ALL ABOUT CAPTAIN JAMES COOK

Phi, the Fibonacci sequence, the golden ratio, the golden section, the golden mean, the divine proportion. It’s known as many things, but the ratio they all refer to is the same, 1 : 1.61803399...

Found in art, architecture, design, and most intriguingly, in nature, this ratio has been used throughout history and today for its aesthetic beauty.


"The golden ratio was first studied by ancient mathematicians because of its frequent appearance in geometry. There is evidence that it was understood and used as far back in history as ancient Egypt. In the Great Pyramid of Giza built around 2600 BC, the golden ratio is represented by the ratio of the length of the face (the slope height), inclined at an angle ? to the ground, to half the length of the side of the square base, equivalent to the secant of the angle ?. The above two lengths were about 186.4 and 115.2 metres respectively. The ratio of these lengths is the golden ratio 1.618. The largest isosceles triangle of the sriyantra design used in ancient India, described in the Atharva-Veda (circa 1200-900 BC) is one of the face triangles of the Great Pyramid in miniature, showing almost exactly the same relationship between ? and the golden ratio as in its larger counterpart. It is believed that after tracing the path of Venus in the sky, the ancients found that the ratio of the length of the long arm of the pentagon shape to the length of the shorter arm was 1.618. The ancient Greeks usually attributed its discovery to Pythagoras (or to the Pythagoreans, notably Theodorus) or to Hippasus of Metapontum. Hellenistic mathematician Euclid spoke of the "golden mean" this way, "a straight line is said to have been cut in extreme and mean ratio when, as the whole line is to the greater segment, so is the greater to the lesser". The golden ratio is represented by the Greek letter varphi (phi, after Phidias, a sculptor who commonly employed it) or less commonly by ? (tau, the first letter of the ancient Greek root ?(?/?)?- meaning cut)."

This place is so atmospheric! As you can see it was bustling with staff at 11pm on the Saturday night of the Ise River Fireworks festival. Although half a world away both geographically and cuisine wise, it had the welcoming home-cooking feel of Mario's cafe at the top of Bourke St in Melbourne. And hands down they were THE BEST gyoza I've ever tasted; and Yumi will testify, I've tasted a helluva lot of gyoza in the past few months!

Yumi also sang the praises of their onegeri (rice balls) so I ordered one. I stooped old obasan hobbled out from the back room and swiftly fashioned one freshly from the rice cooker. The rice was cooked to perfection and lightly salted and the (seeded) umeboshi plum at its centre had been home pickled. There was only a small piece of nori (dried seaweed) wraped around it, modern onegari tend to be completely wraped in it; but the ratio of seaweed to rice was perfect.

I'm looking forward to returning to this place!