Ragnarök: The End of the Gods

Posted on December 17, 2011

Ragnarök: The End of the Gods, by A.S. Byatt

Ragnarök: The End of the Gods is a frame story about the Norse pantheon, as it is discovered by a young girl who is reading Asgard and the Gods. The girl, who is only referred to as the Thin Child, lives in the English countryside during World War II. She is mostly bored by school and church, and she is sometimes sick, but she loves to read and as she reads Asgard, its stories become metaphoric for the events in the Thin Child’s life.

The story comes in at about 150 pages, but they’re laden with stories of Norse mythology, from Yggdrasil and the creation stories to Ragnarök – the final battle of the gods. It’s more of a primer on the Norse stories than an encyclopedia, but it’s fascinating nonetheless. Having read Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, A.S. Byatt’s Ragnarök provides insight to many of the characters that Gaiman based on Norse myth. Despite this, I was disappointed by Ragnarök‘s brevity. I wish there was more to it, regarding either the Thin Child, the gods, or both.

The book is interesting, but doesn’t feel very compelling. While the stories that the Thin Child reads about the gods are richly detailed, information on her own life is vague. While this is likely the author’s intention, it leads me not to care so much about the Thin Child as a character. If the Thin Child isn’t worth caring about, I might as well skip directly to reading Asgard and the Gods.

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Review – Hong Kong China Buffet

Posted on May 25, 2009

I’m a big fan of Chinese food. Growing up in Pepperell and Townsend, Massachusetts during the 1970s, if we wanted foreign food, the only option was Chinese. Even then, it involved a long-distance phone call to place the order and a drive to Fitchburg to pick it up. As a kid, I was amazed by the white boxes made with folded cardboard that had wires for handles. The food was exotic to my young mind. Fried rice was brown with veggies and bits of pork or chicken, and it had flavor. Sweet and sour pork, and Chinese chicken wings. The mysteriously named chow mein and chop suey. I was ravenous for pork cutlets, spare ribs, teriyaki, and egg rolls. Years later, when we moved to Alamosa, Colorado, Chinese food was no longer on the menu. With a large Hispanic population, Mexican restaurants were fairly common in southern Colorado, and they opened my eyes to a world of new dishes. It’s no surprise that when I’ve moved to new places, I’ve sought out good places to find Chinese or Mexican food.

In downtown Indianapolis, five or so blocks away from my apartment building is Hong Kong (a/k/a Hong Kong China Buffet). This small, mom-and-pop type restaurant serves food that reminds me of the Chinese food the family used to get in Massachusetts. P.F. Chang’s it’s not, since the atmosphere is very simple with tables and booths. There are a few Chinese items, such as a calendar from a Chinese food distributor, but they don’t give the place an Asian ambiance so much as remind you that this is a family-run restaurant that serves Chinese food. Most of the time I go there and the place is empty of customers. However, I usually go on weekends and after work, and I think most of their business comes from the lunchtime crowds from several nearby companies. For what its worth, I usually get takeout.

Atmosphere aside, the food is great. Almost always, I get a quart of pork fried rice and three egg rolls, but if I have extra cash, I often get something else as well. Today, I also got an order of chicken sticks (teriyaki chicken) and sweet-and-sour chicken. Plus, every time I’ve ordered an entree, they’ve thrown in an order of fried wontons for free. Since this is takeout, they toss in a few fortune cookies and packets of duck sauce, soy sauce, and hot mustard. They used to include plastic forks, but this time they didn’t. Maybe it’s the economy. Sadly, I’ve never known them to add chopsticks, which I’ve always thought were great for things like sweet-and-sour dishes, among others. Luckily, I’ve got some here at home.

In the past, when I’ve ordered Szechuan food or other items listed as spicy on the menu, the items were hardly spicy at all. This was also an issue at another Chinese restaurant I used to go to in Colorado Springs. However, at that restaurant, if we ordered a spicy dish, and we added that we wanted it spicy, it would come that way. I don’t know if that would work at Hong Kong, but it might be worth a shot.

Prices are fair. My usual order of a quart of pork fried rice and three egg rolls comes to about ten bucks. Cans of soda are a bit expensive at $1.25, though I admit I don’t know what they serve for beverages in the restaurant itself. Spending $25 or more for takeout buys enough food for a few days worth of lunches or dinners.

If you’re in Indy and want good Chinese food at decent prices and away from the crowds, I recommend Hong Kong, either for takeout or dining-in on the weekends.

Hong Kong
1524 N. Illinois St
Indianapolis, IN 46202
(317) 951-8882
(317) 951-8686
(317) 951-8889 Fax

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Review – Häagen-Dazs Green Tea ice cream

Posted on May 23, 2009

Saw this at a nearby convenience store a week ago and immediately did a double take. WTF, thought I. Who in their right mind would make an ice cream flavored like green tea? Is there a gimmick to it? The label shows a milky green tea in a brown cup, but I couldn’t grok if cup was made of chocolate or if it was just a cup. Today I got some to try it out.

Häagen-Dazs Green Tea ice cream is not what I would call flavorful. There is flavor in that pint container, but it’s a bit bland. It’s almost, but not quite, entirely unlike green tea. This green tea ice cream makes vanilla seem exciting by comparison. What flavor that is there is subtle and hard to pinpoint. Maybe hints of jasmine, but too understated to say for certain. Overall, it’s not bad, but far from great.

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