I know I’ve not posted in awhile, but I’ve been thinking about reviving the blog. This is currently on repeat for me. Unfortunately for me, Alex Zhang Hungtai is no longer planning on making more music as Dirty Beaches.
With Winter approaching, darker music like this evoking favourite filmmakers like David Lynch and Wong Kar Wai is what I want to be listening to.
The weather here in KL has reached 36°C and all I can think about is ice cream. Feeling inspired after having a scoop of salted caramel ice cream in Hokkaido Ice Cream in The Garden Mall, I went in search of recipes. I was very pleased that this splendid flavour was now available in KL. I’ve only ever had salted caramel in Paris (the best is from Berthillon). I found a recipe I am keen to try. Upon finding this recipe, I was keen to explore other flavours and thought that a pandan coconut flavour would be very nice indeed. I looked it up and found this.
The perfect song for making ice cream is perhaps Battles’ new track featuring Matias Aguayo on vocals called Ice Cream. If the video reminds you of El Guincho’s Bombay, it is because the video is directed by the same folks.
Find salted caramel ice cream (sold as shio caramel) in:
Hokkaido Ichiba
Lot T-201, 3rd Floor,
The Garden Mall,
Mid Valley City,
Lingkaran Syed Putra,
59200 KL
I adore these minimen jewellery that Frédérique Conte has created. I stumbled upon these when I clicked on a link to Howkapow, a wonderful online design shop which sells many other lovely things including Lucy’s graphic scarves (which is how I came upon this gem). Seeing as summer is on the horizon and I am feeling it particularly more as I’m away in Kuala Lumpur where temperatures are well above 30° C, I have found the swimmers collection rather refreshing and the humour in these designs uplifting (check Nikki about to go skinny dipping!). I tried to find more information on the designer all I could find out is the little write up on the Howkapow website. Shops like Tombée du Camion do sell minimen like these. Guy and I are off to Langkawi soon and I cannot wait to be splish sploshing soon!
There are some flavours that are almost universal in their appeal. Pandan is such a flavour. Pandan’s power lies in its versatility. It is not limited to Asian dishes. I made pandan pannacotta earlier this year, to serve as dessert for my Chinese New Year meal. I made the pannacotta in a rabbit mould and this resulted in the wobbly little creature above. In the UK, pandan can be bought from most Oriental supermarkets. If you live in London, Golden Gate Cake Shop on Macclesfield Street sells pandan layer cake. My sister and I have since started obsessing over pandan macarons. Since being back in KL, I have had them twice. They are, as you can imagine, seriously delicious. These can be ordered specially from The Huckleberry Cafe. I have not seen this concoction sold anywhere else.
I find it quite strange that in a city like KL – where there must be the highest number of foodies per capita in the world and the most interesting mixtures of flavours and fusion food, I have yet to see pandan used in other European desserts. Pandan coconut meringue pie, pandan cream puffs, pandan coconut crepes…mmmm I can see so many possibilities! Someone, make ’em a reality!
Quite simply, no trip back to KL is quite complete without a stop in Chinatown or Petaling Street as it is known. I spent many years’ worth of weekdays in this area. My mum used to send us to Mandarin lessons which we took in the back of a Chinese temple every day, after our daily school lessons. The classes were held in the back of the temple, up a flight of stairs. There were 3 rooms, where the lessons were taught. Walking through the temple you will have to go through huge incense hanging from the ceiling and there were always some homeless people begging for money right at the entrance. I hated learning Mandarin, so for me the lessons were an opportunity to make the temple our playground.
On Tuesday night, Augusta and I went to Petaling Street. Our friend Bassi had requested some mirrored wayfarers, so we went to hunt some down. After walking around and finding some bargains, we stopped for a little snack at Kim Lian Kee. This little corner shop has been around since the late 20s. It has not been modernised much and remains pretty much a modest outfit. This is Malaysian street food after all! We shared a plate of Hokkien mee/meehoon. I’ve eaten here several times before, and was happy to find that the noodles were still good in this KL institution.
We were thirsty and ordered one of the best thirst quenchers ever- kalamansi lime juice with asamboi. Kalamansi limes are a special variety of limes. They are tiny, but packed with flavour, a little explosion of sweet and sour. The juice of kalamansi limes with a couple of asamboi (preserved salted plums or saladitos) = flavoursome thirst quenching drink. It’s a drink that packs a flavourful punch, satisfying almost all the different tastebuds. Palate Palette, which is one of my favourite places in KL does an alcoholic version of this drink with your choice of Vodka or Rum. It’s pretty, pretty, pretty good.
“In a place far away from anyone or anywhere, I drifted off for a moment.” Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
Have only recently discovered Nicolas Jaar and been drifting away to his music and also his collaborations with Nikita Quasim and Soul Keita under his label Clown And Sunset. This is their compilation, Inés. I have also been losing myself in the wonderful world of Haruki Murakami. After seeing the beautifully shot Norwegian Wood, I wanted to immerse myself in some wonderful fiction and I have found the perfect book in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
I was away for about 10 days in São Paulo for work, where I managed to snatch a few hours to myself every day. It gave me some time and space to breathe after quite a few hectic months of intense working. It also made me long for a certain type of music. Perhaps spurred and inspired by catching a chorinho band in the fair at Benedito Calixto on the Saturday, I found myself craving quieter melodies. So I found myself listening to the echoey sounds of Arthur Russell. I found myself listening to The Cure’s Disintegration. And soon, I was also craving piano music. I was treated to some Maxence Cyrin and longed for more piano music. So I looked for some Debussy to listen to because I remembered how much I loved Debussy and found a series of beautiful animation made using the Music Animation Machine software. And it made me feel calm for I could see beautiful music and I could hear the colours too.
I’ve fallen in love with the photography of Alex Prager. Self-taught through trial and error and operating as a one-woman show, styling and designing the sets, her photography is compelling and massively impressive. Influenced (clearly) by film (David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock in particular) her images tell of mysterious tales and of beautiful and disturbed females. I was really fighting the urge to put all her images on here. She titles her photographs after names of girls, inviting us to get to know these beautiful creatures. Alex Prager has recently made a short film. You can view Despair here.
The highlight of Exhibition #3 at the Museum of Everything is Ted Willcox’s tapestries. This ex-serviceman learnt how to sew in hospital while recovering from injuries. He created embroideries of pin-up girls and his unique version of Alice in Wonderland. I highly recommend checking Exhibition #3 out. Other highlights were Walter Potter’s dioramas (love this) and Arthur Windley’s miniature funfair (which he turned on every morning in his garage).
I urge everyone to have an afternoon of discovery. The exhibition is on until Dec 24th.
I moved about 6 weeks ago and one of the first things I bought for the new flat was this Future Mapping Company shower curtain designed for Habitat.
The Future Mapping Company produce some spectacular wall maps but my favourite is the Future Map Wallpaper. I started thinking about other products for the cartophilia’s home.
For entertaining, Seletti has a robust offering of products in their World Map series. I love the placemats best. It is sold in packs of 50 with a selection of city maps from London, New York, Tokyo and Paris.
Seletii also has ceramic world map dinnerware for sale. The placemats remind me of these lovely wrapping paper sold in Magma which is probably the next best thing to wrap presents in after plain brown paper. I was in New York recently and the conversation at dinner turn towards maps. Liam mentioned a map on race and ethnicity in New York City he’d seen.
This led me to Frank Jacobs’ Strange Maps. I like the Gridding of London and the Nightclub Map of Harlem produced at the end of the Prohibition charting funtimes. Frank Jacobs has since been published and his book Strange Maps can be bought here
The Happiness of Delicious Feeling 
