Andy Quan's Blog

When we travel, we try to choose at least one special restaurant, and since our trip to Seoul coincided with my 56th birthday, I was excited to choose Restaurant Evett. I follow a winner of Masterchef Australia, Nat Thaipun, on Instagram, and saw that she’d visited or worked there. And soon after, there was an article on Australia’s ABC news about the young Australian chef, Joseph Lidgerwood, from Tasmania, who had cheffed around the world and settled in Seoul in 2019, and opened Evett, which c...

The Collected Stories by Lorrie Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I think I was in university when I first discovered Lorrie Moore, reading Like Life (1990) and then liking it so much that I read Birds of America too (1998). Oddly though, when I bought her ‘The Collected Stories’, shortly after its publication in 2008, I never tackled it (it’s a big book after all; there’s a boarding pass in it from when I must started it on a flight to Moscow). So, it’s strange to count that 17 years have gone by b...

The Progress of Love by Alice Munro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve decided to get all of Alice Munro’s work and go back and read them all … eventually. Previous to this one, I finished ‘Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You’ from 1974, and have skipped ahead by two books to 1982 and ‘The Progress of Love’. My new way of reading Alice Munro is to read a story, and then go to the excellent blog ‘Mookse and Gripes’ where I can read some excellent reviews and analysis by two of their writers. The bl...

Musicals and theatre

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Concerts

Tom Odell, Sydney Opera House. I wasn’t familiar with Odell’s music but we always trust our friend Steven, when he asked if we wanted to come. Backed by the Metropolitan Orchestra, these pop songs were given incredible orchestrations and Odell is a real artist and musician: his voice is a beautiful instrument – emotional, powerful and with its own character. Loved the concert. I am now a fan. 

Books

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Exhibitions

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The post 2025 in lists: Musicals, the...

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Movies: seen on TV, probably on a streaming service, or on an airplane

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Movies (seen in the cinema)

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The post 2025 in lists: Movies first appeared on Enter the Quaniverse.

A work in progress. 

Television

Squid Game, Season 2:

Documentaries and Reality Television

Great Pottery Throw Down, Season 8: …Great Canadian Pottery Throw Down, Season 3: …

The post 2025 in lists: Television first appeared on Enter the Quaniverse.

Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You by Alice Munro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m slowly buying all the Alice Munro collections that I haven’t got on my shelf (except for the collected works, as I reckon all those stories will be in the other books). I started with this one, and I started reading it and knew that I had read it before, but long ago. So, it was interesting to think of how little I would have understood of the world at the time compared to decades later, and how I would have misse...

For a few years, I did a lot of food blogging. It was a fun way to share my passion for eating! And the website Zomato gamified it, so the more reviews I did, the higher I would rank on their list of Sydney food reviewers. I thought it was pretty fun. And there was even a period where I’d get invited to events and even some special meals.

But life moves on. Restaurants are doing it tough. And they shouldn’t be offering free meals or deals unless it really helps them. Zomato basically closed dow...

I’ve been meaning to read this book for ages. The premise is so, so good.

Quite a while ago, a friend posted on Facebook (Hi Harsukh) that she just didn’t get the book, and I wondered why, with it seeming to be so straightforward, she didn’t get it.

This was in my mind, actually, the whole time I was reading this, as I was thinking: well, I think I know what the point is, what she’s getting at. And then less and less. And then by the end, I felt: that did NOT come together for me.

So, while the ...

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Movies: seen on TV, probably on a streaming service, or on an airplane

Maestro: First film of 2024. Choices are always to be made in telling someone’s complex life but I enjoyed this interesting telling of the famous composer and conductor and found Carey Mulligan and Bradley Cooper watchable and magnetic. 

Movies (seen in the cinema)

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The post 2024 in lists: Movies first appeared on Enter the Quaniverse.