Un-clever title aside, this is really an ode to coffee culture in Sydney. The city is jam-packed with top notch little cafes, from lazy Sunday sidewalk ones with barely enough room for 5 people to sleek, design accented urban chill zones. Seriously, for every Gloria Jean’s or Starbucks, there’s a wayyy better non-chain cafe which roasts their own coffee and takes latte decoration to the artisanal level. Plus you can also have some excellent munchies to go with it as well.
One of my fave things to do is to pop into a cafe on the weekend, knockback a coupla shots of black fuel and relax. I also love the fact that you can get pretty much any kind of coffee wherever you go since there are superb cafes everywhere. More than just Aussie staple flat whites, lattes and caps, the cafes here also do more lesser known styles like ristrettos and piccolos. Affogattos are a personal favourite of mine. Intense expresso balanced superbly by a sweet scoop of Vanilla ice cream. Ahhh…
Last night, I had a beer. Not just any beer though. It was a Chimay Blue. Special occasion because I killed and cooked a lobster and made some linguini to go with it.
Its in the 99th percentile at ratebeer.com so I was expecting a good beer, which it was. This was to me, everything an ale should be like, deceptively strong at 9%, full on flavour and it went so well with my food.
Definitely has a slightly flowery, dried fruit scent and tasted malty, like figs soaked in champagne. Barely bitter at all and highly drinkable. I’d actually go as far to say that this is one of the best beers I’ve tried so far.
On another note, I have a friend working at the Belgian Beer Cafe here in Sydney, so I will probably traipse over one day to have a bit of a laugh and a tipple. They have every single Chimay and more unique beers which is about as close as I’ll get to going to Belgium right now.
Time for another trim and this time I went to Hanavie, which is near Wynyard. I learned about the place from Supertalk’s Sydney Essential Shopping thread. A couple reviews there gave this place the thumbs up and at AUD$50, it was cheaper than my last cut so I thought why not.
I booked with the head stylist, Ryo. He only costs 5 dollars more than the senior stylists so why the hell not. Service was good even though I turned up 40 mins late (overslept hehe) for my appointment. Got served a decent cuppa and flipped through several mags while I waited and it was only about 10-15 minutes max before my hair got washed.
This place is great cos its a reasonably priced salon staffed by Japanese hairdressers so you know that they’re up to the minute in terms of styles. The salon itself is in a dainty little refurbished shophouse and bossa nova pop breathed through the speakers. They put this piece of mesh cloth over my face when they washed my hair, which I felt was kinda interesting. Ryo also stood and opened the door, shook my hand and thanked me before saying goodbye, which added a bit of a personal touch.
I liked my cut. It was simple and to the point, pretty much what I asked for, a shorter style and losing 3/4 of my fringe which had previously crept toward my lips. They also do eyebrows so maybe I’ll do it again here in 4-6 weeks and maybe get something really edgy and punky.
Filed under: Music
Today sees the release of Radiohead’s new LP. You can actually download it for free (you could also opt to pay them) off their website. The actual CD itself will come out quite a bit later.
The files are 160kpbs and a total of 48.4MB.
*Update.
So I’ve been listening to the album for a bit and find that I really love it. The album’s kinda surprising but then again, every Radiohead album is different and new. This one surprises with its simplicity, which you wouldn’t naturally think of when you talk about the band. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying its just guitar riffs and straight up 4/4 rockin’ choons. There is a complexity in there but the whole album feels refreshingly minimal in result.
The mood is mellow and sounds post OK Computer, pre-Kid A, which justifies the inclusion of the track Nude, which used to be known as Big Ideas. It really fits in perfectly but that’s not to say the band have abandoned everything from Amnesiac and Hail To The Thief. Its just that they’ve pared things down. The heavily eerie, electronic sound of a couple years back is now drowned out with more swarthy guitar washes and gentle plinks and plonks. The beats are completely updated though and thoroughly enjoyable. Thom is seriously in rare form. Its a gorgeous gorgeous album it really is. In Rainbows almost seems a perfect title? Its just so colourful and bright, a welcome change from the darker, almost gothic sound palette that reigned over the last couple of albums.
There was a point where I began to wonder if Radiohead would ever make just simple, good music without the weight and experimentation. This album says that they can and just did.
There’s still a lot of fuss about how the album was released online, available for free if a consumer so chooses blah blah blah. In my opinion, the best bit about this method is how everyone gets it at the same time. No reading the reviews from your fave blog/music site/mag and then forming your opinion. You’re entitled to truly decide if the album is worth it or not.
Filed under: Food
I keep buying these Whittaker’s Coconut Slabs from Coles. It’s the latest part of my coconut themed consumption habit. Made in New Zealand, the packaging is old school. Like early 20th century old school. The company itself was founded in 1896 so I suppose they just wanna look to their roots.
Its actually the culmination of a dream for me. One involving chocolate and coconut. I used to think that all I wanted was toasted dessicated coconut encased in dark chocolate but Whittaker’s has changed the dream for me. Its now toasted dessicated coconut mixed through milk chocolate. Every bite is a texture filled journey and I realise now that the sweetness of the milk choc fully complements the coconut.
I leave you with the sagely Junior Senior.
I was flippin’ thru books at Kinokuniya when I chanced upon this book with a pretty long title. The tagline was what caught my eye though. “In the kitchen with your favourite bands.” So I thought to myself, “Oh yea, like they’re gonna have stuff like Battles in there haha!” “Well guess what, it does have Battles in there schmuck,” said the book’s content page in response. “Uh… but is it the Battles Battles or some even more obscure band that was pre-WWII?” “No, you dimwit. Its the NY Battles and yes, that is Devendra Banhart, Franz Ferdinand, Kings of Convenience, Belle & Sebastian, RJD2, Dalek and everyone else in there too.”
Yes this is a cookbook compendium of some of the world’s hottest bands that nobody really listens to and are constantly namedropped on blogs for maximum poseur effect. Seriously though, its quite the cookbook, with a rather interesting take on things. There’s sections for everything, breakfast, mains, entrees, desserts and drinks. Within each, there’s also varying degrees of complexity, time involved and sophistication. Some of these bands or band affiliates in some cases are actually pretty good cooks who know and understand ingredients and cooking methodology.
Kara Zuaro is the woman responsible for this mess. She’s actually a journalist who’s got the inside track on the indie music scene and made a monumental effort to befriend a ton of cool bands just to steal their secret recipes, be they from the band themselves or from their friends/relatives/roadies/pets.
With a ton of bands involved and I’ve only listed a small handful of the ones I’ve heard and left out quite a few more, there’s also a good range of styles and recipes as well. As a point, Battles and Devendra Banhart offer up two different recipes, each presently quite differently. The NY 4 piece I seem to keep mentioning nowadays like to enjoy a Roasted Bone Marrow, Battles Style. The recipe comes from guitarist Ian Williams and comes across almost like the band itself. Williams serves up a little bit of his thoughts on cooking itself before diving straight into his rather unusual dish, which is served up in 4 different ways. Its relatively precise and logical, also offering tips on how to consume the dish.
On the other side of the coin is Banhart. His recipe for fried bananas, Africanitas Ricas is wasted if I were to describe it. I won’t spoil it all but here’s the intro.
RIGHT ON!!!!!!
here is my favorite recipe for:
AFRICANAS RICAS!
you shall require!
many bananas!
a box of graham crackers!!!
two eggs!!!
SOUR CREAM!!
HONEY!
He ends it with a flourish is all I can say.
The book as a cookbook is quite compelling to me, not least in the way I can see how different mentalities with specific styles and tastes adapt to solving one of the basic problems in life. What to eat. Especially applicable to these guys because they have a hectic schedule of touring and gigging, constantly on the move. It sucks to have to eat takeaway or airline food even if its first class.
As a music-related book, its also terribly enjoyable as well. Each recipe gets a little story or anecdote whether as a preface or embedded within the recipe itself. You get to see your fave band in a new light. This is about as indie as it gets.
Hell, I’d buy this book for Banhart’s “recipe” alone.
Filed under: Music
I have no idea why but the Cockney accent and Reggae fuelled indie/ska/hip-hop sound of Jamie T. is strangely getting to me. The lad doesn’t look like what you’d expect, in fact he comes across almost like the guy next door except he’s got a bit of an attitude and rhymes pretty well. His debut LP Panic Prevention is actually really really good even if I must admit it took me a couple listens to get past the accent and understand just wot the ‘ell e wis sayin’ like.
Here’s his single Sheila which I quite enjoy, not only for the fact that it mentions a famous Belgian lager.
Tomorrow is the official UK release of Control, the Ian Curtis biopic that has won best British film and also Best Performance by actor Sam Riley at the Edinburgh Film Fest. Although it wasn’t in contest at Cannes, it still won Best European Film and the Golden Camera as well. The film is directed by Anton Corbijn, who also happens to be the same photographer who shot Joy Division as well as a ton of other bands.
I’m just rubbing my hands in anticipation.
*Update! Control comes to Australia 25th October!
I am a big juice fan and when it comes to it, I like juice au naturel, which is what this company claims to do. Original Juice Co. serves up these 1.5l bottles of colored goodness under their premium Black Label. I’ve been buying about 1 bottles every 2 days just for myself. It has absolutely nothing to do with the offer at Coles where they cost about $3.98 now instead of whatever it used to be. Anyway, I looked em up on the interweb and found how they pepper their site with these inane facts my brother would surely take delight in.
Stuff like:
- Research indicates that mosquitoes are attracted to people who have recently eaten bananas.
- A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.
- Spotted skunks do handstands before they spray.
- Cat’s urine glows under a black light.
- Most cows give more milk when they listen to music.
I am so eating less bananas in the tropics, doing the pbffft to crocs, avoiding breakdancing skunks, jumping over the neon puddles with my black torchlight (Where can I get a black light anyway? I really want one!) and telling my local farmer to play more Battles to cows.
Desiccated coconut, flour, sugar, butter, oats, golden syrup, sodium bicarbonate and boiling water. Put em together and what do you get? Why ANZAC biscuits of course. I had no idea these had so much history to them. I just thought they tasted great but now I hold them in much greater reverence. I just love how they are rock hard and take effort to bite into. The coconut helps too. Ok, a lot. I like coconuts. A lot.
Anyway, here’s something really interesting I lifted off the anzacday.org.au link.
A point of interest is the lack of eggs to bind the ANZAC biscuit mixture together. Because of the war, many of the poultry farmers had joined the services, thus, eggs were scarce. The binding agent for the biscuits was golden syrup or treacle.
How mighty clever. Golden syrup as a binding agent. Clap clap. Seriously. Its the coconut dammit! The coconut! That’s the binding agent! That’s what brings it all together. Otherwise it’d just be freakin’ flour and oats and you’d call them ANZA bisuits. Show the coconut the love it deserves! The gentle touch of flavour and the eensy weensy little bite it confers totally transforms the little pastry, turning it into an object of desire and sustenance. Them little white morsels ensconced within the rocky lifegivers were what gave the vets hope. Hope to fight on and eat more coconuts. I mean go home. To eat coconuts.
Have I mentioned I have a slight affection for desiccated coconut?
*Update! 25th April! ANZAC Day! I awoke to someone playing bagpipes at 5am and walking past people on the street with badges. Also, some people cried in ads on the radio, relating their stories about their grandaddies surviving WWI and uh crying about it. I love dem biks btw.
