Aug

Name That Finger: Digit-al Wordplay

by Meredith Mullins on August 31, 2020

A pentadactyl adventure
© Meredith Mullins

The Cultural Traditions of Finger Names Around the World

The finger has a long history. No, not THAT finger—that one that always seems to come to mind first.

The finger in the broader, pentadactyl sense. The five fingers of the hand.

We humans aren’t the only folks in the world with fingers. Many in the animal kingdom have five-fingered limbs, from monkeys and apes to rats and bats to pandas and birds.

Meredith Mullins 2 Comments

Cultural Heritage & Traditions/Language & Culture/Wordplay/Worldwide Sites

Aug

Cultural Encounters: Ice Cream Around the World

by Meredith Mullins on August 17, 2020

A global favorite
© Minsun Lee

The Inside Scoop on a Global Favorite

I scream. You scream. We all scream for ice cream.

Have you belted out those lyrics . . . or do you remember, in your childhood, having a Pavlovian response to the seductive call of an ice cream truck bell or jingle?

My ice cream truck tune still occasionally pops up from my subconscious childhood playlist and reminds me of the truck getting closer and closer to our house.

This was my first lesson in the science of sound waves, as we learned to judge exactly how long we had to gather up our coins and get to the corner. It was the highlight of those lazy summer afternoons.

The seductive call of the ice cream truck
© iStock/phaustov

Ice cream is a global treasure. It has been a favorite dessert for centuries—even long before refrigeration. And our cultural encounters with ice cream around the world offer a deeper look into the joys of our planet.

Adding the “taste” element to cultural encounters
© Minsun Lee

A Brief History: From Frozen Snow To . . .

From Alexander the Great to Chinese dynasties to Roman emperors, ice cream was mostly snow or ice mixed with inventive additives, like honey, nectar, fruits, and juices. The royal ice cream addicts of the day had “runners” constantly making trips to the mountains.

Its evolution continued as Marco Polo brought a more evolved concept from the far east to Italy that turned into the birth of sherbet. Some histories say that Catherine de Medici was also involved, bringing the concept to France, where milk, butter, and eggs were gradually added to the recipe.

Grateful to whomever brought ice cream to France
© Meredith Mullins

Even the American founding fathers had a role in the “birth of ice cream” story. George Washington is said to have had two ice cream pots in his home.

Thomas Jefferson had a simple recipe for vanilla ice cream, as well as a more complex recipe for an ice cream dish similar to Baked Alaska. And Dolley Madison is said to have served strawberry ice cream at President Madison’s second inaugural banquet.

Would Dolley Madison ever have imagined that ice cream could be rolled, as in Thailand?
© iStock/Fascinadora

A Global Ice Cream Tour

Different names. Different ingredients. But in almost every country in the world, you can find some kind of frozen treat.

Japan has many varieties of ice cream, but the most famous is its mochi. The colorful little balls consist of a sticky rice dumpling around an ice cream filling, with flavors such as green tea, red bean, and mango.

Little puffs of heaven: mango mochi from Japan
© iStock/Merrimon

Korean cuisine offers a special frozen dish called patbingsu, which is a tiny mountain of shaved milky ice with sweetened red beans and fruit at the summit. The taste changes with each bite, as the flavors and textures are altered in the melting process.

Korean Patbingsu—a melting mound of flavors
© iStock/nunawwoofy

A similar dish in the Philippines is called Halo-Halo (which translates from Tagalog to mishmash or mixture). The name is appropriate as so many sweet things can be added to this dessert. The basis is shaved ice, milk, and sweetened beans. Then coconut, plantains, gelatin cubes, jackfruit, star apple, tapioca, and yams can all be added.

Mexico is famous for its light, fruit-based paletas (very healthy!). They look like popsicles, and, are mostly just fresh fruit and water.

You can often see the fresh fruit in its frozen form. However, some paletas have added cream and sugar, perfect for satisfying the palate of those who are looking for something more decadent.

Mexican paletas—a healthy choice
© iStock/Esdelval

Ice cream in Turkey offers drama beyond the sense of taste, as vendors do amazing tricks with dondurma, which has an elastic component that allows it to stretch like taffy.

The mastic ingredient (plant resin) and salep (a flour made from orchid root) make the ice cream chewy as well as somewhat resistant to melting. Get out your knife and fork.

Is this ice cream or a visiting space alien in elastic form?
© iStock/boggy22

India’s traditional kulfi makes India one of the top ice-cream loving countries of the world. It usually comes in a popsicle form and is made with caramelized milk, nuts, sugar, and cardamom and comes in flavors such as mango, rose, almond, orange, and strawberry.

Kulfi from India, with a dash of saffron and pistachio
© iStock/SStajik

Germany’s special ice cream treat looks like a plate of spaghetti, with a name that is equally misleading—Spaghettieis. This creative dessert includes vanilla ice cream made to look like pasta, strawberry sauce to look like marinara, and white chocolate shavings to look like parmesan cheese.

Dinner or dessert? Spaghetti or ice cream?
Only a taste test will reveal the answer.
© iStock/Sandra Albinger

Iran and Afghanistan also have a pasta-based approach to their frozen dessert. Faloodeh (Persian: فالوده) uses frozen vermicelli noodles with corn starch, rose water, lime juice, and often ground pistachios.

Just looking at this Faloodeh from Iran is cooling.
© iStock/Bonchan

Rwanda got its first taste of ice cream a few years ago thanks to the work of a Rwandan artist and a women’s drumming troupe. (Read more in the OIC story on that success.)

Sweet Dreams: The first taste of ice cream in Rwanda.
Photo Courtesy of Liro Films.

Of course we can’t go around the world without mentioning Italy’s gelato or the U.S. love of just plain scoops on cones—two of the most popular forms of ice cream in the world.

The magical world of Italian gelato
© Minsun Lee

What are your Flavorites?

We’ve come a long way from frozen snow, with stops along the way for Baskin and Robbins 31 flavors (one for every day of a month) and the creativity of Ben and Jerry with hits such as Chip Happens, Chocolate Therapy®, Everything But The …, and Cherry Garcia®.

The Guiness Book of Records awards La Heladería Coromoto (Ice Cream Shop Coromoto) in Venezuala the record for the most flavors offered—870 at the moment.

But the Game of Cones is not yet over. There will be no Breyer’s remorse.

Chefs around the world are pushing the boundaries, as we discover ice creams and sorbets with flavors of garlic, onion, wasabi, mustard, corn on the cob, jalapeño, cheeseburger, fois gras, horseradish, beet, and blue cheese.

Ice cream “artists” around the world are inventing new flavors every day.
© iStock/CharlieAJA

Often the culinary favorites of a country find their way into ice cream. Peru offers Mazamorra Violeta, an ice cream from its unique purple corn. Japan brings in flavors such as sea island salt, unagi (eel), and soy chicken.

Mexico offers avocado and tequila flavors. And Scotland makes . . . what else? Haggis flavored ice cream. (If you don’t know what that is, don’t ask.)

We might not be screaming as loudly for flavors such as horse flesh, cow tongue, and snake venom, but it’s always good to try new things, especially cultural encounters featuring desserts.

Tell me again. Is that chocolate or snake venom?
© Meredith Mullins

Oh I see, there are no boundaries except the imagination when you’re traveling (virtually or otherwise) in search of ice cream around the world.

And, as the United States and New Zealand continue to battle it out for the top ice-cream-loving country, we can all play a part. It’s summer. Chill out. Follow the siren call.

So many flavors . . . so little time
© Minsun Lee

And let us know your favorite ice cream flavors (although I doubt if we’ll get any votes for cow tongue).

Many thanks to Minsun Lee for her photographs. And, for those who want a culinary dessert adventure, here’s a recipe for patbingsu.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Meredith Mullins 2 Comments

Cultural Encounters/Worldwide Sites

Aug

Great Gardens of the World: Les Jardins d’Étretat

by Meredith Mullins on August 3, 2020

A UNESCO World Heritage view (and Monet’s favorite spot in Étretat)
© Meredith Mullins

A Nature Discovery with a View

Where am I?

Am I in Alice’s wonderland or a labyrinthian meditation garden? Am I dreaming that hedges are crashing like waves on the hillside, or am I lost in a fantasy tunnel of green?

Perhaps all of the above. Great gardens open doors to creative experiences.

Enchanted gardens inspire the imagination.
© Meredith Mullins

Gardens hide behind tiny doors or down Alice-discovered rabbit holes. They surprise us beyond dilapidated fences that seem to say “go farther only if you dare.” And they present magical mazes that offer the alluring puzzle of being lost in time and place.

Does anyone else see a dancing flower?
© Meredith Mullins

Enchanted gardens are laced through literature. And they have brought inspiration to writers and painters throughout history.

One such special garden is Les Jardins d’Étretat—a nature discovery with a breathtaking view of the sea . . . and a neo-futuristic design that offers a glimpse into the future.

Oh, I see. “The garden is a perpetual artistic experiment,” as landscape architect Alexandre Grivko says of his 21^stcentury creation.

A garden with a view . . . of the sea, of the cliffs, and of the future
© Meredith Mullins

Monet’s Other Garden

The Jardins d’Étretat have a historic link to Claude Monet, as well as other painters such as Boudin, Courbet, Delacroix, Manet, Polenov, and Corot.

The gardens sit at the top of the Falaise d’Amont on the Alabaster Coast of Normandy, famous for its weather-etched limestone cliffs and natural rock arches (and listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO).

The light, the clouds, the sea, and the sculpted landscape have been an inspiration for generations.

The Étretat coast has inspired writers and artists for generations.
© Meredith Mullins

Monet painted these cliffs beginning in 1868, creating more than 50 works of the Étretat area.

As a tribute to Monet (painter, avid gardener, and friend), the French actress Madame Thébault created a garden near her villa at the Amont clifftop, planting her first tree in 1903 and nurturing, among other things, a vast collection of orchids.

Her garden was her solace, away from the demands of the theatre. And it became a welcome haven for her artistic friends.

A haven for visitors
© Meredith Mullins

A Neo-Futuristic Experiment

Fast forward more than 100 years. Russian landscape architect Alexandre Grivko takes on the daunting but creative challenge of restructuring and reimagining the abandoned garden, while honoring its historical significance.

The garden becomes an experimental laboratory and an artistic expression of the coast of Normandy.

More than 1000 tons of soil and 100,000 plants were brought to the top of the cliff.
© Meredith Mullins

More than 1000 tons of soil were hauled up the cliff and more than 100,000 plants were planted—all in less than two years.

Grivko followed famous French landscape architect Le Nôtre’s rapid design of the Versailles gardens by limiting the plant species.

He also followed Vito di Bari’s “Neo-Futuristic City Manifesto,” which focuses on the integration of art, technology, ethical values, and nature—to provide a higher quality of life.

Grivko’s goal was to test new plant-care strategies so that the garden could withstand the climate challenges (wind and salt air) and to experiment with sculptural plant trimming in innovative ways.

The plant shapes are organic and true to the land forms of the area. You’ll find the waves of the English Channel, sea spirals, whirlpools, oyster farms, and, of course, the cliff formations—all in a variety of ever-greenery.

An Open-Air Museum

Although the garden is not large (just under 4 acres), you have the feeling that endless meandering could be possible. The space presents permanent and temporary displays of sculpture by international artists. The permanent collection was a part of Grivko’s design. The temporary exhibit brings new work to the garden every year.

The seven named gardens each offer something unique. The Jardin Avatar is the first new discovery by the entrance. This garden features The Clockwork Forest (where you turn the key in the trunk of a tree and music begins to accompany you on your journey).

Who wouldn’t be tempted to turn a giant key in a tree in an enchanted garden?
(Sculpture by the Greyworld Group in London)
© Meredith Mullins

This area also exhibits the temporary sculptures of American Gianna Dispenza’s “The Space Between” and Chinese Shuengit Chow’s “Mobile Music House.”

The Mobile Music House is made of aluminum skins from drink cans to show
that beauty can be found in everyday objects.
© Meredith Mullins

The Jardin Impressions comes next, with its timeless view of the Étretat cliffs, permanent exhibits of comfortable wood lounging chairs, a lounging boat (apropos to the coastal location), and a temporary sculpture entitled “L’été” (Summer) showing the cycles of life and seasons.

A perfect way to merge with nature, pausing in wooden furniture
that is much more comfortable than it looks (by German Thomas Rösler).
© Meredith Mullins

The Jardin Emotions is the most recognizable part of the garden with its set of polyester/resin heads showing the range of human emotions.

The faces are floated in greenery that reflects the underwater world and mollusk-like shapes of Marie Antoinette’s first oyster bed, said to have been in the waters just below this Étretat cliff.

What emotions do you feel?
(Sculpture by Samuel Salcedo from Spain)

The “Drops of Rain,” as they are called—by Spanish artist Samuel Salcedo—range from expressive to creepy, depending on your personal interpretation.

Let’s just say I wouldn’t want to spend a night in the garden with these fellows, no matter what their emotional depth.

The Jardin d’Aval sends you into wonderland, with The Tree Hugger Project made from fallen tree branches by Agnieszka Gradzik (Poland) and Wiktoy Szostalo (Lithuania), a long table and benches made from one solid oak block by German sculptor Thomas Rösler, and flowers made of greenery that look like they are about to burst into song.

Next on the path are the Jardin Zen, for a meditative pause amidst walls of bamboo and white rhododendrons; the Jardin La Manche with topiary mazes; and the Jardin d’Amont that takes you to the highest point of the garden, with greenery trimmed to look like the Normandy cliffs.

A Rabbit Hole and a Vision of the Future

As you wander through the Jardins d’Étretat, you might feel as if you fell through time and space into a different world. Whether real or imagined, you did.

As one of the great gardens in the world, this nature discovery is a brilliant integration of technology, ecology, and art. It shows a strong link between earth and sea.

And best of all, it is an artistic creation that is rooted in one of the most artistic places of all time—the Étretat coast. It is the past, present, and future all in one. Monet would feel right at home.

For more information on the Jardins d’Étretat, visit here. For more information on landscape architect Alexandre Grivko, visit Il Nature.