Mayday 34°35'S 150°36'E

Nuhakuumeviihdettä talon tapaan: minä sairastin maanantain. Vein läppärin sänkyyn ja huvittelin langattomalla nettiyhteydellä niin perusteellisesti, että illan tullen toivoin hartaasti, ettei internetiä olisi koskaan keksitty.

Andy sairasti tiistaina ja katsoi putkeen kahdeksan jaksoa Sopranosin tuoreinta tuotantokautta. Eräässä robertsonilaisessa takahuoneessa sijaitsee pimeä Sopranos-jakelupiste, johon tuntematon yhdysvaltalainen taho lähettää tuoreimmat jaksot vanhanaikaisesti VHS-kasetilla. Näitä kasetteja sitten kierrättävät ne, jotka eivät malta odottaa, että sarja tulisi tv:stä.

Minulta jäivät ensimmäiset Sopranosit katsomatta enkä sen jälkeen viitsinyt edes yrittää päästä kärryille. Kun joskus sairastun oikein todella, kuinka monta kautta ja jaksoa minulla sitten onkaan katsottavana!

Eilen tuli mainituksi thai-kalapihvien ohje, jota kokeilin viikolla - ohje löytyi netistä (linkki englanninkielisessä osiossa), joskin sovelsin sitä hieman sen mukaan mitä kotoa löytyi. Lopputulos ei millään lailla (ei sitten todellakaan millään lailla) muistuttanut niitä harmaita haukipullia, joita koulun keittolassa tarjottiin ja joista jäi kitalakeen päiväksi nahkealta tuntuva ja kalmalta maistuva kalvo. Minä käytin barramundia, kuvittelisin että kuha olisi tässä ohjeessa omiaan. Ahvenkin varmasti kävisi ja jopa se ylimittainen hauki. Siika on ehkä vähän turhan hienoa tähän puuhaan.

Ohjeen tärkein mausteaines on kaffirlimetin lehti, joita saa Helsingissä aasialaisista kaupoista, kukaties jo Stockmanniltakin. Jos ei ole niin lopputuloksesta ei tule yhtä hyvä - mutta sitruunaruoholla ja limettimehulla saa ehkä jonkinlaisen version aikaan. Alemmassa kuvassa oma pieni limettipuuni, taustalla punakukkainen ananaksentuoksuinen ananassalvia (Pineapple Sage aka Salvia elegans), jossa naskalivyömesikko käy toisinaan imemässä mettä.

Tarvitaan:

Pikku nippu tuoretta korianteria silputtuna - lehdet ja reippaasti varsiakin
Puoli kiloa kalafileitä paloina (ahventa, kuhaa tms)
Yhden limetin mehu
Tuoretta chiliä silputtuna (pari tulista pikkuchiliä tai maun mukaan)
Kananmuna
1 rkl kalakastiketta (aasiamarketista tai kiinalaisen ruoan osastolta)
1-2 teelusikallista punaista thai-chilimaustetahnaa (tai tulista currytahnaa)
1-2 teelusikallista (ruskeaa) sokeria
3 kaffirlimetin lehteä silputtuna

Valmistus (tämä on se hauska osuus): kaikki ainekset tehosekoittimeen. Hurautellaan massaksi niin että ainekset sekoittuvat hyvin mutteivät mene liian hienoksi. Muotoillaan kostutetuin käsin pihvejä (voi tehdä myös pieniä cocktailpihvejä). Paistetaan reippaalla lämmöllä öljyssä kauniin ruskeaksi, käännetään ja paistetaan toinenkin puoli. Älä paista liikaa, vain pari minuuttia puoleltaan.

Minulla ei ollut thai-chilimaustetahnaa joten käytin vihreää thai-currytahnaa.

Näitä voi tarjota makean chilikastikkeen kanssa tai tehdä etikasta, vedestä, sokerista, lusikallisesta kalakastiketta ja silputuista yrteistä ja kasviksista (hyvin pieneksi pienittyä korianteria, kurkkua, porkkanaa, sipulia ja chiliä) dippikastikkeen.

[Lisäys: Matkalla Canberraan sijaitsevan Madew-viinitilan Belle Riesling 2004 kävi täydellisesti kaveriksi.]

***

Above, I have translated a jolly good thai fish cake recipe that I found on the internet. I modified it just a bit - I forgot to put the beans in and decided they were really not needed. I used barramundi. A wonderfully easy dish to prepare and quite delicious. Kaffir lime leaves are the key ingredient (my little lime tree pictured on the left, with some red Pineapple Sage/ Salvia elegans flowers).

This week was a bit out of the ordinary. First I spent a whole day in bed with a head cold surfing the internet (this was Monday and I am still feeling slightly weird). I am only now beginning to realise what a fine thing wireless broadband is. To be serious, by 6 pm I was quite fed up with blogs and chat groups and rather hoped internet hadn't been invented.

Then Andy got sick and spent a day in bed, watching eight episodes of Sopranos in one go. I missed the first series (or so) and never tried to join in since. So if one day I get really sick, I'll have a lot to watch. These were not just any old episodes, by the way, they belonged to the batch of VHS cassettes being sent straight from the US to a secret location in Robertson, from where they are then generously given to each Robertson-based Sopranos addict in his turn. In other words, they were new episodes.

Yesterday's long posting was a response to a little literary meme challenge - I got tagged by an old schoolmate who is nowadays editing a literary magazine. I hope my replies had been more 'literary', but what can I do! Most of them had to do with Finnish books, so the replies below are slightly different. Plus the Finnish version of the meme didn't specify as clearly as the English one to just mention one book in each category, so I got completely carried away.

1. One book that changed your life

The collected poems by the Finnish poet Aale Tynni. Not only because she was and still is my favourite poet but also because this thick volume was the first book of poems I bought with my own money, for myself to enjoy. My Mum had the same book, but since a couple of decades had passed since she had bought hers, I found to my delight that mine was much bigger, with several more recent collections added.

2. One book you’ve read more than once?

The first book I was obsessed with was, oddly, a children's version of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. It wasn't actually given to me to read by anybody, I just happened to find it and read it far too many times. Can't imagine the damage it must have done...
The book that I still want to read again and again is Jane Austen's Persuasion.

3. One book you’d want on a desert island?

War and Peace, because I haven't read it and it would keep me occupied for a while.

4. One book that made you giddy?

Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary. I think the original book deserves a much better reputation, I found it genuinely funny and the film (could not face seeing the sequel) was a disappointment in comparison.

4. One book that wracked you with sobs?

I don't tend to sob anymore when I am reading, but poems regularly bring tears to my eyes - it is not the same reaction I had over The Little Dorrit or J. O Curwood's Kazan in my early teens but is more like a physical reaction to the sound and the feel of the words. These days, I don't like it at all when I feel I am being tricked into sobbing, which sometimes happen with films. Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves made me very angry for this reason, and Dancer in the Dark was not much better. (Lars did not succeed, I did not sob.)

5. One book that you wish had been written

I could think of a number of autobiographies. I'd love to read one by my maternal grandmother (also called Anni), whom I never met.

7. One book you wish had never been written?

All the self-help books that claim that they'll make you very successful and very rich.

8. One book you’re currently reading?

I am halfway Helen Dunmore's House of Orphans (thank you Marjorie and Alec!), which is a beautifully written novel that takes place in Finland in 1901.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read?

I am looking forward to reading a novel by the Finnish writer Juha Itkonen and some interesting looking poems/prose texts by Anja Erämaja. I am also definitely going to buy the diaries of Sibelius that have been recently published in Finland (in Swedish).

10. Now tag five bloggers?

I'll tag Denis and Miss Eagle. (I could not count to one above, so...)

Thank you Anita for the English version of the questions.