Head over Heels

Now that we have served this cocktail for two years running at our annual Oscars Party, we have decided that it is a keeper. It is trés easy, but don`t try to make more than three at a time. Also, once you have had a few yourself, check and double-check your math. This is the voice of experience speaking.

The Approach:

1. Line up three champagne flutes.
2. Put a sugar cube in each one and on top of each sugar cube, 3 drops of Angostura bitters.
3. In a cocktail shaker, combine 3 oz fresh lime juice, 3 oz of vodka and about 5 ice cubes. Shake, shake, shake and shake some more, until it is all foamy and the shaker looks a little frosty.
4. Pour one third of the liquid into each glass.
5. Top with Champagne. 

This year, we started with Sumac Ridge, 2003 which is made by a winery in the Okanagan Valley, BC, and according to those who know more than me, it showcases ripe strawberry, fresh toast and crisp lively acidity. The mousse is fine and the palate is full of citrus and fresh strawberries. Once that was done and gone, when we moved on to Segura Brute Reserva. Again, I invoke the experts:

Simple, nice and not trying too hard; this basic brut is graced with nice apple and citrus aromas. The palate is wet, juicy and classic, with crisp apple, green herb and melon flavors. Round, clean and just crisp enough.


In past years, we have reached the pinnacle of contentment with nothing more up-scale than Villa Teresa Prosecco.  In the Vancouver area, it is the most readily available Prosecco, and the fact that it is also organic is a bonus. It has a nice straw yellow color with small beckoning bubbles after you pop the cool trigger closure. The nose is a nice lemon and mineral followed with some tasty melon on the palate. This and some sunshine = bliss. Light and refreshing, there’s more citrus and a crisp finish – you could drink this any time of the day. Good stuff.

1898 – Avast the Mast

It cheers me no end to see one of our female ancestors, skirts billowing in the wind,  perched at the nether reaches of the mizzenmast. [NOTE: Since I posted this, a few emails have suggested to me that she was probably on the main mast, possibly on a Chinese junk. In another email, My retired Coast Guard Commander husband says it probably is a junk and the mast is a main mast lanteen sail which means it could be swung fore or aft like a modern day jib. He estimated she is up about 25 feet and possibly to unfurl the sail. 2nd NOTE: Apparently a link beneath was broken. It now works.]

Reading between the lines in various letters and reports, we do have the impression that our Armagh-Hong Kong Jacksons and their cousins were a wild and crazy lot, but these impressions rarely came fleshed out with descriptions or evidence as clear as this. After all, this is not the kind of event that gets mentioned in letters home to dear old Mum, or that ever shows up with any clarity in the dusty staff evaluations in the archives of HSBC.  

Before I saw this photo, the closest I had come to seeing this kind of daring from the women in our family had been in the letters of my great-great grandmother, when she was expressing her fury over her daughter Mary’s affair with a peacock of a man, a man who would later become Mary’s second husband.

My own personal claim to utterly, reckless idiocy – which I can now share with you since my parents are now long dead - was when I was about the same age of this young woman. Not that my kind of risk-taking required any physical prowess. That was never my forte. No, in my case I knocked back a substantial amount of vodka, climbed on the back of Kent Steele’s motorcycle, and after he popped the clutch, the two of us screamed eastwards down King Edward in Vancouver, at speeds that exceeded 100 mph, right through the four way stop at McDonald. Even at the time when we were doing this, I knew that it was way beyond stupid, but I have to say, it was exhilarating.

On the other hand, shinnying up the mast of a ship in full Victorian attire strikes me as a much more laudable expression of daring and exhilaration. This irrepressible zest for life was shared by many of the Irish in Hong Kong in the late 1800s. It probably took something of this kind of risk-taking personality to be able to leave Ireland behind for the unknowns of a life in Hong Kong at that time. 

I have always liked the image of wing-walking, that World War I craze, where people stepped out onto the wing of a bi-plane in flight, and walked out to the furthest possible reach of the wing. In order to grasp the overhead strut for the next step, it was always necessary to let go of the hand furthest back. It was also important to have secured solid footing. It is precisely that kind of alternate letting go, and then reaching out and holding tight, that every immigrant has to be prepared to do.

As a complement to what can be learned from archival letters about the spirit of the times, I have posted two groups of pictures of family members in Hong Kong in the late 1890s. The first, is a collection of Outings I know of little that better illustrates how both business and personal connections overlapped in the small Hong Kong-European community at that time.

The second collection of photos are of a Chess Tournament which was organized in order to raise funds for the Union Church. Two of the children of Thomas Jackson were included as players. The game was held on the grounds of Hon. J.J. Keswick, one of the Keswick family who made their fortune with Jardines and the opium trade. J.J. was also on the board of HSBC, hence his connection with Thomas Jackson – like so many -  was a mix of the social, professional, and philanthropic.

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Kinga’s 64th

It seems to me that there are five elements to a successful party: the mix of people, the flow of events, the food, the drink, and the setting. As my dear friend Kinga said of her recent 64^th birthday party, How can you improve on perfection?

1. THE MIX OF PEOPLE:

As Kinga's 64^th birthday was approaching, her daughter, Katherine, hit on the idea that it would be wonderful to have her four mothers all together. As one of the four mothers, I can assure you that we are not some hippy-dippy mothering collective – although that would work with the four of us. We are simply the four mothers that Katherine has known since birth, and who have in time become not only significant friends of her mother, but of herself as well. One of us met Kinga at a prenatal class over thirty years ago, and the other two have known her since our late teens – in the mid 1960s. My own great-great-grandmother would have called the four of us: The Connexion.

2. THE FLOW OF EVENTS:

We decided that often when birthday cake and champagne are served at the end of a party, as is usual, then their full glory is not fully attended to. That's such a loss. With this in mind, we started with champagne and cake. The fireplace had been stacked high, with logs that had been bucked up and stored by son-in-law Peter, and friend Andreas, and possibly other off-stage folk. Once lit, it cast a glow on us, the flames crackled and danced, and we in our ongoing chat did likewise. 

The Four Mothers

Then we moved on to the entertainment. Katherine and Peter had made a 25 minute exercise DVD for Kinga, perfectly attuned to the needs of her bod at this stage of life. With daughterly glances clearly directed at the camera, Katherine repeatedly instructed Kinga: Now, Mum, remember to breathe.  She managed to deliver this line totally deadpan, all the while hoisting a bottle of gin which was a stand-in substitute for a weight. I believe it was a half-full bottle of Tanqueray – the gin that was initially distilled in 1830 by Charles Tanqueray in the Bloomsbury district of London. Obviously, the weight of such a bottle varies - maybe two or three pounds, depending on how much has been left undrunk – but its virtue is that it introduces an added level of complexity, since it sloshes around. Very important to know.

3. THE FOOD:

After such a workout, or at least after watching such a workout, it was definitely time to eat - again. As you know, we did start with chocolate cake, but I will leave that for the last since we also had it again.

Appies: home-made whole wheat, pumpkin-seed bread – made with home-ground flour, a Little Qualicum Camembert, and veggies with Green Goddess Sour Cream dip.  

Mains: These were all inspired by recipes developed by the award-winning couple who run Vij’s Restaurant  in Vancouver. If you live on the Sunshine Coast, you can buy their cookbooks at Talewinds, or if you are in Vancouver, then I recommend Barbara Jo’s. Our mains included Vij’s chicken – the recipe is on Barbara Jo’s blog - with fresh asparagus and corn using the same spice combo that is used in Vij’s Summer Vegetables recipe. Both recipes come from Vij's first cookbook:  Vij’s Elegant & Inspired Indian Cuisine. The rice pilaf with cashews, cranberries and saffron – which is stellar as a leftover for breakfast – comes from their more recent cookbook, Vij’s At Home: Relax, Honey. Then because, Kinga had ordered noodles to be part of the meal, egg noodles there were, tossed in finely chopped Italian parsley and a scant of butter. The chicken sauce turned out to be a perfect marriage with the noodles.

Dessert: Since a picture is worth a thousand words, this picture takes the cake – so to speak. The recipe for the cake itself is in an earlier blog of mine. The hearts surrounding the cake are actually medicine, to be taken one per month for optimal good health. They are made from Denman Island Chocolate, and as the site for their chocolate says,  Welcome to Chocolate Nirvana.

4. THE DRINK: Kinga’s mother has a wonderful Hungarian joke, thankfully translated into English. If you ask her what she would like to drink, she often replies, anything that starts with a “T”.... The first time I heard this, my mind went racing down various dead ends, trying to recall what drink might start with the letter “T” - except for tea, which was not the likely answer - but then with perfect timing, she gave me the clue, .... the wine, the beer, the gin .... On this august occasion, the five of us stuck to the wine and had two equally priced bottles of Chateuneuf de Pape which had been specially chosen so they could go head to head with each other. At the end of the evening, we declared that the La Bernadine, Chateuneuf de Pape, 2007 under the imprint of M. Chapoutier was the hands-down winner. According to Parker, Displaying an almost encyclopaedic array of flavours including coffee, cinnamon, liquorice and morello cherry, this Châteauneuf du Pape wine is rich with classic Provençal herbs, black fruits and hints of mint all vying for attention alongside the ripe, silky tannins.  Yeah, right, as if we got all that. There was also a forgettable white wine, which will go unnamed to protect the innocent. On the other hand, the Cordon Bleu Brute Select, de Vanoge proved to be the perfect match for the champagne course. It was distinctive, with additional notes discovered in each succeeding sip, much in the same way that you might notice an instrument playing in the refrain of an orchestral piece that you had missed the first time round. Or at least, that’s what this wine felt like to our assembled amateur palates.

5. THE SETTING: The home of The Kinga. It doesn’t get any better. We all slept over – well, except for Katherine, whose handsome and charming husband emerged from the basement where he had spent the evening building a Lego Castle, and the two of them drove home to Burnaby in the wee hours of the morning. But that’s another story. The Castle is way beyond cool.

What this photo lacks in photographic quality, it makes up for in showing the love.

Green Goddess Dressing

Green Goddess Salad Dressing can be pressed into service as a great dip for crudités – especially when thickened with 10 percent yoghurt, or sour cream. It is also a wonderful dressing for robust lettuces like romaine hearts, and is a great accent when drizzled on freshly boiled asparagus, potatoes or what have you. It is also beyond easy to do, and easy to prepare ahead of time if company is coming.

1 cup parsley leaves

1 cup packed watercress or spinach leaves, stemmed

2 tablespoons tarragon leaves, rinsed

3 tablespoons minced chives

1 garlic clove, roughly chopped

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon good wine vinegar

1/2 cup grape seed oil

1/2 cup light mayonnaise

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

NOTE: An eagle-eyed reader pointed out that I had left off the anchovies. Too true. Kinga doesn't like them, and I didn't have any on hand anyway. For the purists, please add 3 minced anchovy fillets.

1. In a blender, combine the parsley, watercress or spinach, tarragon, chives, garlic, anchovies, lemon juice, vinegar and grape seed oil. Blend until smooth, about two minutes. Add the mayonnaise, and blend again until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

NOTE: Makes a little more than 1 1/2 cups, and it will keep for a couple of days in the refrigerator but tastes best when freshly made.