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Swedish Guidos?

Posted by Unknown on March 04, 2010

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Ian Rankin's Saints of the Shadow Bible

Being a fan of crime fiction and mysteries, I feel late to the Ian Rankin party. While contemplating a vacation to Scotland, I learned about Rankin's oeuvre, all set in Edinburgh. Starting with his newest offering Saints of the Shadow Bible would serve as a test; if it was good, I will have found a treasure trove of new titles to keep me busy. Though there is significant back story to which, as a new reader, I am not privy, Rankin's story telling in the Saints manages to communicate all all this necessary facts once needs to know, without a tedious recitation that long-time readers find boring. (Yes, I'm talking to you Sue Grafton .) Saints pits the old against the new in the realm of police investigations, where it's snitches and favors v. forensics and Google searches. Detective Sergeant John Rebus (demoted for past sins in past novels) represents the old, and internal affairs (complaints department) inspector Malcolm Fox represents the new, while Detective I

Barbara Cook and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra

In the past week, I have had the pleasure of attending two concerts at Symphony Hall in Boston. The first featured legendary vocalist Barbara Cook and the other the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra led by the incomparable Wynton Marsalis. Both were part of the Celebrity Series, and as always both were phenomenal. Approaching eighty years old, Barbara Cook is best known for her work on Broadway, especially for originating the roles of Cunegonde in Leonard Bernstein's Candide and her Tony Award-winning Marian the Librarian in Meredith Wilsons' The Music Man . Since leaving Broadway she has made a career of the concert stage with such critically acclaimed shows like Mostly Sondheim and Barbara Cook's Broadway . Keeping with her recent Sondheim theme, the Celebrity Series performance was entitled "No One Is Alone" from the musical Into the Woods . Singing songs written by one of Broadway's greatest composers and songs he wished he had written, Ms. Cook ran the

#12 - Cheu Noodle Bar

Philadelphia Magazine came out with their latest Top 50 Restaurants list, and I have set myself a goal for 2015. I want to eat my way through every restaurant on the list. Now many of them I have already enjoyed immensely - like Marc Vetri's four restaurants on the list ( Vetri , Amis , Osteria , and Alla Spina ) or Jose Garces' Amada or such new classics as Vedge and Talula's Garden - so I am happy to risk the other, and I will focus on those I haven't sampled yet, at least to start. The guys at Cheu Noodle Bar may not be into some elusive and stagnated authentic ramen experience (whatever that is), but they are into flavor, and wow just wow. Ranked #12 in Philadelphia Magazine's list, Cheu produces deeply satisfying bowls of noodles that are the product of layers of flavor deftly assembled by cooks who genuinely love food. I started with the dumpling of the day, which was a magnificent mouthful of short rib, pork, and date encased in a perfectly formed

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