Jeeves and Wooster

Starting new things again.

I first read P.G. Wodehouse many years ago, and quite enjoyed it. I have read a few of the novels, and then I discovered the BBC series starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. I totally enjoyed them, and last night I started watching them again. I am not sure that I will write reviews of all of them, but I will write a review of the first, and we shall see about the others later.

Jeeves takes Charge

We are introduced to Bertie Wooster in a courtroom, where he is clearly drunk and where the judge keeps telling him to shut up as he makes feeble attempts to defend himself. After being fined 5 pounds, he is sent home, where he collapses on his bed. The doorbell rings almost immediately, and after a bit of grunting and groaning (by Bertie) we are introduced to Jeeves.

Now that our two heroes are in place, Jeeves makes Bertie a hangover cure, and we are introduced to the world of Bertie Wooster, first, the Drones Club. Now, for those of you not familiar with P.G. Wodehouse or Jeeves and Wooster, you should take note of the name of Bertie's club, for I doubt it is accidental. The Drones Club is filled with idle young men with barely a brain cell between them, but you will understand more of that later. We are introduced to several players in later stories, but some of them are little more than names.

The scene at the Drones club starts with a moose stuck in the door. Yes, a moose, and that is the sort of thing that you should prepare yourself when watching Jeeves and Wooster. As with the books, the most extraordinarily silly things are likely to crop up at any moment. The moose is connected with two of Bertie's cousins, and a club called the Seekers that they wish to join. But, that is not important now (but will be later), so we rush off with Bertie for a lunch with his Aunt Agatha, the "nephew crusher."

Aunt Agatha introduces not only the central theme of this story, but a central theme of all the Jeeves and Wooster stories, romance, or more correctly marriage. Aunt Agatha wants to see Bertie married off to someone appropriate, and Bertie doesn't. It seems at times that Bertie has been engaged to about half of the girls in England, and considerably more than half of the girls who appear in these stories. With a few notable exceptions, these engagements are not Bertie's idea, and he wants nothing more to get out of them.

With ties in neatly with the next step in the plot and the next one of the central themes in the stories. Bertie discovers that his friend Bingo Little is madly in love with the girl that Aunt Agatha wants him to marry. So, Bertie comes up with a brilliant (at least he thinks so) plan to ensure that Anoria (the girl in question) falls for Bingo, leaving Bertie free once again. Now, the plan is not a central theme, though they appear often, the central theme is the inevitability of Bertie's plan going awry, and of course, it does.

The next central theme, one which takes a bit of time to work its way clear in this story, is Jeeves coming up with a plan to pull Bertie from the fire, saving him, in this case, from matrimony to the "athletic" woman with the look like a "sargeant major."

I don't really want to ruin the story, so I will leave it at that. But, this first episode is endearing, silly and loads of fun. Fry and Laurie are perfect as Jeeves and Wooster. The rest of the cast is at least adequate, though they change in later seasons, which is a problem for the series, most of the replacements are not better than the originals, and if you change, it should be for the better. Bertie is easy to like, and Jeeves is a true mastermind.

Hopefully, you will not only check out the excellent BBC series, but also find and read the original stories which are excellent light reading.

The Magic Wok

This is my first food review, so bear with me.

The guys where I work decided to order chinese today, so I had the idea to review what I ordered. First, the restaurant.

The Magic Wok
2617 Guadalupe St.
Austin

Don't confuse this with the (note small t, not part of the name) Magic Wok chain with locations in Michigan and Ohio. They do not seem to be related, at least from what I could tell from their websites.

Now, we ordered for delivery, and that leaves me with the dilemma of whether or not the food would be better when it comes straight from the kitchen, rather than trucked 10 blocks, but I cannot change that, so oh well.

Sesame Chicken, with brocolli
Fried Rice
Hot and Sour Soup
Egg Roll (not sure what sort)

The portions are good sized, with the typical three compartment take out box. The large section is filled with chicken and brocolli, and the two small compartments are filled with rice.

The egg roll was packaged seperately, which is a nice surprise. An egg roll should be crunchy, and it is hard for it to remain crunchy when sealed in the box with other steaming foods. So, point one to them. The egg roll was tastey and at least somewhat crunchy, even after being taken for a ten-block and eight-story journey.

The soup suffered more from the journey and was barely lukewarm when it arrived. I don't count that against the restaurant, but it may be better when served hot to your table. I am a big fan of hot and sour soup, and I am considering trying to make it from scratch. Packet Hot and Sour Soup being hard to find and less than satisfying in most cases.

Now, I should say that I am a big fan of Hot and Sour broth, as I do not really like the vegetables, etc. in it. I generally spoon off the broth. The broth was lighter in color than I expected, almost as if it was made from a chicken stock and the others were made from a beef stock. I do not know if that is the reason, just a way of describing the difference in color. The taste is much the same as other Hot and Sour Soups I have tried, however, it lacked some of the initial bite I expect from Hot and Sour Soup, though it did have the pleasant after burn (not afterburn) that I expect. Not the best I have had, but not bad either.

The chicken is breaded or battered, it is hard to tell which under the sauce, and it does not really matter. The chicken was tender and tastey, with the breading adding a little soft almost crunch (not sure how to describe the texture) which was very nice. The sauce was sweet and not very spicy, just the way I like it

The rice was a bit tasteless, nothing bad, but nothing to really praise either. This seems to be a common problem with chinese restaurants, for the fried rice that they serve with meals. When you order fried rice as a standalone dish, the fried rice seems to have a lot more flavor. But, there was plenty of sauce to mix the rice with, so it worked out well and was very good.

Overall, I am impressed. I do not have a rating system, but I would not avoid The Magic Wok. In fact, I will going there again. I changed jobs, and I had a favorite chinese place near where I used to work, but I needed to find one near the William B. Travis building in Austin (17th and Congress). So far, this one is the best one that is close and I will be trying it again.