Passing Time Outside the Kitchen

And inside it as well; with our heavy chutney production schedule Cafe Drake often squeezes in books, magazines and videos on our laptop whilst prepping and cooking product. A few favorites, distractions and inspirations outside the world of food are praised below.

 

A good, nay great, book is the preferred method of passing time in the DP Chutney kitchens as our sweet and spicy creations merrily simmer on the stove top. Of course we had to devour Joyce Carol Oates' latest short story collection (and finish just in time to begin her new novel sure to appear on shelves within the week!) Give Me Your Heart, another in a long line of her recent macabre themed offerings. The title story is a stand-out for the author's characteristic mastery of telling details filtered through the deranged mind of her first-person narrator.

Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964), noted but now somewhat obscurely remembered novelist, essayist, art critic, photographer and composer, is a writer we've always meant to read. After finding two of his novels, bargain-priced first editions, both from the mid-20s, in a Kingston, NY used bookstore, Cafe Drake is thrilled we finally dove into Van Vechten's wacky fictional world of hedonistic aristocrats with hearts of tarnished gold and scheming ingenues. Loved loved loved The Tattooed Countess and Parties.

Local Brooklyn band The Drums update and embellish the simple, jangly melodies of Cafe Drake's youthful record collection, i.e. New Romantic/early British New Wave, in a manner impossible to not hum along with!

 

We only own their debut EP but are waiting with baited breath for a new release. Forever queued up on iTunes, FTP are our current go-to, feel good favorites.

Cafe Drake has for several years championed to friends and fans the easy sounds of Beach House, almost as wistful and carefree in their harmonizing as the band's name implies. Now the subject of any number of dance-oriented remixes we've discovered - along with our own - their wilder side.

Adept Googlers will find a treasure trove of free online films of course, but it takes even more advanced online digging to unearth rare 60s and 70s foreign thrillers from the Italian mystery and whodunit sub-genre known as gialli. Cafe Drake downloads these highly stylized (albeit confusing - style over plot rules!) gems by the handful to watch on the laptop alongside our boiling pots.