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)

handmade leather headband

after this... lots to do with the rest of the leather...

with a bit of uneven cutting...

braiding...
braiding...
and more braiding...
and more
i got my "how to"--> http://www.stringpage.com/braid/medbraids/medbraids.html


sewing the elastic on was difficult without a leather needle... so an hour or two later...


love it!

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...

DIY upholstery with leather hide

many moons ago, i was holiday in hk & came across a suburb of what i could only described as paradise for anyone into DIY or arts and crafts or making crafty things...
i was in sham sui po in kowloon, the few streets i recalled were:
Cheung Sha Road
Nam Cheong Street.
these streets and the side streets off it were dotted with shops with full of fabric, buttons, ribbon, feathers, embellishments etc etc - ie craft heaven!
one particular shop - could not remember exact location, was selling leather hides - sheets upon sheets... diff shades... diff thickness...
this was were i got this gem!

with a bit of bargaining... HKD $500+ for a 2.45sq metre worth of deep chocolate, velvety upholstery leather...
bargain!
at the time, it was an impulse buy, thinking, " hmmm... wouldn't it be good if i could reupholster my stools in the kitchen with leather... the vinyl seats are nasty."

nearly a year later ( it has been sitting patiently in a plastic bag)... i finally got my tools out...
i didn't bother to sand down and re-varnish the timber frame... that could be another project in itself later...
i got the "seat" off by unscrewing...

to remove the vinyl with multiple staples was too much work even though i am a proud owner of a staple removing tool (acquired during the carpet removing days)

i simply cut the leather to size, stretched and stapled...

and then...

it was just a matter of screwing the seat back...

the vinyl surely glistens, but the leather is more forgiving in hot humid weather... no more sweaty bums and thighs...
3 more leather seats to go and many more leather headbands / purses / handbags on the way with the plenty of off cuts (it pays of with my over estimation & impulse buying sometimes!)

hot summer "liquid breakfast" in ice bath

sydney has gone tropical of late... the weather has been muggy humid and hot hot hot...
when i came back from yoga into our lounge room of 29 degrees (still 9-ish in the morning)... the heat just put me off breakfast...
but i have already expended lots of energy with my morning exercise and my stomach was growling... what to do?
thanks to mcduck's x'mas pressie, circa 2006 (or was it 2007?)... i could whip up my all in one liquid breaky in a flash...
for my all in one liquid breaky...
1 or 1 1/2 crushed wheatbix, few tsp flaxseeds, semiskim milk...

and the all important banana... yup no sugar or honey...

blitzed...

i did not have frozen banana and i didn't use frozen watermelon this time...
but i refrained from blitzing icecubes - 1) i didn't want to blunt the blades 2) i didn't want the melting ice to dilute my breaky ...

so taking inspiration from my food memories from a hk cafe...
i did my own "ice-packed/ice-stabilised" drink, in this case my breaky smoothie...
let it rest for several minutes... my breaky drink became icy cold... and i instantly felt cooler and more satisfying (for my stomach) in this ridiculous sydney summer heat...

yum!