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“Swedes are better cooks than the French,” declared Chef Robert Lilja, a Swede who has lived and worked in the Philippines for 24 years. Last Saturday we tested this argument at Lilja’s restaurant, Savoy Bistro on Kalayaan Avenue, Poblacion, Makati. (The place known as “Backwell”, behind Rockwell “Gillage”. There are lots of bars and restaurants coming up in the area, and Lilja believes it will be the next Malate.)

Savoy Bistro is located inside East Asia Art Gallery, which makes for an interesting atmosphere…

Okay, we’re not crazy about the artworks. “How do you like the paintings?” “The appetizers are wonderful!” We noshed on morsels of steak tartare on multigrain bread,

Escargots swimming in butter,

Mussels, and

Jamon Serrano.

And that was just the teaser. For the main course there was Sole Walewska in lobster and cognac sauce, served with truffled mashed potatoes and asparagus (Php640). A recipe from the great Escoffier, Chef Lilja informed us. Uhh…wasn’t he French? The chef waved off the contradiction. He added that Savoy Bistro specializes in classic European cuisine from 1730 – 1910, and their already extensive menu changes every six months.

Any doubts as to this Swede’s culinary mojo were crushed by the next dish: Pepper Steak Madagascar—beef tenderloin medallion with a black and white pepper sauce (Php890). They do not stint on the pepper. We found ourselves crunching on peppercorns; this did not stop us. We just drank more wine.

Ordinarily we find excuses to avoid the vegetables, but this excellent Napoleon Salad (Php340) cooled our over-stimulated taste buds. We know that Napoleon Bonaparte invented Poulet Marengo, but if he also thought up this salad of greens, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted vegetables, olives and walnuts in balsamic vinaigrette, we’re a bit sorry his campaign for world domination went kaput.

Our dinner was so delicious, the generous dessert of mango crepes, creme brulee and chocolate mousse had the air of anticlimax. We resolved to return to Savoy Bistro until we had eaten our way through the entire menu.

French cooks, the gauntlet has been hurled. We await your riposte.

Savoy Bistro, 8479 Kalayaan Avenue (near the Bel-Air Gate on Amapola), Poblacion, Makati. Telephone (02)8965667, email savoybistro@eastasianarts.ph. Open daily from 12nn to 3pm, and 6pm to 12mn.

Is Saffy OC? Mat thinks so.

Every night Saffy goes on patrol. She walks around our apartment for hours, taking the exact same route. When she gets to the bedroom she walks on the bed, climbs on the shelf and jumps onto the window sill. Then she jumps down, goes out of the room, and repeats the circuit. This goes on all night, or at least until we fall asleep.

Sometimes we block her progress with a stack of pillows, or we sit in her path. She stops and indicates that we should get out of her way. This leads to a conversation like this.

Us: You shall not pass.
Saffy: I will pass.
Us: You shall not pass.
Saffy: I will pass.

Repeat 100 times. When she is convinced that we’re not moving away she takes an alternate route, but on the next circuit she will attempt to pass through that exact spot. She does this over and over again, like she’s caught in a loop. It must be good exercise because she has a big appetite but hasn’t gotten fatter. The other cats look at her like she’s bonkers but do not attempt to stop her.

We read four of Edward St. Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose novels in a row: Mother’s Milk (the fourth in the series—you can read it in any order), then Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope. They are exquisitely-written and horrible, and not exactly designed to fill one with love for the human species. So before we crack open the final Melrose novel, At Last, we’re decompressing with some old Ultimate X-Men comics. Probably not the best way to promote goodwill towards homo sapiens—our favorite character is Magneto.

According to the comics this is his favorite painting: La Chateau des Pyrenees by Rene Magritte. Of course. Looks like he raised it.

from Art.com

Horse paintings at Tito Bustillo cave, Spain. Photo by Rodrigo de Balbin Behrmann from LiveScience.

Note: ‘Neandertal’ is the modern spelling of ‘Neanderthal’. Neandertals lived from about 130,000 – 28,000 years ago and were larger-boned and stockier than modern humans. The question of whether they should be considered Homo sapiens is unresolved.

Stupid joke: Ayyyy the Engineers were horses.

The basic questions about early European cave art—who made it and whether they developed artistic talent swiftly or slowly—were thought by many researchers to have been settled long ago: Modern humans made the paintings, crafting brilliant artworks almost as soon as they entered Europe from Africa. Now dating experts working in Spain, using a technique relatively new to archaeology, have pushed dates for the earliest cave art back some 4000 years to at least 41,000 years ago*, raising the possibility that the artists were Neandertals rather than modern humans. And a few researchers say that the study argues for the slow development of artistic skill over tens of thousands of years.

Figuring out the age of cave art is fraught with difficulties. Radiocarbon dating has long been the method of choice, but it is restricted to organic materials such as bone and charcoal. When such materials are lying on a cave floor near art on the cave wall, archaeologists have to make many assumptions before concluding that they are contemporary. Questions have even arisen in cases like the superb renditions of horses, rhinos, and other animals in France’s Grotte Chauvet, the cave where researchers have directly radiocarbon dated artworks executed in charcoal to 37,000 years ago. Other archaeologists have argued that artists could have entered Chauvet much later and picked up charcoal that had been lying around for thousands of years…

Read Did Neandertals paint early cave art? in Science.

Horse painting at Lascaux cave, only about 20,000 years old. Photo by Ralph Morse for Life magazine.

The Golden Sisters read it for us.

We’re getting verklempt!

We don’t usually shop at Bow & Wow the organic pet food store because we have a rule in our house that says the cats’ food can’t be more expensive than the human’s. But Dinna gave us a gift certificate so we went to the store and bought a selection of gourmet entrees. Which our cats will review. Thanks, Dinna!

One of Saffy’s favorite sites: Procatinator.

* * * * *

Review # 1: Merrick Five Star Gourmet Entrees: California Roll.

Koosi: It has a strong smell, almost pungent.

Saffy: The consistency is mushy but it is quite delicious.

Mat: Check out this picture I took of a cat eating an entree.

Koosi: Where’s the entree?

Mat: He ate it all up.

Saffy: Where’s the cat?

Mat: He already ate.

Everybody: Why should he stay around?