最近悉尼又陷入节日气氛，Sydney Festival~

照片依此如下

Hyde park fountain

Domain 人山人海, Gypsy Jazz concerts were great~

Shark Bay's Dawn chorus , 5am in the morning!

有幸被邀请去Yoshii品尝它们的 Degustation menus。Yoshii在悉尼是2 Hats的餐馆，世界排名第五的Tetsuya是3 Hats.不过去过两家的人很多都说Yoshii比起Tetsuya来说更modern的 japanese food. 他们的Degustation menu是包括甜点在内的7道菜menu. Yoshii从外面看上去一点都不fancy,是个深藏不露的餐馆，里面昏暗而精致，加上sushi bar可能才能容纳40人。每晚只有两种set menu供选择，Yoshii course & saqura course. 我们两种都order,所以可以品尝12道菜。每道菜按特定顺序上来，都有人在旁边讲解一番。所以，简而言之，Degustation menus are multi-course tasting menus designed by the Head Chef to showcase the cuisine and its abilities.

用苞菜卷着octpus放在贝壳里和egg white与盐的混合物一起steam..(唉，你看，要我用自己的话解释就是这样的）

Bamboo shoot Tempura served with shiso salt

Pan fried duck breast Jibuni-style port wine flavour

Paper wrapped Hiramasa king fish baked with sansho leaves and red miso

Rose gum smoked Wagyu beef with horseraddish and turnip puree in Tamari reduction

用来清新口味的lemongrass Sorbet,为吃sushi做准备

这是整晚我最喜欢的一道（左），smoky icecream,非常特别，用一种香料叶子薰制米而成，配合其它jelly一起享用，作为最后一道course,香味在嘴里停留好久

Daigo used to be a cellist in a Tokyo orchestra, which was suddenly disbanded for some reason, with no prospects for another job, he and his young wife Mika move to his hometown in rural Yamagata. There he responds to an ad listed under “departures”, which he thinks is a travel agency but turns out to be misspelled. It was supposed to say the departed, the job pertains to dressing, washing, and applying makeup on the deceased before the funeral(known as Nokanshi) . By being offered a great deal of money as salary, Daigo takes the job but is too ashamed to tell anyone.

it is a job that not many people even know its existence, it’s a job that most people look down upon because you earn money when someone dies. At first Daigo, does not like his job but as time passed by, he comes to a new understanding of it. And little by little we too as audience get pulled in. it is a great and meticulous ritual to witness. Every touch of the deceased is done with care and always with elegant movements while exposing a minimum of skin. It wordlessly shows that, the deceased is no mere lifeless body, but a person worthy of respect and love.

It is also a movie about forgiveness and understanding:  Daigo’s wife, at first can't get over the social shame of her husband's profession. She gives him a choice: dead people or her. When she finally sees what he does, she begins to appreciate the value of the 'unclean' and strange job.  Also, the relationship between Daigo and his boss, Daigo and his father, and the story of another family …….it all went from misunderstanding/ neglect to understanding~

Another great movie I have seen recently

The curious case of benjamin button.

 

Directed by David Fincher, the film was adapted from a 1920s short fantasy written by F scott Fitzgerald.. He inturn was inspired by a quote from Mark Twain :

"Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of 80 and gradually approach 18."

 

With a good premise to start , this epic romantic drama is about a man, benjamin, who is born looking like a crotchety old man in his 80s and ages in reverse. As he states throughout the film, he was born under unusual circumstances. He was abandoned by his father as an infant and was adopted by a kind black woman from retirement house.

 He met Daisy, who then becomes a ballet dancer. for the first time when they are both children, their lives intersect at various points as they head in opposite directions. They both have walked through many stages of life and  met different kinds of people. One person 's gone and someone else has come in, Life sometimes really is a car park.

 

The main theme in the film is not death, forgiveness or love, but rather life. Every bit of love, happiness, depression, confusion, hate, companionship ,every experience we have is our life. Many people complain this film is too long and relatively boring.  Well, it's different genre, you can't compare it to those spider man, bat man, which win the box office, but pretty much make no sense. The content of this film enable us to think about it over and over.