10 January - Feeling bad, feeling good

The British Museum had only ever been a lyric in Gershwin’s “A Foggy Day” to me, and I thought it was time to rectify that, so I hopped on the #14 bus and headed toward Russell Square, passing through Kensington, past Hyde Park, through Piccadilly, past Chinatown, a number of theatres and a quirky restaurant sign, finally arriving midmorning at the Museum. 

 It’s quite an imposing building, or rather what seems like a series of buildings all combined under the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court roof. 

I would show you a photo of the outside of the building, but photography is forbidden outside.  I never figure out why. Once inside, I walked around the Great Court which houses a whole series of gift shops and cafes as well as a central gallery.

I wandered through galleries dedicated to Oceania and Africa into the collection of art from the ancient world, passing the Rosetta Stone along the way.

The Rosetta Stone:

Considering how vast Africa is, I found it startling that the gallery dedicated to it was so small.

Tree of Life sculpture made of discarded weapons from the Mozambique war for independence:

Moko Jumbie figure by Zak Ové:

"The Coronation of Haile Selassie" oil on canvas, 1930, artist unknown:

There was a large collection of items from India and Tibet.

Hanuman, the monkey god:

Shiva Nataraja:

Garuda, vehicle of the Hindu god Vishnu. In Tibet, Garuda acts as a guardian, protecting his followers from mythical serpent spirits:

Vishnu and his consorts:

The collection from ancient Assyria was truly astounding.

Human-headed winged lions, Assyrian, about 865-860 BC from Nimrud Palace:

Symbolic scene of King Ashurnasirpal, Assyrian, about 865-860 BC:

Panels from Nimrud Palace:

King Ashurnasirpal flanked by eagle-headed protective spirits:

The Nereid Monument:

By the time I got to the collection of artifacts from the Parthenon, I started to feel very uncomfortable. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been reading about the aftereffects of colonization; perhaps it’s because of the conversations I had with our Kenyan safari guide about how the British colonization of Kenya has effected the Kenyan people through the years.  I don’t know what it was, but by the time I got to the Elgin Marbles and the Caryatid, I had to go.

Frieze from the Parthenon:

Frieze from the Parthenon:

Centaur and Lapith tussle like wrestlers:

Statues of a man & a woman, usually identified as Maussollos and his wife, Artemisia:

Caryatid:

Art is meant to make you think and this collection certainly did, but not in the way that I suspect was intended. There’s an ongoing effort by Greece to repatriate the art, held at the British Museum, to Greece.  Rishi Sunak seems opposed to it. All I know is that I was left with very conflicted feelings. I took the bus back as far as Kensington, then walked the rest of the way to the flat, passing charming St. Savior’s church and the Pont Street Mews; a very pleasant walk.

The evening proved far more enjoyable.  We had dinner at Nopi, one of Yotam Ottolenghi’s restaurants.  I have been cooking out of his cookbooks for many years and many of my go-to recipes come from them. The prospect of dining at one of his restaurants was very exciting, and did not disappoint. We started with cocktails: Bruce had the lime leaf martini, I chose the Walnut Old fashioned. We chose several small plates to share.

Burrata with quince, hibiscus and fig leaf vinaigrette and coriander seeds was first out. 

The quince was quite hard but it, along with the crunch of the coriander seeds, provided a nice textural contrast to the soft, luscious burrata.

Next was aubergine (eggplant) with black garlic, pomegranate and pine nuts.  It’s hard to describe the full-bodied richness that dish contained.  I love eggplant, and this dish is going right at the top of the list of dishes to make. Yes, of course I bought the cookbook!

Then came roasted celeriac with apple miso, pickled celeriac and pistachio sambal. The flavors and textures, again, complimenting each other and creating a beautiful dish. 

Two meat dishes followed, the seared ox tongue with burnt butter hummus, marinated peppers and ladopita and the pork belly with tkemali, spring onion and peanut. I found the former underwhelming, but the latter had a lovely texture, not greasy as sometimes is the case with pork belly.  The Asian flavor profile provided a vibrant contrast to the richness of the pork.

Nopi has one of the most memorable ladies rooms I’ve been in.  I felt like I was either in the fun house at Lincoln Park (an amusement park from my childhood) or in something out of Alice in Wonderland.

Dinner done, we headed off to our first panto, Peter Pan, starring Jennifer Saunders of AbFab fame! According to Wikipedia, Pantomime, aka panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. Panto may have started out that way, but this production was only marginally aimed at (or appropriate for) children.  It was a raucous, bigger than life R-rated theme park of a show.  Jennifer Saunders brought the star power as Captain Hook but the real star of the show was Julian Clary as Seaman Smee.  It was big and loud and silly and fabulous.  We learned our way around proper panto behavior and joined in on the “Oh no you can’t”s and the “Look out!”s.  It was a proper night of OTT magic!