By now most people who follow this sort of thing know that a couple of weeks ago there was a fund-raising dinner in aid of the reelection of President Obama held at the home of Sara Jessica Parker in the West Village. SJP is a lovely woman who works hard and does not take herself seriously. Mr and Mrs O are nice people with two kids, a boisterous dog and a live-in MIL, who sometimes order clothes from catalogues and websites because they can't always leave work early to get to a mall. The dinner was organized by Anna Wintour, who takes herself very seriously. There was a glittering guest list composed of a limited number of the city's fashion elite (and prosperous), and the guests glittered too, beads and sequins in the forefront. Some guy named Millard was also said to be there, none of the reports mentioned whether he was wearing jeans and/or a tie. I'd heard SJP being interviewed earlier that week, and she was joking about having to hide her furniture and books and papers, and take the art off the fridge, and I thought, how cute. Apparently this in fact happened, and AW has denied having had anything to do with it. Huh.
I happened to be, if not there, not far from there. Earlier in the day, I had treated myself to a movie. La Grande Illusion. I'm the one who drives through the French countryside, comes to a small cluster of houses, stops to look around, and there's the World War I memorial: fallen for France from this village, and a list of thirty or forty or a hundred names, boys and men who didn't come back, brothers, cousins, husbands, strangers... I tear up every time. Every.single.time. I won't stop these little pilgrimages either.
They deserve to be remembered and respected. Their children would have kept the farms in heart, the presence of their grandchildren would have caused a school to be built, the village would have kept its crossroads and squares and grown and prospered. La Grande Illusion is about many things, and you can add to this to the list of sub-texts your film school teacher handed out: the arrogant incompetence of the class born to inherit power. I left the movie weepy and, of course, hungry.
If possible I like to walk after sitting in a movie, and what I saw with teary eyes as we strolled was a policeman in vest on almost every corner. My knife-sharp brain told me the following: (1) the cops were there as part of the preparations for the Great Dinner, (2) a Frozen Zone would soon be in force, (3) being stuck in a Frozen Zone in the twisty criscrossing little streets of the Village for an indefinite time could be unpleasant, and (4) I was hungry, and neither invited to nor dressed for the Great Dinner. And if I'm hungry, Himself is ravenous. By a fortuitous coincidence, the Little Owl was just opening, and tables for two were still available.We'd been meaning to try it, and I'm glad we did. To sum up, it's the little Village restaurant that would be in the movie starring you, the one where you go to New York to seek your fortune and maybe find love.
We, of course, having long since put the idea of fortune aside, were happy to find meatballs. Meatball sliders, that is, served up to Himself as a first course for which he was very grateful.
My first course was a fresh corn soup, with a generous helping of lobster, asparagus and lots of chives. The lobster was plump and delicious, and the corn soup itself tasted fresh and grassy. As mains, we'd both ordered the soft shell crab du jour. It was on the menu as a starter, but it sounded so good, and looked so mmmmmm on another table that we asked for it as our main dish.
The kitchen was happy to dish up two main course portions. Perfectly prepared, with fava beans that I did not have to peel. Oh joy.We didn't really need dessert, just picked at a shared dish of house-made ice cream, wandered over to Eighth Avenue and on home.
I'm sure we ate better than the folks at the glittering party, but then again most of them ingest food so rarely this is of no moment.
...and surely your tastebuds and stomachs were grateful you weren't at "that" dinner. The big to-do this week in our town is the visit of one Victoria Beckham (here to hawk her wares at the big department store) and her hubs (here to kick the local soccer team's behind). Thanks for sharing your culinary outing!
ReplyDeleteI'm certain there was no food at Victoria's do. I don't think anyone's ever seen her eat.
DeleteHi, CC, the biggest joke last week was the return of carefully labelled crates and boxes that held SJ's "unacceptable" furniture. I got the impression that nobody went for the food. I went to a luncheon at Sotheby's once, you should have seen the jaws drop when my fork travelled from my plate to my mouth. I was going to say something about raised eyebrows, but upon reflection realized that didn't happen. Wonder why. The movie was worth any minor hassles getting there/back.
DeleteLOL you're so right. No one CAN raise their eyebrows at those events. The attendees best watch their jaw drops, they may pop a stitch, I mean, joint.
DeleteThis thread cracked me up :) Not too long ago, Victoria Beckham posted a pic of her birthday dinner which consisted of...fruit. Gorgeous, perfectly ripe and fresh fruit, but still. Posh doesn't even consider *her own birthday* a good enough reason to let her willpower take a hike so that she can have the tiniest sliver of cake. Part of me admires her dedication to her celebrity image, but mostly I'm glad that I don't have to live like that!
Delete"what do you want for your birthday, Posh?"
Delete"um, fiber?"
The soup looks delicious. Ah, the sliders reminded me of the same I ate about 2 months ago. I wanted the same today but the restaurant wouldn't open until 4! And many other places downtown were still closed at 2. What? Since when did this city stop eating? I'm thinking since Victoria Beckham paid us a visit.
ReplyDeleteHi, Rose, soup was good! In the days when noone quite understood eating disorders, an 8th grade classmate was diagnosed as having "an obscure wasting disease," and her whole family had to have blood tests to see if there was some kind of identifiable factor... So I do think of contagious or transmittable diseases whenever I see Victoria, who insists she has a great appetite and a quirky metabolism. Having just seen the greatest and saddest war movie in the world, I was in no mood to pretend not to be hungry.
DeleteNot invited to the Dinner either; good thing as I was spared the withering gaze of Wintour.
ReplyDeleteThe movie sounds worthwhile; wonder if it will get here. Our village has a Memorial Day parade every year-- tiny but similarly affecting. The read aloud list of those who have died gets me every time, familiar family names going back generations, many lobstering families.
I am done after the meatball sliders; just can't eat much any more. that soup looks yummy too!
Hi, Lane, I got very excited when the movie opened at the Film Forum, here's a quote from their publicity:
Delete" Long acknowledged as one of the world’s great classics, GRAND ILLUSION was at one time thought lost. Declared "cinema enemy number one" by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, its camera negative was confiscated by the Germans soon after they occupied France in 1940, then sent to Berlin's Reichsfilmarchiv, which in turn was seized by the Red Army in 1945. Even Renoir didn't know of its existence and had to assemble a new dupe negative for a1958 reissue. In the mid-60s, the Cinémathèque of Toulouse, France, reached a détente with its Soviet counterpart. The GRAND ILLUSION negative was part of a film exchange, but it sat on a shelf in Toulouse for decades before anyone noticed. In the late 90s, the material was transferred to the French State Film Archive for inventory and, in 1999, the first restoration was undertaken by Canal+ Image (now Studiocanal). In 2011, Studiocanal and the Cinémathèque de Toulouse embarked on a new restoration using the latest digital technology. The nitrate camera negative (which was still in remarkable condition) was digitized in 4K by the Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in Bologna. The sound was given special treatment; the nitrate variable density soundtrack was scanned, allowing a restoration with sharper sound quality. A 35mm record of the restored element will guarantee the film’s preservation for at least a century. Film Forum will be showing the restoration in 35mm, with newly-revised subtitles by Lenny Borger capturing the wit of the Renoir-Charles Spaak screenplay like never before. One of the legends of the cinema, GRAND ILLUSION now looks and sounds better than ever." There was supposed to be a "Limited Run" at the Film Forum, it's still being held over.
Memorial Day in Maine: in Kennebunkport, after the fifes & drums, the kindergarten recorder band, the Scout troops, etc., the parade would end with George Bush Senior riding in an open jeep and waving. Wondering if anyone named Bush would have the nerve to do that now.
Your dinner looks delicious!! I walked by The Little Owl on my last visit to New York - I must make sure to go for a meal there during my next trip. I have been invite to a few fashion-related parties so far, and I am always amused to see that NO ONE ever eats!!
ReplyDeleteHi, Louise, makes me sad to think of all the expensive and delicious food that must go to waste on meals at 3-star restaurants during buying trips...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, we thoroughly enjoyed The Little Owl and hope you will too!
Oh you know fashion luminaries don't actually eat, so I think you scored the better deal. Soft shell crab is delish!
ReplyDeleteHi, Lisa, sometimes I think softshells are why I love spring.
ReplyDeleteThe food looks delicious, even though I am so happy to be cooking and eating at home for a change. One thing I wish there were more of in Calgary is seafood restaurants. There are a few and some quite good but the options are limited.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, xoxo! I think it's great that there are even a few good seafood places that far inland, they must fly in halibut from Alaska...
ReplyDelete