July 13, 2007

• Last night we went to the Lantern Festival in Forest Hills Cemetery, which is across the street from our house.  I thought it would be a good idea to bring a picnic, so i spent afternoon making making cucumber sushi. I actually dislike traditional sushi, because the texture of seaweed and raw fish ain’t my thing, so instead I use thinly sliced cucumber for the wrapping and I put savory veggies on the top. These have ginger sticky rice inside them, with carrots, blanched red pepper, and peach slivers with radish demi-lunes on top. Did you know that peaches taste phenomenal with a little bit of soy sauce? I figured that out yesterday, too.

  

  I also made sesame chicken and steak with seared red and green bell peppers to bring along on our picnic, and more sliced peaches for dessert.

  Then we went up over the hill and through the secret gateway into the woods, and followed the path into the cemetery itself. Forest Hills is a hidden jewel, full of grand old limestone crypts, grottoes, sculptures, and winding paths overhung with shady trees. Matt and I are used to having the whole place to ourselves during our evening meanderings, so it was a little strange to see crowds of people congregating around Hibiscus Pond. We found a place where we could see the dancers and the drummers, and settled down for our picnic with a view of the pond.
  The performances were fantastic. We watched the fan dancers practice nearby for a little while, and then Matt wandered off to make a lantern for us to set afloat at twilight. Ours said “peace” written in sumi-ink. Then we watched the taiko drummers. I was especially interested in this part, because my dear pal Alexa is a member of a taiko group in Santa Fe, and travels to Japan to practice her mastery of the art. The first set this group did was a series of rhythms based on the number three, and the second was based on sevens. I was mostly excited to see the big drums and all the ruckus. Boom boom boom. woo!

  Matt practiced his japanese a little bit, and fed me with chopsticks. he’s pretty handy with those things. Me, i’d end up with rice in my lap and an eye poked out. He also made a video for his friend Uchimura in Japan, with some of the highlights of our goofy-ass evening. I especially like the last bit with pictures of the lanterns drifting on the water at twilight. Oh, and disregard the embarrassing bit at the end, heh.

  • 12:52 pm
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