More Than Kin

Before the enormous expedition (which there will eventually be more about, once I recover...), there was a smaller trip to the Hunter Valley. This visit was distinguished by large amounts of black, white, wine, cheese and general silliness. Another thing that stood out about the weekend was the sheer difficulty to get an ice cream.

Venturing through Pokolbin, a shop full of smelly cheese, snackish morsels and interesting condiments drew our collective eyes. It also had a large counter of gelato and ice cream, supplemented by an equally large freezer off to the side, displaying a range of other enticing flavours... including Kinder Suprise.

I don't quite know what it is, but there's something I love about Kinder Surprise (even the plain bars, without any surprises involved). And I had to try that ice cream. Well, I thought I did... inquiries about buying a tub of it to take back to the stoat / penguin lair were met with the response that that flavour was "just for display" and we couldn't buy any. Whether it was really a plastic imitation (unlikely, given how good it looked), or if they were just capriciously waiting for it to go slightly stale and not be the source of penguinlike avariciousness, we couldn't quite ascertain.

So, on the trip back to Sydney, we just had to venture past... to see if we were allowed any Kinder Surprise ice cream yet. Its availability on a quiet Monday morning was a welcome surprise better than all sorts of model racing cars and other miniature paraphenalia found in those little eggs...

Pictures: me (on an iPhone, so there is for once an excuse for some of the dodginess...)

And the verdict? Tasty, chocolatey, definitely something that I'd be quite happy to eat again (including for breakfast on a Monday morning). But not quite hollering Kinder Surprise at me. Although after that much of a build-up, it was always going to be a high bar to leap (slowly, full of ice cream) over!

Read more...

The Incredible Shrinking Penguin

I think I’ve finally figured out what the problem is. I think I’m living in Alice In Wonderland, where there are mysterious foods that make you grow smaller. Unfortunately for those of us not living in parallel universes, there are only foods that make you get bigger... if there are cupcakes that shrink you, I definitely want to hear about them (buttercream or not!).

Picture: Crafty Dogma on Flickr

Figuring out how to read about, cook and sample food without, as it was so beautifully put, resembling a penguin pregnant with a panda*, is a challenge I have yet to conquer. Perhaps, as well as the penguin of death, there is the panda of over-indulgence.

This might be the only possible solution...

Picture: GioPhotos on Flickr

* The logistics of how this might come to pass are something I don’t want to contemplate. At all.

Read more...

A Secret Ingredient

There have very probably been far too many cakes just lately, if there can be such a thing. And today, there are some more - little penguin cakes...

Picture: Cream Puffs in Venice on Flickr

I was very relieved to discover that they are so called because of the dark / light colour contrast, rather than any sorts of novel and unthinkable ingredients. And they are so pretty, too. Although I don't remember finding any penguins in Venice...

Read more...

Transatlantic Baking

Perhaps it’s from having a bit of an Empire State of mind, but allow me to introduce you to the giant millefeuille’s equally substantial American friend...

Picture: The Birthday Blog via Sara's Party Perfect

Isn’t she lovely? Rather than just being a ridiculously enormous serving, I like that the upscaling is beautifully precise and detailed – none of this never-mind-the-quality-feel-the-width approach. And, especially on a s’more, something that usually makes being rustic a positive necessity, that accuracy makes it a bit more eyecatching.

Think of the size of the bonfire you’d need for it, too! Happy Guy Fawkes’ Day... why not eat a (bit of) giant cake and think about a republic (or at least, think recalcitrant thoughts)?

Read more...

In Case Of Emergency, Huddle Behind Walrus

I’m not sure if, in the midst of panicking, I would think to go and look for a card appropriate for the occasion. I’m also not sure if I’d like to presume the inevitability of panicking by acquiring a card in advance. But the fact that there are sensible reasons doesn’t stop me from thinking this is a very entertaining card...

Picture: Slow Industries on Etsy 

The Stoat Appreciation Society was recently ruminating on the importance of, at certain times, having an emergency kit, and what exactly it should contain. Of course, it’s not only what’s in it, but how you get at it, that can be crucial. A big red button is out of the question, if only because of the temptation to press it when you’re not supposed to, without waiting for an emergency. Breaking the glass might be painful for the emergencee. Breaking the seal might be entirely unfair to the poor innocent seal, who was nothing to do with it all in the first place. What about something more resilient than a seal? A walrus, for instance...?

In case of emergency, huddle behind walrus. Of course, to fit in the emergency kit, the walrus might have to be vacuum packed, and reconstituted for later use. But that still doesn’t solve the problem of how to get into the emergency kit...

This could be the perfect solution. It's not just a wooden hand-carved walrus (although how much more can you need?) - it has a storage compartment, perfect for... whatever you might need in an emergency*.

Picture: Areaware via A Cup Of Jo - and they also do a llama version which is just gorgeous (notwithstanding that most animals look a little more picturesque when put next to a walrus)

This post was brought to you with the able distractions of the Stoat Appreciation Society.
 
* As long as it's small!

Read more...

Unexpected Style

So, you can get a bit used to seeing those impossibly stylish people on The Sartorialist - you know, those people who don't need to read glossy magazines or follow fashion because they have an indisputable eye for what works, and the aplomb to carry off something that would often be distinctly ill-advised for everybody else...

But this was something different - even for Japanese street style...

Picture: Street Peeper via Portfoli

The umbrella has little Totoros on it, and means that what might just look like an oversized paint-spattered smock suddenly looks edgy and unique paired with that astonishingly beautiful umbrella, which is really more like art than a cute cartoon has any right to be.

Read more...

Gangway!

Overcompenseating – what happens after way too much self-control. Don’t stand between me and a carbohydrate unless you want to be flattened in the stampede...

The usual redeeming nutritional feature of a burger (if a burger has any need of redeeming features, and much of the time, they don’t) is their carnivorousness. But this one combines two good things without even going near carnivorousness. No redeeming features, then, and yet so very appealing...

Picture: Palachinka

And, while pizza bianca isn’t anything new to me, the idea of mashed potato on a pizza definitely is...

Picture: Another One Bits The Crust

But somehow, I’m just not entirely convinced. It’s a little like when kids at school had tinned spaghetti in their sandwiches!

After puzzling after this for a little while, I’ve concluded that maybe a difference between a meal and a snack is that a meal often benefits from elements other than solely heaps of starchy tastiness (like some of that carnivorousness, perhaps, or at the very least, some cheese), whereas a snack can be enjoyable (sometimes all the more so) for being more narrowly focused. Having committed this idea out loud, of course, I’m sure there’ll be a deluge of diverse snacks, and of stodge-heavy meals, leaping (lethargically) out at me for weeks to come. It’s safer on the fence... but it's never as much fun!

Picture: Demakersvan via Design Fetish (it has its own website, too!)

PS: Thanks to Pioneer Woman for prompting this thought with this post; not sure those fences'd stop a leaping Basset hound, though! 

Read more...

Monsters, Inc.

A recent addition to the online shopping discoveries is Pelican Pear, an online shop with an intriguing mix of bits and pieces*. I’m especially fond of their range of monsters**, this one in particular...

The Pudding Monster

Although I’d thought a pudding monster might look a little more... familiar! Still, they’re a family of monsters after my own heart...

The Shopping Monster

Chocolate’s enough to bring out almost anybody’s inner monster...

The Chocolate Monster

Is there a monster for “all of the above”? No, that's not a monster - it's just a penguin...
 
* They're based in the UK but (woo hoo!) ship to Australia. Trying to import monsters can be such a bother, otherwise...
** By Cinnamon Aitch

Read more...

Dressing Up For Halloween

Halloween isn't something that gets much attention in Sydney... but in New York, well, it can be easy to start wondering about what you might get dressed up as. Especially if it was as cute as this...

Picture: My Touch of Aloha on Etsy

This, while much less practical, still has a lovely sense of whimsy, and also reduces the risk of small children being mistaken for food...

Picture: Anton Perry via Post Punk Kitchen

But this, while stunning (both in appearance, and that anybody would try to do this and have it turn out to actually look good - in a quirky-designy sort of way - and tasty), would be far too sticky. And if you arrive wearing actual treats, that might hurt your chances!

Picture: Lukka Sigurdardottir via Gather and Nest

Read more...

Playing With The Box

Yep, couldn’t have said it better myself! Well, if there was a version that said will waltz for fudge, maybe. Or tell bad puns for pate. Or procrastinate for cake mixture...

Plate: Jim Bob Art on Etsy

I spent a long time with a vocal dislike for being pigeonholed, and a characteristically bolshie tendency to try to be unexpected in the face of such suspected sweeping generalisations (spent? OK, maybe I still do...). Although lately I’ve been thinking that it’s not pigeonholing that bothers me, so much as being thought of as the wrong sort of pigeon.

If somebody can make a 30-second assessment and come up with a verbose and stubborn gourmet gourmand who does sarcasm and self-depreciation to excess, is fixated by penguins, buys too many shoes and dances to preserve her sanity, then I’m more than happy to be filed away neatly in whatever pigeonhole that may be...

Of course, it may require a very specific set of pigeonholes...

Pigeon holes: Misha Kahn

Read more...