Ginger Syrup

This is a continuation of my previous entry about the cake I'm making from a recipe I found on Epicurious.com

Sunday dawned bright and sunny with the temperature expected to peak at around 40 degrees. We had planned to meet some family members who were visiting for the weekend for dim sum in Chinatown. The plan was to then walk the route and watch a little of the Chinese New Year parade and eventually make our way uptown to see the The Gates exhibit in Central Park (more about that later). So with all that planned for the day, plus the need to get the baby fed, the three of us dressed, and family members gathered, I guess Sunday morning wasn't really the ideal time to make ginger syrup--but I did.

I only needed 10 minutes, maybe 15, but it certainly wasn't such a difficult task that I needed more than that, it turns out ginger syrup is very easy to make. I made sure I timed everything far enough in advance so that while the syrup was cooling on the countertop I could tend to mine and the baby's needs and still be ready to leave right on schedule. I suppose when I pulled out the knife and chopping board and started peeling ginger it must have looked like I was getting involved with something that must have made Tom very nervous, nervous in that way that makes alarms go off in his head and he started to lose it. My recall of the events gets a little blurry here being that it’s already the next day and yesterday morning seems like a lifetime ago but I do have a vague recollection of Tom talking on the cordless while chasing down the partially naked baby and glaring at me over his shoulder. I also have a vague memory of me saying something to the effect of “it’s not a big deal, I just need 10 minutes” “the baby likes to run around in just a diaper” and finally “you’re stifling my creativity damn-it!” Oh well, so much for being more Zen in the kitchen. Everything worked out fine in the end, I really did only need 10 minutes to which Tom was impressed by and even showed interest in what it was that I made, it also helped that the syrup was pretty darn tasty too.

Ginger Syrup

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 5 tablespoons matchstick-size strips peeled fresh ginger
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

For ginger syrup:

Place 1 cup water, sugar, and ginger in small saucepan. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean into pan; add bean. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Simmer 2 minutes; remove from heat. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour for flavors to blend.

Strain syrup into small bowl. Chop ginger. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate ginger and syrup separately.)

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The Gates:

When I first heard about the plans that Christo and Jeanne-Claude had for an installation piece in Central Park my reaction was to roll my eyes and sneer. I can’t even tell you why it annoyed me; maybe I was just reacting to it because the concept escaped me and their artistic vision was outside my comfort zone, whatever it was, it wasn’t good. Being an artist myself, I felt bad about my reaction, I felt that in some way I was imposing censorship on them without giving them a fair chance and if I could easily do that to them, then there was more than a good chance that someone could easily do that to me and I certainly wouldn’t want to be written off so easily. My reaction bothered me, it was close-minded and ugly and so with that thought in mind, I insisted that we go and see what it was all about. I’m glad we went, it was a very moving experience. It wasn’t that the gates themselves were such a beautiful thing; but it was what that body of work inspired in me and the people around me that was what made them so very beautiful. There were throngs of people at the park, well into the thousands, probably reaching numbers that are too abstract for me to even comprehend, and they were all there because their curiosity got the better of them and because this was an historic event and they, like me, wanted to understand what Christo and Jeanne-Claude had given to NYC.

Everything sort of clicked for me a little while after we arrived at the park, while watching all those people flowing through the gates, just the sheer number of them and then all those many miles of gates, it was overwhelming. It was the way the gates wrapped around the park and then the way they mimiced that motion and wrapped around the people in the park. It was while watching the way the sun was hitting the saffron colored cloth; letting its light dance on the fabric playfully, lovingly, making it shimmer. It was the way the gates wound around the park, bending and moving and the way the people bent and moved with them, It was the feeling of being a part of something that was a once in lifetime thing and then it was the feeling that we were there doing something special with our little girl. The Gates were everything and then they were nothing but they meant something to every person there, whether their reaction to it was good or bad, whether they liked it or not. The Gates left an impression, one that is going to last for a very long time even though the gates themslves will be gone in just a very short time. To have been there was to have been a part of that fleeting magic and I think that's what made the installation so moving.

Ellie, Central Park NYC, February 2005 (photo taken by Tom)

Written by Deb on February 14, 2005 12:41 AM