Dekalb Market, Brooklyn
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Entrance at Dekalb Market, Downtown Brooklyn
Salvaged and stacked up colorful shipping containers make walls, shops and a small semi open urban market in downtown Brooklyn. It’s a great and beautiful concept to promote small entrepreneurs in a small cultural community setting using 20 foot shipping containers with electricity, water, stove tops and even AC installation.
It was our first time visiting and it was late afternoon on Saturday. It felt bit empty but I see a great potential. But then, would this really work? It’s located by Flatbush Avenue near the Dekalb avenue where now all these luxury high-rise condos are getting built. There are good amount of commercial and office spaces around the market, so Lunch time, it may get bit crowded but not sure how much foot traffic this market gets in general. Despite it’s charming vibe, the market is not so substantial enough to go for either food or shopping. I see coffee, donuts, sandwiches, tacos. All those usual suspects. Then there are these small shops. The containers are great looking. Thy are itsy bitsy super cute but are they too small? Most of food vendors occupy the full spaced containers then there are many other containers divided in half, and that’s when it gets bit too small for me. Once there 2 people in, there’s no more room for any other. It’s a great concept but I see much room to be improved.
The market needs better P.R and more vendors in general for customers to feel it’s worth the trip. There should be a lot more food vendors to bring greater foot traffic daily then need bigger space occupying non food vendors like vintage, books, magazine stands, Arts, maybe even flower shops, graphic tees and so on to sustain as a daily market. It totally got this cool vibe going but it feels like the whole thing is a bit of temporary set up. Kind of one night stand like. There were concerts, DJ gig and even a night Bazar. They all sound great and heard it was successful but it is missing this Core strength to sustain this market to be not just a cool gig but as a real community’s daily market. Hope for a good boost for Christmas shopping time and wish for better improvement with stronger vendors and entrepreneurs bringing more fresh creative product to the market.
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Chasing the Autumn! North Fork, New York
Filed Under Design, Family, Food, For the Weekend, NYC, Restaurant, Shops, Travel, Vintage | Leave a Comment
Beautiful Sunday morning at Orient State Park, North Fork, New York
After many of quite dreadful humid and wet September days for New York to prep crisp real Autumn, this was maybe the first truly gorgeous weekend weathers we had! It was dry and warm yet accompanied by cool clean air to compliment spotless amazing perfect blue sky! The Autumn has officially kicked off! Still in a half sleep in the bed Saturday morning, we could see gorgeous sun coming through our bedroom window’s grainy blinders… The sliver of warm sun light was just enough to make us jump out of the bed and just take off to be out of the city! And where we are heading to? North Fork in Long Island, NY!
Just one briskly packed small bag for all of us, we are excite to explore North Fork! It’s our very first time and all I knew was there are many mini vineyards lined up. Yes, some wine tasting, good food and pick up couple of fresh corns… Hopefully we can stumble into a cozy B&B tucked in somewhere. It all sounds good to my soul and my belly! It’s going to be a heck of good weekend!
About little over 2 hours, we are getting into the beginning of North Fork. What can we say…. It got Surf and Turf kind of thing going on here in North Fork. I know we are near the ocean and I see ton of handsome pumpkin farms, small yet swanky vineyards already starting from the very beginning. We know we are really going to like here. Above is a back yard at ” Material Object“, a home furnishing and wine related object store in Jamesport. This 1870’s farm house converted into wine tasting and home decor shop sure shows envious eclectic taste of the shop owner. The natural light filled space is to die for!
The Main house of Material Object, The picture can’t justify the actual space. Here only showing a fraction of entire house. Everything you see here is for sale.
The Barn house/ Cottage like second home which is set back. This felt like a newly built with much charm. But Not the original structure.
Arriving at Greenport. Almost the end of North Fork. It’s a real cute town with many good restaurants, antique and vintage shops as well as oyster and lobster shacks by the water! Here we are chasing early fall but boy I have to say we just can’t complain about warm sun on your back and perfect breeze! It feels sort of early summer and early fall at the same time!
Claudio’s restaurant was opened back in 1870’s! There’s the main one on the main street and also 2 clam bars right by the water. Bit touristy but all good here.
Yeap! It sounds perfect! Lobster roll anyone? It’s already Lunch time!
Hmmm choices choices…
OK waiting for our number to be called. We are at # 2 Clam bar of Claudio’s. This place is run by self service and there’s no live band playing ( sort of wedding band, Haha!) Which we consider as a good thing.
Both are $29.95 plates. Not so cheap. Skip the fake butter, Who needs it? Cole slaw, I always love! Lemon works for anything.
Gael’s too busy eating his creamy clam chowder!
After lunch town strolling begins.
The Greenport town has a good mix of old and new including a tiny Greenport jail ( not pictured..)! It’s charming and not touched by big chain stores yet. There’s a Calypso boutique as far as a known brand shop. No Starbucks or Ben & Jerry’s. Instead there’s ” Sand pipe Ice cream shop” where I had the best ice cream in entire US for only 4 bucks! Maple syrup Walnut and Vanilla black cherries. Yum!
This is The best vintage and antique shop in Greenport! Beall & Bell, 430 Main Street. Right items at right prices. We saw some of the best pieces here!
This old School gym acrobat pads were sold! I was happy that quite many pieces in the shop are marked as sold! Which means we are in the right place! How good are these? Emi had a great idea! One of these would easily doll up your bed as a head board. Especially for guys, that’s awesome I think!
One next to the Beall & Bell. This one also sells home furnishing materials such as textiles and things.
After we checked in at our motel ( yes everything was booked and we were lucky to find quite lovely and affordable motel right outside of downtown Greenport), we came to restaurant, Noah’s for dinner. It’s not the high season since it is already October, but you want to make reservations ahead for better and really good restaurants in Greenport. They get booked up fast. Literally any restaurants in the town will have a some sort of raw bar going on and also good seafood dishes. We wanted to check out Frisky Oyster, but it was too late by the time we called for the reservation. Bit old school and bit groovy here with hefty price tags. We quite enjoyed our meal at Noah’s as they offer many great small dishes are not actually that small. You could call it generously portioned tapas of seafood, great salad and meat bites. We ended up having 5 small dishes and 2 bottles of local 2010 Chardonnay, ” Bedell” from one of the North Fork’s wineries, Bedell . It reminded me of Sauvignon Blanc, Oyster bay from New Zealand.
Now Sunday morning, We are at Orient Beach State Park in North Fork, a short car ride from Greenport! Water’s quite amazing here!
You will see lagoons and ocean everywhere in North Fork. It’s really beautiful!
Running me, Emi and Gael.
Nice run, shower and pack and we go. Here we are at one of farm stand on the road.
Gael loves to shop produces. He loves to touch and smell them. We were peeking inside to see they are full and healthy. And these corns are so sweet and juicy! We also like them raw!
These are called MUMs and they are cheap. 3 mums for $12!
And we didn’t skip one thing! Now checking out a few antique store by the road. We scored a real cute picnic basket filled with 4 of wine glasses, silver wear, plates, cheese knife and wooden cutting board and wool matching blanket to the plaid liner of the basket, probably never used before. All these for $30! Now, that’s a good deal!
I always like these!
Honestly, we were bit tip toeing around the wine tasting as we realized there are hundreds of wineries in North Fork area! Then after the last antique shop we stopped in, we saw the sign if ” Bedell” winery. We love the Chardonnay from them last night! So here we are we are stopping in.
It looks sort of Nespresso shop.
It’s about noon. There are lot of people tasting wine. We realized most of wineries here has small Raw bar. Mostly Clams and Oysters.
Live Jazz is not so bad!
It feels like we are in Napa!
You can also bring your own food and just hang out here with some wine from the winery. It”s a perfect day to do it! I mean look at that sky!
You will find these many little lovely trails that connects to vineyards or the beach in North Fork. So charming!
It was the perfect 2 day getaway to truly enjoy beautiful sun, last minute lingering lovely summer but surely it was beginning of Autumn for us. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and if you like to get out of city a little, try North Fork! It is a real little gem that has little of everything you can taste what water and the land can offer!
LOvE North Fork!
A Powerful Stimulation: Fuerza Bruta, NYC
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They will walk all over you in the rain, in the puddle and in this magical setting of FUERZA BRUTA, NYC !!!
The space was bit smaller than what I expected. But also intimate in a just right way. Mysterious red hue of warm light wraps you around and higher than high ceiling with awesome music with great sound starts get you going before the real thing starts. A good size of crowd is gathering and it totally feels like we are going to have a real good dance party! There were only 2 kids in the entire crowd. Gael is one and just this girl with long braided hair at maybe just about Gael’s age. It’s a good mix of crowd and we are all just so curious to see what will happen in anytime soon! People are patiently waiting…
People are already looking up!
Entering the room.
Emi, Denny and Me! Gael’s here with us too! 5 years old and over are permitted to this performance.
Great beat goes on.
Starting!
Absolute Highest light of the show. Water above your head up on the ceiling!
I am trying to reach out to her as the water stage’s getting closer to the crowd. It’s CRAZY Amazing!
I believe Fuerza Bruta is NOT about synchronization,which is what I really like about, but there’s a short moment of this. 4 performers coming together.
The creators on the front.
Closing dance with crowd.
The evidence of great fun for the night!
The crew outside on smoking break after the show.
That was maybe the best thing we did for the raining friday night of September in NYC. It was still warm out and rain felt somehow friendly and safe and getting inside of theater of Fuerza Bruta made me feel like we were not wasting the golden friday night sitting on a couch watching a TV because of the rain…
This one big crowd participating performance of Music, Dance, Light, Air and Water of Fuerza, the Force is something that you should totally experience! It’s one good stimulation for your senses and mind. And Huge credit to excellent beats and music for the entire night and I really would love to be there if Fuerza Bruta ever will have a one kicking dance party.
Now watch the teasers!
LOvE NYC!
Denny’s Birthday at Robataya, NYC
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On Denny’s Birthday, At the beautiful Grill Bar at Robataya NYC
Emi’s dear nephew Denny’s visiting us from Italy for about 2 and a half weeks. He has just arrived in time for his 24th birthday! I can’t believe our little Denny I met 18 years ago ( then 6!) is now all grown up handsomely with a great job as well! It’s always nice to have Denny at our home and it’s just really nice to have your family visit from oversea when especially we are the only ones away from home. Before Denny arrived we had a few things in our mind to do together with him and for sure we knew where to take Denny for his big 24th birthday.
Robataya on the 9th street in East village!
I have been eyeing on this place since the last James Blake concert Heidi and I went near the restaurant. We were looking for an easy quick dinner before the show and ended up walking into little Japan area that is happening around the 9th street. I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few cute Japanese restaurants and tea houses on one single block. It quickly brought me fun memories from my numerous trips to Tokyo! Bit small and tucked in… A hole on the wall… A little place on the second floor somewhere selling delicious food and drinks…
Robataya is bit fancier than any other ones on the block. The concept of Robataya is not something too up-scaled or so unique as Robatayaki ( Japanese grilling) in Japan is sort of common street food or hearty quick bar food, but this particular one in East village sure scores higher note on the beautiful setting of their Grill bar consisting of wood banquets and chairs that mimics the setting of an open market. The setting is grand but also intimate enough to enjoy the company of rest of the customers sitting at the bar. There’s this sense of “Togetherness” sitting around watching and admiring 2 master chefs’ well skilled clean cooking as a center focus. I really like this.
It’s very common to order directly to the chef as normally the grill bar scale is smaller and also customers sit closer to the chef. Think Sushi Bars. But at Robataya, there are a couple waiters will assist you. I think they wanted to make this easier for both the chefs and the customers and it felt definitely more up-scaled. The guy with a head wrap was one of them.
Our cool 2 chefs for the night. The chef on the left cooked all the dishes we had. The wooden panel in front of him displays his proud name.
I must say watching chefs’ moves at this Robataya is quite entertaining. They don’t put up any sort of show but their whole cooking and getting things are just very interesting! As you can see most of ingredients for any grilling is displayed in front of chefs and it’s sure an eye candy.
Chefs serve the finished dishes and beer bottles to customers at the bar on that long wooden stick with flat tray at the end. Can you see it…? One guy grabbing a beer bottle off the wooden stick!
This is THE SLAT Robataya uses for all their cooking. DELICIOUS!!! Anything you eat you can really taste the deep flavor of this real good salt. I think good salt does the half of the job for any cooking! Maldon from England is also my favorite!
So we were seated in front of Mushroom area and we had tasted 2 kinds. The super big one ( no it’s not porcini) and the little ones on the front on the right side. Sorry didn’t get all the names…
Kobe Beef. Yes it was tender!
Also we had ordered fried oysters in a graded radish sauce. It was bit odd I must admit.
Here comes another pass of beer bottle from the chef!
2 and a half of handsome generations! From left Denny the birthday boy, Gael the lucky one and my man, Emiliano!
Happy birthday to you, Denny again! We love you Denny!!
This is what we had for the night: Snow crab dumplings in clear broth, fried oysters in graded radish sauce, 2 kinds of grilled mushrooms and fresh lemon squeeze, repeat the mushroom because it was so good! Grilled yam with butter, grilled Kobe beef, duck and lamb, simmered pork belly in soy and ginger, simmered short rib in clear broth and chunk of radish, roasted rice balls in 2 ways: one with miso and the other one with soy sauce ( soooo goooddd!), lots of beer for guys and Junmai Ginjo for me the whole time.
Check it out! You will love it!
Two Days in Paris
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It’s this thing that running along the Iconic spot of area gives me sort of satisfaction that I am kind of conquering the city or that specific area I am running. Or more like “Shit” I just rant to “Eiffel tower” along the Seine in Paris! Not bad at all. I have been running every single day during this Stockholm, Paris and London trip. I believe now I have way better sense about the city in every way after I ran.
Finally after like million times of visits to Paris, I feel like I just started getting a hang of Paris. I don’t know why it took so long… It’s maybe the city is quite big? I am quite savvy at figuring out any new places but not Paris… It has been a long time I just couldn’t put my finger on it… It must be the language. Sometimes I get slightly upset with myself that I do have issue pronouncing French. Why is it damn hard for me? Whenever not so nice French talks down to me or our group, I sssso want to snap out of it by speaking beautiful proper French back to them. But the reality is “Naaaaa”. I am seriously considering to take a crash course some point, so I can read those menus little better at least.
The hotel ” Lumen” where we stayed at recommend us this place called ” Aux Lyonnais“, a super classic old bistro where you can get all that classic dishes consists of ” Butter, Butter and Butter”. The highlight of September in Paris is apparently Cray fish. But then they cook it with just the same as any other dishes like escargot, or stake…. Butter, garlic and herbs. It’s great but Call me ignorant, but sometimes, I do not understand why people go crazy with French cuisine. Yes I married to a Italian man, and I much prefer great Italian cousin which embraces the core of the main ingredients rather butter in literally every dish. I find Butter quite over powering in most of times. By the way regardless the food, I really loved this old classic decor.
Always love Men serving. Not only in Paris but in general. I don”t know why. When they are older and look firm on what they are doing, it;s even better for me. I find it quite beautiful.
Mine and Cynthia’s Tarte au quemeau, jeunes salades et truffes d’été. It’s like a new born baby mini pizza with super thin crust with shaved black truffles on top. I liked it. But Here’s my thought on Truffle. Unless you can actually get white truffle, I think Truffle oil is a much better option ( Way more fragrant) than Fresh Black truffle. Black truffle comes in Summer and I don’t think actually it deserves to be called ” Truffle”. It’s quite blend. I rather have Porcini. The real deal is White truffle. Or just get a small bottle of Truffle oil!!!
Reina’s starter, 2 almost raw eggs with mixed mushroom. This1 Oh I loved it! It was very different!
Lexi’s super cute a bowl full of ravioli!
Paris’ Opera house by night. It’s so amazing what people can do. All those years ago, we were way more capable and incredible in so many different ways. I mean, How can we build such things these days.. Right? And how can that gold can be such bright yellow!??
What an awesome building is this?!! Not too far from the Eiffel tower. Another benefit that my running brought to me. Get to see more things in person! Hope they had done good water proof system.. For second I worried about the longevity of the structure.
The thing impressive about Paris is that the beauty so consistent in that big of scale. Left bank, right bank, streets, buildings, the way they trim the trees, girls, boys, elders, Seine, cobble stones, shops, museums, galleries, parks, gardens, churches, wine……! And the Flair! The one and only French Flair!
Merci this time didn’t really blow my mind… This time it was all about Japan design including Muji. More of little gadgets and stuff. It did not feel strong at all to me. My biggest reason to go to Merci is always the color. The directional approach of using one color that makes everything magical. But this time, I did not see that. Bit disappointing. Or Maybe No color is New color..?!! Maybe it’s me figuring it out all this late?
They are bath soaps.
Tomato, green apple, Blueberry off the caramel.
There are ton of colors in fashion at least, so maybe the next thing is soft neutral.
Cool lamps.
Love this man.
Me and my cup of tea, Merci.
Window at Donshia. Love it!
Hussein Chalayan Exhibition at Les Arts Decorstifs Les Arts Decoratifs ALWAYS has quite progressive shows on Fashion and Textile. If you are in Paris, you should be checking out what they are doing!
Gorgeous City, Gorgeous People: Stockholm, Sweden!
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The Harbor of Stockholm, the capital and the largest city of Sweden full of over 2M of beautiful people reside!
This is my second time here in Stockholm since the last visit about 3 years ago. My little doubt about how much I would remember the city has quickly gone after my good 7 mile run along the water soon after I have checked into Berns Hotel early morning. A strong and perfectly sweetened cup of cappuccino right outside of the hotel gauging out to the park did a quick fix for my 4:00 am NY time Jet lag!
I am here with Gap office to do Fall research and luckily the weather was quite great for our 2 days in this gorgeous city. Filled with beautiful girls and guys, (Really!) the city is just chilled and beautiful. You can walk to everywhere as it is small enough to do so and I definitely believe it is the best way to experience the city. You can do rent a bike but there are also lots of hilly streets, so it can get very tiring especially when you get to the old area of the city, Gamla Stan and Artsy and hip Sodermalm area. You can easily get taxis but again the most areas where you don’t want to miss can pretty much be covered by your two feet!
Here now, come stroll with me to taste the streets of Stockholm!
We are staying at Berns Hotel in City Center area. We were debating between Berns and Lydmar. If I get to come back to Stockholm, I would love to stay at Lydmar. Berns Hotel is super convenient for the location wise with great complimentary breakfast but I think rooms could be better at it’s price range.
The dinning room at Berns Hotel. Their dinning room is the center of the hotel I believe. Somehow Breakfast and Lunch is more popular than the dinner time.
A cute sun-room at Berns hotel. You have a nice view to the park outside. I love this room!
My cute and delicious breakfast at the hotel sun room. Lots of flax seeds over fresh black berry yogurt and muesli. A cup of cappuccino and delicious lox on a piece of multi grain and pumpkin seed bread. Yum! By the way Lox in Stockholm is to die for. Sooo Amazing!
All striped out and I am ready to hit the road!
A clean city, beautiful city and…
It is filled with beautiful him, beautiful her and beautiful couples!
Simple up-dos and ponytails are definitely dominant with little black everything and little denim jackets.
This lady at COS store so chick in her simple yet elevated neutral colors and great accessories.
Saw lots of long braided hair too.
All lean and lanky as majority of other youngsters in the city, this friendly shop girl at Acne pulls off tiny black leather skirt super cool!
Second day going in we are at Sodermalm area. It’s one big mix of Williamsburg, Lolita, bit of Soho and Fort Greene. There are more than enough of good vintage shops in this area. This is a vintage and thrift shop, Emmaus.
You all love Cheap Monday from Sweden. This is the shop in Sodermalm area. Each platform is in letters.
Cheap Monday is the second chain shop where I saw a sewing machine right in the middle of the floor after ” Monki”. I guess they possibly do alterations for the customers right at the sight.
A cool Tee shirt fixture.
On the underground level at Cheap Monday, there is a Screen Print studio with a big glass wall. It’s very cool to see how they make the screen tees.
Now here we are at the Old part of the city, Gamla Stan. This little island is located in between Norrmalm and Sodermalm. Gamla Stan takes you back to the old time of Stockholm with pretty Mediaeval streets and buildings. Royal palace is also located in Gamla Stan.
There are many cute little shops in Galma Stan including super touristy ones. This shop carried many cute posters and stuff. Not bad.
There were quite a few shops of linens and stuff.. Soft, cotton bit antique like and boho-ish..
Lastly, quite amazing dinner on the first night at restaurant Mathias Dahlgren at Grand Hotel, Stockholm.
Every seating at the table is pre- set with this quite Zen like a sheet of brown paper menu, a cracker bag, silver wears and a wooden butter knife and glasses.
Common and widely loved multi grain crackers.
Menu is set up by region and kind of ingredients and all the portion is in between appetizer and main course.
Reina, Cynthia and I ordered 3 dishes and shared them all. The first, Salmon and Deer Sashimi. The Salmon in general here is like gold to me. I know salmon is body does good kind fish but I am not usually so crazy about it unless it’s a top quality sashimi. This was the top quality sashimi and it was amazingly delicious!
They love dill here and actually it has grown on me. Mixed Mushroom with steamed coal fish. Amazing.
Pumpkin and broccoli with Truffle and Parmesan.
Langoustine.
Baked chocolate and 2 more… It was so good!
As we are moving on to Paris and London for the rest of the week, we only had really a day and a half in Stockholm but surely fell in love with the city! It’s a great place to people watch, eat, feed your eyes with great modern design and get inspired. Full 3 days will give you plenty time to do the museums and all.
LOvE Stockholm!
The It girls: Brigitte, Paris!
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Viva Brigitte!
Cool Films for Hot Summer Nights!
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1. 10:30 pm, Summmer by Jules Dassin
2. IL Divo by Paolo Sorrentino
3. Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni
4. Before Night Falls by Julian Schnabel
5. Mother by Bong Joon Ho
6. Diva by Jean-Jacques Beineix
7. White Ribbon by Michael Haneke
A scene from Diva
Enjoy!
When Fashion surpasses Art: Savage Beauty, Alexander McQueen, Met
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The Alexander McQueen exhibit: Savage Beauty at Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
I have been dreading to go to Met to see Savage Beauty as whoever went to the exhibit said, “It’s so popular you need to be in the line for so long like hours then it’s too crowded that it’s hard to see all in detail!” But regardless, I knew it was going to be amazing. ” Exhibit will make you cry!” that’s what I heard a lot too. I was lucky enough to get free private access to the Museum this Monday through a friend at the museum as the Museum is closed on Mondays. But due to the high demand of this show, Museum had introduced ” Met Mondays with McQueen” starting from June 6. And it will cost you hefty $50.00 entrance fee but I highly recommend it otherwise not sure how you can say you really saw the exhibition with all that big crowd. And very nice audio tour ( narrated by Andrew Bolton, Sara Jessica Parker, Philip Treacy and more!) is on the house with this special Monday tour I believe.
Last Year, The 40 years of YSL Retrospective at Paris was amazing, beautiful and unbelievable. But still it stayed in fashion. Beautiful clothing with impeccable workmanship in beautiful setting. But Savage Beauty definitely felt closer to an art exhibit. McQueen’s fashion surpasses countless Artists’ art out there today. And I like to pay a huge credit to Mr. Andrew Bolton, the curator of this exhibit and Costume Institute who handled many years’ yearly gala. I had a privilege to work with him personally on a small project related to the last year’s Gala, American women as Gap was major sponsor to the exhibit.
And Mr. Bolton, you’ve had beautifully executed Savage Beauty to translate Alexander McQueen’s dark, strong, complex and bold approach to his artful inner world. The rooms were perfectly McQueen. The lighting, the materials of the wall, the music and utterly dark and chick showcases and the stage. I absolutely loved it. The Colors in the room, runway clips, the most amazing head and shoulder pieces, the materials of the setting… I could go on and on about this. It felt beautifully expensive and perfectly regal but also completely modern and dare futuristic. Just like who Alexander McQueen was.
The entrance! Red tinted microscopic glass pieces and ostrich feather dress on the left and the infamous Razor clam shell dress on the right. It kills me. I highly recommend you to get the Audio tour. You get to hear stories behind from actual people who worked on or worn the actual pieces.
The first room, ”The Romantic Mind”, is dedicated to the tailored and mostly jacket pieces. Lots of these pieces were landed by the actual owners for the exhibit. McQueen’s Savile Row in London’s tailoring experience is showing through these pieces. Only showing a few pieces here.
The washed concrete wall and naive wood flank is familiar contrast we see everyday now but again it works beautifully against McQueen’s impeccable hard tailoring.
The second room, “The Romantic Gothic” filled with aged mirrors.
This guilded golden glass showcase is absolutely to die for and the amazing McQueen’s work…
“The Cabinet of Curiosity”, a room dedicated to many of McQueen’s amazing Accessories and their relationship to related items. This room truly made me fill like I was in a Art exhibition.
My heart deeply aching…. The Spine corset with a tail.
Approaching to the Fan dress. Just like those delicately cut out Japanese wooden fan.
Yes, She’s turning.
There are ton more in this “Closet of Curiosity” room. I kept going back in there. It was hard to end myself and move on.
” The Romantic Nationalism”, McQueen celebrates his root, London. He was very proud of the city where he came from.
“The Romantic Primitivism”
” Romantic Exoticism”
“Romantic Naturalism, the last room”
I only have a few pictures from the Savage Beauty in this post. You need to see All in person. It ends on August 7. So hurry up!
It was truly one of the most amazing exhibitions I have seen. Not just McQueen itself but the whole package, it is a great exhibition. Also excellent website.
And NEVER TO MISS, click on THIS to watch clips of McQueen’s runway shows.
Ana’s gorgeous Raw Creation, Dates and Raisin Pecan pie with Edible flowers! So smart! So delicious! And So Raw!
It was So So So nice to have spent some descent time with Keith and Ana again! It has been so long since the last time we hung out together, which I honestly don’t even remember when exactly that was. A year? or More? The fact that Keith and Ana getting on this raw food journey they have chose for a more than a year now actually somehow distanced us physically a bit because we used to meet up and have quite a cook offs together. Ana will chop, Keith will peel and Emi will stir and simmer. For hours and many nights. I’ll say the food-ing definitely bonded us. Apart from many interests we have in common or not in common as we all are quite eccentric if you would call it. Art and Design for sure and crush on certain crazy artists and musicians we share. Nothing wrong about eating cooked food but as Ana was sort of suffering a bit with indigestion and maybe even some allergies as many of us do. Like wheat, dairy and so on.
Keith and Ana were always healthy eaters, but complete change to Eating only raw food sounded quite extreme to me I have to say. I mean what would it be like? Would it be boring? Do you only eat leaves and carrots? Will you be hungry sometimes? How are you going to eat beans? They usually come dry. You know what I mean? I had asked myself many times what it would be really like even though I am completely ” IN” for the idea just imagining how raw food will sort of clean your system and my quite “well bred common food knowledge” as an Korean especially grown up with my family like grandma, aunt and my mom who all are absolute sort of food freaks making everything from scratch in such healthy way. I mean I had already mastered what specific colors of food group really means to your body by when I was like 8 years old. It was so common my mom and aunt will call out what is what and how you should prepare them not to waste any nutrition. Then there was the master of masters, my grandma making everything at home from Tofu to facial moisturizer.
Thursday dinner with Keith And Ana had answered me great deal of my curiosity about eating raw food. It opened my eyes bit about creating your own food culture in very healthy ways and I also realized it would ask quite a bit of creativity and food brain. And surely being open minded.
Flax seed and Zucchini flat bread. Keith and Ana use great deal of food dehydrator and processor to create certain textures and consistencies. This bread was prepared by using a dehydrator. My verdict? It has great bite to it and has really nice nutty flavor. I am a nut lover, so anything nutty, I love!
Ana prepping a starter. Avocado mousse with dried porcini mushroom. It’s packed with flavor and supper fluffy. It melts in your mouth! A kick from Cayenne pepper is really nice too.
Drizzle of olive oil and fresh black pepper at serving. This was quite filling I didn’t t finish it up.
Cherry tomato and Zucchini salad.
Anna called it rice. It’s actually finely chopped parsnip and pine nuts and seasoning. This got that rice like texture. It’s satisfying like you are having cooked carbohydrate like potato or rice. It has quite intense flavor. I don’t know why I always thought raw food would not have same level of flavor as cooked food. I was totally wrong about it. Raw food actually tends to have more flavor as you are eating the ingredient raw as it is. There’s no hiding. That straight up flavor is quite impressive.
Simple tomato salsa. Nice one!
So we are building sort of Open sandwich like. Bread, then spread ” Cashew nut spread :blend the Cashew with bit of water, salt, olive oil, onion or what ever other flavor you would like to add, this comes out super creamy and naturally bit sweet, You know my mom has been making this instead of using Mayo!! Then add Cherry tomato and Zucchini salad on top. And Ana had also other couple toppings like chopped olives and simple bell peppers. You build however you like. This open sandwich is SO DELICIOUS! Every ingredients come through nicely with it’s own honest flavor. It’s super refreshing. It’s clean and delicious!
No Not red wine. Keith and Ana stopped drinking when they started Raw food. This is hibiscus flower tee. Earthy and strong. It’s quite great.
We chatted and chatted. It’s great time we were having! And Ana totally surprises me pulling this fabulous raw number for dessert! Isn’t it so gorgeous?!!!
For a second, it feels like autumn has arrived! The earthy and rich colors of edible flowers… Everything feels so smart tonight!
It’s not over yet! Ana also makes Banana ice cream to accompany her gorgeous pie. Nope. No dairy in here! So clever how she makes this. Freeze couple Bananas and throw them in a food processor with bit of water added. That’s all you need to do. I guess you can add Vanilla, or even other fruits a bit in there? The secret is the banana itself. When it gets all meshed up, it got that perfect smooth ice cream texture. Delicious!
Ana mentioned there are good amount of beautiful raw dessert recipes out there. Ana, I forget the name of the book you showed me…!
Ana cutting it and Keith serving it!
And Yes, that was So mine! Delicious!!!
First, I like to thank you two, Ana and Keith for the wonderful food you made for me and for our friendship! I had a great time with you guys! And also I don’t know why we haven’t got together more in the past year. We can always meet for galleries or films, or over a simple cup of green tea. And I am totally going to make you guys some raw dishes I like to try! At the end, we have quite of raw food we eat daily or drink. Don’t we? Any pickles or any salad, the fruit juice… Wraps, fresh corn on the cob as I like to eat them raw many times. We got some basic going on so I like to try some innovative dishes for us next time! Thank you for teaching me to utilize all the great food sources out there! Raw is exciting!
Stay tuned! xx