2.26.2011

3.1 Phillip Lim FW 2011

I haven't blogged about fashion in a while, but since watching the 2011 FW New York season --coupled with a long overdue creative streak-- my interest in sharing my style thoughts have resurfaced.

I've never paid much attention to designer Phillip Lim, but his recent collection really knocked my socks off. I'm in this performance sportswear meets vintage knits meets menswear phase, and Lim's FW 2011 collection kind of touched on many of these notes, but in a different way. The fact that I'm trying to acquire a bike again this year, and the designer stating this collection was inspired by such women-on-bikes, I'm all the more charmed.






This is a good example of my vintage knits/menswear/performance sportswear mixing. Not that it is exactly that, but the feeling is there. Hard and soft redefined.


I absolutely love how the baseball t-shirt is re-interpreted.




This color-mixing turns me on.




I'm obsessed with this look: the model's slicked back just-got-out-of-the-shower hair, roomy green shirt-dress simply accessorized with a fleshy leather shoe. I love these shoes! There's something about that 80's style high-cut vamp that is very sexy to me --revealing more with less.



The sleeve detailing on this dress is both gorgeous and dangerous-looking --kind of armor-like even. Note the very cool french-manicured nails with navy tipping over natural. I'll have to try this on my next trip to the nail salon.



All photos: Marcio Madeira/firstVIEW via Vogue.com

2.23.2011

Feel it all around


Artist: Washed Out

Been having serious thoughts of mortality lately ---but without fear. Maybe with affection even.

2.14.2011

Feel better soup




I keep hearing a rumor some nasty cold has been making its rounds. Sure enough, as soon as that rumor hit my ears, I woke up this morning in sneezy/cold mode. Ugh! I've decided to devote my day to copious amounts of green tea, and soup. I had a daikon radish in my fridge, which I usually use for miso soup, but honestly, I'm starting to tire of the taste of miso. I wanted something more "clear" tasting, if you know what I mean. Less salty with more of the essence of the daikon.

One of my favorite YT cooking channels is Maangchi. She's been my go-to for many Korean dishes, and I had a feeling she'd have something posted in the realm of daikon radish and soup. Sure enough, she did. I checked out her video (shown below), as a jump off point in making my own version (pictured above). I often include ground turmeric in my dishes, for their proposed health benefits, and decided to add it to my soup, in the hopes of boosting its healing power.

Note: With the exception of the black salt, all ingredients can be found at your local Asian grocer, or a market with an Asian section. The black salt can be found at grocers carrying Indian ingredients.

Feel Better Daikon Radish Soup
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup green tea
- 1 1/2 cups daikon radish, cut into equivalent of large dice or triangle wedge slices
- 2 thumb-size rectangles of dried kombu kelp, cut into thin strips
- 1/4 wedge of onion, chopped
- 3 Tbs. fish sauce, or to taste
- 5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
- 6 oz. turkey (I used leftover roast turkey, but you can use any kind of protein you like, or shiitake mushrooms.)
- 1 Tbs. ground turmeric
- salt to taste (I used black salt, or kala namak, since it's very "mineraly" in flavor, and not as harsh as regular table salt)
- 2 Tbs. dried wakame seaweed
- 1 1/2 stalks of scallion, chopped
- Squeeze of lemon (optional)

Add the chopped daikon radish and kombu strips to the water & green tea. Bring to a boil, then immediately lower heat to a simmer. When the radish starts to look clear around the edges, but still white in their centers, add the chopped onions. Simmer till radish just becomes translucent.

Add fish sauce, minced garlic, protein (in my case, the turkey), ground turmeric, and salt to taste. Note: you do not want this to be a salty soup, so please go easy on the salt flavor. You should be able to eat this straight, without rice.

When the soup heats up to a gentle simmer again, add the dried wakame seaweed & chopped scallion, and cook for about 2-4 minutes till the seaweed expands. Serve immediately, topped with a squeeze of lemon.

Here's Maangchi's episode on her beef & radish soup. Cucumber kimchee is a bonus!

2.02.2011

Different levels of defacing

A few weeks ago, my friend & I took a stroll around my neighborhood, and noticed a few things...

Funny mustache-defacing of mural by artist Rocky Villanueva. It was originally clean-shaven, like this. Located next to The Summit.





Typical deface tagging of Banksy chief on Sycamore at Mission (near 17th St). We noticed someone tried to preserve the piece by painting around the original figure. This "save" resulted in a more abstract result of the original, I have to admit I quite like. Photo of original before.




Defacing in the manner of delightful inspiration! Banksy birdsong piece that sparked an entire mural. I love this kind of stuff. On Erie at Mission (near 14th St).