Showing 51 - 60 of 71
Surprises from the South
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 31/08/2012
» Ask a food-savvy Bangkokian to name some southern Thai dishes and you'll usually hear the same list: kaeng tai pla, kaeng lueang, pat sataw, khua kling, khao yam, some kind of fish fried with turmeric _ in other words, the usual. And no wonder, because these dishes, plus a few others, define the boundaries as far as most Bangkok restaurants are concerned.
Oodles of flavour
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 13/07/2012
» Long experience has taught Ung-aang Talay (U-a T) to keep expectations low when approaching noodle dishes served anywhere except in certain kinds of roadside kui tio shops and market stalls.
The curious case of Benjamin Britten
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 17/07/2012
» Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, composed for the consecration of the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral in 1962 (the 14th-century structure had been destroyed by bombs during the Second World War), has been lucky where recordings are concerned.
For the love of larb
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 27/07/2012
» Once upon a time in Bangkok, som tum was referred to a sugary papaya salad served with coconut rice. In the misty past it was a lunchtime favourite among society women who used to munch it at Dachanee or on the porch of the old Sorn Daeng.
Going Chinese
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 10/08/2012
» Mention of the word "goose" in the context of Bangkok dining triggers a Pavlovian mechanism in Ung-aang Talay that leads to a mealtime visit either to Chua Kim Heng in Phattanakan or to Kui Tio Pet Jao Thaa across from the Harbour Authority, both of which serve versions of traditional Chinese haan phalo (Chinese-style aromatic stewed goose) so delectable that U-a T had never felt motivated to look further.
Gardiner's Bach motets impress
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 21/08/2012
» Yet another new recording of Bach's Motets. For years, these pieces, perhaps with the exception of Jesu, Meine Freude, were much less well known than Bach's passions, Mass In B Minor, and the major cantatas and instrumental works, but lately new recordings have been appearing regularly, and lucky we are to have them, because these are among the composer's greatest works.
Artful eatery's a real find
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 06/07/2012
» Fai Klom Thana looks so typical and unremarkable among its surroundings on Vibhavadi Soi 11 that, as with so many good small restaurants in Bangkok, it is easy to drive right past it, unaware that high-art cooking is going on inside. But on a recent Saturday afternoon, Ung-aang Talay and food-alert friend AB were on the lookout for the place, following up on a recommendation from a hard-to-please chef who had visited it and left impressed.
Ligeti revisited
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 08/05/2012
» Gyorgy Ligeti was displeased when Stanley Kubrick used some of his music on the soundtrack of his 1967 sci-fi classic, 2001, A Space Odyssey. The movie and the soundtrack album that was issued at the time of the film's release, which contained excerpts from pieces by Ligeti, were both big hits and Ligeti achieved a popularity and, most likely, a bank-account boost of the kind few avant-garde composers can dream of. But on the other hand it is true that, whatever the composer's actual intentions may have been, no one who has seen the film will be able to hear Ligeti's Atmospheres without thinking of the film's hallucinatory imagining of the surface of Jupiter, or his Lux Aeterna without memories surfacing of Kubrick's lunar shuttle skimming over craters and peaks.
On the same page
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 25/06/2012
» Great books have only rarely been made into great films. There are exceptions, most of them based on 19th-century classics, but the memorable movies that had their origins in books of fiction have usually been adapted from lesser novels or from stories.
Duo revel in dreamlike freedom
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 05/06/2012
» One of the most striking things about this programme of short, largely improvised pieces by violinist Hilary Hahn and German composer-pianist Volker Bertelmann (who performs under the name Hauschka) is the strength of the creative rapport between the two musicians.