A Dirty Polar Bear And Mammoths

Shawl - Cotton On, Circle Vest - American Apparel, Crocheted Vest - Op Shop, Camisole - Fleur Wood, Henley T - Petit Bateau, Knitted Bear Hat - Paddington Market

The boyfriend thinks I look like a polar bear that's not washed itself in ages in my layers of "dirty whites" and silly smiley bear hat today.

I like polar bears. Anything furry and cuddly, I love!

Like this baby woolly mammoth we went to see this afternoon at the Australian Museum. I want one!

There were also a few other adoption options in the Surviving Australia exhibition...

...the biggest marsupial that ever lived

...some giant kitty cat (for the boyfriend - I'm not much of a cat-person)

...and a Tasmanian Tiger that looked like a giant dingo.

There were feathery things too...

...the endangered Lord Howe Island Woodhen - a stuffed specimen and recipe is included (click on photo to read)

...the Demon Duck Of Doom. We love the name! Wonder if the band Eagles Of Death Metal got their name from this extinct meat-eating bird. Imagine the number of Peking Duck pancakes we can get out of this 300kg beast!

This photo is for our pal Ben who loves penguins. Wahahahahahahaha! Seal food!

Besides animals, we saw minerals too! At the amazing Albert Chapman exhibition.





















I was awe-struck by every single piece of those colourful "gems". Some of them looked so unreal that it was hard to believe that they weren't man-made.

Our last stop in the Museum was the Climate Change: Our Future, Our Choice exhibition. A pretty apt end after looking at all the animals that are now extinct!

This likkle polar bear sure had a great day out learning about her animal pals, Nature and how to love them properly! Growl.

Buying Love

Of course affection can be bought!

I've been stocking up on Love from Geneine Honey since her early perspex phase. There's really nothing not to love about the Australian designer's range of quirky and well-crafted accessories.

Frank the Sausage Dog is my latest paramour. He took a while to arrive (poor Frank #1 got lost in the mail) but you know they say "you can't hurry love".

Hopefully, Frank will fill the void that Matthew the Mouse left in my heart since that fateful day last winter when he didn't come home with me. Not that Matthew is that easily replaced! The moment that I realised that he was gone, I went to Tatty Devine (another great place to buy love) to try to procure one of his brothers but they were old, and crunchier and younger models have taken over.

All I have to remember darling Matthew by is this photo, taken during Chinese New Year last year (it was the Year of the Rat). Sometimes, I still dream of staring lovingly into his Swarovski crystal eyes and stroking his velvety leather ears...hmm...happy days.

I hope Frank is here to stay for I just can't bear losing another good piece of wood (filth not intended!). He seems pretty happy going on walks with the Likkle Bwoy and I think he's looking forward to going to Singapore one day just so he can mark his spot under my pal Poochie's apple tree. I love cheeky boys!

A Little Tiny Smelly Bit Of...The Stinky Puffs

Remember that band or album? The band was very cute and their songs were funny. Wish I brought that CD with me from Singapore.

It would have been a hoot to listen to while making these edible "stinky puffs" for dinner tonight.






















I don't think anything else can beat the pong and flavour of the cauliflower-and-blue-cheese combo which I happen to love. A lot. Add some fishy anchovy fillets and phwoar, I'm in scratch-n-sniff heaven!

If you are one of those who hate at least one of those three things because of their funk, you don't know what you're missing and can stop reading now.

Roasted Cauliflower & Blue Cheese Tarts (again, one of my made-up recipes so adjust the quantities according to your needs)

~ 1 head of cauliflower (cut into florettes)
~ 1 leek (julienned)
~ 2 anchovy fillets (mashed)
~ 50ml cream
~ blue cheese (I used my favourite St Agur, a to-die-for double-cream variety)
~ puff pastry sheets

4Preheat oven to 200°C.
4Put cauliflower florettes into a huge bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and white pepper. Give everything a good toss.
4Place on a lined baking tray, cover with aluminium foil and bake until they are nearly-soft.
4Remove foil and allow florettes to brown. Set aside and save a huge handful for garnish. Bring oven temperature up to 220°C.
4In a saucepan, saute leek and anchovy until leek is soft.
4 Add cauliflower (the lot that's not for garnishing), cream and two tablespoons of water. Bring to the boil and remove from heat. Season to taste.
4Lightly blitz mix with a Bamix or benchtop blender - just a few whirls will do (we want tiny crunchy bits, not a puree).
4Cut five 12cm circles out of puff pastry and place them on a lined baking tray.
4Spoon cauliflower mix on pastry. Spread mix out evenly, leaving a 1cm border all around.
4Crumb blue cheese over mix and top with the cauliflower that's been set aside.
4Bake tarts until pastry is golden.
4Serve warm with a drizzle of olive and chopped chives (or anything green for colour).

Beware of the real "stinky puffs", the gaseous type, after the meal!

Substance & Humility

The black tomatoes and peas that we bought at the Italian fest went on the chopping board on Monday evening.

Good fresh produce don't need to get tarted up. Their humble inherent flavoursome deliciousness shines through naturally without much help.

Like truly interesting people that you can't help but be drawn to the moment they walk into a room. They quietly arrive with no hey-look-at-me fanfare, wearing the most understated but well put-together things with subtle details that you will only notice much later when your eyes get used to their invisible yet bright halo of aura.

Then someone makes the introduction...you get talking about almost everything under the sun...the conversation soon turns into a friendly sparring match of words and opinions...at the end of the evening, you bid each other good-bye and you realise, on your way home, that you've gleamed so much knowledge about things from the person yet you do not know very much about the person himself/herself. How refreshing!

Substance. Something that no amount of bling-some external accoutrement can make up for the lack of.

And humility. At the other end of the spectrum from those still-waters-run-deep type that I would invite to every dinner party are empty vessels who do make the most noise. Shut up, already. If someone is as good a human being/ creative/intelligent/rich/cool/charming as the yawnsville 30-minute spiel he/she gives each time they meet someone new make them out to be, people will know over time...if given the time to discover these qualities, and not be driven away by the very unattractive sales pitch. Or are they worried that people might not see because they are in fact empty within and thus feel the need to so desperately hard-sell themselves?

I've waffled on but these "me! me! me!" people do get to me. And I seem to be meeting more and more of their ilk lately. Is it the world that we live in now that makes them so?

Anyway, I can't make people the way I like them but I sure can with food. So here's something simple made from the very humble tomatoes and peas that's turned out to be quite a party in the mouth (so good that I forgot to take a photo till I was nearly done - forgive the messy plate).

Prawn & Pea Pasta with Baked Lemon Ricotta Crumbs (It's another recipe that I've made up so adjust the quantity to suit you)

~ Pasta (enough for 2 serves)
~ Olive oil
~ 40g of butter
~ 2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
~ 4 tomatoes (the Black Russians I used were delicious - sweet with the right amount of tartness - but regular ones would do)
~ peas (shelled - nothing beats fresh peas from the pod)
~ a dozen king prawns (shelled and de-veined)
~ 50g ricotta
~ zest of half a lemon

4Preheat oven to 200°C.
4Blanch tomatoes. Peel skin and cut into cubes.
4Flatten ricotta into a disc on a lined baking tray and zest lemon over it. Crack some black pepper and add a sprinkle of sea salt. Bake in preheated oven until golden.
4Get the pasta cooking.
4Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a frying pan on high heat. Char prawns and set them aside. Do not overcook.
4In the same pan, on low heat, add more olive oil (if necessary) and butter. Add garlic when butter has melted and cook until soft. Do not brown them.
4Add chopped tomatoes, peas and prawns and saute for 3 minutes. Then add drained pasta. Give everything a good toss in the pan. Season with cracked black pepper and salt to taste.
4Put on plate and crumble baked ricotta all over.

When you eat it, do try at least a mouth of the baked ricotta with every component on the plate. Especially with the prawns - creamy, citrusy and briney seafoody. A huge block party in the mouth, in my humble opinion.

Colourful Old Things

Muksunhylly by Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi for Marimekko in 1955.






















Recently, lucky me got my filthy paws on this long 240cm x 40cm "kitchen" panel (it's folded in half the photo) courtesy of my favourite purveyor of extremely tasteful home furnishings and his private stash of vintage textile in the attic. I love visiting him and his partner - they know I have a weakness for colourful fabric by the Finnish company and always pull out special things-in-hiding for me. And let me have them for seriously next-to-nothing.

I was going to cut it up and make things out of initially but I've changed my mind now. It's going to the framer. Two tall panels of the kiddy Lego-coloured Mondrian-esque fabric with thin matte black frames will look great next to our real kitchen shelves, I think.

And more colourful kindness from nice people who know what I love...

...a complete set of six retro-styling colourful glasses from my pal Ms J. They were her mom's from the 60s.

Ms J just renovated her beautiful 1890 terrace and her long-time friend/co-homeowner, the Other Ms J, wanted to throw these glasses out to make way for new and more modern things.

But Ms J stopped her by saying, " I know someone who will absolutely love these!". And she was right!

This 60s plastic basket, also her mom's, nearly suffered the same fate but was saved by the same line. An identical green (!) one was not so lucky. Bad Other Ms J! Haha.

I was a very happy girl carrying the glasses home in the basket after visiting the two Ms J's spanking new old abode. Their kitchen is my favourite room - so much storage space!

Which I will need a lot more of if I keep picking up old homeware like they are the cutest of stray puppies.

Holy Cannoli!

The annual Primo Italiano fest in the "Little Italy" of our neighbourhood has always been about the elusive canolli for me.

The first year we were there, the lady before me in the queue bought the last one. Last year, they were sold out before we got there. This year, determined to taste at least one, we arrived half-an-hour after they opened. Third time lucky!

They were good but not as good as I had imagined them to be - the ones that I make (when I can be bothered) taste better. I think it's also got to do with the thrill-of-the-chase factor - what I can't have is always the best, in my head, until I have it.

The other perk for being early this year was having first dips on the huge selection of beautiful fresh produce for sale.






















From this very nice man, we bought a bag of Black Russian tomatoes, a bunch of baby leeks, a head of cauliflower, a bag of peas, a bunch of shallots...






















some herbs from his cute "pigeon hole" display...

and a bunch of rhubarb. All for $20!






















A harvest-ful day for us (that's Troy, our trusty fat trolley) and our pals!

In Grown-up's Size, Please?

We just got home from a 4-year-old's birthday party. This is what the birthday girl got from us - a green and red plaid dress, cable knit tights in "cream soda" and checked "Golly Galoshes" (she's always admired mine so it's time she got her own).

I own quite a few dresses from the kiddy's department and would not hesitate to wear the same outfit if they had the dress and gumboots (already have the tights) in my size.

Posh-ifying Food

Chicken patty in a brioche bun with parsley & black pepper onion rings

Remember when wagyu beef first got all fashionable years ago? All the top restaurants in every city in the world jumped on the bandwagon to put a slab of that marbled meat on their menus. Like the meat wasn't posh enough already, they had to out-posh each other with what they do with it.

One of my favourite of those incarnations was the wagyu burger. Again, like the burger patty made from the meat of beer/sake-massaged beasts was not classy enough already, someone had to go serve it in a brioche bun. No, no, plain white burger buns won't do! It had to be a butter-and-egg-enriched cake-like bread. You know that famous "Let them eat cake!" line uttered by Marie-Antoinette when peasants got pissed off with the lack of bread? She actually said, in French, "Let them eat brioche!". Not "cake".

Over the years, I've witnessed meat-loving friends ooohing and aahing as they stuffed their faces with said burgers, never sampling one myself on my beef-free diet.

On Thursday, I felt like making bread - the weather was cold and all the hand-kneading would keep me warmer than layers of clothes would. To see what the fuss was about, I thought I should make some brioche burger buns to sandwich my chicken patties in.

I made them the size of a large onion, and mini patties to match - I like my burgers cute and tiny, like those at the Japanese Mos. Good thing I did! The hearty-ness of the patties + the richness of the brioche = too much of a good thing. I could only eat one of them babies. I can't imagine how my friends could have eaten larger wagyu-filled ones.

I also made a mini loaf.

To eat with a huge blob of honey and vanilla-flavoured ricotta. Lemon curd would be good too but after all the kneading, my arms couldn't take stirring the curd over the double-boiler.

Going to make French toast from what's left of the cute little loaf. And "posh" breadcrumbs from the few uneaten buns. No, plain white bread just wouldn't do. Haha!

Brioche
~ 15g dried yeast
~ 30g sugar
~ 150ml milk

~ 700g flour
~ 10g salt
~ 30g sugar

~ 5x eggs

~420g butter (softened)

4 Heat milk and sugar to blood temperature. Add yeast off heat. Mix well.
4Put flour, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Combine with a whisk.
*I assume you're not mad like me and will be using a machine...
4Whisk eggs, by hand, in the bowl of your kitchen mixer - just to break them up.
4Add yeast mixture and mix well with the same hand whisk.
4Add flour and mix on Speed 1 until a dough forms.
4Switch to Speed 2 and add butter in very small parts. Clear each addition before adding the next.
4When all butter is added, scrape sides of bowl frequently.
4It's done when the dough is very shiny and leaves the sides of the bowl.
4Rest dough for at least 30 minutes or until double in size.
4Mould dough into desired shapes/size and play into tins or onto trays.
4Leave to prove on bench for 15 minutes.
4Prove in oven (on bread proving mode) for another 15 minutes.
4Bake at 18o°C for 40 minutes if using regular-sized bread tins. Adjust baking time to suit smaller portions.

Nyeh-Nyeh-Nee-Boo-Boo!

Hey Ben,

Thank you for sending me ***K The Millennium! (I thought I was going to get 17!). The neighbours, in their radio-friendly gay anthem-loving ways, already think we have weird taste in music. I wonder what they will think of this classic.

It sure looks good with the other stuff by my future ex-husband, huh? Wahahahahahaha! Which, by the way, you said I could keep when you first gave them to me as presents yonks ago. Yes, presents. Things that you don't ask for back. If you really want them, you'll have to come play with us and get them!

Full of childish smugness,
xxx your pal

PS. The CD is mine, right? You won't be wanting it back, will you? Tee hee hee.

Still Life In Green

Joining our sugar pot in "Willow" and aromatherapy oil diffuser in "Apple" is a cute milk bottle in "Citrus".

A birthday gift from Gigi, who also loves green and pretty things from Bison, the Australian homeware company with a difference.

And those are not the only things that we have in common. We like going that extra distance for people that we like - we didn't plan it but we both read each other's blog back-catalogue before we met up for the first time (being kind of like "instant" friends) just so we left no stone unturned, and to make sure that she wasn't going to get me something that I already have, she went back in time again.

Thank you, Gigi! They look so good together. Quite tempted to bust out my paints and paint them before I break the trio up and return them to the various parts of the apartment. xx

Cornbread

Bacon ones - a very special treat for the boyfriend.

And mushroom ones for myself.

They are my take on the Southern-style cooked-in-a-skillet staple. I haven't baked some in a while and I was craving for their buttery goodness, laced with shaved parmesan and tiny squares of sauteed onion.

I made a honey mustard chicken and mushroom stew for dinner last night just so we had something saucy to mop with the cornbread. Like building an entire outfit around a new handbag. Hee.

Sydney's Meter Maid

More street art sighting. But not in my neighbourhood.

Spotted over the weekend on Saturday while Gigi and I were walking down a street in Redfern, trying to hail a cab after our visit to The Finders Keepers Markets.

She's a life-size print on paper, stuck to a white-washed brick wall, peeling from exposure to the elements.

The exaggerated poufy navy and silver sleeves on her frill-trimmed bolero got my attention first. How "now", I thought.

Then I noticed the shadows of the parking meter and the car, casted at just the right angle.

Further up the coast along the streets of the Surfers' Paradise, they have Meter Maids in gold bikinis, popping coins into expired meters so owners of the parked cars won't get into trouble for overstaying. Wouldn't it be grand if Sydney has some dressed like this paper doll, a different outfit for each season?

Nursey Me

Good timing?

Pun absolutely not intended here but while our poor Leroy was half-dead at home, I found this old nurse's watch at the local Salvation Army store yesterday. In perfect working condition for $10.

Sadly, no amount of tender pretend-nursing with the new watch and my plastic travel first-aid box is going to make him better until he gets his lobotomy.

The other boys in the house are very happy, though.

I've promised them (they are mine, not the boyfriend's) years ago that I'll get them some girly company but most ladies' watches don't appeal to me. Too light, too tiny, sometimes too bling-some, just too...too girly! I like a watch that makes me feel like a clever Inspector Gadget. With one of those strap-on exercise wrist-weight!

The new old girl might be light but she is not a wristwatch so she'll do for shutting the boys up for now.

Illness In The Family

Leroy in his polka-dotted coat, ready to be admitted to the 'puter psych ward

Leroy, our one-year-old laptop, fell really ill on Sunday. Without warning, he suddenly lost all his motoring skills.

The boyfriend, pretending he's the Dr House of the 'puter world, tried diagnosing Leroy and came to the conclusion that he's suffering from "locked-in" syndrome (Yes, we watch too much House and we've also seen The Diving-Bell and The Butterfly).

Yesterday, the real "doctors" working out of call-centres confirmed it.

I'm glad things are less complicated in the 'puter world. Leroy's new brain will be arriving in the mail in 10 days.

Today, I'm going to take him to the out-patient psych ward to see if the "doctors" there can perform some sort of a miracle and retrieve some of his memory from his existing brain. His memory is our memories too, afterall - all my photos of pretty things, part of our music collection...oh, I don't want to think about what else is in there! We're definitely buying a second external brain for Leroy for back-ups when he's back to normal.

Meanwhile, we've taken the boyfriend's geriatric laptop out of storage. I'm surprised we're able to even boot it up. Like most old folks, it's goddamn slow and unresponsive at times. Writing emails and blogging take me like 100 times longer than usual. Grrrrr! Don't even ask about surfing the 'net!

We're so spoilt nowadays, aren't we? Everything has to be bigger and faster than the last. I should just be thankful that we've still got this old fart to keep me connected to the rest of the world.

Picture-Perfect!

Perfectly paper-bagged oversized men's pants

I don't usually post photos from editorials (I'm not even sure where these are from - found them here), preferring to fill this space with sub-standard output from my tinny camera but these! They are simply too delightful!





















Perfectly boxy cropped jacket and that Burberry Prorsum necklace!

Clean and simple, thus making them timeless. And they are straight-to-the-point too. The point being, showing off the merchandise, which, I think have that same enduring quality. I'll have one of each, please. Yes, the boys' stuff as well. Thank you.





















Perfect scarf and apron combo

Styled and shot by one very talented Louis Park. A quick Google search unearthed only one link showing his previous work. Anyone with more information, please share.





















A perfect end - swoon-some tiered maxi dress + blazer

Cruella...Cruella de Vil...

When I grow up, I want a fur wardrobe like Cruella de Vil's.

I think it's an extension of my love of furry plush toy animals as a child (hard plastic dolls weren't my thing). And the novelty (I lived in the Tropics for most of my life) of being able to wear fur and pretend that I am my favourite cuddly teddy. I'd love to be swathed in big soft and fluffy furry things every cold day with Cruella's insouciance.

Yes, with all the politics and ethics that come with draping the coat of dead animals upon one's body, I think one has to be rather thick-skinned and possess a devil-may-care attitude to properly wear fur. Until the day it becomes the norm like back in the glamourous good ol' days where no one bats an eyelid when you wear a dead fox around your neck.





















Vintage Fur Gilet - RetroSheila, White Top - Country Road, Secondhand Wool Men's Pants - Thrift Store, Tw0-tone Belt - Witchery, Loafers - Wannabe by Patrick Cox, Bag - Mimco

Last night, I took my bunny gilet out for its first ever walkie out of the house. A few girls, strangers, came up to me at the bar to stroke it and all of them ended our short conversations with something along the line of a snide-y "Oh, as long as it's vintage. It IS, isn't it?". Our gay busboy, when we sat down for dinner, said the same thing. And from the number of dagger eyes I occasionally caught from around the crowded room, I knew those people were thinking similar thoughts.

I don't dress to provoke. I don't like strangers paying me extra attention, good or bad, because of what I wear. I just want to be able to wear what I want whenever I want. And last night, I wanted to take my long-dead bunnies out for a spin. Simple.

Those people made me feel like I should be wearing a placard around my neck each time I go out wearing fur to save me repeating myself, justifying my choice, "Yes, it's old fur. Lapin from about four decades ago, if you must know. Don't judge me because I'm wearing the fur of dead critters. The number of four-legged animals that I've "saved" in the last 23 years by not buying and eating the meat off their backs is more than the few dead rabbits on my back so leave me and my bunnies alone."

But that's not going to stop me. My capes (all old fur, of course, for, as "unethical" as I might sound, I will never buy the new first-hand stuff like Cruella) will be coming out of storage as soon as the temperature drops further. The animals have already been killed yonks ago and made into coats - it'd be a huge waste not to show them some love.

And you know what irks me more, with some of these holier-than-thou folks? The fact that they would not hesitate to don a fur coat the day fashion glossies say it's "in" which, by the look of things, is near. These people are, after all, already wearing leather and wool, and eating meat without guilt.

The Naughty Likkle Girl Who Wurves Melissa Shoes

The courier dropped these off this morning.

After I first saw them a couple of months ago, I've been trying my darnest to not think of them since I'm still not gainfully-employed. But it's very hard with all of them plastic cuties. Those who know me know that I cannot resist adding new models to my collection the moment they hit the shops.

Predictably, I caved and bought these caramel three-strappers. The excuse, not that I needed one, was birthday-gift-to-self. I blame the collector within me and also the uncle who first sowed the seed by giving me one of his old stamp albums when I was five.

I said I wasn't going to do another yearbook-type group photo of my shoes after the last one because it made me feel guilty for being such a consumaterialist. Well, I ought to feel bad! To punish myself for my naughty purchase, a self-induced guilt trip was in order - meet the girls...

...in chronological order, from the first pair that started this whole collecting frenzy at top left...

~ Campana Zig Zag by the Campana Brothers in Silver / "Can't remember her name" in Beige / Esmeralda by Edson Matsuo in Brown

~ Campana Sapatilha by the Campana Brothers in Clear / Night by Edson Matsuo in White / Ultragirl by Edson Matsuo in Flocked Red

~ Sweet Lips by Isabela Capeto in Blue / Indie by Edson Matsuo in Green / Mary-Jane by Vivienne Westwood in Green

~ Scarfun Wedge by Alexandre Herchcovitch in Beige / Three Straps by Vivienne Westwood in Caramel

Alright, disgust for myself has seriously set in. I hope it stays for a while. At least until I track down a pair of Zaha Hadid locally.

A New Take On Street-Style Photography?

Latte Revolution by Peter Funch (from his "Babel Tales" series)

We all love a good perv. That's why street-style blogs are thriving.

Danish photographer Peter Funch is not a street-style blogger but I love what he's done in his "Babel Tales" series of photographs (discovered via designboom).

Red Rule by Peter Funch (from his "Babel Tales" series)

Hommage A Fisher by Peter Funch (from his "Babel Tales" series)

En Passant by Peter Funch (from his "Babel Tales" series)

In 2007, he took his camera out onto the streets of New York, plonked it down on various corners and started snapping away at people walking by. Not just anyone but people that fell within his theme-of-the-day - people wearing clothes of a certain colour, different people doing the same thing at a certain spot, people of the same profession...

And he, very creatively, made montages of these individual shots into one big picture, drawing a line connecting these strangers in a big city.

Memory Lane by Peter Funch (from his "Babel Tales" series)

Posing Posers by Peter Funch (from his "Babel Tales" series)

Wouldn't it be great to see a huge panoramic montage of different pairs of beautiful shoes pounding the same pavement on Jak & Jil? Unsuspecting pretty girls walking along a French avenue on Garance Dore? And spiffy men caught off-guard in all the cities that The Sartorialist visits?

Dobbeltganger by Peter Funch (from his "Babel Tales" series)

This is my favourite of the whole series. He must have hung out at the same spot for days to get images of the same folks at least twice to piece this picture together!

You can the view all 29 of Peter Funch's "Babel Tales" here. Go perv. Now.