Best posters since the invasion of the minimalist posters!
I’m not even a huge fan of Seinfeld, but there’s something in me that really enjoys these posters.
More here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Signfeld
Might make a good birthday present :)
In honor of the fact that this time last year, P and I were in China, I thought in would be appropriate to finally do the China Food post.
I have never eaten so well in my whole life. I miss China food every day I’m not eating it. Here is our adventure in China Food as in chronological order.
After our arrival, the only thing open around 11pm are little restaurants like this. Hmm.. ok. My friend S promptly tells us not to eat anything that touches the table and not to reuse our chopsticks if they fall on the table. Hmm.. ok. He orders something, then literally 2 minutes later our table is full of food. Delicious, delicious food. Little kebabs of beef and chicken hearts coated with the most wonderful spices, and a cucumber salad with chilies that we ate almost every time we went into a restaurant.
Beautiful kefir-y drinks lining a windowsill — didn’t taste it, but the bottles sure were purty.
These were roasted chesnuts. Deliciously sweet.
Not sure if this counts, but, tea cups for our tea ceremony thing at a Bell Tower I’m forgetting the name of..
Our first hot pot — sooo good! But it wasn’t the hot pot according to my friend. I think it has something to do with the fact that there were tomatos in it and it wasn’t divided (more on that later).
Fire grilled yams. They were cooked directly on the fire and you could smell their sweetness like 100 feet away. This, however, was possibly the beginning of my ‘hanger’ — you see, it’s very difficult to pack a lunch in China. There are no granola bars or trail mix in China. So, for the longest, most touristy day of our trip, we were ill prepared. Then, I got in touch with another side of myself: my hangry side.
It’s important to discover new things about ourselves — some say that’s the point of travelling. I guess so, but from that day on, we tried to pack more stuff. Like on the day we went to the great wall — such an awesome day. I thought it would be ‘meh’ but it was amazing.
Enter salty hard-boiled eggs. Bought from street vendors, enjoyed almost every day. They prevented many hangry moments.
On our way back to the city, the tour bus stopped at a restaurant. We didn’t go in, but we did find the source of a sweet smell wafting through the air. It was like a sugary, nutty, brittle. The guy gave us a piece. It was tasty but so sweet it wasn’t worth buying a big bag (enough to feed like 12 people). Pretty to watch them make it.
Pingyao — the greatest fried chicken of my life.
Xi’an — the muslim quarter. Finally — some sugar!!! I was on an unintentional detox while we were there. It was pretty cool to be internet-less, sugar-less, coffee-less (save a few exceptions) for 3 weeks, but boy, was i happy to eat these tasty snacks.
Dim Sum in Shanghai with P’s sister’s friend — a real pro at ordering. I will probably never have such tasty dim sum ever again. Little crispy leek pancakes (lower left corner).. I miss you.
We went to this awesome arts and crafts market called Tianzifang. It was full of shops and restaurants. We walked around, ate some thai food and then had the best popsicles of my life!! One chocolate and one called ‘salted water’ — it was light, ever so slightly salty and absolutely refreshing.
Little apple pie tartlettes in the food court of some building when we went to visit the tallest building in Shanghai. I was lucky enough to snap a picture before the guy told me not to photograph the food… (?)
Now this, this is the real hotpot. Steamy, spicy, a truly theatrical experience. We had to wear aprons, the waitress kept talking to us, giving us free noodles, it was strange and sweet and amazing. My mouth was totally numb at the end. Here you see the division between the spicy broth and the regular broth.
Hand-pulled noodles by some young guy who really knew how to put on a show. He came within one inch of hitting my friend’s face when he whipped the noodles in our direction. He was like an artist.
This delicious dipping sauce. I think there must be chili oil, garlic, Szechuan peppers and I don’t know what else but I love it and I want it back in my life.
Delicious fish, we had beef, mushrooms, eggs, and lots of greens things in the soup too. Sooo goood.
These guys: so hard to pickup with chopsticks, but so tasty.
Mmm.. steamy.
So after the hot pot food coma, we went to bed. And the next day (or a few days later, don’t remember) we left for our flight which had a stopover in Tokyo. We had enough time to get out of the airport at Narita (about 1 hour from Tokyo) and sleep in the city and wake up to visit the fish market.
So many fishes and bustling buggies.
The best sushi breakfast of my life — we were eating this at 7am so that we could leave to catch our flight at 11am or something. It was a tiny little place, maybe space for 10 people. The chef was absolutely lovely. The whole experience was spectacular. Yum yum yum.
Ok! That’s it — makes me a little nostalgic… and… hungry.
:D
I know I haven’t blogged in a while, but i’m going to take it up again.
I’ve got a project or two up my sleeve and I can’t wait to put them out into the world. Here’s to new beginnings and believing in ourselves!
via Design is Mine
I’ve been in a major “get rid of the unnecessary” phase these last few weeks months years. :)
via swissmiss
I’m not one for making big new year’s resolutions, but this year I have a few that I really want to stick with:
and last but not least:
then again, this one is more like a life motto. :)
via here (hate that it’s not a proper link with credit — sorry!)
In honor of my two favourite things, here is an amazing, beautiful and organization-inducing desktop from DesignLoveFest!
I would totally put it as my desktop, if mine wasn’t already so awesome
:)
some years ago I was obsessed with this, an image discovered randomly on the web: 
There was something about it that I just loved. It was like the happy feeling of the image was easily and instantly transfered to me. And today i landed on this from a blog that i read (or I should say “look at”):
It’s like a real life incarnation of the print! I love it. Something about it makes me warm and fuzzy inside.
Tiger hug!
I’m not going to lie, I am very excited for the fall. Layering is my middle name. It will also re-ignite my knitting spark (hopefully) and this year I think I will go for some bold colors in my projects. I randomly discovered this etsy shop tonight and I am in love with these sweaters. It’s called The Knit Kid and I want it all.
The dress is so subdued but surprising. I love it!
Also, this is really funny because every single time I wake up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I avoid looking in mirrors because of childhood memories of this:
I WISH I was kidding.
cute prints by Teo Zirinis
I know I know, I should be posting about China food, yet again! But right now I’m on a kick of everything Jamie Oliver and that means, italian food in all shapes and forms.
hello! can you blame me?
While watching a Jamie show on youtube, the algorithm recommended another food show for me called “Two Greedy Italians”. I immediately recognized the voice of Jamie Oliver’s mentor Gennaro! This funny and talented man who occasionally appears in his shows (on the right).
So we started watching the show and I was hooked. Not only is it charming and informative, but I love (love!) that’s it features two older men. It got me thinking about how seldom older generations are a part of television (or in my case internet television). They are so funny and smart and bring a kind of depth to “television” for me. Yes, they will wax poetic about the good old days when women were in the kitchen and men could relax, but they’re so charming and fun that you forgive them for their old school views. Frankly, i’m not gonna lie, you want them as your grampas. Though, my grampa is pretty darn cool and could totally hang with this crew. Maybe that’s why I like it so much.
Also, the show looks great. Beautiful. And tasty. Check it out by searching for “Two greedy italians” on the tube.
Yes, I should be posting about China, and I will, but consider this a segue.
In case you didn’t already know, I spend a ridiculous amount of time on Youtube. Yes, not long ago I seriously wondered why the site was so popular “what are people watching on it?”. Now I have an answer: food shows. Recently, I’ve discovered two lovely lady chefs who have their own fabulous little video series. Both are multi-platform mavens with blogs, books, webisodes, and more, quite impressive.
Rachel Khoo has a simple take on French cuisine. French cuisine is tackled by many, but Khoo brings a really fresh approach to it. Somehow, it seems more real, more doable, less intimidating. After the first episode I seriously wanted to take on making little chouquettes! I seriously looked up the Cordon Bleu and thought for one second “maybe I should do that!” — maybe I don’t have 47,000$ to burn on a whim.
Rachel Khoo does it all with flair in her minuscule kitchen.
Watch the webisodes here!
Wok with Nana specializes in Chinese cuisine. Her series is the closest thing I could find to the experience I had of food in China. Even though she focuses primarily on Cantonese delicacies, the idea is similar. The recipes are a little too complicated for my repertoire, but I think I could find the essentials of her recipes and work them in. For example, garlic, ginger, chili, onion — the basics of most recipes, I can add them to my greens, my potatoes, my meat, what ever! Delicious! I was so sad to see her channel not as active as before, but hey, ‘tis the life of a Youtube star.
Check out her channel here!
You know somebody’s good when you instantly think: “oh man, i want you to be my friend!” and that’s how I feel about these ladies.
images via the internet
I’ve been meaning to post about china for a long time. I thought I would post a little something to get your taste buds going. More to come! I swear!
Pingyao is worth the detour for the chicken alone. It’s a lovely ancient city, restored to make it nice and medieval. It has a giant wall surrounding the city which you can bike around. We stayed in a really cute guesthouse where we were greeted by our names (which was a nice change from most hostels/hotels). Pingyao was a nice change from the hustle and bustle of all the other places we had stayed by that point. Sometimes, you just want to chill out and visit something quaint, am I right?
On this day we also visited an amazing temple with 3D vignettes. We visited lots and lots of temples in China and after the 3rd one, you start thinking “Temples: ya seen one, ya seen ‘em all!” and that’s pretty much true except for this one. This one was actually amazing — you can see the style of it on the sign in the picture below. The pictures really don’t do it justice, and in fact, it’s the place we have the least pictures, perhaps due to a simultaneous mixture of fascination and boredom.
All in all, it was a really fun day and I would definitely try to find other cities of this size to visit in the future. Big cities are cool and all, but it they kind of make the smaller ones more special.
China food series to come! Here’s a little preview. Can anybody guess what this guy is doing (those of you I didn’t tell!)?
by Hans-Peter Feldmann
Wow — I love this photo.
Reminds me of someone else’s lovely work. What is it about cut-outs!? Why? Why are they so awesome!?
I love cut outs in every shape or form.
Being in China recently has really revived my love of bread. They do have bread-like things across the pond, but, they’re not quite the same, and when you don’t have any Nutella to put on it, you might as well call it cardboard.
But a recent post on one of my favourite blogs had me saying: “Heck yeah! That’s my kinda poster!” and “I’m hungry!” (not to be confused with “hangry” which… I sometimes was in China… perhaps due to lack of Nutella).
This project is by Kelly Pratt and apparently there are going to be more stately sandwiches to come! 50 States of Sandwiches!
There seems to be a sandwich theme going on this year: the high-brow sandwich art or the ever technical scanwich project. I wonder why..? Either way, they make me want to get creative with my sandwiches.
One of my all-time faves, invented by yours truly: tuna salad, mesclun, mayo, salt/pep, on raisin bread (not to be confused with cinnamon raisin, ick). Delish, I promise!
via DesignCrush Blog
We all know how Garance Doré is the most adorable and talented French photographer around, but after watching these little videos of her experience at Paris Fashion Week, it pretty much sealed the deal.
So far it’s a four part series, and I’m looking forward to more. I love that she directs the mini-films. She has this very genuine, one-of-the-girls vibe that is so refreshing. It makes me want to be friends with her for real!
Check out her video series Pardon My French by clicking on each image below:
