Dirty Dancing With The Devil

You know what? I feel a bit bad for poor old Satan really, he's got the worst reputation. People think he's all fire, brimstone and torturing souls after death (god, people can be so dramatic!), but I reckon he's not half bad. On Thursday night I had a wonderful dining experience with Lucifer himself (or 'Lucie', as I like to call him...we're on a first name basis you see), where I was tantalized by whimsy, great food and even better vodka.

I am, of course, talking about Brunswick Streets 'Naked For Satan', the Spanish style pintxos restaurant. Pintxos are delectable morsels of food usually served on bread with toothpicks available both hot and cold. It really is the perfect way to eat, you have one hand free for eating, one hand free for drinking and if you can resist either if those for a few minutes, a mouth free for happy chatter. Naked for Satan has a great fit out going on, with tables for groups, stools for couples, and couches and benches for everyone else in between. As well as this, the mood lighting, iron work surrounds and crazy chandeliers create a rather temptuous and seductive atmosphere. The name of this restaurant originates from the Russian Leon Satanovich who, during the depression, turned the Brunswick street warehouse into a place where he could create vodka stills. The story goes that during the scorching Melbourne summers he would work in just his underwear in order to keep cool and those who were endeavouring to assist him would use the code phrase 'lets get naked for Satan'. Naked for Satan definitely does justice to the old warehouse's history with vodka, producing scrumptious infusions like lychee and ginger, watermelon and mint, opium and rose and, perhaps for the not so faint hearted, the 'naked bitch chilli and cherry'. The food is also great, you may have things like cream cheese, beetroot and walnuts, baby potato and taleggio, traditional tortilla or capsicum, eggplant and coriander all stuffed on to a small mouth appropriate sized piece if bread. And as they're all only two dollars (or one dollar Sunday through to Wednesday-winning!) you can stuff your face until you feel like the epitome of a seven deadly sin-gluttony!

So go on, don't be shy. Take your clothes off and get Naked for Satan...I promise you, it's much more fun on the dark side.

A Few of My Favourite Things

Suffice to say that I have a lot of stuff crammed into my wardrobe...and chest of draws...and 

jewellery stand...cough. So when I decided to write this blog entry about a few of my most 

loved items (a little stock take if you will), I accepted the sad fact that that I may have to limit 

said items to my favourite accesseries that I reccently purchased overseas. A few of my 

dresses didn't take the news all that well and I was almost tackled by a particularly 

aggressive fur vest (perhaps a warewolf in a past life?), and then I remembered that my 

clothes can't actually talk or perform teakwondo...don't lie, I know you've all been there.

So without further ado (and to borrow the wise words of a certain Austrian musical) these are 

a few of my favourite things...

I almost died when I found these earrings in Amsterdam and though they cost me an arm and 

a leg (it's true, dressing myself is a real challenge now) they are most certainly worth the 

amputation.

From left to right: A beautiful handmade beaded clutch from Perugia (Italy), both silver earrings from Granada (Spain), a ring by the Spanish designers Banjo and Lola that I purchased in Paris (and if you don't know where Paris is then stop wasting your time reading my blog and study a map!) and this gorgeous handmade necklace made specially for me by a friend in Rome.

I have a bit of a thing for oversized earrings (it's something i'm working through with my therapist) and i'm pretty sure a vast majority of the extra weight in my suitcase on my return journey home was due to these pretty things. From top: gold wave earrings that I picked up at the Brick Lane Markets in London, a vintage green and orange pair bought at a market in Perugia and egyptian style earrings from our good old friend H and M.

I may also have a condition that renders me helpless when faced with the prospect of buying statement necklaces (these ones from a market in Paris), but they where only two euros each, I swear!

And last but not least, the shoes. I couldn't fit them all in the frame of the photo (ahem, six new pairs) but these two are my special little favourites. The black are vintage Italian leather from the coolest vintage shop in Amsterdam and the suede brown pair are by the brand Desigual that my good friend (thank god!) persuaded me to buy in Paris.

Coffee Snobbery

I'm a coffee snob. There, I said it. But as a Melburnian who serves coffee in what can now be described as one of the world's leading coffee capitals, I feel that I have a valid excuse. And yes, chances are that if you order a take away weak soy decaf latte with me in the morning I may have a tiny little sigh to myself and hope that one day you'll actually drink real coffee. But a little experience I recently had has made me ponder the question...has coffee snobbery gone too far?

Just the other day a woman came into the cafe where I work and ordered a regular latte, before muttering in an embarrassed undertone that she'd like two and a half sugars with that. I smiled politely and took her order without batting an eye lid. She rushed on to say that she knew it was a lot of sugar but that's just how she liked her coffee. "That's alright", I replied, "we don't judge here". She looked a little relieved at this and went on to say, "thank God, the last people I got a take away from refused to put any sugar in for me!". Now, when I said I don't judge, that may not have been entirely true (and personally I would never ruin my perfectly good coffee with two and a half sugars), but I found myself being outraged on this woman's behalf. I would never (NEVER!) refuse to add sugar to a customer's coffee. Who were these people to look down their noses at this woman? Were the gears wound so tightly on their customized fixies that they were too uptight to give the lady some god damn sugar? And what's more, what ever happened to the golden rule 'the customer is always right'?.

I'm more than happy to offer all the advice and recommendations I can to customers in order to help them navigate thought the minefield that Melbourne coffee can be (pour over, aeropress, siphon), but I will also recognize that each customer has a personal taste. So I am officially putting my foot down to coffee snobbery because I believe that you can have your extra hot weak soy decaf mocha and drink it too!

50 Shades of Grey

You've all heard about the book, but if terribly written, repetitive and plot-less erotic novels aren't so much your your thing then maybe this grey nail polish by Revlon (called 'Man Overboard) will tickle your fancy. Much more Spring appropriate than its black counterpart, but more grown up than a bright colour that screams 'I'M ON YOUR HAND!', I jumped at the opportunity to grab this little bottle of fluid goodness. It seems to go with just about everything I'm wearing right now, it adds a touch of toughness to Spring pastels and I was even more thrilled with the purchase when I got change from a tenner! Oh, and did I mention that it's touch dry in just one minute?

So if your looking for a new colour to add to your collection then I highly recommend this one...chances are you'll get much more pleasure out of it than reading that erotic S and M novel.

The Changing Wardrobe

In my last blog entry I wrote about how the global climate has an impact on what we eat. This got me pondering fashion trends and how they too seem to fluctuate based around what's going on in the world at that point in time.

Who would have thought that the discovery of the rotting mummified corpse of Tutankhamen in 1922 would result in Egyptian motifs exploding across runways, would see the 'it' colour palate tending towards browns, creams and golds as well as huge gold jewellery becoming the norm. Certainly not me! Lets be honest people, it's a little gross to think that a dead body dictated what people put on their backs...even if he was a King. Ew.

Oh yes, fashion follows global excitement and interest but it also follows in times of hardship and turmoil. During the Second World War female clothing became very tailored and practical with much more masculine shapes taking over. Fabrics moved from softer cottons and lace into hard starched linens which reflected the difficulty of sourcing good quality material during this time period.

So what now? What effect does our world have on what we wear? Was it the issue of global warming that saw the release of Eco friendly lines by brands such as Gorman, Limedrop, Thursday Sunday and Bassike? During times of economic struggle (you may all remember our good friend the Global Financial Crisis) lipstick sales sky rocketed as they are an affordable way to get that shopping high (you know the one I mean) without breaking the bank. And who could forget how fashion turned dark and mysterious, worshiping all things fanged, with the release of the Twilight series...yes yes, I read them, don't judge me and let's move on! Well, whatever the world throws at us next, I'm excited to discover how fashion will follow suit...as long as I don't have to look like a dead guy wrapped in toilet paper.

ACHEing For This Necklace

Walking through Melbourne central yesterday I stumbled upon a few pop up stalls (as one often does in this wonderful city) located just under the tower. One in particular caught my eye and you can imagine my delight and great pleasure (a happy dance of some form may or may not have occurred) when I noticed the most incredible necklace on display. I pretty much ran into the stall, possibly scaring the poor sales assistant, just to check out this bling. By the designer ACHE these necklaces are formed by joining links with varying colours of material woven through. My personal favourite is the blue, pink and orange style which reminds me of a summer sunset...quite appropriate for the warm weather we're experiencing. I took a deep sigh as I turned over the price tag, expecting to be greeted with the feeling of longing that comes with seeing something you really really want to buy but you know you can never afford, and almost had a stroke. Only 30 dollars! Run people. Don't walk.

Pop up stalls in Melbourne Central will remain there for the next month, get on it!

Once More with Gusto

On the 27th of September I found myself walking up the steps of the State Library and past the hard working (scratch that), bored Facebook stalking students, to attend the evening open panel discussion, 'The Changing Menu', being held for the Library's current 'Gusto' exhibition. It included some of Melbourne's epicurial heavyweights like Hilary McNevin (journalist for The Age and reviewer and editor of The Age Good Food Guide), Richard Cornish (writer for The Age Epicure and creative director for the Melbourne food and Wine Festival), Simon Denton (of Izakaya Den and Hihou), Daniel Wilson (of Huxtable and Huxtaburger) and Claire Davie (blogger of 'Melbourne Gastronome'). The conversation flowed casually and naturally between the panelists who raised some interesting points concerning Melbourne's ever changing gastronomic climate.

Among those that tickled my fancy the most were the discussions about food trends. You would either have to be blind or a hermit who stays at home watching Bold and the Beautiful reruns not to notice the current 'dude food' movement including tacos, hot dogs, fried chicken, American style diners, burgers, burger vans and well, perhaps some more burgers! Would you like fries with that? We also went through our gourmet pizza, Mexican and Japanese (coupled with sake matching) and the quietly growing meatball faze. There was also discussion on how global climate effects the way we eat. for example as our wallets get tighter due to the GFC, comfort food steps into the lime light. Desserts have become the heroes of our meal and are representative of childish classics (like the 'snickers bar' dessert), in order to evoke feeling of calm and nostalgia from the customer. After all, childhood was a time where we needn't worry about bills, taxes or Tony Abbot.

On the subject of global issues, the problem of climate change was also discussed in reference to Melbourne's current obsession with produce and where it comes from. Personally, I don't really feel the need to know the breed, age and name of the cow I'm eating or that my asparagus was harvested while the farmer gently serenaded it with Mozart (though that could just be be me), but nowadays it's the norm!

The final topic I found particularly interesting was that on the service provided by restaurants in Melbourne. All panelists concluded that no matter what changes in terms of food trends, where and how we eat our food and whether we're drinking wine or cider, hospitality's core principal is still looking after people. It appears that one thing will always remain the same in Melbourne and that's passion. Passion from the customers and passion from our chefs.

The exhibition 'Gusto' will run up until the 28th of April 2013, so head down and check it out...I guarantee its much more interesting then Facebook stalking.