Lacasapark is a Hair Studio, a Vintage Boutique and a Blog where we merge our creativity and experiences. Our extensive travels around the world and frequent visits to Italy allows us to breath, taste, collect and explore things and ideas. Lacasapark is our show case and your source to share our interests and passions for living a rich and creative life.
The Waterhouse at South Bund, Shanghai
“The City gets lit up after the Sunset” was the opening line of Continental air’s promotional short film for Shanghai shortly before the landing today. Full of business men on board, the Continental Air Jet was also as just as new as those skyline of rising Shanghai. Along the rapidly growing China’s economy, Gap has opened up 3 beautiful brand new stores now in China and here I am with Cynthia to visit Gap stores and learn about what people and life of Shanghai is all about! The culture, what they like to eat and wear, people adopting the new life of one of the fastest growing cities in the world!
And here let’s start with one of the best new design Shanghai is proud of : the Waterhouse.
Once a wear house space back in 1930’s has completely have re born as a swanky new modern boutique hotel by doing a quite a good job preserving most part of facade from then. Industrial cool, rustic historic charm and great portion use of wood and glass gives that cutting edge yet delivers cozy Modernism of Today.
Approaching the entrance.
The lighting art above the reception does not show well in this picture. But it says: ” You should have loved me.”
There are sort of 2 lounging areas. Right where is the reception then this open room connects to the bar area on the ground floor.
Small pockets of lounge area that is well thought through concerning privacy and openness at the same time consisting high and low of textures of materials, colors and lighting.
Looking down the Lobby from the second floor.
Each room is supposedly unique in size and layouts but in this sort of interior.
Tinted glass wall and concrete bathroom is quite zen and beautiful. Simple.
The court yard.
The roof top garden.
The restaurant on the ground floor.
For more detail, click here.
Architecture, Culture, Design, Shanghai, Travel | 2 Comments
1933 Shanghai, Shanghai
This 4 story Massive Solid concrete maze Slaughterhouse built in early twenteeth century is maybe the one single thing that’s the most inspiring architecture standing in Shanghai and even in the world. I am totally impressed.
Located in the historic Hongkou District, 1933 Shanghai (上海1933老场坊) was built amidst the vibrant urban landscape of pre-communist Shanghai. Designed originally by British architects, and built in 1933 by Chinese developers, the building was originally intended for use as a slaughterhouse but served a number of purposes over the years from medicine factory, cold storage facility, to its current incarnation as a ‘commercial hub for creative industries’. And this is the last one left such built out of 3, one in London and one in US, but they are demolished by now.
The building was commissioned by the then Shanghai Municipal Council with the high-quality cement aggregate required to support the load-bearing needs of the building was imported from the Portsmouth area of the UK. After being abandoned and falling into disrepair the building was extensive restoration in 2008. Built around a central atrium, which served as the abattoir’s workshops, each floor is connected to an outer shell by a series of interlocking ramps, bridges, and spiral staircases which were designed to control the flow of both people and cattle being processed through the building.
Here are the pics.
The facade of 1933 Shanghai, the ultimate formal Slaughterhouse.
Here to the right, the central Atrium to the right and so called ” air bridges” to transport and control cattles.
So beautiful and So haunting. Imagine all those cattles flowing up there in their deadly heavy marching…
After the RMB100 million restoration back in year 2008, the formal slaughter house became this one gigantic commercial space such as cafes, interior shop, high end restaurant and creative office spaces for many design and architect firms. It is still quite deserted ( I mean this space is Massive) but there are handful of business that are interesting.
Hmmmm.
Check out the cattle signs.
The Bull Restaurant, Shanghainese Cuisine.
There are 26 ‘air bridges’ of various widths splayed out at different angles, provoking feelings of both confusion and fascinating at how it could have been conceived.
A cool public signage.
One of many empty spaces awaiting for a right owner for a right usage.
I am inside of central atrium.
The top floor.
You can find 1933 Shanghai, otherwise known as “Old Millfun” at No. 10 Shajing Lu
(near Jiulong Lu) †(近九龙路).
Absolute Must Check out when you are in Shanghai.
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.
For more detail, Click here.
Architecture, Brooklyn, Culture, Design, Flea, Food, NYC, Street | Leave a Comment
Setting a table and prepping for a simple and real Korean dinner!
I am a Korean. And I love Korean food. I married a Italian man. And he loves Korean food. We made a boy and he loves Korean food. So it’s oh so natural, we all turn to Korean food time to time. It’s my home and it’s my root and it’s just so delicious and I love to cook so here I am! I like to share a few pics of me making very simple typical Korean dishes. Folks, No B.B.Q tonight here! We actually have simple yet quite complex cuisine that speaks to many senses that travels way beyond wonderful B.B.Q! Korean food will be an excellent way to carry vegetarian diet or even raw food diet. We eat all sort of vegetables that are from the ocean, the deep in the woods and beautiful wide open field. We know how to prepare them in so many different ways and we have extensive knowledge about what we eat and what they do to us. We grow up on this. It’s part of our culture. And it gets passed to generations after generations. We got ton of colors and textures that juxtapose high and low, ing and yang, land and ocean and warm and cold. We like to chew. We like it hot and we like it real cold. But there’s also a delicate area where rounds and comforts our body and soul without such things as heavy butter or cream. It’s clean, honest and delicious!
I am making simple dishes that myself and all Koreans have grown up on! Here’s my Friday night whipping up a few humble Korean dishes!
Pan toasted baby anchovies with fresh rosemaries and arugula bits. So start with dried anchovies. Koreans use and eat all different sizes and kinds of anchovies or family of anchovies. Usually the size of anchovies dictates the end product. Here I have tiny little ones tonight for hot pan toasting with olive oil, crushed garlic, touch of raw sugar ( I only use raw sugar for a long time by now). And here I try adding ” what’s in the fridge for the moment” touch. It’s spontaneous and it always works for me to just explore a bit. I do believe though this takes bit of skill: knowing how different ingredients would work together not following written recipes. I am a terrible baker as I just do not have a littlest patient to follow something exactly but in contrary, I like to throw a few things in together to whip up quick simple and delicious flavor.
Here I have a bag of dried anchovies imported from Korea. I bought this at H mart in Queens or you can easily get any kinds at typical Korean super market or Japanese works just fine for me as well. As you know one single anchovy that is big as length of your palm size is packed with powerful flavor to make big potful of Dashi ( clear anchovy and kelp broth).
How to make this:
1. Heat up an any wider pan you have, drizzle olive oil or vegetable oil.
2. When the pan is hot, add in about 3 cups of dried anchovies, let them sit a minute and stir time to time.
3. When you see anchovies get toasty and brown, add crushed fresh garlic and half teaspoonful of chopped rosemaries and arugula. Keep stiring and toast anchovies. Do this on mid heat.
4. Add a teaspoonful of raw sugar. Stir for another few minutes. Raw sugar balances natural saltiness of anchovies.
Done. Nutty, toasty, salty and sweet that’s grounded by earthiness of Rosemarie. It was my first time trying fresh rosemaries with this dish. They work together Beautifully! Eat over simple steamed rice! Yum!
OK. Making steamed rice 101. We ran out of brown rice, so I am using white but Jasmine rice. I find Jasmine rice faster and easier to cook, easier to digest than typical Sushi rice ( less gluten). I do not use rice cooker. I am actually quite good at making rice with any kind of pot but it definitely requires low heat, preferably heavier and thicker pot and the cover. Today I am using ALL CLAD.
How to make simple steamed White rice in a regular pot. It takes just 20 minutes.
1. 2 -3 cups of rice ( this gets usually doubled after steamed enough to serve 4-5 people couple times)
2. Rinse and place them in the pot and add water.
3. A simple trick. Add simple cold tap water to the rice to where it reaches bout 1″ above your knuckles when you place your hand open and flat over the rice.
4. On medium heat, let the water come to a boil. Do not cover.
5. Lower the heat, let the water and rice boil and sort of simmer for 7-8 minutes. Do not cover.
6. When you still see water goes up and down of the surface of the rice, cover it and lower the heat all the way. COVER NOW.
7. Do not stir the rice. Let it be for another 5-6 minutes. Add dash of couple spoonful of water and turn the heat off. Cover it and it will keep cooking through.
OK! Now moving onto an Egg roll ( like a Sushi roll!). This is so easy to make and I can definitely say maybe this is the #1 lunch box menu for all our Korean’s school years! All moms have their way to do this, add sheet of seaweed in the middle, or add bits of onions and any other veggies, canned tuna, mushrooms, you name it. It’s very similar to your sunday morning omelet but rolled in a smaller scale.
How to make this:
1. Break and beat 4-5 whole eggs in a bowl, add sea salt and bit of milk or water.
2. Heat your frying pan up. Drizzle some olive oil. Don’t burn your pan but the pan should be hot enough not to have egg sticks to it.
3. Pour the beat eggs into the pan. Medium heat.
3. 2 ways to add topping/filling. Either add chopped scallion, onion, zucchini, mushroom whatever into the beat egg or add them on when the egg is half cooked in a pan then gently spread them on the top.
4. Now you will fold and roll the beat eggs by about 1″. Think you are making a Sushi roll or making home made fresh pastas and rolling and folding the dough. The key is roll half cooked beat eggs by 1″ at a time. Give some time to the beat eggs to be cooked through a bit.
5. When it’s done, get it out of the pan and let it rest for a couple minutes on the cutting board. It helps the rolled egg to stay together.
Rock and Rolling! My filling was just simply chopped white onion.
Not the best job I did. I overcooked it a bit then I like it that way. Typical ones you see especially in Japanese restaurant you would not see any of these brown marks. They will be flawlessly creamy yellow. Then I also hate Japanese eggs has sugar in it. Definitely savory version for me. Not sugary!
See if you had put some carrots or even caviar, you would end up with prettier faces!
Bit of table setting, By the way, Emi’s in the middle of making a new dining table. We are playing with how we like to finish up the top. Thought we have Gael do some drawing..? We are still thinking.
Toasted Seaweed. Koreans love them toasted crispy with sesame oil and sea salt sprinkled. This is also really good with chilled beer! Sort of like potato chips.
Kimchi in a bowl my Aunt baked. I use it all the time and I always think about her every time I use it. Thanks Aunt!!
Chili and Korean miso hot pot with sliced sirloin, potato, carrot, zucchini and tofu. The big green pieces are dried kelp. We use them a lot to make base stock and clear broth. They are rich in mineral, iron, calcium and magnesium and also high in sulfur and rich vitamin D. They are really good for you!
How to make it:
1 Start with the Kelp broth. A small pot full of plain water and 5-6 squares of dried kelp. Let them boil for a while and add a tablespoonful of Korean chili paste and 2 spoonful of Korean Miso paste.
2. Add chopped chunks of all the veggies you want. We typically put potato, carrots, zucchini and onion. Here you can also add or switch any with mushrooms and bean sprouts. Or again whatever you would like.
3. Add sliced sirloin pieces. Let them boil a bit like 20 minutes on medium high heat.
4. Add tofu, sea salt, crushed garlic and chopped green scallions at the end for another 5-6 minutes boiling on medium heat.
Little bowls for rice, plates for anything
Time to eat ! yeah yum yum!
LOvE Korean!
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!
Design, Family, Food, For the Weekend, NYC, Restaurant, Shops, Travel, Vintage | Leave a Comment
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!
Art, Culture, Dance, Design, Music, NYC, Travel | Leave a Comment
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!
Culture, Design, Family, Food, NYC, Restaurant, Tokyo/Japan, Travel | Leave a Comment
From a fur jacket to sandwiches to cheap and cheerful Kate and William’s lovely portrait pins, at Portobello market, it’s impossible for one to walk out the market empty handed!
Sorry readers, I have been bit consumed with work for last few weekends in a row, postings have not been so often enough, but I just can’t miss posting the Portobello Market in London! This was my second time and it did not disappoint me as there are mixed thoughts about the market especially ones in fashion world but actually only thought I had was I should have been there earlier like 7:00 am not 11:00 am and I wished I spent the whole day at the market to brows, taste, try on and bargain! It does get really packed before the noon already but the crowd quite behaved I think. No pushing or mean talks to ones ahead of you, but I did hear about pick pocketing, so watch out with your bags if you are there.
Portobello market has quite loaded history as the Market started in 19th century as a fresh food market and even today, the food section of the market is quite dominant and packed with quality street food to fresh produce. Then 1940’s Antique dealers have arrived to the market and it has continued to now drawing tons of people to every Saturday’s Antique market. The entire market runs from the north terminus at Golborne Road to very south end at more up-scaled Westbourne Grove occupying about 0.58 mile long street of swanky Notting Hill area. I highly recommend you to continue on to very north end of the market Golborne Road as there are very much eclectic mix of very good vintage shops, antique & mid century dealers as well as good amount of Moroccan community well established on that strip of road with food markets, street food car and bars in a bit more down to earth residential setting.
Now come stroll with me much famous Portobello market!
The market entrance. Shops to the left and tents with vendors are lined up along the Portobello road.
Anything works here in the market. But the Fur is maybe the one you may consider to buy. So many good options!
There are quite many vintage clothing vendors at south end. Not so hip but good furs again. It”s also pricier than the north end of the market where you get broader selection of vintage for both men and women.
and Ton of vintage bags!
Here’s my tourist moment!
Now the food market starts!
Yummy pastries!
Sea of Keish!
I have to say people eat about the same wherever you go….
OK These chicken bits smelled Soooooo goooood! No I didn’t stop for any food at the market this time… But next time, I will!
All right, one more look from a different angle. And sure it smelled still good!
A little quiet moment off the Portobello road. So pretty and bit Brooklyn here.
The food section ends and there will be a short moment of ” Whatever works” section, a sort of 99 cent store on your block.
OK now, for me the real deal of the market actually starts at the very end of the market. When you pass about half mile long of antique, food and chachkies you will come to a small square under a bridge where there are great small vendors all get together and sell interesting vintages showing off their own individual great styles! They are all friendly and super hip. Take your time and chat with them. They may tell you maybe the best kept secret to go out and eat in London. Don’t forget to keep walking toward the north end toward the Golborne Road!
See that’s the spirit I like! One of cool vendors celebrating his birthday with others at the market!
Another gentleman with a cool vintage Pea number!
After the market ends, you will encounter with many little cute bars, restaurants and vintage shops. And they go on for a while.
Yeap this one is a real good one! Ton of vintage boots, jackets and fur coats.
A great textile shop with their own small line of cashmere, wool, silk blankets. I love this shop!
So now we are at Golborne road. The frist shop we walked in had this amazing original Venini’s glass lamps from 70’s. The owner had about 6-7 of them. All identical. Each costs about $2400.
You can find really handsome furnitures here at Golborne road… Or is it maybe just being in London…
One next to another, there are good numbers of great antique furniture and interior shops on Golborne.
Awesome building and an iconic London vintage shop, Rellik. There are many design vintage pieces from the 80’s.
The lovely shop owner of a progressive clothing shop, Convenience.
Ahhh I so wish I had more time at the market and really dug into it. But a sweet half day of visit surely gave me a good idea of what I need to do better the next time. I really feel people in London are really friendly. More than the New Yorkers I have to say! I have had many small mini chats with many peeps at shops, streets and the market, and they all seem so lovely. So many people admired my tan from vacation in Puglia, Italy. You know how notorious London’s gloomy weather but we only had one short shower the last day at London so we were very lucky as I remember it rained quite a bit the last time. I forgot how incredible London is and it totally reminded me of Alexander McQueen Exhibition at Met in NY. He absolutely loved and was always so proud of where he came from. Great London!
LOvE London!
Culture, Fashion, Flea, For the Weekend, London/England, Shops, Street, Travel, Vintage | Leave a Comment
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!
Architecture, Culture, Design, Paris, Speak my mind, Street, Travel | Leave a Comment
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!
Architecture, Design, Fashion, Food, Shops, Stockholm, Street, Travel | Leave a Comment