Boulangerie: February 2023
Unbaked bits from the month!
The Boulangerie is a regular, unscheduled feature of Technocomplex, appearing once or twice a week. It is for half-baked, rising dough, the just-now-in-the-oven entries. After all boulangerie in French is bakery. Entries are always very short. To find out when new loaves have been set out, follow @mrdelong@mastodon.online.
Boulangerie: Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, seven volumes
The bindings tell the story.
February 26, 2023
Boulangerie: You might have had trouble finding Montreal's #1 restaurant
Tripadvisor's five-star rating is tough to earn, unless you exist only in fantasy
February 11, 2023
It’s called Le Nouveau Duluth, and as one skeptical chef put it, “In the features, they do everything: they deliver, they do takeout, reservations, outdoor seating, buffet, private dinings, private parking, they have a full bar, wine and beer, waterfront, live music, jazz bar, it’s a drive-through, they’re on the beach, they have a playground.”
Quite the place, apparently. It’s also impossible to find, because it doesn’t exist.
Rauf, Shahroze, and Erika Morris. “Montreal’s No. 1 Restaurant on Tripadvisor Didn’t Really Exist.” CBC, February 1, 2023. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-fake-restaurant-tripadvisor-1.6733629.
Boulangerie: Hard on the nether parts but decorative
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art collections, a medieval ceremonial saddle from central Europe
February 6, 2023
Saddle, Central European, c. 1400-1420. It wouldn’t be an easy seat, for sure, since it’s made from unforgiving bone “probably from the pelvic bones of large animals such as cows.” But beautiful it is. The noble riding this would trade it in for getting to the regular day job, but it’d look great in a parade.
The Met website has many more photographs of the piece and a couple other interesting saddles, too. If you’re in the NYC area, the saddle is on view at The Met Fifth Avenue, Gallery 306.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art website has a great collection of detailed photographs of items from its collection — https://www.metmuseum.org/art/the-collection.