Archive for January, 2010
Posted on January 12th, 2010 by jguerricabeitia
Cooks Are Kings For A Day
Join us on Wednesday, January 20th at TXORI for our 3rd Annual Tamborrada Fiesta!
From 5pm to 11pm we’ll have pintxos at the ready as servers weave their way through the festive throng with platters full from which to order. Drummers clad in chef’s whites will be marching through Belltown from 6pm to 9pm, and we will all don chef toques and be cooks for a day!
At 9pm we will be serving a special txoko communal dinner in the back room. $45.00 per person plus beverages, tax and gratuity. Seating is limited. Last year this dinner sold-out in 2 days! Reservations are required. Please call TXORI at 206-204-9771
Tamborrada is THE festival of San Sebastian, Spain — the bars of which were the inspiration for TXORI. One legend says it began in the 19th century. The city was about to be invaded so all of the cooks and chefs of the city left their kitchens and joined the drummers of the regiment which was defending the city. As they beat on wine casks and pots and pans in concert with the military drummers, the invading army was convinced that the force defending the city was considerably larger than they had expected and then retreated. So, the cooks saved the city!
Beginning at the stroke of midnight each January 20th cooks are honored as the event is reenacted. Groups of drummers dress as chefs and march through the city drumming for 24 hours straight! To learn more, click here:es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamborrada_de_San_Sebasti%C3%A1n
Winter Schedule of Classes and Chef Dinners
Chef Joseba is offering a new series of cooking classes and chef dinners at Txori and The Harvest Vine. Prices do not include sales tax. Beverages included in classes held at The Harvest Vine. Please call for more information or to reserve your spot.
At Txori Saturday, January 23rd at 11am: Cooking Class: Seafood in Donostia, fine pintxos $40
At The Harvest Vine Saturday, January 30th at 10 am: Cooking Class: Spanish breakfast $60
At The Harvest Vine Tuesday, February 9th at 6:30 pm: Chef’s Dinner: Cuisine from the Catalan Region 5 courses $75.00 + tax, gratuity and beverages
At Txori Saturday, February 13th at 11 am: Cooking Class: French Basque cuisine $40
At The Harvest Vine Wednesday , February24th at 6 pm: Chef’s Dinner: Dinner in Bayonne 5 courses $70.00 + tax, gratuity and beverages
At The Harvest Vine Saturday, February 27th at 10 am: Cooking Class: Paella $60
Posted in Events-Gertakariak, News - Berriak
Posted on January 9th, 2010 by Danielle
Please join us at former board member’s Angie Stewart’s home at 2437 61st Ave SE, Mercer Island for this insightful event.
Guernica: Dave Boling
Here it is: If you only read one book this year, make it this one.
Boling’s historical fiction follows three generations of Basques as they live, work, and love in the time of the turn of the twentieth century up through the ending days of World War II, including the cold and destructive bombing of their village by the Nazis at dictator Franco’s request. The story follows three brothers and their descendants while fishing, farming, and smuggling, keeping alive in the face of the Spanish Civil War. While this may sound like something akin to a family saga a la The Thorn Birds, what keeps Guernica out of the syrupy range is Boling’s writing: sparse, descriptive, never florid, but always meaningful. It’s a family drama without the overly expressive or descriptive words that make it into melodrama, but the writing fills you with the dust in the soil, the turbulent sea, the danger of the mountain passes. Make no mistake: this is definitely a book that could have gone the way of the melodrama. But Boling’s writing prevents this, and does so wonderfully.
Not that the sparse but beautiful prose does anything to keep the reader at arm’s length from the characters. The very situation that the people find themselves in make it damn near impossible to not feel an emotional bond with them, to not anguish over their possible fates. Let’s be honest: with a title (and a subject matter) like Guernica, you know that it can’t possibly have a happy ending for everyone. And I am not ashamed to admit that I was absolutely wracked with tears for at least a sixty-page stretch of the novel. The writing of the bombing was almost unbearable as characters scrambled for their loved ones and watched people die. Limbs littered the street and men and women and children burned alive in bomb shelters. The chaos, the panic, the length and desperation and inevitability of the scene paints the horror of the useless attack.
Eventually I am honor-bound to mention…do I think this is an all-time best book ever written ever? No. Honestly, no. There are problems, including the inclusion of Pablo Picasso as an occasional character. This sometimes seemed extraneous, even though it was done in a manner entirely consistent with Picasso, the historical character, and did add a layer that will be familiar to many people. The novel is also prevented from possible utter Greatness by a plot twist in the final quarter of the book that made even emotion-wrenched me say, “Hm…unlikely. Tenable, yes, even possible…but unlikely.” This twist smelled slightly of a need for some happiness or at least a not-wholly-tragic ending (Lord of the Flies, anyone?), but in light of a beautiful quote of learning what to do with the love spent after someone dies, the plot twist hangs in there just enough to not be entirely ludicrous. Besides, I’d spent so much time crying at that point that I was ready for some little ray of light. I put my face in it and accepted it. This book is as much about the endurance of love and joy as it is about needless destruction and death in the face of war, and in the persistance of love I can accept a bit of haggling on the plot.
Guernica is Boling’s first book, and as I’ve mentioned it’s not without its flaws. But the good in the book – the sparse writing, the ability to tell a large and tragic story with a strong voice – largely outweighs the bad. Plus I haven’t read anything in a long time that had the ability to not only make me cry, but to keep me crying, leaving me breathless and hopeless for page after page. I don’t say things like this all that often, and it’s not very frequent that I can recommend a book without qualm. This is it. Go forth and seek Guernica.
Posted in Uncategorized-Askotako
