The ‘Junk Drawer’ is a random dose of things to read, eat, enjoy and explore
Spring has officially sprung, the world is slowly opening up and we can cast open our windows and step forth into the sun. Even though I am currently living in Hawaii where it didn’t dip much below 70 even in the deepest months of winter, I have felt the breezes of April whoosh across my face and find that I am filled once again with a certain freshness. It is officially time to get up offa that thing.
I am dreaming again: of road trips, and of wandering though Japan when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. I have been riding the M train with Patti Smith and wondering whether or not I will ever master hand pulled noodles. I am dreaming of gatherings around tables draped in colour: there will be Japanese shibori cloths, bright flowers and block print … and of course my newest mixtape will be playing somewhere in the background.
Dinners showcasing the bounty of the spring garden: soups and peas, and even more peas, radishes and rhubarb, beets and wild leeks. And lemon…with it’s bright tartness guaranteed to waken the palette from it’s long winter sleep. There will be sorbet served out of gem coloured glasses, pasta, poppyseed cake, lemon curd spread thick on berry laden scones, little baked squares drizzled with creme fraiche, and even potatoes will get the spring treatment. And let us not forget the lemon meringue pie. It will be grand. There will be barbeques. Big feasts outdoors, reunions of friends and family that have long been separated by the pandemic. Now is the time to try something new that evokes a grand adventure…great things yet to come. Something Korean, perhaps? Charred pieces of samgyeupsal wrapped up in crisp lettuce leaves, small bowls of gamja salad, pajeori, kongnamul muchim, and thin slices of sweet and pickly danmuji. Since I have been delving in to the history of Hawaiian cuisine, why not usher in summer with Sheldon Simeon’s menu for the perfect Hawaiian barbecue party. By the way, have you heard that he has a new cookbook? I can’t wait to get my hot little hands on a copy. One of the recipes nestled inside its pages and given an early teaser release to the public is his chocolate birthday cake mochi. I think I may have mentioned in a previous post just how hopelessly addicted I am to mochi, and since being on Ohau things have only gotten worse for me… I have become supremely spoiled by the sheer abundance of places to find these delectable confections, but also by the diversity of the offerings- a small reflection of Hawaii’s cultural melting pot of flavors. Everything from black sesame pon-de-ring to chapssaltteok , to my newest addiction: BUTTER MOCHI! I been driving around the island in search of new favourite places to find these chewy, custardy, buttery squares, and have recently come across some great new recipes that riff off the classic. Not only is there is the chocolate birthday cake version, we can descend even futher into the pit of mochi heaven with Little Fat Boy Frankie’s cinnamon toast crunch mochi. It’s the stuff of dreams. That is if your dreams involve floating around on little mochi matresses in the sky. Well, I have totally put my self into a food coma just thinking about it all. Nevermind me, but I am just going to slip into a pair of bejeweled shoes over here, collapse on the couch and just tune out for a bit. Maybe I will spend some time marveling over the art of Mazuma Makoto, Rachel Hayes, or Sheila Hicks (or perhaps you will find me cursing the fact that I am nowhere near the newly opened Yayoi Kusama exhibit) as I try to rethink the use of colour in relation to my own work which is quite monochromatic these days. It is spring, afterall. Time to bloom. Time for cleaning out those stale little corners, even the ones in our heads. Maybe this all calls for a wondrous Technicolor journey by way of the home screen portal, let’s get whisked away into Kurosawa’s Dreams or venture into the psychic landscapes of Felini’s Juliet of the Spirits. Feel like being someone else for a while? Being John Malkovich is a always good place to start. And since we are on the topic… has anyone else been watching a ton of films this year while spending more time at home? I went so far down the rabbit hole that I started a whole new section for my blog that I will be launching any day now. There will be everything from lists of my favourite films that inspire travel, to food-centric flicks to something I like to call ‘6 Degrees of…’. Yeah…I went a little crazy. I would like to say that I have emerged from that hole, but well…