2024-01-06

January 2024 Newsletter

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Life in Mexico

Mexico’s finest.

I saw something today that I have never seen in Manzanillo; a traffic cop stopped a pick-up truck for running a red light.

Sure, there’s lots of towns in Mexico where a police cruiser will pull you over for having noisy brake lights and then offer to sell your driver’s license back for 5000 pesos, but not in Manzanillo.

Heck, you can strap a beer keg on the roof of your car and run a hose through the driver’s window and they won’t bat an eye. I’ve driven on the sidewalk to get around one of those taxi tuk-tuks and never thought twice (note to self; don’t do this in Calgary).

In the truck driver’s defense, he did have 300 live chickens in the back of his truck, and if you’ve ever lived near a poultry farm you know the value of keeping the breeze blowing. Hopefully they settled this amicably with a few dozen eggs.

Recipe; Asian Lemon Chicken

This is so good, and easy to make. The secret is in the lemon sauce, which you can whip up in a few minutes. This is a great meal to make when you’re having special friends over or for when the Chinese take-out delivery guy froze to his scooter.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts

½ cup of flour

1 egg, whisked

¼ cup of butter

Sauce;

1 tsp of corn starch

1 tsp of grated ginger

¼ cup of brown sugar

1 cup of chicken broth

1 tsp of soy sauce

Juice from one lemon

Zest from one lemon

Cooked rice.

Chopped green onions for garnish.

Directions

Split the chicken breasts in two and then flatten them by pounding with a frying pan. (Or, go to the market in Santiago and ask the chicken ladies for ‘Milanesa’ style breast and they’ll cut it for you).

Dip the breasts in egg and flour and fry in butter for a few minutes each side until brown.

Mix the sauce ingredients together in a pan and warm over medium heat until it thickens up.

Place the breasts on a bed of rice, spoon the lemon sauce on top, and garnish with chopped green onion. Enjoy!

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Book Review

Hamnet

By Maggie O’Farrell.


Before I begin this review, I want to give a big shout-out to the Calgary Public Library! One of my first jobs as a boy of 12 was working as a page in the Hamilton Public Library, and I have kept a warm spot in my heart for the public institution.

When we were in Calgary last summer, Linda and I took the opportunity to renew our memberships with the CPL (free!), and to visit the magnificent new Central Library behind City Hall.

More importantly, we signed up for Libby, their online circulation service, which allows us to borrow eBooks when we are in Mexico. This gave me the opportunity to catch up on some amazing books that I had been wanting to read, including Hamnet.

I am a big fan of historical novels in which the momentous events that have occurred are reflected and framed through the eyes of common people (Magnus the Magnificent, Joan the Saint and The Hotel Seamstress).

The novel is about Hamnet, the son of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, who passed away at the tender age of 11. So profound was his father’s grief that it inspired him to write Hamlet, one of the greatest tragedies in the English language.

In O’Farrell’s hands, the tale becomes an immense family saga, with siblings, in-laws and children all expounding their own tales of joy and woe. Her lush descriptions of their world and the lyrical cadence to their words combine to give a rich theatrical tapestry to the book. She beckons us into a world that is simultaneously intimate, magnificent, furious and loving. This is a real book-lover’s treat; I highly recommend Hamnet!  

Movie Review

Maestro

Starring Bradley Cooper

Streaming on Netflix

This is an all-star production, produced by Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, directed by Bradley Cooper and starring Cooper as Leonard Bernstein and Carey Mulligan as his wife Felicia. Together, they have about a gazillion Oscar nominations and awards.

The story follows the professional career of Leonard Bernstein, the first American to achieve international stature as a conductor. Bernstein was also an influential composer for the stage and screen, writing the score for West Side Story and On the Waterfront.

The film deals with his personal relationship between his wife Felicia, as well as several protégées whom he encouraged both professionally and personally. It explores his bisexuality throughout his adult life, until his death in 1990.

But the core of the movie centers around his love for music. The scenes in which Cooper portrays Bernstein conducting orchestras captures the raw enthusiasm and almost frenetic devotion of his performances.

When the Oscar nominations are announced later this month, I fully expect that Maestro will be present in all the major categories, including best picture, best actor and actress, and best director. In a year when so many amazing movies were released, it stands alone. I highly recommend Maestro!

Bonus Book Review

The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing

By Melissa Bank

Written over 25 years ago, the novel is a series of vignettes that follow the life of Jane, an aspiring book editor who finds herself caught up in a romantic entanglement with Archie, one of the scions of New York’s publishing sector.

Starting at the age of 14, we follow Jane as she wise-cracks her older brother Henry and his many lusts, comparing them to her own parlous and fraught experiences as she achieves adulthood. Throughout the narrative, she overcomes her insecurities and minor tragedies with a devout faith in her inner strength, and no lack of self-deprecating humor.

Sadly, the author’s award-winning career was hampered by a serious bicycle accident in which she suffered brain damage that impaired her ability to write, and passed away in 2022, at the early age of 61. The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing stands out as a brilliant harbinger of what might have been. I highly recommend you read it!

2023-11-03

November 2023 Newsletter

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Life in Mexico

Life’s a Beach

We live a few blocks from Santiago beach, a beautiful, 6-km stretch of coffee-colored sand situated in a protected bay.

The beach is deserted most of the week, but come Sunday, several thousand people flock for a day of rest and celebration. Here are some of our observations about the unique way that Mexicans enjoy a day in the sun.

Bring Beer. Anyone who thinks Mexicans are lazy has never seen one carrying three flats of warm cerveza on their head.

Bring the family. When it’s time to take the clan to the beach, they rent a bus. Even Grandma, dressed in black and sitting in a wheel chair, comes along.

Bring a life-vest. There are no lifeguards, rip markers or swimming lessons; if you get carried out to sea, you’re crocodile buffet.

Bring a skin tumor. The favorite sunscreen is coconut oil, with a melanoma-rating of +50. Smells great, though.

Bring a bikini. Not so bad when they’re 17, but when you see a Big Momma toting a few decades of tacos only one phrase comes to mind; Lycra torture test.

Book Review

The Exchange

By John Grisham

Linda and I have been reading John Grisham’s legal thrillers for decades now, and we’ve enjoyed them a tremendous amount. Unfortunately, in The Exchange, the author has taken a couple of detours from his usual winning formula that are, to say the least, distracting.

The Exchange is a follow-up to a tremendously enjoyable book, The Firm, which followed the misadventures of a young lawyer. After graduating with distinction from Harvard, Mitch McDeere joined Bendini, a prominent Memphis firm. At first, he and his wife Abby found themselves enjoying the life and sudden wealth that the position promised. Soon, however, they found themselves embroiled in a nefarious world of money laundering. With the FBI closing in, Mitch and Abby fled the country one step ahead of murder, abandoning their lives.

Now, decades later, Mitch has established a career with Scully, the world’s largest law firm. Settled in New York, they are intent on raising their twin sons and putting the nightmare around Bendini far behind.

Their lives are shattered, however, when a mysterious terrorist gang based in Libya kidnaps one of their associates, the sultry Giovanna Sandroni, while inspecting a client’s engineering work in the middle of the desert. Mitch finds himself scrambling to put together the $100 million ransom before she is executed.

So, what’s my problem? I enjoy Grisham because he doesn’t generally wallow in gore. The Exchange, however, features several grim torture/executions of terrorist captives; I can get all of this I want from reality, thanks.

Secondly, this isn’t a legal thriller, with all the court twists-and-turns that normally propel Grisham’s narrative. It’s essentially a ‘will he get the ransom together before the deadline (and presumably icky death) of the beautiful victim’ thriller.

Finally, when you do a sequel, the core of the conflict is associated with some ‘unfinished business’ (one of the guilty parties gets out of prison and comes looking for revenge, say). Except for the fact that it features the two primary protagonists from The Firm, the two books don’t really have anything to do with one another.

My suggestion; if you haven’t already read it, I highly recommend you get a copy of The Firm!

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TV Review

The Crown

Streaming on Netflix

We were living in London in 1997, about one km south of Kensington Palace. The morning of Sunday, August 31, dawned sunny and warm, and we decided to go for a jog in the park.

As we made our way north along Gloucester Rd, however, we noticed several strange occurrences. A cabbie was parked at the curb, weeping as he listened to his radio. People were solemnly exiting the Gloucester Rd tube, each clutching a bouquet of lilies.

When we reached the park, the normally-cheery warden wore a solemn expression and a black armband. It wasn’t until we reached the gilded south gate of the palace, already strewn with a pile of flowers, that we realized what was going on.

“Diana died last night,” a tearful mourner explained.

The sixth, and final season of The Crown focuses on the death of Diana. Even though half a lifetime has passed, the events remain riveting. Although it is a dramatization that pigeonholes many of the participants (the scheming Mohamed al-Fayed, his weak-willed, acquiescent son Dodi), the episodes nonetheless capture the visceral fascination that the world held for one woman and her tragic death.

Days after her demise, we stood in veneration as her gun carriage was drawn through the park, mourning with the millions watching at home.  It is a feeling that I shall remember for the rest of my life. I highly recommend The Crown!

Movie Review

Nyad

Streaming on Netflix

NASA had a goal to reach the moon; it was a massive, coordinated scientific achievement.

Sir Edmund Hillary had a goal to scale Mt. Everest, the tallest peak on earth.

But when does a goal become an obsession?

Diana Nyad, an American marathon swimmer, had achieved notable success early in her career, swimming the circumference of Manhattan, a distance of 28 miles, at the age of 26 in 1975. She went on to achieve a world open-water distance record in 1979, swimming 102 miles from Bimini in the Bahamas to Juno Beach, Florida.

Her ultimate ambition was to complete an open-water swim from Cuba to the Florida Keys, a distance of 110 miles. Although the feat had been previously done by swimmers using shark cages, she wanted to do it unprotected. It took her a total of five attempts, the final one in 2013 at the age of 63.

Each of the attempts were aided by a small army of volunteers, including the captain of the support boat, played by Welsh actor Rhys Ifans (who, as you may recall, did a wonderfully-comic turn as the goofy roommate to Hugh Grant in Notting Hill).

In the end, Nyad succeeds, although her achievement was shrouded in controversy due to a lack of independent verification that ultimately motivated Guinness to revoke her feat from its Book of World Records .

The movie stars Annette Bening, who plays Nyad, and Jodie Foster as her coach Bonnie Stohl; two incredible actresses portraying two strong women working to achieve a near-impossible objective. The movie is both riveting and touching; I highly recommend Nyad!

2023-07-10-small

July 2023 Newsletter

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Life in France

We’ve been in France for over a month now, and if there’s one thing that stands out more than anything else, it’s the fact that the French worship their stomachs. Or, more specifically, all the wonderful things they put in their stomachs.

People ask us; ‘how do you spend your day?’ I’d like to wax lyrical about the endless hours spent contemplating immortal works of art and graceful architecture, but that would be wrong. The vast amount of daylight hours are spent rapturing over the many amazing ingredients on offer.

Every day, we stop at Mary’s cheese shop and buy some scrumptious soft cheese for spreading on baguette, a bit of feta for Greek salads, and a tangy Roquefort to accompany the lovely Burgundy we purchase right next door at Virginie’s Les Caves du Roi.

Monsieur Bardot, the neighborhood butcher, always has a delightful selection of veal, from cordon bleu (breaded veal wrapped around cheese and prosciutto), to tender belly for cooking blanquettes de veau, a beef stew in creamy sauce served on pappardelle pasta.

Not to be forgotten, is the patisserie. The smell of chocolate wafts through their door and down the street, drawing you forcefully in by the nose. Caramel dipped in dark chocolate, delicate strawberry tarts on custard, and an endless array of cake.

The only reason, of course, that I don’t look like the Michelin man is because we walk an average of 150 km per month buying all this stuff.

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Book Review

The Five Star Weekend

By Elin Hilderbrand

Linda and I have been reading Elin Hilderbrand’s novels for several years now. ‘The queen of the beach reads’ has written several dozen novels set in the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, featuring the misadventures of both the full-time islanders and the summer visitors.

Their stories are a mix of the trials and tribulations of the super-rich and those scraping by from paycheck to paycheck. Some of my favorites include The Identicals, a tale of twin sisters raised separately, and 28 Summers, which follows a secret affair between an independent island woman and the husband of a Washington senator.

The Five Star Weekend follows the recovery of a food blogger after the tragic death of her husband. Hollis Shaw has an international following on her Hungry with Hollis blog, in which she videos her recipes and sports wonderful attire. But her glamourous life is turned inside out when Matthew, a respected Boston surgeon, is killed in a car accident.

Hollis retreats to their summer home in Nantucket, where she lives like a hermit, neglecting her blog and her young adult daughter Caroline. She is finally stirred from her depression after reading about a woman who, recently widowed, rebooted her life by holding a five-star weekend where she invites four women friends, each from an important part of her life, and treats them to a fun and rejuvenating time.

Hollis invites Tatum, her closest childhood friend, Dru-Ann, a roommate from college, Brooke, a former neighbor when Hollis was raising her child, and, most intriguingly, Gigi Ling, a follower of her blog whom she has never met. She then hires Caroline to video the entire encounter.

The author excels in crafting fully-fledged characters who have serious issues of their own, and Five Star Weekend is one of her best novels. Each of Hollis’s friends brings significant emotional baggage that needs resolution, promising the potential for a five-alarm fire! This is a great page-turner, and ensures that Hildebrand will be retaining her crown for quite some time to come. I highly recommend The Five Star Weekend!

Book Review

A Visit from the Goon Squad

By Jennifer Egan

Generally, when I see a book cover with the blurb ‘Winner of the So-And-So Award’ I run like hell. I can’t think of the number of winners I’ve purchased that I doubt even the author’s mother has read cover to cover. They’re just awful.

So, it was with trepidation that I approached A Visit from the Goon Squad, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize. Right from the very first chapter, I was drawn into the mesmerizing world of Sasha, a record producer’s assistant based in New York, and the strange and fascinating cadre of friends, family and circumstances that orbit her in a cosmos of weirdness.

Sasha, it seems, is a kleptomaniac who can’t resist stealing objects every week so that she has something new to tell her therapist (this is New York, remember). Her boss, the legendary record producer Bennie Salazar, gets seized by paralyzing bouts of cringe unless he drinks pure gold flakes in his coffee and sprays his arm pits with Raid to ward of cooties.

And these are the normal ones. The author parades her characters through a series of chapters that act as vignettes to pivotal parts of their lives using a spectrum of tones and styles (was that a Power Point presentation?) that impressively displays her prodigious writing talents. I highly recommend A Visit from the Goon Squad!

2023-04-03

April 2023 Newsletter

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Life in Mexico

It’s Semana Santa! Every year, 40,000 Mexicans descend on Manzanillo during Easter to celebrate their religious devotion with tequila. Here’s a few survival tips;

Go the nearest ATM and empty it before everyone else does.

Stock up at the OXXO with ten loaves of Bimbo bread and a big can of Spam. Both will stay fresh at least until the Second Coming.

Top up two dozen sealable bottles with gasoline in case Pemex runs out. I recommend José Cuervo; you can find about three million empty ones along the Miramar beach.

It’s OK to make noise at Easter. If you can’t find fireworks, pay one of the Marines hanging outside the Burger King to let his AK-47 rip.

Book Review

The White Lady

By Jacqueline Winspear

We’ve been reading Winspear’s Maisy Dobbs mysteries series for several years now. It features a woman private detective who starts her own agency in London after WWI. It runs for several decades and features a fine cast of eccentric British characters. If you’ve never read it, I urge you to give the series a try.

The White Lady is a departure into new territory.  Elinor White is a British woman who grew up in Belgium in the early twentieth century, and returns in WWII to act as a spy behind enemy lines. After the Allied victory, she retires to rural Kent.

But the countryside is too dull for her taste and she soon launches a one-woman crusade against a ruthless gang of London criminals. Her former spy-mate, now a Deputy Commissioner in Scotland Yard, becomes a hapless accomplice as he tries to keep Elinor’s life attached to her limbs.

The author brings her profound insight and knowledge of post-war British culture along with lots of twists and turns to create an exciting and intriguing cops-and-robbers thriller. I highly recommend The White Lady.

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TV Review

Dinner Club, Season 2

Streaming on Amazon Prime

Celebrity Italian chef Carlo Cracco returns for a second season. The series features half a dozen friends who he takes on road trips to his favorite parts of Italy to sample the local cuisine, then returns to his mansion outside of Rome to cook a dinner club meal.

This season features excursions to Sicily, South Tyrol and Romagna, where his actor friends discover fresh herbs, sausages and deep-fried delicacies amid scenic settings. It’s the dinner club that really sparks the series as everyone gets very tipsy and critiques each meal in hilarious fashion. It’s all in Italian, but the subtitles keep you abreast of each insult! If you love food and friendship, I highly recommend Dinner Club.

Recipe: Rack of Lamb

We’ve always been big fans of New Zealand lamb, where they outnumber Kiwis 10 to 1. The delicate flavor is derived from a breed that feeds best on pastureland. Their lamb is coveted all over the world; I recall seeing ships in the South Island port of Nelson that were designed to transport them live to the Middle East for the festival of Ramadan.

For the first few years, we were disappointed to find that New Zealand lamb was rare in Mexico; the country has millions of sheep, but most are raised for wool and dairy. We were delighted when La Comer finally started featuring frozen lamb that had been raised in Mexico especially for meat; the leg, shank and shoulder are just as delicious as the New Zealand variety when roasted over several hours in the oven.

Our favorite, by far, is rack of lamb. When properly marinated and cooked over coals, it is extremely delicious! If you don’t have a BBQ, roasting in the oven is also a great way to go, but it just doesn’t beat that mix of smoke and sizzling fat when done over coals.

Ingredients (feeds 2)

1 rack of lamb with 8 chops (cut in half).

Marinade

¼ cup of olive oil.

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 Tsp of salt.

1 small chili pepper.

1 sprig of fresh rosemary (or 1 Tsp of dried rosemary)

Directions

Mix the ingredients in a blender and pour over the lamb and let it marinate in the fridge for at least four hours.

Prior to cooking, pull the lamb out and let it warm to room temperature.

Place the lamb bone-side down over the coals* for five minutes. Flip the racks and cook for another five minutes. This should bring them to medium rare. Slice the meat and check for doneness; if it’s still too pink, put it on bone-side down for another few minutes. Cover and let rest for five minutes, then carve into lollipops and serve with baby potatoes, asparagus and mint sauce. Enjoy!

*(If you don’t have a coal BBQ, set your oven at 450 F and cook, bone-side down, in a metal pan, for 15 minutes, then let rest covered for five minutes).

2023-03-08-small

March 2023 Newsletter

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Life in Mexico

Every spring brings a new gaggle of buskers to Manzanillo. They congregate at the intersection of Audiencia and Miguel de la Madrid, where they can annoy the occasional driver who voluntarily obeys the stop light. They twirl hula-hoops, do hand-stands and ignite things on fire. My favorite is the juggler who keeps three machetes simultaneously aloft. Gives a whole new meaning to hand-outs.

Paperbacks Available Here in Manzanillo!

That’s right, you can purchase paperbacks directly from the author! Just send me an email on my website, and I can arrange to drop it off directly to your home! (Offer only good in the immediate Manzanillo area).

Members of Kindle Unlimited can also read all of my books online!

Book Review

The Personal Librarian

By Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

The novel, set in the early 1900s, is a fascinating biography of Belle da Costa Green, a young woman who was hired by J.P. Morgan as his personal librarian.

The story of J.P. Morgan in itself is a fascinating tale. The financier was one of the richest men in the world, and had purchased an immense collection of books and manuscripts, including editions of the Gutenberg Bible. In between saving the US economy, dallying with his mistresses and running his bank, he built an opulent private library in the middle of New York that was the envy of high society. He chose Green to organize his immense collection.

What Morgan didn’t know was that Bella was African American. Her father was a prominent advocate for Black equality in America, touring the country to build support. Her mother, however, hid Bella’s racial background, claiming Portuguese ancestry to explain her sultry complexion.

The ruse worked. The astute woman soon became a star in New York social circles, procuring prize literary antiques and creating an internationally-acclaimed collection. Morgan, in turn, became infatuated with his young protégé, treating her lavishly and giving her full reign to expand his acquisitions.

But it was all built on a lie. Anti-Black sentiment remained high after the Civil War, and Blacks who passed themselves off as Whites faced persecution – and even lynching. Every day, Bella risked exposure that would ruin her career.

Benedict and Murray are accomplished and talented authors and have created a vivid depiction of early 20th century race relations in the US, personalizing the social climate of the times through the experience of an empathetic historical figure. I highly recommend The Personal Librarian.

Book Review II

The Marriage Portrait

By Maggie O’Farrell

This colorful and suspenseful novel takes place in Florence during the mid-16th century. The city, under the control of Cosimo de Medici, is in full flower in the Renaissance.

Lucrezia, the third daughter of the Grand Duke, grows up in the Palazzo, an immense fortress situated in the heart of the city. Her cloistered life alternates between the nursery, where she is raised with her numerous siblings by Sofia, and her lessons in writing and history at the hands of tutors.

The girl is a dreamer and a romantic, spending her quiet hours scurrying around the hidden passages of the palace, eavesdropping on her parents and court dignitaries. When her older daughter Maria tragically dies before her wedding to the young Duke of Ferrara, she is appalled to learn that her parents have betrothed her instead.

As a bride of 15, she finds herself suddenly tossed into a cauldron of intrigue. Her husband, Alfonso, treats her kindly, but courtiers in Ferrara see her as a useful pawn in their own machinations. She quickly becomes convinced that someone – perhaps her very husband – wants her dead.

O’Farrell, the acclaimed author of the Shakespeare-inspired novel Hamnet, brings a lyrical sense of observation to both Renaissance Italy and the romantic imagination of a young girl. The narrative moves back and forth through time, introducing us to Lucrezia’s earliest palace life and her current date with death. Will she survive? I highly recommend you read The Marriage Portrait to find out!

TV Review

Daisy Jones & the Six

Streaming on Amazon Prime

Last month, I reviewed the novel Daisy Jones & the Six, written by Taylor Jenkins Reid, a sharp, insightful chronicler of the hedonistic California lifestyle. This month, I am reviewing the TV series adaptation!

The novel was written in the oral-history style made popular by Rolling Stone. The series, in turn, takes a documentary approach, in which each character is interviewed several decades after the meteoric rise – and equally rapid demise – of the band.

The ten-part series chronicles the life of a young singer named Daisy (played by Riley Keough, the granddaughter of Elvis), who comes of age in the late sixties. Her talent for creating and singing unforgettable songs is paired with the on-stage presence of Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin), the hunky front-man for the Six. They create sparks – both on and off stage – that becomes the stuff of rock-n-roll legend.

The series is being released in batches, so we watched the first three episodes on Friday. It’s a soap opera dedicated to the 70s vibe, with everyone dressed in leather vests, hippy skirts and aviator glasses. Billy’s hair looks like he permed it by dropping a toaster into his bath-tub, and I can’t help but see Elvis’s smoldering eyes every time Daisy stares melodramatically into the camera lens.  This is a fun ride, and I can’t wait to see the rest of the episodes!

Recipe: Shrimp Tacos

There’s a great fish shop in Santiago located across the street from Juanito’s, right beside Dutch Deli. The prices are very reasonable, and we’ve enjoyed their frozen lobster, salmon and jumbo shrimp. Also, be sure to order a chocolate cake from Manuel at the Dutch Deli while you’re in the neighborhood – they’re delicious!

I’ve shared this shrimp taco recipe before, and it was such a hit with readers that I’m running it again. It’ a great lunch meal; fast, easy to make, and delicious!

Ingredients

8 large shrimp, peeled.

1Tsp of butter

4 medium-sized flour tortillas

Sriracha sauce (or any mild hot sauce).

¼ cup of mayonnaise

Juice from ½ a lemon.

1 garlic clove, crushed.

½ tsp of salt.

Chopped cabbage

Chopped cilantro

Directions

Mix together the hot sauce, mayonnaise, lemon juice, crushed garlic and salt to make a sauce.

Melt the butter in a pan and fry the shrimp until they turn pink. Set aside.

Place the tortillas, one at a time, in the pan and heat for 15 seconds a side.

Fill the tortillas with the shrimp, then add the hot sauce, and garnish with cabbage and chopped cilantro.

Enjoy!