taking our time Olafur Eliasson's Take Your Time at MCA

things cooled off today... we didn't let the rain dampen our weekend... instead we headed to town to enjoy a "show of light"...

http://eliasson.com.au
@ MCA

all the good memories from the serpentine & tate came rushing back as soon as i caught a glimpse of the giant "disco ball' with external scattering light and internal splitting images...

we spent alot of time in the "yellow room", thinking that we had total color blindness (being monochromats), seeing things only in black and "white"... we were in a 1920s movie!

sadly there were numerous camera nazis around and very few kodak moments could've had...



best was left till last when we spent mintues and hours building our knife, fork, bowl, champas glass, tea pot and mug on the white lego table...
unlimited fun for senses for $15pp - bargain!
recommended:
- ‘360° room for all colours’ (2002) - surrounded by a wall oflight, transfixed by a smooth transition of emotional colours. best viewed up close and personal with the colour wall (as though your entire world was cover in electric blue... morphing into softly softly lavender... then morphing again into sunny golden yellow etc etc
- ‘The structural evolution project’ (2004) - make your dream objects come true in white legoland
- the yellow room - "am i totally colour blind?" peer out to the exit and find everything outside in a tinge of purple

happy bday! tank q mcduck & snowflake!

tank q for mcduck's generosity by taking me back in time, into the decadence of art deco, sampling the ultra-fattening long aged steak / wagyu steak
http://www.rockpool.com.au/sydney/bar-and-grill
contemp art deco... all these "window", "square" patterns look v shanghai 1930

the crusty soredough started to filled me up..
the aussie ham platter was v nice
the $110 wagyu steak with marble score 9+ was v juicy... each bite lubricated with copious beef drippings... mcduck's aged grain fed fillet was a revelation (although it was cooked to only "blue", it was not bloody, just soft and tender)



mcduck enjoyed the rubarb pud...
i liked the brittle-popcorn and passionfruit mashmellow better... will def be researching to recreate the brittle-popcorn...

we enjoyed the end of the night at the jazzgroove futures festival...
http://www.jazzgroove.com
bday cake as well (curtesy of snowflake)

DIY sous vide at home: lamb steak

it must have been heston's feast on sbs that reminded me of molecular gastronomy...
suddenly, the harold mcgee book came out... and i discovered there were website such as sous vide extreme...
there must be a way to do "cooking a piece of meat in a vacuum bag in a water bath at a constant temperature" at home and cheaply without forking out few thousand bucks for a prof cooker...
after much web surfing and a visit to the local coles, came my light bulb moment, "coles prepacked steak, already marinated, cooked in topstove water bath with my trusty thermometre" (not forgetting that i had no food saver vacuum pack machine nor the prof water bath at hand)

the piece of steak had to be thin enough so that i didn't have to watch over the stove for hours and hours on end...

and it helped that the piece of meat was already sealed (thanks coles) and protected in a tasty marinade (thanks coles)
so with my candy thermometre showing the water temp being held at 58 degrees celcius, i floated the meat package (bottom sitting on top of a pair of chopsticks so not to touch the bottom of the pan) for 45 min or may be an hour at the same temp...
this was achieved by first getting 58 degrees in the roasting pan, then putting the pan over the smallest flame on the stove & watching the themometre, adjusting the flame if required...

the cooked meat in the bag did not look v appetising... however, the colour change of the meat pre and post cooking could be well spotted...

with the bag cut opened, i had instant sauce as well...
i did not bother to do any surface high heat searing for extra caramalisation or for any extra taste enhancing millard reaction... i simply sliced and served...

sliced marinated lamb with isreali couscous, mint and orange carrot salad with pumpkin seeds & simple broccoli

the nicest piece of lamb i have ever tasted! it didn't even taste like lamb... v tender, v juicy with a subtle meat flavour - and it was just a $4 piece of premarinated coles lamb?!
heston, thomas, farran and the gang are right...
next time i'll try some even cheaper, stewy cuts - according to bloggers out there, it would be like eating prime fillet cuts...

here comes another "woolies", here comes the bargains...

months b4 we witnessed what the revamped mega-coles did to the prices at the most beautiful mall in the north & surrounds...
price war looms again once more in the north...
this time appears surely to be that of woolies vs coles...
and shoppers like us will be able to save few bucks pre-x'mas!
on opening day, at woolies superstore, there were bargains galore... salmon fillets for <$17/kg...
med banana prawns for <$10/kg...
not to mention "abbots village" for $1.25 (usually $3 when on special) - how on earth do they make money on that? surely it must be below cost price...
peaches for <$4/kg, double brie for <$4, 4L bulla for <$6 (unseen for a long long time)... and the list goes on...
woolies superstore also stock mega-size items, like super large laundry powder & 24-toilet rolls - economy of scale at work...
the independent shop owners at the village won't be happy though...

Jamie's America (just) watched in Australia

i've got to admit, when i first heard of "jamie's america", my first reaction was - jamie has sold out! he is onto the american market, pre x'mas!
i did not have high hopes for the show, as i was i thinking along the lines of "ramsay's kitchen nightmares (USA)" vs "ramsay's kitchen nightmares (UK)"
i thought jamie would also be americanised...
i was sooooo wrong! and i am v glad that i was! cos now i have a new show to watch (after the demise of "the cook and the chef")
curiously the australian episode 1 began with "new york" - as i searched online after the aussie show, apparently "LA" and "wyoming" was supposed to preceed the "NY" one... well that was the official episode line up on jamieoliver.com
may be downunder, we do things the otherway around or something... but all i know is that louisiana will be next...
true to jamie's grassroots form, he went off the beaten track to look for the essence of NYC food - not in the 3 michelin star restaurants serving microgastronomy, but in the kitchens (mostly illegal ones) of ordinary new yorkers, mostly of immigrants, who served rustic, down to earth good food reflecting the culture they have brought with them to america in pursuit of their american dream...
there were weepy moments when jamie met mr george and mum feeding the homeless illegal immigrants off the streets everynight... homesick peruvians getting abit of comfort food from a home restaurant in the middle of a residental suburb...
they way they shot the series was real and had a homevideo feel to it...
no scripts... done in a way i (the audience) didn't think it did anyway...
10/10! can't wait for the next episodes
now i am fired up to try my hand at making the peruvian ceviche & xiao bing...

the september issue

september is only 2 days away... for us southerhemispherians, september means spring! ie - strong winds, pollen and hayfever but also more daylight, daylgiht saving and blooms of spring flowers...
what a way to start the new season with a new movie from orpheum...
with great anticipation (4+ from margaret AND david), we stepped into cremourne again to indulge ourselves with a bit of fantasy / reality in "the september issue"...

the verdict: have i just watched a fictional movie? the characters were so OTT, larger than life... one memorable scene involved the multiple, matching, LV tennis accessories paired with a diamond encrusted piaget, all draped over the mountainous body of mr talley - my mouth dropped wide-opened, speechless and astounded by the apparent "thickness / plushness" of the fluffy LV towel around his neck!
I was quote surprise to see quite a number of people at VOGUE without makeup or with minimal and very minimal botox... the look du jour was the ultra skinny, lightly wrinkled (i-have-had-a-ton-of-cigarettes-and-sunbathing-20-yrs-ago look), eyeliner only look... it would help should one have a head full of electric red hair or a taylored bob cut with razor sharp sloping sides...
anna was looking tense throughout the entire length of the feature... she must have had some botox as she should have much more crowsfeet and frownlines... she didn't compare herself well with her father and siblings... she reckoned her family saw her as "frivolous", "amuzing"... may be that was why she always had to appear so "serious" & "restrained"...
grace's creative direction was true mastery and beauty... esp the last "colour block" shoot...
overall it was an 8/10
a bit hyped, but not disappointed (the doco quality of the film suited the small screen better i would think)
the "valentino preview" looked v interesting!
*anna was v uptight, but l loved her dresses! the shape, the colours, the patterns! 50s audrey hepburn silhouette and fur, fur and more fur! she must love the sparkly necklaces - aquamarine? amber? - she had all the colours*

goodies fresh from "stitches and craft"

i got the best out of $10 ever! (by spending my day at the stitches and craft show today)

without spending anything else, i came back home with a bag full of goodies - unbelievable in this day and age of inflated prices!

truly a bagfull of stuff and the "stuff" includes the bag holding it...


i got there just in time for "irene williams"
v happy about that, cos it ended up as the highlight of the day...
what an inspirational lady! and all the colours! and her workshop and wardrobe + hats! i can go on and on...
the ending was sad... but i was in awe & wonder during the entire film...

there was time to kill b4 the feature film "handmade nation", so i ventured into one of the "craft bars"

and ended up making (knitting) this...

"handmade nation" was not to be as the DVD kept stuffing up...

so i ended up at wardrobe refashion's reconstruction zone instead... i went in and nearly didn't come out...

there were NS20 brother machines, scrap material, zips, rhinstones, lace and bits and bolts...
one could make whatever one wished...
i spotted a big piece of sloppy joe fabric... it ended up as a skirt...


then i spent the next hour or two making good use of this colourful piece of stretched woven fabric (with retro pattern)...
it was joined by pieces of felt / a zip / yellow fabric / black hessian as backing... "retro tube bag" was born!





i did end up watching "handmade nation"... i caught about 3/4 of it, cos i was busily finishing my retro bag...
i have to say, it was a little dry... lots of interviews... nice crafty products and ideas were on display from inde craftsters, but not too much fun was on show - not fun like "irene" anyway...
by early 4 o'clock, i still have not visited any of the "shops"! haven't seen any products! no time... i ended up spending another 20+ min on making a pin cushion from the sewing craft bar...

when i did have time (less than 1/2 hr till closing) to wander around the showground, the stalls were already packing up...
good i guess, cos i didn't end up spending any $$$ on $$$-fabrics or bag frames that i don't need!
verdict: bargain day out! much better than last year's SnC show...
*the NS20 was way better than my freebie machine... so smooth & it's computerized! but it is $500+ (450 show special though)*

planted trees and artisan market and ikea sofas?

bright and sunny day again!
time to go out and about...
today is national tree day... 2 yrs ago, we planted stuff at the local reserve...

this year, we arrived at the brickworks chimneys...

there were heaps of people at sydney park... lots of kiddies... mcduck's fave lion's club sausage sizzle... bloke with reptile and native animal friends...

then off to eveleigh artisan markets (1st sunday of the month) at darlinton trainworks...

also lots of people (but not too crowded) and some genuinely cool DIY / made by the seller stuff...

we wandered into an artspace just opposite the market...
oh... klippan sofa's 30th bday! over 4 mil of them haave been sold since 1979 and we have two at home!

aussie artists have teamed up with ikea to refashion the klippans and they are being auctioned at graysonline...

here's a selection of them... magnetic pots and pans klippan

crocheted klippan

life cycle of a klippan

here's our own take on our most loved, most sat-in klippans...
yellow lounge around one...

and orange surf the net one with crochet blanket & "aussie" the massage chair