Author Archives: Nathalie Mariano
Better the Morning After
It’s Foodie Tuesday!
Screenshot of Nigella Lawson snacking away
I love watching Nigella’s cooking shows! I think she’s awesome. When I grow up, I want to be just like her.
Sorry, I just had to get that out. This post isn’t really about her… although she’s sort of its starting point. There’s a couple of seconds at the very end of some of her shows that show her munching away in the darkened kitchen, illuminated only by the refrigerator’s light. I totally get that — we’re big on midnight snacking in my family, and we absolutely love leftovers.
I think there are certain kinds of food that taste even better after they’ve been in the refrigerator for a bit. My scientific explanation is that some time in the fridge evaporates some of the moisture, making the flavors more intense, and with the added time to settle in, the flavors are now living comfortably and have gotten really friendly with one another.
So here are a 3 kinds of food that are better the morning after a night spent in the fridge — covered, of course.
Stews and other Saucy Dishes
Beef Rendang. Image via Rasa Malaysia.
Chicken adobo. Image via Au Pif.
It makes for a heightened taste experience when meats have absorbed as much as they can from their sauces. Curries and stews take on amazing flavors after a night in the fridge.
In the Philippines, we have a stew called adobo, the basic recipe of which is chicken and/or pork stewed in soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, bay leaf and peppercorns. Before the advent of electricity and refrigeration, our ancestors prepared their meats in this way to preserve them — as the salt and acids in the soy sauce and vinegar serve as curing agents, and the fact that it keeps well is just as widely accepted as the conviction that it gets better with time.
Pastas
Image via A Bitchin' Kitchen
Pasta Frittata. Image via On the Move Gallery
Spending the night in the fridge may make pasta a bit dry, but oh my gosh, the yumminess that those noodles have absorbed more than make up for it, in my humble opinion. I would totally eat these dishes cold, although I’ve tried making leftover pasta puttanesca into frittata, and it’s heavenly!
Brownies and Bars
Image via East European Food
Date and Walnut Bars, also called "Food for the Gods". Image via Panlasang Pinoy.
In hot climates, there’s a bigger difference between room temp and refrigerator temp. Getting the cool treatment gives certain sweets a hugely different mouth feel. Brownies, date and walnut bars (aka “Food for the Gods”, butterscotch bars — they get less cake-y and more chewy, and this for me raises their awesomeness to the stellar level.
How about you? Have you discovered some eats that get better in the fridge?
Mini Steps Giveaway 2012
Greentea Design launched its Steps and Storage Sale this week, and to celebrate, we’re bringing back the Cho Mini Steps!
You, our dear readers, can have the chance to own one of the three Mini Step Chests that we are giving away! All you have to do is go to our Facebook page, “like” it (if you haven’t already), and comment on our posts. You’ve got until May 22nd to make your comments. Each one comprises an entry to the draw which we will hold at the end of the contest period.
Best of luck, you guys!
Vietnamese Crafts
Image via Gone Thrifting
I visited Vietnam a couple of years ago, and I had no idea what incredibly beautiful pieces of artistry I would encounter there. I made so many memories in this beautiful country, but there are a couple of them that I live with. One of them is a lacquered wine bottle holder, and the other is an embroidered shoe bag that I take with me when I travel.
Embroidery and lacquer, it turns out, are two of the crafts that the Vietnamese excel in. The skills needed to create beautiful objects out of thread or tree sap are not learned in art schools, seminars, or workshops, but are ingrained in village culture. Different villages specialize in different crafts, and these crafts are passed on in unending streams that have been gushing forth for many hundreds of years.
And the world has gladly embraced these fruits of Vietnamese creativity. Anybody can partake of this bounty, whether with a budget of a few dollars or a few hundred.
Embroidery
From afar they look like paintings, and it is only when one draws near that the texture of the thread becomes visible. The skill and intricacy of these museum-worthy works are heart-stopping and thrilling.
Vietnamese girl practicing her craft. Photo by Nathalie Mariano.
Gallery of embroidery. Image by Nathalie Mariano.
Image from XQ Vietnam
Image from XQ Vietnam
Sometimes the embroidery is done on sheer silk, and the transparency of the material gives the piece a wondrous ethereal quality.
Image via XQ Vietnam
If framed art pieces are too much commitment, there are a lot of functional objects that are embellished with lovely hand embroidery — tablecloths, table runners bed covers, handbags, underwear travel pouches and shoe bags, just to name a few.
Shoe bag from Vietnam. Image by Nathalie Mariano.
A stall in Benh Tanh Market selling embroidered items. Image by Nathalie Mariano.
Lacquerware
The Vietnamese artisans also express their skills in the “high-brow” and “low-brow”, with the ones that venture into the realm of fine art definitely take more time, skill, and artistry, and therefore cost quite a bit more.
A lacquered art work with an eggshell mosaic depicting a fishing scene. Image via Vietnamese Artwork.
Image via Tudo Art
Image via News Hopper at Sulekha.com
Lacquerware shop. Photo by Nathalie Mariano.
And Vietnam has beautiful lacquer products whose functionality do not diminish their status as beautiful art.
Image via Geoff James
The aforementioned wine bottle holder. Image by Nathalie Mariano.
Another bottle holder, this time with mother of pearl and eggshell inlays. Image via Nathalie Mariano.
For more about lacquerware, check out Midori’s post from the previous month.
Spinning Mao
Ceramic statuette of Mao. Image by Greentea Design.
Mao Tse Tung was the Chinese Communist revolutionary who instigated the Chinese revolution and established the People’s Republic of China, and held the nation under his authoritarian control for over 30 years.
Mao button. Image from Cafe Press.
There remains controversy on how he would be portrayed in history. People either love him or loathe him. His regime was pretty barbaric, with the massacre of his enemies, widespread violence and terror, and a purging of everything in Chinese culture that did not serve his purposes — religion, personal wealth, opposing ideologies, and all foreign influences and contributions.
Despite his reputation as monstrous mass murderer, there’s no denying how he has he has made an indelible mark on the Chinese culture and psyche. He has become a kind of a god for many Chinese, who gravitate toward the power that he represented. Portraits of him can be found in many Chinese homes. His speeches are rendered in beautiful calligraphy and proudly hung in public places. Shaoshan, his birthplace, from which emerged the death of Chinese religion, ironically has become a shrine to which thousands make their pilgrimage.
A suite in Hullet House, Hong Kong.
Mao Tse Tung has become a cultural icon that symbolizes China. His face and figure can be found in every souvenir shop in China — where T-shirts, mugs, keychains, refrigerator magnets are emblazoned with his image, sometimes in an absurdly irreverent manner.
Image from Bootstrappin'.
Mickey Mao bust. Image from Say No to Crack.
Image from Cafe Press.
Whether his elevation to the status of icon and element of Chinese art and design has evolved naturally or contrived artificially, Mao Tse Tung’s image has indeed undergone a spin into the artsy and cool.
Andy Warhol's MAO screenprints, 1972.
Print by artist Tom Kristensen
Glitch art by David Szauder
Awesome Archers
Who hasn’t seen The Hunger Games?
Katniss in The Hunger Games
Katniss is strong and feminine, nurturing and heroic, sincere and spunky. Little girls would do well emulate her rather than some vampire bride chick. And she strikes quite a figure with her bow and arrow — one of the sexiest weapons ever, if you ask me.
The bow and arrow is not blundering and clumsy like a club or a mace. Nor as loud and totally lacking in finesse as a grenade or an M16. This weapon, nay — instrument — is one of the most primitive, and yet one of the most sophisticated. In the right hands, it is graceful yet powerful. Flexibility is in its nature, and yet it can be unerringly precise.
So today I thought I’d feature other archers in filmdom who came before Katniss, who have drawn their bows and sent those arrows aflight.
Robin Hood
Guinevere in King Arthur
Legolas in The Lord of the Rings
The Scorpion King
Neytiri in Avatar
Hawkeye in The Avengers
