Monday, May 28, 2012

There is a meeting of the CIVAC tonight and the theme is a rather limited one.  I will make it down there eventually, but no need to be there at 8:00 on the dot.  Other than that event there is nothing else on the calendar.

We took life easy most of the day yesterday.  Susan made some tortilla española and a salad and we combined that with a fresh loaf of multigrain bread from El Parisien and life was good.  We spent the afternoon reading and at 8:00 PM we took a cab to Babel Cines.

Babel is a multiplex with five theaters and it specialized in showing films in their original language with subtitles in Spanish.  Susan and Zahava go there frequently, but this was to be my first visit.  We were there to see a French Canadian film called Monsieur Lazhar, which was one of the films submitted for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.  It is a very powerful and moving film.  The child actors are absolutely outstanding, as is the lead character.  The premise of the film is that there has been a sudden vacancy at a school and Bashir Lazhar has found out about it and offers his services, which are accepted.  Lazhar is from Algeria and has come to Montreal seeking political asylum.  The film deals with his story and that of the children in his classroom.  I won’t say more than that because I do not want to spoil it for you.  Here is a link to the trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjNCkxnT-xE

After the movie we made our way to a restaurant called Yi, which specialized in Asian cuisine.  There seem to be a number of international restaurants in that area including Mexican and Chinese.  Susan and Zahava had eaten there several times and the fact that it was still open was another point in its favor.  There were four people having dinner when we walked in and another couple walked in as we were dining.

They have a number of set menus and Susan and I ordered different ones.  Mine consisted of a salad, some fried prawns, two Vietnamese spring rolls, a tuna roll, a chicken dish and fried rice.  In addition to the Vietnamese spring rolls Susan’s menu included soup, two pieces of sushi, and Teriyaki salmon.  All of the dishes were tasty, but not as good as what we have become used to in the San Gabriel Valley.  We’re spoiled and we know it.  Dessert was fried ice cream and it was forgettable.  I would probably go back and explore the menu a bit more deeply.  I would probably order a la carte rather than choose a set menu.  Here is a link to their web page http://www.cocinaasiaticayi.es/

It took a while to find a cab, but find one we did.  It was close to midnight when we got home.  We washed up and got ready for bed and it was lights out at 12:30.