Design Supermarket Part II

On Saturday, I attended Prague’s Design Supermarket to check out the latest fashion, jewelry, home accessories and art that is being produced by some of the city’s young, talented designers.  The exhibition was located at Palac Archa, a building located beside the Starbucks not too far from subway stop, Florence.  An entire floor was used to showcase the artists goods.

On the fashion front, there were certainly some unique pieces ranging from wearable-fashion forward, to avant-garde.  My favourites included a stylish, marshmallowy, winter jacket by No Fashion (pictured below) in a champagne colour, that I tried on and loved- too bad it was close to $600 CND.  I also loved Ether‘s cow purse and clutch and Leona Skanderova’s oversized, crocodile bowling bag purse (both also very $$.) Likewise, the whimsical, multi-material purses by Gabang (pictured below) were pretty cool.  Lastly, on item that really stuck out and will be a piece that I will purchase at a later date, is a print by a local artist that goes by the name of Antimultivitamin (pictured below).    I’ve included a couple other shots I snaped while walking around to give you a sense of what’s new and exciting in the Prague design world.

via no fashion

via Gabang

via antimultivitamin

Ble Bakery: Thessaloniki

Writing this post is torture.  I am currently taking a two-week intensive, Czech language class and today, one of my classmates, who went home to Thessaloniki this past weekend, brough back with him a box of traditional, Greek Christmas cookie for us to sample.  I sampled one of these soft, mouth-watering cookies and I have to tell you, it had the most unusual combination of flavours:  honey, nuts, cinnamon dipped in white chocolate and topped with pink peppercorns.

It was amazing.  I asked my classmate if the bakery, BLE, had a website or whether there was something I could look at to replicate the cookie but sadly there is nothing (the torturous part).  I snapped a couple of pictures and I am putting it out to the web.  When I got home I tried Googling different things to find out what the cookie is or whether BLE is mentioned anywhere, and nothing comes up except for one reference to the bakery in a post on Chowhound as well as Colibri, the company who was responsible for Ble’s rebranding and interiors.

Does anyone know anything about this cookie or the bakery?  These cookies are too fabulous to be kept a secret!!!!  There must be a recipe somewhere.  If you have any thoughts, please leave a comment below.

My update- Apparently Ble does have a website, which I’ve included.  The reason I could not find it was because it is written in Greek.  The cookie also has a name-  It is called a Melomakarona, and it is a cookie that is soaked in a honey syrup and popular in Greece during the Christmas holidays- (aka a honey & spice cookie) a recipe can be found here and here.  Phew!, case closed.

Design Supermarket

Contemporary design, is probably not what most people would associate with the Czech Republic.  Rather, a style befitting to products from countries Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Japan, Spain or Italy to name a few.  Since moving to Prague three months ago, my contemporary design radar continues to go off.  As I explore my surroundings, I take notice of Prague’s next wave of designers trying to cut through the mass, mainstream stuff by producing arty, modern products.

Walk through any of the following areas, all located outside the touristy, Stare Mesto/Prague 1, such as Karlin, Vinohrady, Zizkov, or Holesovice and you are bound to stumble upon a handful of, dare I say “cool,” design stores featuring local and international industrial designers.

This weekend it is possible to get an introduction to several of the city’s young designers at festival, Design Supermarket.  Design Supermarket provides young artists and designers with a means to showcase their work in a commercial setting and provides consumers the opportunity to purchase unique, local, hand-made pieces of work.  When I first saw the advertisement for Design Supermarket posted on the side of a tram stop the other week, I was astounded.   Could this example attempting to showcase contemporary design and new talent in the city really exist for a city where modern/contemporary design is in its nascent stages of development?

To answer my own question, yes.  Design Supermarket started on Wednesday and runs until Sunday at Palace Archa, Na poříčí 26, Prague 1.  I plan to go check it out tomorrow and will let you know about my findings next week.  I am most excited to see the work of Batousek, de-sign, Dreamer Studio, Eva Pelechova, Gabang, Leona Skanderova, and Milos Nemec.  Pictures to follow….

Cookie Exchange

I hosted a cookie exchange at my apartment on the weekend with a couple other Prague based bloggers.  It was a fun way to spend an early evening, sampling each others cookies, indulging on sugar(too much sugar), swapping ingredient “war stories,”about how difficult it was to find a particular ingredient in the city and of course drinking tea to cut the sugar!

I tried out two cookie recipes from Country Living magazine: A chocolate crinkle cookie (they call them double chocolate snowquake cookies) where I added chocolate chips and chocolate covered sunflower seeds.  I also baked a sugar cookie, that was meant to be a jam thumbprint cookie, but for some reason, the cookie dough was a bit dry and would not form a thumbprint for jam without falling apart.  After a bit of improvisation, it became a one-bite sugar cookie that dunked well in tea. I loved the chocolate crinkle cookie recipe and would use it again.  The cookies from this recipe had a rich and intense flavour.    On the non-cookie side, I made babaganoush, cut up veggies and made an apple and plum crisp (just in case people were still hungry after the cookies).

From my guests, we got to sample an oatmeal, white chocolate, cranberry pecan cookie, a pecan butter cookie, a ginger molasses cookie and a chocolate mouthfuls cookie. I think everyone had a nice time, especially since we each got to expand our network and meet a new person living in Prague.  Thank you again to all three bloggers: CzechingIn, Agog in Prague, and PeggyHarowitz.

Love This: Muted Colour Palette

Alviero Martini 1a Classe printed bag, $177
Folli Follie rose gold jewelry, $105
Folli Follie rose gold jewelry, $105
Black Shoulder Cream Soup Bowl, $950