A friend recently mentioned that she was thinking about becoming a vegetarian. A move which I enthusiastically applaud. Don’t worry, I promise not to get all preachy at the rest of y’all, but my goodness, there are some delicious vegetarian recipes out there. I’m not really into the fake meats or replacements, just yummy dishes that coincidentally don’t have meat in them..
I’m on a cooking kick at the moment, and here are some of my favourites:
Spring rolls! Buy some premade rice wrappers, soak them in water, then fill them with whatever veggies you like & dip into saucy goodness. Good fillings: greens, carrots, sprouts, cucumber.
Sweat out some seasoned leek and mushrooms, cook up some penne and smother with Parmesan.
Roasted vegetables with curry powder & pepper, mashed into greek yoghurt.
Red pepper bruschetta. Thickly slice some good bread (I like sourdough), then toast with a little bit of olive oil in the oven. Caramelize some onions and spread liberally on the toast, along with some chopped roasted red peppers, and thin slices of basil.
Tachos – chili beans, salad ingredients and browned onions, stuffed into taco shells or burritos. Replace cheese with hummus if you want to be sooooper healthy.
What are your favourite go-to recipes? Or what do you serve up when you’re feeding a bunch of happy herbivores? I would love to know!
“I’m going to need a fistful of aspirin before you open your goddamn mouth again.” Oh. Hungover Owls. I CAN RELATE.
But Will It Make You Happy? New studies of consumption and happiness show, for instance, that people are happier when they spend money on experiences instead of material objects, when they relish what they plan to buy long before they buy it, and when they stop trying to outdo the Joneses.
The surprise and delight factor. My friend Jonny wrote this nice little piece on venues: If you were your audience would you keep coming back? Super relevant to bars methinks! PS. I went to the Die!Die!Die! warehouse party described and it was brilliant. Check out their song HowYe:
William Gibson muses on the big G – Google: “To be sure, I don’t find this a very realistic idea, however much the prospect of millions of people living out their lives in individual witness protection programs, prisoners of their own youthful folly, appeals to my novelistic Kafka glands.”
September 1st. A beautiful day, even in the belly of the city. I took these snaps while walking to meet a friend at Coco’s Cantina, where we drank rosé on a sidewalk table. I can feel my spirit lifting with the temperature. Life is good.
Oh, hello! I haven’t done a week in review for a while, I guess I overload with the photos when I’m traveling and when I’m back I just want to leave the camera at home for a while… I can’t believe how much has happened, Europe feels like so long ago.
Let’s start with evidence that Auckland does have some secret architectural gems. Also, I took this photo from a lane… Durham Lane! Lanes, alleys and little nooks are what maketh a city.
It was the lovely Meg’s birthday on Tuesday night, so we ate lots of yummy Japanese and drank from a large can of beer at Tanuki’s. The tofu steak there is delicious!
Wrapping presents with tissue paper printed with a small mouthless cat.
A present for me! My friend Tessa gave me this cute narwhal badge. I offered to give everyone stick tattoos with it. Thankfully, they all declined. Easier to wear it, right?
I have been going to Revel a lot. I really like their bagels with pesto, and their dinosaur table numbers. I always feel like a winner every time I get it! They also have Space Invaders, which is a nice way to while away a Monday morning with a cute boy.
And finally, from Saturday night: me before a wonderful party, and my friend Mon in situ at the party- hanging out on an awning!
A few things of late that have been making me happy/curious/excited:
1.Actual boats. If you’re in Auckland, you can go sailing quite cheaply for a few hours on the beautiful Waitemata Harbour. Voyager, the Maritime Museum of New Zealand, has a fleet of heritage vessels that you can go to sea on. Once the weather is better, I’m out there.
2.Narcotic Venus by Nasamotto. An intoxicating scent based on tuberose blossoms, a gift to myself. I feel womanly when I wear it, as opposed to Miss Dior Cherie, which makes me feel girlish and light. Read a full fragrance review for a better idea of how amazing Narcotic Venus is.
3.Book Club For Drunks – the 4th Edition. This time we are reading and toasting to Truman Capote’s Breakfast At Tiffany’s. It’s a stellar novella, dripping with scandal, I can’t believe I never got round top reading it before. New York, flighty girls, drinking and a cat.
4.Army surplus. I bought a binocular case at my local the other day, as an alternative to a saddle shaped leather satchels (having broke a few of late). While it’s eons old, it’s well made and can withstand wars so it might be able withstand me. I’m also quite keen on buying a green M65 style field jacket. I will promise not to wear them together though.
5.Penguin classics. I feel like I only read orange books now days. My room is awash with well thumbed copies. Anyway, I just finished reading Timothy Conigrave’s Holding The Man. Are you in need of an epic sob? Read this. Heartbreaking.
New music for a Monday? Hold Dear, aka Chloë and Jonny, make lovely pop that’s a little bit achey. Kinda like fairy floss for your ears – sweet like clouds and leaves you wanting more. I like them a lot. Head to their Myspace page and listen to Electrons.
A couple of days ago I got the hankering to make some Limoncello. I’m not sure really where this urge came from – I did enjoy a tiny glass of it at Coco’s Cantina recently, so maybe there. Anyway, I researched the recipe – learning it takes 80 days to cure. Coincidence 1: It’s about 80 days until my birthday and the beginning of summer. We need nice things to drink in the summer. Coincidence 2: This weekend I was gifted a large shopping bag of organic lemons…
So tonight I got started, completing part 1! I have to fess up, zesting is tiresome. I did 20 lemons and felt like I got very little zest for my money. It’s going to be great though. Stay tuned for the results…
LIMONCELLO
Ingredients
17-20 organic lemons
2 bottles (750 ml) of 100-proof vodka
4 cups sugar
5 cups water
Part 1 : day 1, aka what I did today
Wash the lemons thoroughly with hot water and a brush. We don’t want any nasties!
Zest lemons carefully ensuring there is no white pithy parts on the peel. The white bit is rind and will make your Limoncello bitter.
Put zest into a glass jar and cover with one bottle of vodka. Close the lid tightly and hang on baby, we have forty days to wait. We can interrupt it at day 10, but the longer we wait, the more the vodka will take on the flavour and colour of the lemon.
Part 2 : day 40
In a large pot, combine the sugar and water; cook until thickened, approximately 5 to 7 minutes.
Let the sugar syrup cool before adding it to the Limoncello mixture. Add the additional bottle of vodka (I used Stil brand because it’s what I had on hand, you can also use grain alcohol). Allow to rest in a dark, cool place for another 40 days.
Part 3 : day 80
After the incubation period, strain the mixture using coffee filters or similar.
Bottle your Limoncello, discarding the lemon zest. A big bottle for you, or several little bottles to share the love – your decision!
After a decade of flirting, I have finally entered into a committed relationship with the gorgeous, bustling, and nefarious Karangahape Road.
K’Road – as it’s commonly known – holds a lot of fond memories for me. Moments such as: skipping school to go drink bitter short blacks at Brazil (I was 14 and remember trying to make myself like coffee); evenings spent eating hotter-than-the-sun pizza at Crazy Crust; watching my friends start their musical careers along the strip; attending a wealth amazing art exhibitions and parties.
Now I am living a nano-second away from the strip and am having the time of my life. Vintage stores, cute cafes with vegan cupcakes, the Film Archive, wine bars, and army surplus stores are all on my doorstep. There are also ladies of the night dancing on my doorstep occasionally! It’s never boring…
Here is a portrait of my beloved road in 1987. The film is ‘Walkshort’ by The Front Lawn:
The big smoke in New Zealand in the eighties was small just a little village. And it still is today. I think as I get older I appreciate this more. Alright, I’m off to go get a coffee!
Peace Atlas by AWH for Wired Italia. Each country is sized according to their peace index rating, with the larger the country code the more peaceful the country. Sometimes I curse the hippies, but gosh, how lucky am I to live in such a sweet country. Hey, what’s up Denmark? You’re chilled out too.
NIN art director, Rob Sheridan, has an amazing archive of wallpapers that are available for you to download. He has a wicked sense of humour; as evidenced by presents unwrapping children!
A sneak peek at the High Line extension in New York City. When I was there last year I spent a couple of hours up there lapping up the sunshine, it’s one of the coolest urban places I’ve ever visited.
I am not one for ridiculous beauty regimes, especially while travelling. Mascara, tinted moisturiser, lip gloss, whatever, done! Of course, that all needs to come off again before you sleep (ew, there’s nothing worse than grinding your makeup caked face into a pillow all night).
Enter The Body Shop’s Luxury Face Chamois. It’s gentle, silky soft (like patting a deer antler), and totally reusable – just throw it in the washing machine or clean it by hand. I took one of these with me all around Europe, keeping in a resealable plastic bag. This meant no matter what time of the morning I rolled into my bunk bed, I could wash my face with it and a few squirts of water from my drink bottle. Mhmm, charming, but good for my skin!
Also, how delicious is the word chamois to say aloud? A++
Creative rut? Lacking ‘inspiration’? A change in approach could help. Here’s an exercise in redesigning the way you work:
Ask yourself how would you do your job/project if the Internet didn’t exist?
Go about it in that way.
I’ve had nothing but magical results thus far. Sure, it might take a bit longer to call someone with a question, walk to the library, or experience it for yourself, but there’s nothing wrong with slowing down.
The title, One Room Mansion, is a Japanese term: ワンルームマンション. At 100sqf, often they don’t have bathrooms attached and residents have to visit a public bathhouse. One of my favourite books,Tokyo: A Certain Style, is a study of these tiny apartments.
With dozens and dozens of domiciles in the book, it is hard to describe them all. One of my favorites is the apartment of a music reviewer: CDs and vinyls are stacked floor to ceiling. There’s barely any room for the reviewer, though the two cats that share the apartment seem to find it manageable. Another remarkable spread is the house of a newly married young woman who loved cartoon characters so much that she works for a character goods company. Nearly everything in the house, including the husband’s lunch box, has some character on it. Huge Kerropi dolls share space with a veritable pack of Snoopys. A young interior designer had extra shelves put into her room so she could show off the covers of her manga volumes. A Shinjuku DJ, living with his Dutch girlfriend, uses his bathroom as a darkroom and spends weekends practicing on his windowsill turntable.
Accessories budget: Now this is where I am falling down! I have had to buy heaps of things because I ‘forgot’ or at some stage gave my old one away. Oh can opener, where did you go?
scorpio mug: 1.00
vanilla candle: 3.99
chopping board: 14.99
fan heater: 19.95
bath mat: 14.99
TOTAL: $54.92
REMAINING: $45.08
Still need to buy: that dang can opener, a coffee plunger, hooks to hang up my art collection. Boiling water in a pot is working out well so far. Meanwhile when it comes to the big stuff, I still want to buy: a manrobe or a clothes rack or perhaps even a ladder to hack up. I’ve been living out of my suitcase for 8+ weeks now. Hanging my dresses up seems like a distant novelty. Failing that? Nails + hangers on the wall…
, is a study of these tiny apartments.
