Sean’s Blog

I spent most of the day Saturday making tons of curry. Actually I made just 2 large curries to freeze and reheat through the week. Not only are curries really, tasty, cheap and healthy (depending on the ingredients of course), but you can make big batches and freeze them.

Curry is a generic word for any heavily sauced Indian dish. Over the weekend I picked up Raghavan Iyer’s book 660 Curries. This is a great book loaded with recipes from the very simple to very complex. I decided to make a couple simple vegetarian curries.

The first was basically onions, coconut, chilies, black eyed peas and spices. The second was cauliflower, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and spices. Almost all the ingredients can be found at a larger grocery story (even many of the spices). The only problem I had was finding the curry leaves for one of the recipes. After stopping in to a local Indian grocery, we found out that curry leaves from Hawaii have been banned so they are scarce right now.

I’m always surprised to find how many people have never tried Indian food. I love it and would really recommend taking the time to find a local Indian restaurant and give it a try.

Bridge of Birds - Barry Hughart

A while back on Whatever, there was a discussion on literary one hit wonders and Barry Hughart was talked about quiet favorably. I’d never heard on Hughart or Bridge of Birds before and I though that I would give it a try. Boy was I glad I did. Bridge of Birds is a very funny book. The best way I can I can describe it is like a kung-fu Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

After the children of his village are poisoned, Number Ten Ox goes to Peking to find a wise man to help cure them. With very little money he is laughed out of all the houses of the reputable wise men and stumbles in on the drunken Master Li who “has a slight flaw in in his character”. From there they set out to find the Great Root of Power.

I can’t possibly go into where the story goes from there, but it includes sword dancing ghosts, the most desirable women in the world, giant invisiable hands, and underwater cities. The names in the book are great : Henpecked Ho, Cut-off-their-balls Wang, Ma the Grub and others.

Lastly any book that references the All China Freestyle Blasphemy Championship is OK in my book. I would really recommend this book for great fun read.

Then We Came To The End - Joshua Ferris

Then We Came To The End is a book about work.  It was sold as “Hilarious” “Witty” etc… and it was all those things.  But it also struck me as a very sad book.  A book where jokes go to far and pettiness is the rule.  Which is not to say that it didn’t ring true to someone who has spent the last six years as a member of the cubicle nation.

The book follows a group of ad designers through the late nineties and early aughts (Total Aside: I know that aught as in 00 is the correct way to refer to the decade before 2010, but does anybody actually say that?  I don’t know that I’ve ever heard it.  If nobody says it how do we refer to it?  The zeros? Zeds? I can’t be the only one that has run across this problem before) as they work and fear for there jobs.

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The Name of The Wind - Patrick Rothfuss

First off, let me say the Name of the Wind is a great book. I don’t read a lot of fantasy, but I had heard some good things about this one and I decided to pick it up.

The story is told as a retelling of the main character’s, Kvothe, life. Apparently, Kvothe is of some repute, but has retired and is living life under an assumed name as a innkeeper in a small backwoods town. When a famous historian tracks him down, he agrees to tell his life story and we get to know some of what was hinted about him in the beginning.

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Rules For the Modern Man - Dylan Jones

Dylan Jones is the editor of GQ Magazine and with the book he set out to write a set of rules that is applicable to style today. To paraphrase one of his fantastic sayings, most fashion advice seems to come from either the nineteenth century, or was written on the back of a drug dealers business card five minutes ago. And commentary like that is why I loved this book.

Anyone that knows me knows that of the many words you could use to describe me, stylish is not one of them. So with my wedding coming up, I though I would give this a look over since I will need to get a new suit (and have no desire to start off married life embarrassing the wife more then necessary). After reading the introduction, I was hooked.

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