2013 Kruzoo Family Reading List/Quasi Christmas Letter Excuses

You can see our lists from 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.

As each day passes in Madagascar it becomes more and more apparent that the Kruzoo is not going to be sending out our much self acclaimed, universally celebrated, ubiquitous Christmas letter this year. 

Between the timing of moving to an island in the Indian ocean with two babies this fall, to finding out we are having a third (baby boy) addition at the end of April, to having to grow our own food, to having to walk 8km to work, to not having running water, to the increasing price of postage but ultimately due to a general malaise and an inability to order envelopes and stamps in time we have resigned ourselves to the fact that there we won't be doing our yearly mass mailing of 200 Christmas letters.  

Despite the absence of a physical letter in your mailbox we did want to share a few random points about our past year (our yearly highlights will come this summer):

1.  We were still super stoked to celebrate Jesus' birth this past Christmas.  Thanks to Gramma Dee we even had a very nice fake Christmas tree to decorate.  Macee and Betty got to watch Santa Claus ride in on a cart pulled by two Zebu's (i.e., Malagasy longhorns).  They were both terrified to sit on his lap.

In an interesting twist, Macee has an illustrated children's bible that she likes to flip through.  The illustration for many of stories features a white-bearded man (picture, for instance, a robed Moses parting the Red Sea)--Macee will turn the pages and excitedly exclaim "Bonjour Santa" when she sees each of these men.

2.  We still watched Elf and Christmas Vacation this winter and thought of pithy, ironic, and sardonic ways we could incorporate their dialogue into our letter

3.  You will most likely be getting an actual goodness-to-life-real-physical birth announcement from us this summer with a picture of baby Jackson after he's born (in South Africa!) at the end of April!

4.  Technically, it's summer here right now so it really makes more sense for us to wait till our "winter" this June/July/August to send out our yearly letter!

5.  But most importantly, we have included our list of books that Emily and I read (some together and some separately) this past year.  We would hate for everyone to miss out on that!

***Oh yeah, we have Skype and it works great here!  We are 8 hours ahead of the East Coast right now and would love to talk/catch up with any of you!  Tuesday and Thursday mornings are a great time to catch Macee and Betty having breakfast (their 8AM breakfast is 9PM on the West Coast), or during their dinner time on the weekends (their 6PM dinner Saturday/Sunday night is 10AM for the East Coasters).  Just shoot either of us an email for our Skype names:)

The 2013 Kruzoo Family Reading List

 

OUR TOP PICKS

•  West with the Night by Beryl Markham--see Jack's review here.   An aviation pioneer--the first woman to fly from Europe to North America solo--an accomplished horse traininer--illicit lover of the Duke of Gloucester--writer without equal.  These monikers alone describe the  the central character in the best autobiography you've never heard of.  And West is one of the best written books--ever.  Hemingway's evaluation of Beryl in a letter to a friend should rocket this novel to the top of your amazon wish list: [Beryl] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers.

• The Prodigal God by Tim Keller.  First off, as an English major I am embarrassed to admit that I did not know the correct definition of the word prodigal.  From the parable in the Bible, I always thought it referred to someone who screws up and comes back around, hat in hand.  I couldn't be further from the truth--prodigal means someone who is wastefully extravagant, who spends their resources recklessly and freely. The author takes this parable and uses it as a framework by which to illustrate God's reckless and extravagant love for both sons in the parable.   For the skeptic and believer alike this short book will challenge your conception of true religion and Christianity at large.  On our Yearly Re-Reading List.

• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  A riotous look at the fictional-ish journey of one Nigerian woman to the college campuses and social circles of the US.  Tuck a copy of Adichie's deft and funny tale into your bag to read this summer a la plage ou a la piscine.  Among her many insights into our culture is the American propensity to give visitors a full tour of their home--in Nigeria you will never get past the kitchen and living room.

• The Orphan Master's Son: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) by Adam Johnson.  This incredible story falls firmly into the book category fiction-ish.  This lengthy tome is part spy caper--swashbuckling romance--scathing indictment--political commentary but is fully engaging.  Johnson imagines the narrative arc of one ordinary North Korean citizen who struggles for an identity amidst a government imposed monolithic culture.  This arc spans the globe from North Korea to Japan to Texas--you won't be disappointed.

•  Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela by Nelson Mandela.  I started Mandela's autobiography a few weeks before his passing after watching it gather digital dust on my kindle bookshelf for over a year.  My reticence to dive into this book stemmed from a general disdain for dense, bloated, self-important celebrations of one's life often captured in autobiographies.  My misgivings could not have been more misplaced.  More a serious of chronological vignettes than a traditional biography, Madiba beautiful and humbly tells not only his story--but that of South Africa.   Click here to read a poem Jack wrote after reading this book.

Honorable Mentions:

• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.  Ishiguro has an ear for the naivete of youthful aspiration and a heart for tragedy--a great story.
• Ender's Game: 1 (The Ender Quintet) by Orson Scott Card.   A million times better than the mediocre movie.  Start with this one and revel in reading the whole series.
• Warrior's: Life and Death Among the Somalis by Gerald Hanley.  Read everything that you can get your hands on by this gifted author.  As Africa threw of the chains of colonial oppression, Hanley examines the Somali experience through the eyes of a british soldier stationed there.
• Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain.  An insightful and side-spliting fictional look at the American obsession with "supporting the troops."
• People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry.  A pretty creepy (true) story that examines a seedy sub-section of Japanese culture.  Incredibly well-written but I wouldn't recommend it for your small town book club.
• Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee.  One of South Africa's premier writers of our time.  This story is about pride, lust, and the rural aftermath of a post-apartheid South Africa.
• Foe by J.M. Coetzee.  Wow.  What a weird book.  Coetzee reimagines the Will Robinson Crusoe story.  I know it means something deeper and if I was getting graded I could figure it out.  
• Crossroads by W.M. Paul Young.  Thought-provoking but not as good as The Shack.  
• The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry.  A favorite book of one of my younger brothers. This is a meandering examination of memory, reconciliation and regret.  Don't expect a page-turner.  
• The Boleyn Inheritance by Phillippa Gregory.  Emily will have to add her .02.  But I know she liked this one.
• The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman.  This one is a tear-jerker--read it in the privacy of your living room.

DON'T READ:

A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe.  Unless you enjoy spending a whole book despising the main (and pretty much the only) character--don't waste your time on it.  Oe's redemptive efforts in the last three pages are a copout and ring blaringly hollow.   Nobel prize winner-schnobel prize winner is what I muttered when I finished this novel.  I even hesitated to mention that I read it all--but realized that if I could prevent one person from stumbling across this and buying it--I should.    You will notice I didn't even link to it right here--that's how dumb I though this book was.  BUT I may give the author one more chance and read another of his books this year (but he's on thin ice).

"Happy" in Tana

THIS:

Emma Planque Review--great for a date night

27 SEP 2015 Update:  Since our review below (from January 2014), Emma Planque has moved to a street just past the American school.  

Emma Planque Review

Despite a rather 'watery cold start', Emma Planque delivers--we will be returning

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Came here for a date night with my stunning bride and we weren't disappointed.  

We made reservations here for a Thursday with slight trepidation since no one from the embassy here had been to Emma Planque--word on the street was that EP had recently opened.

Turns out that EP opened in November 2012 but the owner (a Malagasy woman I believe) said they only recently started advertising (see excerpt from a back issue of NOCOMMENT.MG at the bottom of this blog post)  Although our waiter said they had only been open a month and a half (but maybe he meant HE had only been working there that long).  

We pulled up to the restaurant which is located in a residential neighborhood adjacent to SIDI apartments.  It appears the property is likely dual-use and has a small parking lot with an attendant on the premises.  We were the only people there that evening and I wondered if it would have been open and staffed had we not called earlier in the day.  

DECOR:  The restaurant was cute but missing some finishing/finer touches.  There was a distracting strip of track lighting that one could replace with a chandelier.  The lights themselves could have used dimmer bulbs--if one happened to be pointed out at you--it could be borderline blinding.  But overall a very cute set up--the outdoor patio had some seating that looked very cozy.  

SERVICE:  Outstanding!  Our orders were taken in a timely manner.  Wine was served correctly and refilled attentively throughout the evening.  The waiters were friendly and the owner stopped by and checked on us.  

FOOD:  Only two sour notes.  The gazpacho--do not order it.  It was very watery and thin--unappetizing.  I would recommend they try the recipe here for future batches.   If you are a gazpacho lover try Plantation Cafe--my darling bride swoons for their spot-on gazpacho.  The white tuna sashami.  I was salivating when I saw this on the menu.  What I received was a healthy portion of partially still frozen sashimi.  The ice crystals actually crunched as I ate it--there was no buttery savoryness to it to say the least.  The soy sauce-ISH mixture lacked something too-maybe soy sauce.  The wasabi was good though.  

Don't let this two low points dissuade you though--the rest of our meal was excellent.  The amuse-bouche that the chef sent out was excellent.  I had a perfectly cooked t-bone--ish steak and my bride had the sesame shrimp--both were worth returning for.  

We shared I drank a Cote du Rhone (2010, they were out of the 2008 listed on the menu) which the perfect accompaniment to a steak a point.  Like most restaurants here the wine by the glass menu n'existe pas.  

Lastly, it's not food obviously but they did have a cigar menu which was a nice touch--I could see my self enjoying one on the outdoor patio while draped across one of their couches.  

BATHROOM: Small but clean.  Instead of paper towels they have cloth wash cloths which were clean but a few were probably ready for retirement.  

Amuse bouche

Don't order the gazpacho

jk

Address (whatever that means here):
lot 2 K 60ter A | Ivandry, Antananarivo, Madagascar
Phone: 20 22 427 76
Takes Credit Cards: ???  We paid cash.
Delivery: No.
Take Out:  ???
Parking Lot:  Yes.
Parking Attendant: Yes.
Outdoor Seating: Outdoor Covered Patio
High Chairs:  ???
Clean Bathrooms: Yes. But unisex and small. 
Languages: French  with some English Translation on the Menu.
Email:  emmaplanque261@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Emma-Planque/138963952936381
Website: ???
Hours: ???

What It's Like to Buy Beef in Madagascar

What It's Like to Buy Meat in Madagascar

 The following two pictures capture perfectly the quandary presented to the average American Vazaha* at a grocery story in here (or 'en France' for that matter).

French Beef Cuts

An American Cow

Dream Sheet

To be clear, this post is about what it's like for an American to buy meat in a Malagasy grocery store (meat is also sold in open air shacks and stalls throughout the city).*

Malagasy Meat Stall

Malagasy Street Butcher

There are three main grocery stores in the capital city Tana and they each carry certain products/brands exclusively.  To complete the weekly grocery trip means a trip to all three stores (luckily they are all on the same oft-congested Rue Hydro Carbon).  

Jumbo Score (Madagascar's WalMart--operated under the French-owned Casino Group)

Shop Rite (South African owned): this is the only supermarket that is open on Sunday afternoons until 3PM.  It's at 'the mall'--a three story building with a little food court--to include one ice cream shop that sells $12 pints of Ben and Jerry's ice cream in 2-3 flavors.  

Leader Price (operated under the French-owned Casino Group)

We actually didn't eat any beef for the first few weeks after we moved here because it was such a bewildering experience to walk into a grocery store and see nothing that you can recognize.  As you can see from the photos below very little behind the counter resembles anything you'd see in the U.S. 

Luckily, there's a wealth of Americans living in Paris that have blogged about their own (mis) adventures in meat. 

From a post at the excellent blog Posted in Paris:
"Here are a couple of short cut definitions.  If you are looking for a New York strip, choose a faux filet or Coeur d’Aloyau   For rib-eye, try an entrecote.   For sirloin, a rumsteak will generally do the trick.  If you are making beef stew, look for paleron, macreuse, gite, or jumeau.

Of course, the beef you see in these pictures comes from grass-fed Zebu (pronounced zay-boo) vice the corn-fed cows we are used to in the States.  This translates to a LOT less marbling and a slightly gamier taste.  That said, we have found some delicious cuts--and because it's all cut on site you can have the butcher/clerk behind the counter cut your t-bone (ish equivalent: cote a griller) as thick as you would like.  We recently grilled up some nice 2-3 inch cuts that were delicious (and they cost about 75% less than in the states).

The Cote Barbeque is their equivalent of prime rib (in the second picture above) and is tender and very tasty when roasted--plus you can buy the whole 'rack' in that picture for about $12.  

The filet de boeuf is excellent cut up into small chunks or strips, marinated for a few hours in brown sugar, vermouth, garlic, and soy sauce and then wokked quickly over high heat.

We will try to post some pictures of the 'finished products' in the future!

Bon Appetit!

 

*For my friends in the states, Vazaha (pronounced like Fahza) is what the locals call white foreigners here--not derogatory unless they call you 'Vazaha bey' which means 'way too vazaha'

LINKS:

http://brunetteabicyclette.com/2011/12/04/buying-meat-in-france-le-lapin/

http://brunetteabicyclette.com/2012/03/14/buying-meat-in-france-le-porc/

http://brunetteabicyclette.com/2011/11/17/buying-meat-in-france-le-poulet/
http://clippings.ilri.org/2013/03/23/on-the-artisanal-nature-of-butchery-or-more-than-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-the-natural-history-of-cuts-of-beef/
http://dabrownstein.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/how-do-you-map-your-meat/
http://www.ediblegeography.com/secret-meat/
http://postedinparis.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/making-sense-of-the-supermarket-part-v-cuts-of-meat/

Chez Lorenzo Review--More than Pizza

Chez Lorenzo Review

Update 1MAR15: Pretty sure the owners have switched again--no update yet on who they are.

My darling wife and I took our deux petite anges to Chez Lorenzo to celebrate the new year.  It has spacious outdoor seating in the grassy courtyard that makes it a perfect spot to take your little tater tots.

Perhaps we are getting more lacksadaisical as we grow accustomed to 'island life' but our favorite places in Tana tend to be those with space for our two girls to run around (in the States, we had embraced a more draconian dining approach--remanding our babes to their booster seats with the vehemance of a third world dictator).

Their current favorite activity involves taking everything out of their mother's purse or diaper bag and strewing across the ground and then walking away disinterested--UNLESS they find a tide or clorox bleach pen--in which they case they MUST be allowed to chew and suck on the cap of said pen at risk of a colossal meltdown (see evidence below).

How could you deprive me of my inalienable right to chew on a Clorox Bleach pen?!

The menu here is much more than pizza (although this seems to be what they are known for--their website has an entire page devoted to the process of building an outdoor pizza oven--evidently they have someone you can hire to have one built at your home).  It runs the gambit from escargot to calamari to chicken, zebu (biensur) and pasta dishes--all with an italian-ish flair.

The food was great but there was some confusion with our order--we thought we were ordering a margherita pizza but it emerged with olives--I suspect, however, this may have been due to my own deficiencies in french rather than those of our server.  I also had a rotisserie chicken with roasted potatoes and sautéed green beans--a marvelous combination prepared perfectly.

Other than that the service was good--we were never quite sure who our server was though--one of the owners walked around and checked on us frequently but there were two other people whom we were unsure of their role.  We asked one of them for another bottle of water at one point and he never brought it. These are minor things--you can come here and expect quick and efficient service--better than you will get in Paris.

The original owners recently passed on the management of the restaurant (to another French couple je crois). These original owners evidently also started (and maybe still run) the pizza au stade place (link forthcoming)--this is a little strange because I found the pizza to be much better at chez Lorenzo.

BONUS: 

*They do takeout for everything on the menu (except for the escargot--dommage?).  For our friends in the States, alot of places here do NOT do takeout.  And some will do takeout if you bring your own tupperware for them to put the food in.

*Here's a link to their menu.

RFP (room for improvement): like most restaurants here in Madagascar their lists of wine by the glass is lackluster and barely there. 

Close Up Map

 


Address (whatever that means here):
 Lot II M35 N Androhibe
101 Antananarivo
Phone: 20 22 427 76
Takes Credit Cards: Not sure
Delivery: No.
Take Out:  YES
Parking Lot:  Yes.
Parking Attendant: No.
Outdoor Seating: Yes, ample shade.
High Chairs:  No.
Clean Bathrooms: Yes. But unisex and small. 
Languages: French and Malagasy with some English Translation on the Menu.
Email:  lorenzo@moov.mg/lorenzoguesthouse@yahoo.fr
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chez-Lorenzo-Antananarivo/124082740958204
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lorenzoguesthouse/

What It's Like: To Find the number for a Restaurant

From Jack:

What It's Like: To Find the number for a Restaurant in Antananarivo

The restaurants in Antananarivo have been excellent thus far.  I have only been to a few: Le Grand Orient, La Plantation, and Le Carnivore--but my darling wife has been to a good smattering of them for lunch during the day.  While the languid speed of service often leaves ample room for improvement (think Paris speed but without the snooty waiters), the food itself has impressed me (as well as the low prices)!

Finding information for a restaurant in Antananarivo, Madagascar, however, is a  much more difficult affair for those of us accustomed to gentlemenly ease of YELP, SeamLess, OpenTable, GrubHub on the world wide interwebs--namely because it turns out that the world wide interweb is not as worldly or wide (or webby) as one assumes living in the cushy, connected northwestern hemisphere.   For those of us with parents of a certain age, these elderly founders of our nation would no doubt feel at ease in the very papered and Yellow-Pagey 3rd world.  I mean, who among us hasn't embarked on a road trip somewhere and had a parent inquire as to whether or not we had a map packed away.

A MAP! A map you say!

 How cute.

How...dare I say it...retro--I can almost picture an old folded map ironically jutting out from the glove compartment of one of my hipster relative's car as he blasts the latest indie violin-polka album whilst sporting suspenders, a straw beret and impossibly tight acid washed jean capris...ahem...but I digress..

Instead here in Tana, one needs to find a free promotional tourism booklet that comes out periodically here in Tana.  At the back of which one will find an (incomplete) listing of restaurants here in town with their phone numbers.  Of course as you can see from my annotation, the numbers aren't always correct.

You might also note that there aren't any addresses for the restaurants below.  Try typing the name of most restaurants below in google maps and you won't get much a result for most of them.  For a few of them you will get a few questionableTripAdvisor reviews with outdated or outright fictitious restaurant information.  This largely stems from the fact that the majority of streets in Madagascar don't have names and they certainly don't have street signs (although this is slowly changing).  

So one is relegated to using Oregon-Trailish directions when describing the location of a restaurant:  "So you go past the American School until you get to Devil's Triangle, then you go straight past two sets of rice paddies and turn left just after the Lutheran Church--you won't think it's a street but don't worry people in the market will get out of your vehicle's way" (this is a near verbatim excerpt of directions I have commonly received). 

Luckily google maps has a mapmaker function where you can edit their map and even add restaurants and stores.  Some of the good ones have already been added: brunch n bio is on there already (albeit in the wrong location) to name one. 

In some future posts we will posts our own MELP (mada + yelp...get it) reviews of the local fare to include snapshots of the menu since you can't find those online either.  By the way, le grand orient below does takeout (for our readers in the US this is a big deal)!

I Want You To Know--A Poem On the Passing of Madiba

(from Jack)
I just started Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom last week and wish I had not let it languish on my kindle bookshelf for the past year.  I am about a quarter of the way through it and the news of Mandela's death hit me hard.

As I thought about the life of Mandela and what I wanted to say about him--I started to write and the poem below is that product.

I Want You To Know--A Poem On the Passing of Madiba

I want you to know sweet daughters

That a man lived, loved, sacrificed and forgave for his people.

I want you to know these words

Ndiwelimilambo enamagama

Let these foreign syllables roll in your mouth like marbles

Know that this saying was embodied by a man:

I have crossed famous rivers.

I want you to know that the world you see was not always this way

Just when our country had defeated the evils of the Nazi Germany

Another hateful plague descended that we did not stop

From the streets of Johannesburg to the rolling countryside of the Transkei

African, Coloured, Indians and white were set apart

—separated

Men, women, and babies

graded and annotated like animals on

pieces of paper according to the shade of their skin.

No my sweet daughters,

This did not happen 150 years ago

but 60 years ago. 

I want you to know that this evil was defeated

Not by armies, guns or atomic bombs—

But by bludgeoned bloody sacrifice

By generations

                                    of gut-wrenching perseverance

And finally dealt its death blow by a forgiveness so

deep                                                                              and                                                                                                   wide

that it baptized an entire nation.

My sweet daughters,

I want you to know the story a man called

Madiba (his clan name),

and Tatomkhulu (grandfather),

Rolihlahla (the troublemaker),

(Nelson was just an English name his teacher gave him because she couldn’t pronounce his African one)

who walked this earth for 95 years.

Of those years, eighteen he endured breaking limestone

rocks on Robben Island

his eyes burned out

hollowed by the sun’s fired reflection.

It is not enough, though, to simply observe and remember

That he spent twenty-seven long years imprisoned.

My sweet daughters, we must count the years together out LOUD

For I want you to feel the weight of those decades on your tongues:

One year

Two years

Three years

Four years

Five years

Six years

Seven years

Eight Years

Nine Years

Ten Years

Eleven Years

Twelve years

Thirteen years

Fourteen years

Fifteen years

Sixteen years

Seventeen years

Eighteen years

Nineteen years

Twenty years

Twenty one years

Twenty two years

Twenty three years

Twenty four years

Twenty five years

Twenty six years

Twenty

Seven

Years.

As those years wore on him like so many boulders

As the goliath death beckoned and demanded him

Madiba struck back and answered with the call of his proud father

Andizi, ndisaquala: I will not come, I am still girding for battle.

I want you to know,

That this man walked out of that prison

And left his hatred with his chains

I want you to know sweet girls

That the grace of love is more powerful than hate

But far more costly

And I want you to know

the most incredible thing:

Madiba’s long walk to freedom

was not just for those shackled but also for the oppressor.

His sacrifice liberated a nation

I want you to know this:

Forgiveness trumps evil and trounces hatred

In the end it was forgiveness that tore down apartheid

and built up a nation.

Finally my dear sweet Macee and Betty

I want you to know that on the 5^th of December 2013

A mountain of a man’s battle ended

And Madiba lay down his weapons

and crossed one last famous river.