2005 May | Kathryn Hill

We saw Kung Fu Hustle last night; it was awesome! Go see it.

There’s a scene in the movie where the main character’s love interest, who is mute, signs to him. I snapped to attention because even though the signs were not American Sign Language (ASL), they were extremely similar to the signs for “You remember me? You help me.” And that’s exatly what she was signing, because it fit in with the plot and story at that moment. I kept thinking, “that just can’t be Chinese sign language … that just doesn’t make sense etymologically.”

I asked my friend Gabe if he knew what sign that might be – Gabe is deaf, and his family is Chinese, so he’s traveled there quite often. As it turned out, he had not seen the movie yet, but he theorized that it was probably Hong Kong Sign Language and not Chinese Sign Language.

“HKSL?” you ask, maybe thinking that sign language was one universal language. Nope! Well, there is one universal sign language – it’s called gestuno and is like esperanto. But no, sign language is different all over the world, and mant countries contain several dialects. Here is a comprehensive listing of all the sign languages in the world. Canada uses, French Canadian SL, ASL, Eskimo (Inuit) SL, and Nova Scotia SL. China itself has HKSL, Macau SL, Taiwanese SL, and mainland China has many different dialects of sign language. The list goes on.

I remember reading a story about the movie Beyond Silence several years ago; the main characters are deaf, but the film is German and the actors were American and French. They had to learn how to sign in German SL for the film, except they had two different sign language coaches, from different parts of Germany. When the film came out, deaf German viewers who saw the film complained and argued that the signs were in the wrong dialect and didn’t match.

Anyway, Kung Fu Hustle. Awesome.

Yesterday, I went to my favorite Montréal market, Marche Atwater. During the winter, all the food stalls were housed inside the building. Yesterday was different; as Spring arrived, the walls of winter were removed and now, suddenly, the market is outside more than it is inside, and there are even more vendors.

From the maple stall, I bought a tub of pure maple butter and homemade maple donuts. The donuts are the old-fashioned cake style, and in irregular shapes as the batter was hand-dipped, and they were made with real maple syrup. They’re really good after you pop them in the toaster for a bit, and eat them with a nice glass of cold milk.

At the fresh pasta market, I bought some smoked duck ravioli and a container of fresh tomato-basil sauce.

I had an espresso at the brûlerie.

At one of the plant stands, I restrained myself from buying the cheerful potted sunflowers and fresh potted herbs. All over Montreal right now, I have been noticing beautiful flowering trees of some sort, with deep rosy-pink blossoms. I couldn’t identify them. The blossoms seem too dark in color to be apple or cherry, though the leaves and trunk/bark structure look similar to apples and cherries. I saw a small potted one in one of the plant stands at Atwater, and the tag only gave its Latin name – Malus makamik. I googled it when I came home, and Malus is the family of crabapples, and the trees covering Montreal are Makamik Flowering Crabapples. They’re quite gorgeous with their dusty pink blossoms. As it turns out, there’s a story behind Montreal and its crabapple trees. Montreal wanted to be able to fill the city with flowering cherry trees like China and Japan, but cherry trees don’t bloom well in Québec’s subarctic climate. The hardier crabapple tree was chosen, and many were given to the city as gifts fro China and Japan when they discovered that the Montrealers looked to them for inspiration in laying out the city’s ecological aesthetics. In 1981, the City of Montreal combined the letters V and M (for Ville de Montreal) in a flower blossom-shaped design that represents the crabapple, the city’s official flower, and this became Montreal’s official logo.

The three cheese stores were giving samples of both local cheeses and European cheeses, along with samples of beer from local breweries. Yum.

The fish store (which, IMO, is the best seafood market in all of Montreal) has two lobster tanks by the entrance. All winter, there were maybe five, or ten lobsters in the tanks. Yesterday, I walked in, and both tanks were BRIMMING with lobster – they were so packed full of lobster that lobsters were grabbing the edge and pulling themselves out of the tank. I asked the fishmonger if it was lobster season, and yup – it is, for the month of May. It’s also Atlantic Snow Crab season, as well. These lobsters are nicely sized – between 1 1/2 to 3 lbs, and being sold at the price of US$3.86 per pound. I foresee a lobster dinner (or two) in our near future.

From the fresh produe stand, I purchased a lovely eggplant, nice, firm, plump white mushrooms, a head of leafy green lettuce, some red potatoes, two ears of multicolored corn, and a pint of fiddlehead ferns, which I plan to saute in butter with a lot of garlic and shallots and parsley. Yum.

I am craving peaches. Large, ripe, juicy peaches that I can sink my teeth into and feel peach juice dribble down my chin. Peaches that I can make cobbler with.

I want an ice cream maker.

Monthly Archive for May, 2005

Kung Fu Sign Hustle

Farmer’s Market: Marché Atwater