shop... Monk House Design

Possibly one of the cutest boutiques in Melbourne, Monk House Design specialises in independent, locally designed fashion, accessories, jewellery, art and home wares.  They stock one of my favourite designers, Melissa, and if I can control my spending for the next couple of weeks I'll definitely be dropping in to pick up a pair of these for summer.

I highly recommend you pop in and check them out at 102 Lygon Street, East Brunswick.

http://www.monkhousedesign.com/html/main.htm

http://monkhousedesign.blogspot.com/

okonomiyaki... Lentil as Anything

http://www.lentilasanything.com/

Lentil as Anything is a delightful vegetarian restaurant run as a not-for-profit community organisation. It is staffed primarily by volunteers and supports some amazing projects which you can read about here: http://www.lentilasanything.com/projects.htm

I recently ate there with a couple of girlfriends and had one of the greatest taste experiences of my life so far, no joke.  I highly recommend you venture to one of the Lentil as Anything restaurants, the St Kilda one is particularly charming.

Okonomiyaki (Japanese Pancakes)

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 3 cups of plain flour
• 1/2 potato, peeled, grated
• 5 eggs
• 2 cups water
• 3 green cabbage leaves, shredded
• 100g bean shoots, trimmed
• 6 green onions, sliced
• 100g button mushrooms, sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• Sauce

• 2 tablespoons thick, sweet Japanese soy sauce
• 1/2 cup thick whole-egg mayonnaise

Method

1. Mix together flour, potato, 1 egg, a pinch of salt and enough water to form a batter the consistency of thickened cream. Add cabbage, bean shoots, green onions and mushrooms.
2. Heat a little oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat. Spoon one-quarter of mixture per pancake into frying pan. Cook for 10 minutes.
3. Make a hole in the middle of each pancake and crack an egg into the hole and cook a further 5 minutes.
4. Turn pancake over and cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until pancake is cooked through. Keep warm and repeat with remaining pancake batter and eggs.
5. To make sauce: Combine soy sauce and mayonnaise. Serve pancakes with sauce.

designs... Cody Ross

I would love to be able to pull off at least one of these pieces from his Priestess NYC label. 

jewellery... Hanna Hedman

I like most things Swedish but these pieces are particularly delightful.

photos by Sanna Lindberg

blog... Garance Dore

http://www.garancedore.fr/en/

You are amazing... especially for creating an english version for dim-witted Australians such as myself who ignore the thousands of wonderful languages out there just waiting to be learned.  

religion... Buddhism

The Four Noble Truths

The Buddha taught that life was dissatisfactory because of craving, but that this condition was curable by following the eightfold path. This teaching is called the four noble truths:

 

1.    Dukkha: All worldly life is unsatisfactory, disjointed, containing suffering.

2.    Samudaya: There is a cause of suffering, which is attachment or desire (tanha) rooted in ignorance.

3.    Nirodha: There is an end of suffering, which is Nirvana.

4.    Marga: There is a path that leads out of suffering, known as the Noble Eightfold Path.

 

The Noble Eightfold Path

In order to fully understand the noble truths and investigate whether they were in fact true, Buddha recommended that a certain lifestyle or path be followed which consists of:

 

1.    Right Understanding

2.    Right Thought

3.    Right Speech

4.    Right Action

5.    Right Livelihood

6.    Right Effort

7.    Right Mindfulness

8.    Right Concentration

The Five Precepts

Buddhists undertake certain precepts as aids on the path to coming into contact with ultimate reality. Laypeople generally undertake five precepts. The five precepts are:

 

1.    I undertake the precept to refrain from harming living creatures (killing).

2.    I undertake the precept to refrain from taking that which is not freely given (stealing).

3.    I undertake the precept to refrain from sexual misconduct.

4.    I undertake the precept to refrain from incorrect speech (lying, harsh language, slander, idle chit-chat).

5.    I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicants which lead to loss of mindfulness.

lyrics... Laura Veirs

Magnetised.

Slain
By your zirconium smile
I was slain
By your olivine eyes
Slain
I was lying in piles
Hoping shovels would cast me
Furnaces burn everlasting
Black tattoos of you onto me
Furnaces burn everlasting
Black tattoos

Burn
Brand my memory
Black
A tattoo of you
Wash
Me with your mouth
Brackish bright water from your eyes
I’ll homing pigeon fly
To hover by your window white and shy
Homing pigeon fly
To hover by

Spill
My ashes to the wind
Ghosts
Can gather what they’ve found
Now
We can struggle in the web 
We can struggle
With white spider stars coming down
And night blowing black from the ground… 

Parisian Dream.

Your painting
Scratched lines of blue and gold
You open me up
Was folding into myself
A deck of cards
Face down empty on the shelf

Your song with 
Emphasis on one and two
Then I couldn’t keep time
You took me into a dream
Exploding soundtrack 
That I treasure as mine…

I was bent over
My chest and invisible line 
Sinking
But then the light 
The lamp that I held 
In my blistered hands
You the fuel and 
Me the fool for not noticing

This Chinese junk we’re on
With strapping strong
You cast free the lines
Let’s float here
Together clearly we better
Slip out to the brine! 

films... Sofia Coppola

recipes... Nigella Lawson

plus you are a babe.

CARAMEL CROISSANT PUDDING

INGREDIENTS

2 stale croissants

100g caster sugar

2 x 15ml tablespoons water

125ml double cream

125ml full-fat milk

2 x 15ml tablespoons bourbon

2 eggs, beaten

Serving Size : Serves 2 greedy people

METHOD

	Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.
	Tear the croissants into pieces and put in a small gratin dish; I use a cast iron oval one with a capacity of about 500ml for this.
	Put the caster sugar and water into a saucepan, and swirl around to help dissolve the sugar before putting the saucepan on the hob over a medium to high heat.
	Caramelize the sugar and water mixture by letting it bubble away, without stirring, until it all turns a deep amber colour; this will take 3–5 minutes. Keep looking but don’t be too timid.
	Turn heat down to low and add the cream – ignoring all spluttering – and, whisking away, the milk and bourbon. Any solid toffee that forms in the pan will dissolve easily if you keep whisking over low heat. Take off the heat and, still whisking, add the beaten eggs.
	Pour the caramel bourbon custard over the croissants and leave to steep for 10 minutes if the croissants are very stale.
	Place in the oven for 20 minutes and prepare to swoon.

photography... Mario Testino

neither celebrity nor model has ever looked this good.

style... Diane Kruger

This lady never gets it wrong.

Can't hurt having Joshua Jackson as an accessory though.