Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Van-ya Japanese Restaurant - 5615 Harold St near Kingsway
Small authentic Japanese restaurant, very reasonable prices.
$5.50 for ebi don (5 tempura prawns + rice) is a very good deal.
$5.50 for ebi don (5 tempura prawns + rice) is a very good deal.
# posted by Mr Foodie @ 11:45 PM 
Comments:
<< Home
I surmise you patronized the Van-ya Restaurant because you are an aficionado of the plays of Anton Chekhov, and in particular “Uncle Vanya”, written in 1899.
I need hardly remind you that “Uncle Vanya” has been put on film more than once. One of the better known versions was made in 1963 with Laurence Olivier in the title role. And you will also know that “Vanya on 42nd Street” was made in 1994, directed by Louise Malle from an adaption of the play by David Mamet, and starring Jullianne Moore and Wallace Shawn.
How fortunate that you should have eaten at the Van-ya Restaurant. I just know your fellow eaters would have listened agog when you told them they were in a restaurant with the very same name as a famous play by the renowned Anton Chekhov.
Some may now be emboldened to read the play, and perhaps rent a DVD of at least one of the films of it, and tell their friends to eat at the Van-ya Restaurant, and so participate, albeit vicariously, in the world of Anton Chekhov’s nineteenth century Russia as epitomized in the character of Uncle Vanya.
That the Van-ya Restaurant offers Japanese cuisine should be no obstacle, since in 1899 - the year "Uncle Vanya" was published - Japan and Russia were becoming symbiotically connected in the sense that they were trying to outdo each other in the size of their navies, a rivalry that culminated in the Russo-Japanese war and the famous Japanese victory at Port Arthur, the first military triumph of an Asian power over a European one in modern times.
Post a Comment
I need hardly remind you that “Uncle Vanya” has been put on film more than once. One of the better known versions was made in 1963 with Laurence Olivier in the title role. And you will also know that “Vanya on 42nd Street” was made in 1994, directed by Louise Malle from an adaption of the play by David Mamet, and starring Jullianne Moore and Wallace Shawn.
How fortunate that you should have eaten at the Van-ya Restaurant. I just know your fellow eaters would have listened agog when you told them they were in a restaurant with the very same name as a famous play by the renowned Anton Chekhov.
Some may now be emboldened to read the play, and perhaps rent a DVD of at least one of the films of it, and tell their friends to eat at the Van-ya Restaurant, and so participate, albeit vicariously, in the world of Anton Chekhov’s nineteenth century Russia as epitomized in the character of Uncle Vanya.
That the Van-ya Restaurant offers Japanese cuisine should be no obstacle, since in 1899 - the year "Uncle Vanya" was published - Japan and Russia were becoming symbiotically connected in the sense that they were trying to outdo each other in the size of their navies, a rivalry that culminated in the Russo-Japanese war and the famous Japanese victory at Port Arthur, the first military triumph of an Asian power over a European one in modern times.
<< Home
