Nothing like a good sing song ... Divine Comedy ... how do I love thee ... lemme count the ways

Ok .. there's no better way to round off the weekend than by having a great gallumping sing song, before cooking a slap bang meal and settling down to some BBC drama/thriller on the ABC.

 

And our singalong of choice this time was The Divine Comedy. Divine Comedy are one of those bands that you either love or you hate ... they're too clever by half and seem to reference music your grandparents listened to. Not quite gunning for the relevancy trophy in a world of throwaway pop and celebrity.

 

 

There's no denying the fact that erstwhile dandy-ist Neil Hannon knows his way around a good tune and is a card carrying member of modern locution. Not only that, he knows exactly how to emote with both his voice, lyrics and musical arrangements. And he fronts a pretty tight band, lemme tell ya!

 

 

There are too many great songs to mention. We went through most of Fin de Siecle and Regeneration and oh wasn't Sweden (tall and strong/ and blonde and blue eyed/ pure and healthy / very wealthy) fun and didn't we milk Life on earth (don't rely on the stars above / screw the universe / you ought to try / to live your life / on earth)  and make up words to Lost Property (gym-kits and trainers / asthma inhalers / silk-cuts and bennies / ten-packs and twenties). Strangely Casanova and A Short Album of Love did not get a look in. I usually do Songs of Love from the former and Timewatching from the latter.

 

 

I'd suggest approaching with caution if you're a complete novice. Casanova is a good place to start. Do It!!! Enjoy!

And what did we cook ... I rustled up some chicken cooked in xiao-xing wine with shitake mushrooms:

 

 

This is too easy ... all you need is chicken breast, a stick of carrot, a punnet of fresh shitake mushrooms, a few spinach leaves, an onion, 2 cloves garlic, a thumbs length of ginger, salt, pepper, chinese cooking wine and water. Fry the sliced onion, minced garlic and ginger in sesame oil (be generous), add the chicken and brown, add the sliced carrot and mushroom add about 1/2 cup of water and allow the ingredients to braise, add salt (not too much at this stage) and pepper to taste. When the chicken is close to being cooked, add about 3/4 of a cup of chinese cooking wine and stir to combine. Add the spinach leaves and simmer for about another 5 mins, check seasoning for the final time .... serve with rice!!

 

And what did we watch on telly? The 39 Steps!!