Happy Halloween!

Tibetan Cuisine

Drepung Loseling Monastery in Atlanta Georgia

This past Saturday was the grand opening of the Drepung Loseling Monastery in Atlanta. The monastery is the North American seat of the Tibetan and Indian monasteries, and started humbly in the 1990's with meetings at members' houses, and then at a small space in a strip mall. So to finally have an official building is quite an accomplishment and a long time coming.

The grand opening featured the excellent house band, a tour of the facility, a display of Tibetan dolls, and Tibetan calligraphy. Some of us bravely participated in traditional Tibetan folk dance, which made the monks watching laugh because we were all quite inept.


Monastery house band performing at the festival









Lunch was cooked by the monks and consisted of rice, cucumber, hot sauce, tea, and dumplings called momos.



Shabhakleb, a Tibetan dumpling made from beef, onion, celery, and flour. This was also called a momo.

Bhakleb, a vegetarian Tibetan dumpling made from potato, mushroom, and cheese.

Tibetan Sorig, which is a medicinal tea.

Meditation cushions used as seats for those wanting to watch the band

The dining tent was decorated with colorful Tibetan designs

Tibetan Dolls

The Loseling Dolls and Traditional Costumes of the Tibetan World
Visual Arts Gallery, Emory University - 700 Peavine Creek Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322

This week Emory University in Atlanta has a collection of Tibetan dolls on display that were created by the master dollmakers of Drepung Loseling Monastery. They depict scenes of life in Tibet and various regional costumes, and are part of the ongoing attempt to keep the culture of Tibet alive. Of course, they are much more interesting in person than as captured on my poor quality camera phone.

The exhibit runs through Saturday the 25th and is part of Tibet week at Emory.

Monkey Waiters

A restaurant in Japan has added two monkeys to its wait staff. What do you think would be the biggest problem with having monkeys as waiters in a restaurant?

1) The repeated mysterious disappearance of the bananas from the Bananas Foster.

2) Staffing shortages during the Discovery Channel's Primate Week.

3) Cold entrees due to arriving at the table from the kitchen via the rafters.

Which would be the biggest plus with this concept?

1) Could probably get away with using a few shiny buttons for a tip.

2) They won't arrive to work tired because they were up late watching the Colbert Report.

3) Don't have to worry about your husband flirting with them.

Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show

Sprint just added several new TV channels to Sprint TV, available on my Q phone. I can now watch Comedy Central and CNN on a television screen the size of an ice cube! Isn't that great? I spent several hours last night checking out the new shows I will now be able to watch while sitting in traffic, or while wearing that paper napkin at the gynecologists office, waiting for the doctor to come into the room. My favorite by far is the Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show. I watched every episode available and am still giggling about Lick Poop. Then there is the Unicow..... which is not sounding funny to those of you who have not seen it I am guessing.

Well just watch. Let me know what you think.

Cooking with Testicles

This post is courtesy of knitwithcats who, upon finding an article on cooking with testicles, immediately thought of me. Awwww, that is so sweet! Anyway, she is obsessed with Jezebel.com (and stray cats, but that's a story for another day) and found this story while surfing:

Ljubomir Erovic, a Serbian medical equipment repairman by day and chef by night, wants to spread his love of eating and cooking testicles. Erovic already helped found the World Testicle Cooking Festival in his hometown near Belgrade...(read more here).

You can get a sample of the e-book here.

Now y'all know dad does NOT want another tie for Christmas this year. Hint hint.

Belcourt Theater, Nashville Tennessee

Belcourt Theater

Nashville Tennessee

http://www.belcourt.org/

About 12 or so years ago the Belcourt theater was on the brink of extinction. It was struggling financially and was in danger of being torn down to put up yet another Walgreens. The theater, a Nashville historic icon, was once a silent movie house and even did a two year stint as home to the Grand Ole Opry in the 1930's. Locals loved its quirkiness such as the many broken seats that made sitting next to your date sort of a fun little challenge, and visits by Porter Wagner, who I saw there once, watching a movie, just trying to blend into the crowd in his sparkly country western suit.

I have so many fond memories of the movies I saw there in those years before Netflix made indie movies easy to rent. This is the sentence where I was going to name a few of those memorable movies, but other than the Salt Man of Tibet, I can only picture the images on the screen and have but vague recollections of the descriptions. I do recall attending a screening of an interesting movie called Normal Life. The movie's two stars, Ashley Judd and Luke Perry, were supposed to have made an appearance but stood us all up. Almost inexcusable since both were living in the Nashville area at the time.

The area surrounding the Belcourt has a few interesting little shops and directly across the street is Fido's Coffee, home of what used to be the worlds best vegetarian burger, but last time I was there, it wasn't quite as good.

The Belcourt was eventually purchased by a local nonprofit group that fixed the place up and diversified the offerings to include theater and music as well as movies. The last time I was there, which has been a year or two, staff expressed optimisim that the Belcourt would continue to survive.

Score one for grassroots efforts.

National Hug a Cub Fan Day

First the good news. With baseball season over for me, I can now go back to watching the Disney Channel which, unlike any baseball broadcast, is blissfully free of Viagra ads.

Cubs fans everywhere are mourning the loss of the 2008 season. If you are the friend or relative of a Cubs fan, you might want to call and check on them. Go to their homes and remove all sharp objects. If you take them on an outing somewhere, avoid businesses with televisions broadcasting sports news, and bridges or other high places. Remind them that they do not mourn alone but with celebrity Cubs fans Bill Murray, John Cusack, William Peterson, Jim Belushi, Vince Vaughn, Gary Sinese, Bonnie Hunt, Jimmy Buffett, Eddie Vedder, Billy Corigan, and Joe Mantegna.

What ever you do, don't say "There is always next year." After having heard that for a hundred years, you are likely to be punched.

Note to any of you with teams still in the playoffs. Voodoo dolls are not effective. My Manny Ramirez doll has been in the oven for three days now, and, nothing!

Bronte's, Nashville Tennessee

Bronte
Nashville Tennessee


Bronte Bistro in Nashville is a pleasant little lunch spot and popular brunch option on weekends. Many of the menu choices are recipes from cookbooks by chefs such as Barefoot Contessa and Tyler Florence. The prices are actually reasonable for the hoity toity Green Hills area, which is after all, home to Nicole Kidman.

The only problem with Bronte's is that it is perched next to the hard to resist Cheesecake Factory. So if you in the area for one meal only, you will have a hard choice.

Davis Kidd is still a wonderful place to browse for books and unique gifty type items despite a change in ownership, a move to a new location a few years ago, and a reduction in what was once a gynormous selection of books. The selection at Davis Kidd is still great, just not as awe inspiring as it once was. I attribute this to online book stores.

A pleasant afternoon if you are in the area would be a shopping trip to the fancy stores of Green Hills mall, lunch and a book browse at Davis Kidd, and then a movie at either the Green Hills theater which often has indie films or the Belcourt theater.

Dineometer Rating: 70-80%