Bone marrow at the Court Restaurant, British Museum

The Court Restaurant is a classy place to eat lunch at the British Museum. Situated high up in the Great Court, you get good views of the wonderful geometric glass ceiling over the court and can see the clouds beyond. Because there are two coffee shops in the court below, the buzz of conversation from there is a little diverting, but the restaurant's tablecloth settings, including a live miniature chili plant (with chilis) instead of flowers, give a fancy ambience. For those pleasures, the menu is stiff: ca. £22 for a 2-course or £28 for a 3-course meal. But a la carte held some surprises.

Bone Marrow at the Court Restaurant, British Museum

In the past month, I have seen three references to bone marrow on menus. Where has this come from suddenly?? I suppose bone marrow is consistent with the traditional down-market English cuisine of whelks, steak & kidney pie, tongue and tripe, etc. I first ate it (trepidatiously) mixed in with mashed potatoes. Wonderful! What a flavour. So yesterday at the British Museum, I thought I'd try the Small Plate meal of Bone Marrow (£6.50, not a bad price for lunch).

What did I get? Four halves of a long bone and three slices of baguette. I needed more baguette! The stuff was so rich I could only eat one and a half of the bone contents, sharing an equal amount with my co-diners. That took care of the three baguette slices and left one bone contents uneaten. So I asked to take all the bones home with me (of course, the waitress thought it was for a dog, but it was really for my husband to try, on a rice cracker).

How was it? Well, straight from the bone, it wasn't as tasty as the mashed potatoes. It might have been better if I had loaded the seasoned salad garnish with sea salt onto the bread as well. In making my open-face sandwich, it was hard to spread the marrow. It has the consistency of jello (English jelly) and tends to wobble around a lot and fall off the bread. It looked kind of greyey pink, somewhat like a pink speckled jelly bean. And I felt like a Stone Age carnivore eating it.

Would I try it again? Yes, for the novelty and to see if the flavour changes with different ways of cooking and presenting it. It was a great conversation piece over lunch and cost a quarter of what the others paid. So, see you at the Court Restaurant for a real experience!

The Hajj exhibition at the British Musem

One of the perks of being a Friend of the British Museum is getting to see special exhibitions for free. We took advantage of this to see the current exhibition on the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). It was a great exhibition in many ways: lots of panel explanations to set items in historical context, both objects and documents on exhibit, testimonials from British people who have accomplished the Hajj, and an interesting geographical approach that led one through the main pilgrimage routes to Mecca – from the rest of Arabia and the Middle East, from eastern Eurasia/Indonesia, and of course Britain.

I was particularly impressed by the aerial photographs and aerial video of Al Haram, the "mosque" containing the Kaaba, the holiest shrine of Islam. First, contrary to our usual visual impressions of mosques, this one is a huge flat building surrounding an open courtyard in whose center sits the Kaaba. Second, circumambulation (7 times counter-clockwise) takes place not only in the courtyard around the Kaaba but on the flat roofed building surrounding it. Third, the video does time-lapse photography that shows circumambulation as a galactic spiral, much like the opening part of the YouTube video of a new vision for Al Haram in 2020.

However, visiting this exhibit in particular, I realize the dire need for a new dedicated temporary exhibition room at the British Museum. The current ones are held in the old Reading Room of the Museum, under the central dome. The walls are still lined with leather-bound books from floor to ceiling, but for the Hajj exhibition an internal wall was built in front of the library wall. This meant that upon entry, one had to squeeze along a passageway between the books and that internal wall before making one's way up an temporary internal staircase to access the elevated exhibit floor. All very jury-rigged and artificial. But once there, the Reading Room dome made for an appropriate ceiling, giving the feeling one was in a mosque oneself.

British Museum extension work on Montague Place with
construction site office placed over the street!

The new exhibit room is in the making! At the northwest corner of the Museum, construction is going on that will provide temporary exhibition space in a dedicated room, together with multitudes of space for artefact conservation and scientific analyses, object storage and study rooms, as well as biodiversity and sustainability (i.e. plants on the roof). You can follow the construction (due to be completed at the end of 2013) on the BM's* New Centre website.

* As an American, I always have trouble referring to the British Museum by its initials. But that's the way it's done here! Sorry, folks....

British Museum Members' Christmas Party

For Friends of the British Museum, several "parties" and "member's evenings" are scheduled throughout the year. We have now been to one each, having activated membership only this year to take advantage of these offerings. I took a friend who works at a different museum to see what the "party" would offer.

First off, free coat check (saved £3); the dress code seemed to be whatever people were wearing from work. Then, a cash bar (£2 for softs, £4 for wine) and tapas (£3 per plate).  The tapas were good: olives, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, capers on a stem and roasted bell peppers – all straight out of (the oil in) the jar. You could get this vegetarian dish alone or with shrimp with lemon or thinly sliced prosciutto. Delicious: you can make up one for yourself at home.

The party was held in the Egyptian gallery off the Great Court. High pedestal tables were scattered around for drinkers to rest their glasses on while eating. A foursome could fit around one. So we took our drinks and tapas to a table and stood there the rest of the evening engrossed in our conversation. One other person at our "table" offered comments on the National Gallery Leonardo da Vinci exhibition we were talking about, and we kept our eyes out for people we knew. My friend, in the museum business, did not see a single known face, and although I did, I soon lost them in the crowd.

Actually it was not too crowded and later a jazz trio provided nice background music. So my friend and I passed good time together at what turned out to be a cocktail party without a host/hostess to make introductions. The English – like the Japanese – don't mix well without being introduced. So the lesson for the future is: be sure to go with someone you know and will enjoy talking with together for the evening (usually not your partner!). A member can take in a guest for £5.

British Museum gallery talks

The British Museum has an excellent programme of free lunchtime gallery talks (1.15-1.45) and other free lectures, often given by curators at the museum itself or by outside specialists. I attended one gallery talk recently on Chinese glazes by Nigel Wood, an expert on Chinese ceramic technology. It was excellent, covering both the changing pottery styles through Chinese history and the chemistry of the glazes in a nutshell. Instead of looking at slides in a lecture hall, these talks take place in the museum galleries themselves, and the lecturer moves among the cases talking about items therein. This is a most informative way to study when in a small group; and if the group is large, there are earphone amplifiers so that one can hear what's being said in the middle of the crowd. Regular visitors to the galleries drift in and out on the sidelines without being disruptive. But do make sure you know where the gallery is to get there on time because it is a spatially complicated museum! No need to book, just show up...

Yesterday I attended a talk in the Korea Foundation Gallery at the BM (sorry, that's what it's called here), where a guest curator from the Seoul National Museum was scheduled to talk about the new Korean materials there on loan from SNM or bought with funds donated by the Hahn Cultural Foundation. To my chagrin, however, the talk was given in Korean! There were only two people in attendance, myself and a Korean intern at the museum. My Korean isn't that good, and I only understood a little of what was said, but I thought, What a shame that the lecture wasn't in English to appeal to the more adventurous British and tourist public. Wouldn't the Korea Foundation want their gallery widely known? The gallery is well worth visiting, currently having Silla stoneware, and gold and beads from the Kyongju tombs in one case and Kaya iron armour for both men and horse in another. These are on short-term loan from SNM and will eventually be returned to Korea. The permanent exhibit contains ceramics of several ages including celedons, porcelains and punchong ware. Inlaid lacquer and metal works as well as an iron Buddha are also on display.

To see more about the Korea Gallery and Hahn Cultural Foundation:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/galleries/asia/room_67_korea.aspx
http://www.hjmuseum.com/eng_group/intro/founder.asp

Check out future activities and events at the British Museum at:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/events_calendar.aspx