There are some things that
don’t necessitate recipes. Some
things are so simple that exact
measurements or a lengthy
ingredients list unnecessarily
complicate their preparation.
As simply as they’re made,
they’re even more satisfyingly
enjoyed.
Oftentimes,
these
things take a form of their own
— their preparation rooting
itself into some tucked away
part of our imaginations, where
they grow and change over
time.
These
improvisations
—
the spontaneous melding of
ingredients we unexpectedly
find at hand — serve as the basis
for many of our most treasured
and
frequently
consumed
meals.
The
recipe-less
recipe
may have been derived from
watching
your
mother
or
grandmother cook the same
go-to meals time and time again
or from attempting to recreate
the soothing ease with which
Food Network chefs display
their creations on screen. Or,
you snagged a vegetable or
ingredient of the grocery store
shelf and an idea popped into
mind, finding its realization
through swift, barely thought-
out
movements
within
the
kitchen,
culminating
in
a
thrown-together masterpiece.
No
matter
its
origin,
the
unscripted, haphazard kitchen
creation dispels the pressure of
having to meticulously follow
instructions
and
compile
a
lengthy list of resources. Often,
it’s this austerity that inhibits
creativity and can result in a
lackluster dish that doesn’t
live up to expectations. Or, you
may find yourself thoroughly
impressed with the results
only to remember the gruelling
efforts leading up to it and
swearing off the recipe for the
future.
Equally
as
impressive
is
making something on the fly
that tastes like it took a lot of
effort and preparation, but
didn’t actually. All it takes is
a few ingredients you already
have on hand and the marriage
between a few pantry staples.
Marinated
eggplant
has
recently become one of my
go-to thrown-together recipes.
It bears the ease of utilizing
few
ingredients
and
even
less thought, yet it packs all
the
flavor
and
heartiness
of
extensive
kitchen
work.
The
dish
emerged
after
I
bought eggplant on a whim
and, unable to decide the
fate of its consumption, was
struck
by
inspiration
from
the transcendent memory of
a marinated eggplant dish I
had once been served at Mani
Osteria. So, to the best of my
ability, I attempted to recreate
the flavorful dish with only
the items at hand — eggplant,
salt and pepper, chili flakes,
olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and
garlic.
As is my preferred cooking
method with most vegetables,
I hastily cut my eggplant into
cubes, tossed them in olive oil
and sprinkled them with salt,
before throwing them in the
oven at 375º for about 20-30
minutes, checking frequently
to ensure all sides got their fair
share of roasting. Typically,
I’d sprinkle the eggplant with
salt and let rest for ten minutes
prior to soaking up the excess
moisture with paper towels,
however I was out of paper
towels — a repercussion to be
expected when cooking on the
fly (and when living with 13
roommates in college).
After the the eggplant turned
nice and crisp in the oven,
almost charred on some sides,
while perfectly tender on the
other, I let it cool for several
minutes. Then, I grabbed a
tupperware
container
and
tossed
the
cooled
eggplant
cubes
in;
I
drizzled
them
generously with more olive
oil, balsamic vinegar and the
crushed garlic and added a
generous pinch of salt, black
pepper and red chili flakes
(and about half a teaspoon of
dried basil if you have it on
hand), tossing well to combine.
In order to draw out all those
piquant
flavors,
I
let
the
eggplant mixture refrigerate
for a few hours to soak up the
acidity of the vinegar and the
sweet bite of garlic — the nutty
olive oil binding all the rich,
zesty flavors together.
It’s no surprise then, that
waiting
for
the
eggplant
to marinate can be trying.
However, once the chunks of
eggplant have absorbed the
marinade, they can be served
with a thick, crusty bread that’s
been toasted to a slightly burnt
crisp, or they can be tossed with
freshly sliced basil leaves and
shaved parmesan into a salad —
or if you’re me — eaten straight
out of the container.
Not only is it incredibly easy to
make, a large batch of marinated
eggplant can carry you through
the week. The meaty eggplant,
enhanced by the flavors of the
marinade, make a superb side dish
or meal of their own. Dole out over
pasta with plenty of cheese and
fresh basil for a quick weeknight
meal or over a bowl of grains and
sautéed kale.
It’s flavors are vibrant and crisp
enough to cool our palates on a
summer day, while the hearty
vegetable can satisfy on a cold,
winter evening. If you’re not an
eggplant-kind-of-person (it’s cool,
not everyone is), this method works
great with red bell peppers too. Easy
and versatile? You heckin’ bet it is.
Delicious? That too.
With slightly more effort than
pouring yourself a bowl of cereal,
marinated eggplant be an easy fix
to an uninspired meal, without
draining your energy or stock of
ingredients. So, roast and refrigerate
those tasty little cubes and enjoy.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Friday, March 31, 2017 — 5
‘Life’ is well-crafted but
ultimately meaningless
COURTESY OF HOTEL DALLAS
Astronauts
find an alien. The
astronauts
are
idiots.
The
alien
kills the astronauts.
With
a
premise
like that, it’s hard
to
see
“Life”
as
much more than a modern-
day, A-list “Alien” rip-off, but
it surprisingly has more in
common with “Gravity” than
anything else. Aesthetically,
the
comparisons
write
themselves from the first shot
— a “oner” that encompasses
the
entire
first
opening
scene. While it lacks the scale
and emotion of that earlier
film, “Life” is nonetheless
impressive in how handily it
manages its tension and horror.
The resultant film is flawed,
but perhaps the most intense
space thriller since Alfonso
Cuarón’s 2013 masterpiece.
Apart
from
being
just
a
gorgeous
piece
of
cinematography and direction,
the opening scene shows off
the setting, the key to the
film’s successes. The emphasis
placed on space as we know it as
opposed to a futuristic starship
a la “Alien” gives the film an
immediately scary atmosphere
that director Daniel Espinosa
(“Child 44”) wrings for nearly
every drop of tension. To that
end, “Life” never goes for the
easy scare, instead preferring
to ease the viewer into full-on
terror and let the characters’
increasing paranoia speak for
itself. Much of the film is made
up of several slow-burn scenes
followed by bursts of horror,
and
screenwriters
Rhett
Reese
and
Paul
Wernick’s
(“Deadpool”) fearlessness with
character deaths, established
early, makes each subsequent
scare better than the last.
It’s impossible to go too deep
into “Life” without discussing
the alien at the center of it in
some capacity.
Without going
into excessive
detail,
while
the design of
the
creature
will likely fall
into
“love
it
or hate it” territory, Espinosa
does great work here, as well.
From the moment its intentions
become malicious in a sequence
that
is
equal
parts
well-
directed and frightening, the
alien is a singularly terrifying
antagonist. It’s a force of pure
evil that constantly outwits
and outplays the scientists,
who — in a departure from
genre clichés — don’t act like
complete idiots for the entirety
of the runtime. The action
therefore becomes that much
more engaging.
This is not to say that the
characters
on
display
are
paragons of complexity or
anything of the sort. They’re
well-sketched more than well-
written, not quite flat but
not quite fully formed either.
This doesn’t affect the movie
too much, as there are some
character traits to latch onto,
but it does hold it back to an
extent. Films like “Alien” and
“Gravity” succeeded because
of the combination of suspense
and character. It would have
been hard to give much depth
to a cast of this size and caliber
without interrupting the film’s
pacing, but it may have also
given “Life” the push it needed
to move from “good” to “great.”
And on that note, the aspect
that makes “Life” hardest to
recommend despite its flashes
of greatness is impossible to
describe at all: the ending.
Again, without going into any
detail, the ending to “Life” is
an unrewarding fake-out that
relies on poor editing to get its
point across. It’s foreshadowed
from a mile away, but sitting
in the theater, after two hours
of sustained tension, it’s hard
to believe that it was greenlit.
It gives the entire film a
meaningless cast in retrospect.
The ending doesn’t taint
the entirety of “Life,” though.
It is still well-crafted, and
Espinosa’s handling of both
character and mood is assured.
Moviegoers looking for a good
scare should look no further.
It isn’t without its problems,
and they keep the film from
attaining
the
greatness
it
comes so close to, but “Life”
is still an involving — if
ultimately
empty-feeling
—
time at the movies.
JEREMIAH VANDERHELM
Daily Arts Writer
FILM REVIEW
SHIR
AVINADAV
FOOD COLUMN
Making eggplant effortless
Mandolinist Daniel Brito
to perform in Kerrytown
COMPLICITE
For perhaps as long as human
society has existed, music has
existed with it. As civilizations and
empires rose and fell, as republics
and autocracies collapsed and
were reborn, music was there
through it all. It’s one of the few
true universals in our world, one
of the omnipresent markers of our
existence that cling at the very core
of what it is to be human. It was
present in the nomads’ tent, and
it’s present on the phone in your
pocket. Because of this, to come
anywhere even remotely near
to an understanding of a culture
requires a knowledge of the music
that is important to it. It helps to
show the passions and the rituals
of a people, the history and ethos of
a society. And fortunately, today’s
globalized world affords us more
opportunities than ever to hear
and admire those musics from
traditions unfamiliar to our ears.
One such unfamiliar tradition
(for most Ann Arborites, at least)
is the choro music of Brazil.
Originating about 150 years ago in
Rio de Janeiro, choro marks one of
the first fundamentally Brazilian
genres of instrumental music,
and in a concert Saturday night at
Kerrytown Concert House, the
audience will have the chance to
experience a performance by one of
this genre’s greatest contemporary
musicians.
“Choro
has
its
origin
in
European polka. It arrived in Brazil
fast and dancing, and Brazilian
musicians started to play it slowly
and it became more melancholic,
more dramatic,” said Danilo Brito,
mandolinist and choro musician,
who will be performing this
Saturday in Kerrytown. “This was
around 1860, 1870. So soon we were
doing music to make people cry,
because it caused this emotion to
those who were hearing it, and
so the name of this genre, choro,
means ‘to cry.’ ”
Brito (who does not speak
English,
and
communicated
through
translation
by
his
manager, Maria Silvia Braga)
went on to explain that despite the
genre’s name, much of the music is
in fact fast, cheerful and virtuosic
— “but always intense.”
Choro is a type of music that is
of great important to the culture of
Brazil, expressing a wide range of
sentiments, and in the view of Brito
and others, it is the genre that best
represents the spirit of the nation.
“Choro is the musical expression
of
Brazilian
people,”
Brito
explained. “Brazilian people have
very intense feelings, sometimes
melancholic, sometimes nostalgic,
sometimes cheerful. All these
different
intense
feelings
of
Brazilian people are very well
represented by all the different
styles that choro has.”
In this assessment, Brito is in
the company of some of the most
famous Brazilian figures in the
history of music.
“The Brazilian composer Heitor
Villa-Lobos said that choro is the
music that best represents the soul
of Brazilian people,” Brito said.
“The great maestro and composer
Radamés Gnattali said that choro
is the most perfect and last stage of
Brazilian music.”
Brito was drawn to choro at
a young age. His father was an
amature musician, and played
mandolin
and
Cavaquinho.
Through him and the musical
environment he fostered around
him, Brito was introduced to music
early on.
“[Some] nights [we] had hearings
of old vinyl recordings, and very
soon [I] started playing [my]
father’s
instruments,
mandolin
and cavaquinho,” Brito said. “And
through hearing the old vinyls [I]
learned to play.”
Brito never had a formal teacher,
but his natural ability and passion
for the music has since propelled
him to the forefront of the choro
scene. Saturday’s performance will
mark but one concert on a tour that
has already included Vancouver,
Seattle, Portland and Oakland,
among others. The tour has been
an immensely positive experience
for him.
“It’s been wonderful, my feelings
about this, my impressions of these
concerts have been wonderful,”
Brito said. “ [There has been] a very
warm reception by the audience,
always with full houses, and a great
energy… [I] played at Kuumbwa
[Jazz] in Santa Cruz last night, and
it was a memorable evening that
[I] will keep with [me] the rest of
[my] life. The connection with the
audience was fantastic.”
Choro is a music that is energetic,
involving a full range of complex
harmonies
and
counterpoint,
in addition to having a highly
improvisatory structure. These
qualities, in part, help address the
question of why Brito is so drawn
to the particular genre.
More than anything, however,
it was the passionate spirit of the
music that drew him in.
“This music captured me by
feeling,” Brito said. “It’s always
a very intense and strong feeling
when you hear it. Either it is
cheerful,
or
melancholic,
or
chromatic, or romantic. It’s a genre
that gives [one] the tools to express
[one’s] feelings in a most complete
way, perfectly or almost perfect.”
It is this sense of emotion and
feeling that Brito hopes to share
with Ann Arbor Saturday night.
When he performs, it is an act of
passion, a passing on of the emotion
of the music.
“The music that [I] will present
comes directly from [my] heart,”
Brito said. “The style of music that
we play demands a lot of study
and technicality, but the intention
is that the audience does not feel
all this work that is behind, but
just receives music as it is, as pure
emotion, feelings and expressions.
Our technique is always from the
work of music of pure heart. The
audience, hearing it, will feel this.”
DAYTON HARE
Senior Arts Editor
Danilo Brito
Kerrytown Concert
House
Saturday, April 1 8
P.M.
$5 Student, $15
General Admission
COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW
“Life”
Columbia Pictures
Rave Cinemas,
Goodrich Quality 16
‘Life’ never goes
for the easy
scare, instead
preferring to ease
the viewer into
full-on terror and
let the characters’
increasing
paranoia speak for
itself
Latest Daniel Espinosa-directed movie boasts impressive
cinematography, but has little to show for in terms of thematics
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com