Three Cultural (Food!) Events

I: Argentina

One Saturday in January, Dad and I went in the morning  to Tony's. We got vegetables, as usual and also ingredients for our special dinner; and we saw Jess, Tony's teenage worker and helper on Saturday. Then we took a jolly trip to Protobello Market. There we looked in shops and bought for our dinner from a Spanish shop blood sausage, in Spanish morcilla (say: mor-THEE-ah). After that we went home and started to make our Argentine feast.  For my homework I was writing a report on Argentina.  To help me, we were all going to make and eat a feast of Argentine specialties.  First we made the dessert Dulce de leche, "A sweet of milk," since it took the longest to cook. We got a can of condensed milk and made two holes in the top with nails!  Next we put it in a pot of boiling water on the stove for 3 hours! After that we made our appetiser: morcilla on toast.  We cooked the morcilla with onions and peppers and dad burned, or charred, it! But by doing this the dish was made even better.  Lastly we made our main course Empanadas.  I helped to make the filling and the wrapping.

Morcilla on toast!

Isabel and her camel Potter with the home-made empanada and Argentine menu

II:   Robert Burns Night (Scotland)

On the 25th of January, we celebrated Robert Burns Night.  Robert Burns was a Scottish poet.  He wrote silly poems about lice and mice, but they had deeper meanings, for example about how the rich treated the poor badly.  Robert Burns Night is an occasion also, to read his famous poem, "Address to a Haggis."  Here are the opening lines:

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin'-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak yer place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o' a grace
As lang's my airm

And here are the instructions for making haggis:

1. Take heart, lungs and liver of a sheep and boil them.
2. Mince them up with spices, salt, pepper, chopped onions and toasted oatmeal.
3. Take a sheep's stomach and clean it out.
4. Stuff the sheep's stomach with your mixture then sew it up.
         WARNING:  Don't stuff it too full or it will explode when you …
5. … boil it thoroughly.
6. Serve it up with mashed neeps and tatties (turnip and potatoes)

Before we ate the Haggis, along with tatties (mashed potatoes) and neeps (mashed turnips), we recited the poem and after that sang the song "Auld Lang Syne' (also by Robert Burns).  Whilst the dinner was going on, we gave many toasts, too.  I thought it was really fun to look at the traditional customs of Scotland and to celebrate them.

Isabel and Jackson with the not-yet-addressed Haggis

III:  Chinese New Year

It was Friday night, the last Friday of the month, when the V&A does a special "Friday Late" that focuses on one theme.  Since it was January, around the time of Chinese New Year, and since the V&A was also hosting an exhibition on Chinese Imperial Robes, the theme was "China."  First, we went to the café, where dad's friend Gayle set up a special booth where you eat, listen to, and tell special stories about "spring roll experiences"; we all took turns doing this.  Next we visited the British galleries (1600-1800), where we looked at their chinoiserie art—things made in Europe that was meant to look "Chinese."  We also saw two interesting pieces of modern Chinese sculpture.

After that, we went to the ceramics gallery, which is filled with all sorts of ceramics from all different times and places.  There we visited an installation of an "opium den," where, in the olden days, you would smoke a decorative pipe of opium.  Inside, there were lots of comfy cushions, and you had to take your shoes off.  There was also a recording of someone screaming!  Finally, we went down to the main entrance hall, where we did a collage project using Chinese paper and fake Chinese money; this was all to celebrate the New Year.

Finally we left the museum.  I rode on the back of dad's bicycle to a Chinese restaurant not far from our flat, Noodle Oodle in Bayswater.  We ordered hand-pulled noodles with roast duck and stewed beef: delicious!  I thought it was a very well thought out and creative night!

Hand-pulled noodles on Queensway:  Noodle Oodle ("Don't drop it!")

National Galleries and Exhibitions

Sometimes we go to exhibitions, where it is easier to learn more about one artist, one type of art, or one theme in art.  One night in mid January, mom and I walked to National Portrait Gallery, where we met Dad for an evening at the museum.  Dad and I peeled off to go to the Thomas Lawrence exhibition.  We saw many cool paintings, including one of Charles William Lambton sitting by the sea with a far-off look in his eyes, as if he wanted adventure.  There was also a painting with a boy and a group of children.  I drew just the boy, and I felt I was the boy, thought his thoughts, felt the weight of the broom he held, and wore his velvet playsuit.

Thomas Lawrence, Charles William Lambton, 1825 (private collection) ("Isn't he dreamy?")

After the exhibition, we went to a drawing session.  There we drew a sculpture of T. S. Eliot, but in different ways.  We did a hand-never-leaves-paper drawing (HNLP); a HNLP drawing not looking at our paper; a HNLP drawing with our opposite hand (for me, left); a drawing only using the top of the pencil; and a drawing using two pencils.  They all came out funny!

One week later, we went to the National Portrait Gallery again and to the drop in drawing; but this time, dad joined too.  After that, mom stayed to draw more, and dad and I went to the National Gallery (just across the street) and saw some van Gogh paintings, which I really liked.  Dad says that if you listen very carefully and it is very quiet in the gallery, you can hear a van Gogh painting:  the grass swaying, the wind blowing through the trees, and even the stars twinkling.   Next we met mom and looked at some Early Netherlandish (Dutch) and Renaissance painting.  Then, finally, I drew things from one of my favorite sets of paintings, The Four Elements, by Joachim Beuckelaer (I drew from the "Fire" element).

Conclusion:  I love Friday nights in London!

Vincent van Gogh, Long Grass with Butterflies, 1890 (National Gallery) ("Hey, where are the butterflies?")