realizes his errors and changes his name to Moesashi. He then travels all over Japan to improve his sword fighting skills by fighting duels with other swordsmen. But eventually grows tired of fighting and seeks a way out of this violent life.

The dynamic black and white art style and the way the story is told is really impressive The comic is not a single story, but a number of episodes, or rather highlights of Moesashi life. The reader is left to feel in the blanks in between. One scene in particular is beautiful. Moesashi and another swordsman face each other in front of a temple in the snow. The atmosphere that the artist is able to conger is incredible. You feel the cold, the quiet and the impending violence.

Moesashi is not really a graphic novel, but can be described as a literary comic, a retelling of a classic work of literature in comic form.  Other examples are De Avonden (Gerard Reve) by Dick Matena and At the Mountains of Madness (HP Lovecraft) by INJ Culbard.

Studying Japanese, a new start

This week I renewed my commitment to learn Japanese. I took a break from studying for a couple of months, since the course I was following didn't suit me. Learning a new language is suppose to be fun, but I was mostly getting frustrated. It was time to examine the reasons for this and change my approach, because I am still very much committed to learn Japanese.

There seem to be two approaches to language studying. The first consist of picking up a study book and memorizing all the key sentences. The other approach is grammar-centric which states that if you don't know the grammar, you're stuck with whatever tiny number of sentences you are able to memorize. But if you understand how to string the words together, you can make any sentence you want. For example, It’s nice if you know what the word “beer” is in another language but it’s nicer if you know how to offer it to someone.

The course I followed at the University of Leiden at the beginning of the year favored the first approach, skipping the writing system, pronunciation and grammar for the most part and concentrating on memorizing key words and sentences. The textbook that was used during the course was Japanese for Busy People. Unfortunately, this book is written in Romani, the Latin way of writing Japanese and is focused towards business people with lots of conversation trees for business meetings and words like “business card” or “head office”. This didn’t help me to get a good grasp on the fundamentals of the Japanese language which resulted in me mispronouncing words and accentuating certain sounds too much. According to my partner, I spoke Japanese with a French accent. Sufficient to say that this will not do! Sacrebleu!

So, I decided to try the second approach and really understand the language instead of just memorizing some words and sentences. The first step was learning one of the two Japanese syllabaries: the Hiragana. The other syllaby is the Katakana which is used for writing foreign words. The Chinese characters known as Kanji are used to represent entire words so are not considered a syllabary and can be considered all whole different study. To remember the Hiragana I used a very helpful app called Dr. Moku Hiragana. I also payed attention to the stroke order (the way in which you draw the characters) and the special rules on how to use them, like how to extend vowels or use doubled consenents.

Now that I know the 46 Hiragana characters and how to use them, I am slowly working my way through an online course called Human Japanese, which (so far) does a good job of explaining how the Japanese language works and teaches useful phrases and words.

So far I am slowly making progress spending approximately one hour a day learning new words a repeating the hiragana and words I have already learned. Now it’s a matter of discipline to continue studying. And of course to practice a lot which is much easier since I have a Japanese woman around to talk to.

Asian Food in The Netherlands: an introduction

You can find every type of Asian food in The Netherlands and never have to look hard to find a Chinese, Indonesian, Thai, Japanese or Korean restaurant, especially in the big cities. From all the types of foreign food Chinese food is the most popular. However, it is not authentic Chinese cuisine that is served in Holland, it is a Chinese – Indonesian hybrid that was developed after Indonesia became independent from The Netherlands in 1949.

During colonial times the Indonesian “Rijsttafel”, a Dutch word that literally translates to "rice table", became very popular. It consist of a variety of Indonesian dishes accompanied by rice prepared in several different ways. Popular dishes include egg rolls, babi pangang, babi ketjap, sateh, rendang and nasi goreng. It is usually served with krupuk, atjar en serundeng. The rijsttafel was originally created to provide a festive and official type of banquet that would represent the multi-ethnic nature of the Indonesian archipelago.

When Indonesia became independent many Indonesian and Chinese moved to Holland and they brought their cuisine with them. A lot of these immigrants started restaurants where they offered the rijsttafel, adding dishes from Chinese cuisine like tjap tjoi, ku lo yuk and foo yong hai. Most restaurant are now run by Chinese people and the food, although still a mix from Indonesian and Chinese cuisines, is known to Dutch people simply as Chinese food.

The Chinese also adapted the dishes to better suit Dutch taste. This basically meant offering a lot of food for a very cheap price. This was made possible buy using local ingredients instead of importing Chinese products. They also introduced take-away in Holland. As a result Chinese food became known as quick, easy and cheap which made it very popular.  “Met het bord Chinees op schoot Studio Sport kijken”, eating Chinese food on the couch in front of the TV while watching the weekly soccer results on Sunday evening  is a Dutch tradition . “Sambal bij?”  which means “do you want spicy sause with that?” is a catch phrase that every Dutchman knows. Unfortunately,  since quality is less important than price, jokes about disappearing cats around Chinese restaurants are also very common. 

Apart from Vietnamese egg roll which can find at stands on any market square, this Chinese food was basically the only type of Asian food you could get everywhere in the Netherlands until the mid 90’s. But then Holland went through a social and culinary revolution. More immigrants from all over the world came to The Netherlands and a new generation of Dutch people grew up who where tired of eating the same food that there parents ate. Due to the economic boom this generation was also richer and travelled more which enabled them to experience more diverse food. I still remember what an eye (and tastebud) opener it was to eat real Chinese food while on a holiday in China in 2005. This resulted in more ingredients becoming available in the supermarket and a greater diversity of restaurants.

Unfortunately, even today it can still be challenging to find a good Asian restaurant that serves authentic dishes. A lot of Chinese restaurant owners where aware of the changing trends and switched to so called Wok restaurants or Japanese cuisine. For example, one of the two Chinese restaurant in my village switched from Chinese to Korean to Japanese food in the span of two years! Since the chefs of these restaurants are not trained in this style of cooking and offering a lot of food for a low price still is the prevailing business model, the quality is often not that good. This has resulted in Japanese food mostly being associated with all-you-can-eat sushi places. 

Thankfully, if you make effort and do a little online research you can find plenty of restaurants that serve tasty authentic dishes, and their number a growing every day since people are becoming more critical about the quality of their food. Although you will always have a lot of Dutch people who continue to go to the Chinese restaurants around the corner on Sunday evening.