More "tartlet" than "tart", really. A traditional Chinese New Year delight.
We didn't do anything fancy to welcome the Dragon Year (not that we've done much every year in Sydney anyway...family meal at my aunt's...maybe a steamboat party for our pals...and we didn't do both this year) so I thought I'd make some of my mother's pineapple tarts yesterday.
It's been a while since I made some (and it's always been with her around) and I forgot how long the whole process would take. The pastry bit was easy but the pineapple jam...ARGH! It took its own sweet time to caramelise (so long that I had to call my mother long-distance to ask if I read the recipe, written in Chinese, right) then I had to wait for it to cool down in the fridge before I could shape the lot into tiny balls. Half-a-day later, I only had a hundred baked tarts to show. Bah. Good thing I decided beforehand to cheat and made the open-face version instead of her cute but time-consuming little pineapples. And you know what they say about mothers' cooking being the best? Not only do her tarts look better than mine, they taste better too. Not that mine are crap. They are just not my mum's.
It pays to have a skinny-ass boyfriend who likes happy patterned/printed shirts as much as I do. I've always borrowed a few of his but more so lately with the brutal culling of my section of the wardrobe. I like how his slimmer-cut shirts sit on me - just a little bit over-size, comfortable but not sloppy. I also like how men's shirts, with their longer shirt-tails, work better for the way that I like wearing them - a messy-on-purpose half-tuck or a neat full-tuck. My shorter made-for-women shirts never stay put!
I wear shirts more often than I show-and-tell them on this blog. They have slowly replaced t-shirts (except stripey ones!) in my life and the boyfriend's over the last ten years. With age, we've come to appreciate the crispy-ness, the very thing that we used to hate about our school uniforms, of a good shirt. We've realised that wearing a shirt doesn't make us "stuffy" and less "cool". That we get more wear out of shirts of a good make and fabric than a t-shirt. So, I'm beginning to wonder if we'll have more room in our wardrobe and more money in our pockets if I stopped buying women's shirts* and start buying men's shirts (in his size...he can't fit in mine) that we can both wear?
* But not if the women's shirt in question is as cute as this blue-and red tiny-hearts-in-box-print Resterödsshirt! Half western/cowboy shirt (which I wear a lot of), half pyjama shirt with cute piping (I've been looking for one, to wear out, since I saw a Steven Alan number), in an A-line cut and long asymmetrical shirt-tails!
Their art director wrote me to ask for permission + I've always liked their "Helping People Help Themselves" ethos = a big fat "YES!" from a very flattered me
Added bonus: They used the picture to illustrate an article about how boring Summer TV programming is in Australia. A major grouse* in this household! All year round. How apt! Tee hee hee.
* Before we discovered "internet TV", which, in light of recent events, is a source of entertainment that might not last.
"For most of the last century, America’s cultural landscape—its fashion, art, music, design, entertainment—changed dramatically every 20 years or so. But these days, even as technological and scientific leaps have continued to revolutionize life, popular style has been stuck on repeat, consuming the past instead of creating the new."
I've been meaning to share this Vanity Fair article by Kurt Andersen since December. And then things that were more frivolous in nature popped up along the way and jumped the to-be-blogged queue...you know what it's like.
And, of course, I had to add my 5-cents' worth of thoughts which soon became rambling 100-dollar paragraphs. You know economy-of-words is not my forte if you've been reading this blog long enough and add my laziness on top of that, I decided to delete the paragraphs instead of trying to cut them down.
But...I've since found a few more articles on a new-to-me site, The Genteel, which make good supplementary reading if you liked the Kurt Andersen one...
~ Ghosts Of Generations Past by Preetma Singh (I discovered The Genteel via Preetma's personal style blog which I've been reading for quite some time now. She has a real knack for combo-ing some of the most unexpected pieces. Plus her highly-entertaining and thoughtful posts were much-needed breaths of fresh air in a world polluted by style blogs mostly written, or should I say "curated" or "edited", by airhead label-whores all cut from the same mould.)
Chinatown was a-bustling when we were there for yum chalunch yesterday, the eve of the new Dragon Year. I was suprised to see that the City of Sydney had kept their bunny float from last year. And how the fabric dragon-makers have jumped on the neon brights trendwagon too. Haha. They've always used neon paint but always on darker colours like the auspicious red or orange. White, in Chinese culture, is a colour usually associated with funerals but I guess if it gives the acid colours a louder "pop", why not? Moving with the times!
These are braised duck feet. Yuck! The thought of eating slow-cooked claw-y gelatinous chicken feet, feet that's been traipsing around in their own poo and digging up worms and such in dirt, grosses me out. These ducky ones with the stretchy web between the claws are a few notches up the make-my-skin-crawl meter. Ewwwww!
But they made our pal G's farewell meal yesterday quite memorable. The boyfriend is going to lose his gross food-eating partner because G, the only white boy (person, really) that we know in Sydney who whole-heartedly embraces the Chinese way of nose-to-tail eating, will be moving permanently to Melbourne for work in a couple of days. It was the first time that they've both had duck feet (they ate the webby bits and proclaimed them "Delicious!"...yuck!) and I think it's something that they'll remember their good eating times by until their two-member club meets again. With me and G's partner, Mr R, on the other side of the table looking on with disgust, of course.
At our friendly neighbourhood charity shop today. I wanted to adopt them all but the boyfriend gently reminded me of the almost-spartan life that I'm trying to lead this year. Yes. I hope they all go to good homes.
New in the 'hood. All by the same artist who signs off with a wilting flower in a can. Spotted with Ms Carpet on a very short 15-minute walk looking for an eating place that could seat us immediately on a busy Friday evening.
Have you read Cook Suck, a blog that reviews "meals that people upload on their Facebook or blog and are proud of for some reason"?! Ms Carpet told me about it on Friday night and I had a guffawing good time going through their complete back catalogue yesterday morning.
The funny folks at Cook Suck would most probably say that the dinner I made on Thursday look like something a big Mastiff hound, with a bad case of food poisoning, had chucked and crapped its whole stomach content on. I think so too! But like most simple Singapore hawker-style-inspired food, it tastes better than it looks. My version of the super-comforting minced pork noodles - chicken in garlic, ginger, eschalots, chilli, kicap manis, light soy and dark soy over scallop-flavoured noodles and Asian greens.
And back on our screen this week, in spanking-new episodes, are our regular TV pals John, Neal, Hank, Raylan, Richard, Liz & Jack and Abed & gang. Also squeezed in The Descendants(sweet but the numerous award nominations...really?) and The Artist (there should be an "Animal Wrangler/Whisperer" category at major film awards! For cute pups in films and their trainers! Uggie was the star in The Artist as was Arthur/Cosmo in Beginners!).
At one time not too long ago, there were quite a few of these posters of my #1 puppy-pal plastered on walls around our 'hood. And then they were gone as quickly as they have been put up, before I could get a picture of them.
This was a lucky find in a back alley over the weekend. Wooooo! When we took a different-from-our-usual route home from lunch.
And, no, I didn't try to peel it off to take it home. Someone else before me already did and it obviously didn't work. Wahahahaha.
Ah, yes! Another one of them quick-and-easy numbers. Red wine vinegar-glazed mushroom on a lentils salad. Half prefab-ed, half "cooked-to-order". Minimum time spent at the stove for more time in front of the television set. Yeah.
The salad: Puy lentils (I like cooking mine with salt and thyme) + Spanish onion (pickled in red wine vinegar, sugar and salt) + spinach lightly-sauteed in olive oil with chopped garlic + chopped herbs of your choice (I used parsley and chives) + chunks of goat cheese/curd (I used the goat brie by Soignon - nice sharpness!)
The mushrooms: Shiitake + buttons + dried porcini -> browned on high heat in butter + garlic + salt + pepper + red wine vinegar + brown sugar, very quickly (you don't want mushy mushies!). Add chopped herbs just before you take it off the stove. There will be mushroom juice, quite a bit of it. Drizzle half over lentils salad and reduce the other half with a bit more red wine vinegar and brown sugar to a sticky consistency and drizzle all over mushrooms. (Sorry, no specific quantities for ingredients again because, as usual, I make things up as I go but it's easy. You'll figure it out.)
Dinner-time entertainment: The last episode of the second season of BBC's Sherlock. Sad. I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't watched it but if you know the conclusion of the original The Reichenbach Falls by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which the episode was based on, you'll have an inkling how it ends. Another 18 months' wait for the next season. Bah.
It's no secret that I have a thing for walls. In January 2011, I fell in love with a wall in a British-made film. A year later, another one in yet another British production caught my eye. What's it with British production designers and amazing walls?!
I've been in a few jam/recording studios in my time but I never thought the humble sound-proofing foam could be made to look so sexy! Woooo! With some help from the DOP's artful lighting, of course. But, still?! Look at the patterns that the light-and-shadows on the textured surface make from different angles! Hats off to Maria Djurkovic, the production designer on Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, for making such effective use of a simple material! Also for creating and dressing the other 109(!) period-specific sets on limited time and budget (view a little post-award interview with her here).
And the film is as good as it looks! A spy thriller like no other (boom-boom-kapow American ones) that we've seen in recent years. This review that I found by happy accident articulates my exact thoughts (the first paragraph already says it all!).
And then there's the men! Gary Oldman! John Hurt! And one of my many future ex-husbands, Benedict Cumberbatch! I love him so in BBC's Sherlock! Waiting with bated breath for the third season!
I wrote earlier on in the New Year, at the end of a post, in tiny italics, about my slow-brewing need for an almost-spartan (by my standards) life. About my consumaterialism, about how looking into my bulging wardrobe and shoes+bags cupboard, these days brings me more hair-pulling angst than joy. Somehow, collecting and owning too many "pwetty things" just aren't so much fun anymore. For many reasons. Those that are in my head/heart, you know, feelings-type things, I'm still trying to organise and articulate. Or maybe I am not trying/don't want to because dwelling on them, instead of just sticking to my guns and culling brutally, just makes me sick and angry with myself all over again? The tangible reasons are, of course, much easier to illustrate...
Take this Chloe silk dress, for example. In one of my favourite nude-y colours + ruffles + amazing broderie anglaise! It's a dream dress in my books. But I've only worn it once. Once! And that one time I wore it, I spent more time worrying about ruining its silky splendour than merry-making at the wedding I was at.
Still, I insisted on buying more dresses in such delicate fabric which, of course, hung out doing nothing with other silky pals in my wardrobe until I sold them recently. This is the last one I held on to because, look at it, it's really quite special but I know that I will not wear it again so it's going too. Lesson learnt: No more buying of silk dresses, as pretty as they are, because klutzy me will, sadly, never have fun in them.
And there are at least ten more reasons here. Just how many embroidered/drop-waist/denim/chambray/happy-printed dresses does a girl need?! I used to think "Bring 'em on! As many as my wardrobe can fit!". Not anymore. And it feels kind of good.
So, like all good Wes Anderson fans, the boyfriend and I got pretty damn excited after viewing the trailer for his new film Moonrise Kingdom on Friday. The new-to-an-Anderson-film cast (Edward Norton! Tilda Swinton! Frances McDormand!), the look-and-feel, the plot...all had me squealing but my loudest "WHEEEEE!" was brought about by the fisherman/angler basket that Suzy, the young female lead, was toting! (Which, I think, she carried her cute kitty in!)
Maybe, just maybe, it wasn't the cool dudes on the menswear lookbook who were "talking" to me when I went on that inexplicable search for one of them baskets. Could it have been Wes Anderson, the coolest of cool dudes himself, sending me secret signals? To get on the cross-body basket (not the Jane Birkin-style ones) wagon before his new film (the taste-maker that he is!) drives everyone to deplete the already-low supply on Ebay/etsy/charity shops and put prices up? An imaginary scenario or not, I am glad I've stocked up with a second made-in-Italy number (how cute is that old-school Gucci-esque bamboo handle?!) at our local Salvation Army store just before Christmas. Woo.
It's a little time-consuming but I like to pick the twiggy bits off rocket ("arugula" to the few Americans who read this blog..."Hello!") before I use the leaves. It's a look-and-(mouth)feel thing which is quite a big part of the whole eating experience, right? A rocket salad is so much prettier and tastier without the yucky stems. Does that make me a fussy pot? Some restaurants do it, some don't. They all should. What's the point of using top-notch ingredients in a dish when it's going to be marred by hard sticky bits in their rocket garnish or side salad? Huh? Huh? Huh?!
Not one of them prefab-ed numbers but still relatively quick and easy to make.
Warm potato salad -> Make the lemon vinaigrette first up (lemon juice + zest, seeded mustard, a good olive oil & seasoning) + finely-chop some herbs (I used chives, parsley and tarragon) + baby capers, drained and finely-chopped + Spanish onions + blanched beans + steamed or boiled potatoes (quickly drain when done, pop into a mixing boil, pour dressing on, toss and take in a big fat whiff of the fragrance of the olive oil and lemon zest generated by the heat in the spuds) + salt flakes & cracked black pepper.
The fish -> I timed it so that it's cooked when the potato salad is ready. I like my salmon very charred on the outside and still rare on the inside so a quick few minutes in a very hot pan is all it needs. Warm salad + hot off-the-pan fish = how it should arrive at the table. A capers beurre noisette drizzled over the fish would be good too but having just been to see my Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor/naturopath that morning, I felt kind of naughty adding butter to what was quite a clean and healthy meal. Hee.
Eaten while watching an episode of the new season of Revenge. So trashy but so good! It's like the Dallas, Dynasty and Falcon Crest of the 2000s. With better art direction and cinematography (well, as good as they can be in a TV series). Haha. The Revenge ladies' wardrobes are boring compared to the OOMPH-ity numbers the Carrington ladies wore in the 80s but the boys' clothes had me going "Ooooh...I want that, that and that!", especially Nolan's colourful preppy outfits. So, is anyone else hooked on Revenge? Or is it just me that's happy to re-live my 80s soap addiction?
There have been new and delicious concoctions but this one that I made up is one that I keep going back to. At least once every fortnight because it is that good and so quick and easy -> roasted pumpkin + browned onions + mashed roasted garlic + red quinoa (or some other seeds/pulses/grains-type things) + parsley (or any flavoursome soft-leaved herbs) + a lemon vinaigrette + garlic-marinated fetta.
Eaten, this week, while watching Justified, our latest "internet TV" craze*. We watched the episodes in Season 1 almost back-to-back (we love our TV-viewing marathons!) and have started on the second last night. We've timed it so that by the time we're done, we can segue right in to the new season screening in America soon. No waiting for months with the "cliffhanger" hanging around our heads. Yeah!
*You won't believe the number of half-written posts that I have sitting in my Drafts folders about all the films, documentaries and TV shows that we've watched and want to share. They remain un-posted because we plough through so much viewing material each week that I'm forced to choose between spending time writing about them and watching them. It's easy to guess which I picked. Haha. So, I think I'm simply going to slip them in at the end of some posts. As incongruous (and totally out-of-sync with my OCD-ish nature) as that may seem, at least I get to share some time-sapping fun with you, right? Oh, and about Justified...besides the Elmore Leonard's stories, I really really like the wardrobe (particularly Helen Givens') and the number of guns in each episode (so much so that the boyfriend thinks that I'm a pro-gun lobbying redneck-at-heart).
We brought home another happy bag full of baked goods from the cute little Japanese bakery yesterday. This time around, I shnapped some show-and-tell pictures before we ate them all!
The Hokkaido Pan (pic #3) was a repeat-buy. A soft milky bun (In Japan, I think they use milk from Hokkaido hence the name) baked with a thin coat of sponge cake-like mixture. Fluffy on the inside with a sweet golden crunch on the outside. Nyum! The weirdest was the ficelle (pic #4) with that orange gunk - cod roe mayo! Fishy like anchovy but so tasty! Will show you more the next time we come home with a new happy bag!
It's that time of the year again when my Summer whites, in all their frothy, crispy, pleated, embroidered, lacy, crocheted and blinding glory, come out to play (some party pics from previous years here, here, here, here and here)!
The boyfriend always joins the merry-making too with a vintage guayabera shirt from his modest pile. To me, they are the perfect white shirts with their embroidery and tiny pleats. One day, I'll find one in my size in a charity shop! Oh, and see his recently-acquired floral-print(!!!!) schoolboy shorts? We've both wanted a pair for many Summers now and we found his first. Boo. It's fun but also sometimes a little hateful when you're going out with someone who likes the same sort of things. Grrrr.
PS. I'm selling some of my Summer whites (plus other bits + bobs which I'll add weekly) here. It might come as a surprise to those of you (it was to me too!) who have come to associate me with my hoarding and collecting of "pwetty things" but for at least a year now, I've been feeling increasing sick and even angry with myself and my consumaterialism (there have been days when merely opening the doors to my filled-to-the-brim wardrobe brought about waves of nausea...there have also been days with tears of frustration)...I'll tell you more about this slowly-brewing need for an almost-spartan life in another post. In the meantime, like the lovely ladies that I regularly meet at the flea markets plying their decades' worth of "collections" would say, "I've enjoyed my time with these things and it's time to pass them and the joy they bring on." Hopefully to some of you. x
My #1 puppy-pal in the 'hood has owners who have a great sense of humour. I always look forward to finding these chalk doodles and scribbles on the pavement in front of their house. This is today's. I would "try" Dasher everyday! Whether he's had a bath or not. He's the sweetest thing ever!
Wall art on the side of Spring Court's cornershop. See work-in-progress photos on artist Jeff Canham's website. And a few more here, here and here on the Spring Court blog.
