Tropical Bloom

Bunga kantan (or torch ginger bud- named so because it looks like a flaming torch)  is a vital ingredient in Malaysian cooking. A tropical flower that grows wild in South East Asia, this pretty bud packs a punch in flavour and scent! In full bloom, it makes an excellent flower. The petals from the flower can also be added to a Thai condiment, nam prik and eaten raw.

Bunga kantan adds floral notes to some of my favourite dishes. I have yet to find this ingredient in the Asian grocery shops in Chinatown and as such have never tried making Asam Fish or Asam Laksa. These dishes somehow seem incomplete without the scent and fragrance imparted by this beautiful bud. Look at just how beautiful it is! Just look at the colour!

Steel Drums and Falling Blossoms

I watched The Taste of Tea (one of my favourite films) again yesterday and something about this beautiful track made me think of blossoms falling gently to the ground. Kuala Lumpur may be tropical but this track is also perfect for the stillness after a thunderstorm.

Forbidden Flowers

“I am stunned by the power of nature, the vastness of the damage and the feebleness of humanity. I urge us, everyone, to take this as a moment to recognise our arrogance in thinking that we can control nature.” Ryuichi Sakamoto.

With Spring in full bloom, and now being the time for hanami, I can’t help but think about the people of Japan. With his words to ponder upon, here’s that beautiful track from Ryuichi Sakamoto.

This one is for the trips we didn’t make this year.

You’d Want To Eat ’em

 

Remember when you were in school and there was nothing like nice stationery to make you a happy chappy? In the world of the working adult, a similar kind of happiness is achieved from nice pens and post-it notes/memo pads.

How fresh and delicious do these sushi memo pads look? Thanks to Guy for sharing these.

Dress (your desk) fresh!

A few Post-Its from São Paulo

Spotted while on my retail tour of São Paulo was the shop front of Galeria Melissa, home of the famous Brazilian rubber shoes. This super-cool installation was made entirely of post-it notes! This fluorescent display put a smile on many faces and if inclined to write on the post-its, customers are welcome to leave a note or reminder to self.

I ♥ Paper Dolls

I ♥ paper dolls, especially vintage paper dolls. Found a nice pool on Flickr.

I remember the paper dolls I played with as a little girl. I loved how dressing up was so simple- all you had to do was fold down the tabs and voila! A new outfit!

These 1960s paper dolls are great- they look groovy and they look like they are having too much fun and I am inspired to dress up like these paper dolls.

 

 

 

I also love the vintage Japanese ones. They sit somewhat incongruously with the 1960s ladies but, I love the look of them too much not to include them.

 

Toilet Rolls To Keep

I love these little dioramas created by Anastasia Elias. She makes these miniature art pieces in toilet rolls, turning these unwanted rolls into little magical worlds.

 

 

Paper Pets

I missed the quirky installation by Akane Takayama last year. Dog Sculpture moved from one park to another in London and I didn’t catch a single one of them. Luckily for me, Chikako who works as our Visual Merchandiser contacted Akane as she had an idea for our Christmas window display. She wanted to make cardboard reindeer! And now that Christmas is over, I am taking home one of our acorn cup print reindeer (christened him Mr Humphrey)! Soon I too, can take my paper pet out to pubs and for walkabouts!

You, too can make yourself a Mr Humphrey or a Gerald. He is the product of the collaboration between Richard Sweeney and Lazerian. This is him at a photo shoot:

Gerald is also available in other coats such as the one below here:

Paper pets. The commitment-free substitute to having real pets.

Tree of Codes

I love the experimental nature Jonathan Safran Foer is taking with his books. I read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close recently and enjoyed the visual writing that accompanied the story. I was very happy to find that one of my presents this Christmas was his new book, Tree of Codes.  Here, he chose to use The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz. From this text, a new story was drawn from it using the die-cut technique. The title itself comes from the original title with a few letters cut out.

I have not started reading Tree of Codes yet as I want to save the experience, the journey of leafing through the cut pages for a nice afternoon in. Apparently with so much text cut out, it takes about half an hour to read the book.

The sculptural nature of the book reminded me of one of the V&A Friday Lates night that I went to about a year ago where there was a bank of books that you could pick up and experiment with using pen, scissors and glue. It was a fun night of giving a new lease to old books.

Postcards from Babylon

I cannot wait to get my hands on Babylon: Surreal Babies, the published collection of postcards collected by James Birch. These postcards were a favourite (and an inspiration for Surrealists and Dadaists). These weird and wonderful postcards feature babies in bizarre settings like hatching from eggs, boiling in cauldrons and all sorts! vi@ Creative Review