Arabic Sweets + Rose Water

One of the food items I find myself missing most while living in Prague is Middle Eastern food.  I love the flavours and components of Middle Eastern food so much that sometimes I think I was born in the wrong country or culture.  I could eat hummus, falafel, labneh, shawarma (good shawarma), kababs, kebbeh, babaganoush, and all the little accompanying salads that are part and parcel with Middle Eastern cuisine on a daily basis without getting board.  That is why I made a bee line to both Sababa Fine Foods (best lentil soup and pita bread in the city) and Paramount Fine Foods in Toronto (Thornhill to be exact for all you Torontonians who need a geographical reference).

While living in Toronto, I used to frequent both places for meals.  However, in addition to the delicious meats, salads and dips, I would occasionally indulge in an Arabic sweet or two.   Paramount’s sweets are particularly good (and close by) so it was often my first choice when I had a craving for layers of filo pastry filled with chopped nuts, spices, honey, delicately flavoured with rose water.

The addition of rose water to honey and spices makes Arabic sweets stand out to me.   Rose water brings a lovely floral flavour to the pastry and magnifies the honey taste times 10.  It is also the difference between the taste of Middle Eastern baklava and Greek or Turkish baklava, but I may be wrong!  I am open to debate.

From baklava and kinafe to osmalieh and znoud al-sit, I love them all.

This type of dessert is my idea of heaven. While each sweet piece looks deceivingly small, they pack a punch when it comes to satisfaction.

There is something so exciting about seeing a massive tray of symmetrical sweets neatly displayed behind a case of glass. It’s the presentation and variety, and serving process which has always fascinated me and drawn me in.

Paramount Fine Foods: 7315 Yonge Street, Toronto

Sababa Fine Foods: 390 Steeles Avenue West, Toronto

My trip to Paramount Fine Foods in Toronto was almost equally exciting as my visit to Pasam Baklava (Turkish baklava) in Berlin.  I can’t wait to find my next great source of Arabic sweets on my travels through Europe.  Any recommendations you have, please leave me a comment.  I will be in Vienna, Munich, Tel Aviv, Toronto and Barcelona over the next three to four months.

If you are looking to experiment with rose water with pastry or dessert, I would recommend checking out the following recipes:

1. Cook Republic’s Rhubarb and Rose water Crumble

2. 101 Cookbooks recommends: Rose water plum compote and rhubarb and rosewater syrup

3. Spoon Fork Bacon’s Rose water glitter cake

4. The Kitchn’s Rose water Ice (aka Faloodeh)

Fun with chocolate

I am back in Prague, home from Toronto and jet lagged as ever. I had a wonderful time catching up with family and friends.  I think I had a total of 20 appointments packed into five business days, not including a two day dash to Troy, Michigan to the Somerset Collection to find a wedding dress (success- thank you to Kerri at Neiman Marcus who was super helpful).

I have lots of fun pictures to share with you from the 10 day trip that I will post throughout the week including a new food hall at the Bay, shots from the new David’s Tea at Bayview Village, our cake/cupcake tasting at Flour Studio and a ridiculously delicious breakfast at my favourite diner in Ferndale, Michigan.

In the mean time, while I catch up on a bit of “school work”, I thought I would share some pictures that I took at home the day before I got on the plane.

I tested another batch of cookies and brought them to school.

Since I had no chocolate chips on hand, I had fun cutting up a bar of chocolate.

I tried to chop methodically and neatly working my way through each line of the bar and then cutting the pieces into smaller slivers. I think the dough turned out well. I didn’t have a chocolate chip cookie left from the batch.

Miller Goodman

I have a couple of friends who are having babies this spring/summer and as a result, I have found myself hunting for “appropriate” baby gifts.  I will admit, the pictures below are not necessarily the most practical representations of gifts for babies and would probably be more suitable for older kids.  However, I could not pass up sharing these Miller Goodman works of art.  Surely it is the type of gift that a baby could “grow in to” when he or she is older.

The whimsical wooden toys and art from Miller Goodman, a UK based design team made up of Zoey Miller and David Goodman, are just fabulous in my books and I fell in love with their animated block sets and sculptures.

The wooden block set (picture above and below) is called “face maker” and I think would make a great gift for a kid, don’t you think? I’m an adult and I would love one in my house. The two sculputres seen below the Face Maker toy are not for kids, but are also neat.  I like all the shapes, colours and textures they use in the faces.

Photo Sources: Miller Goodman

From what I can see, the Miller Goodman website is being revamped but it does contain contact information for the brand.  However, the Miller Goodman blog is full of fun content and gets updated regularly.

To finish off, there is even a neat little video that I thought you might appreciate if your brain is screaming Yes! about this toy/work of art.  The clip was posted on YouTube to show you how fun their products are in action.

Burch & Purchese

Hello all.  I am boarding a plane home to Toronto today where I will be spending a week going from appointment to appointment to wrap up the wedding details.

Since I woke up to board the plane at an ungodly hour when some parts of the world are just starting to think of going to bed, I thought I would leave you with something sweet while I am captive in the air for eight hours.  Let’s get down to business: Burch & Purchese, where science meets sweetness (the business’ tag line).  What is going on with the serious baking talent coming out of Australia (Zumbo), and why didn’t someone tell me about Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio earlier?   My list of reasons to travel to Australia is growing longer by the minute as I hunt the world for design inspired travel worthy blog posts to write about.  These guys are another reason on my list.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Burch & Purchese, started in 2011 by Ian Burch and Darren Purchese (pictured above), take sugar and butter to the next level. They are constantly on the hunt for new flavour pairing techniques and as you can see by their store interior (pictures above), their sweet laboratory would delight anyone with a serious sweet tooth who appreciates a splash of design mixed with their confections and art with their dessert.  For more on what this talented duo is up to, I would recommend checking out their blog.

There are three more shots I want to share with you to highlight the delectable creations of Burch & Purchese.  These photos are from blogger, Off the Spork, who attended an afternoon tea event hosted by Burch & Purchese at the Langham Aria Bar in Melbourne.  The first photo is my favourite with the mini chocolate bars towering over the banana passion fruit and white chocolate. mmmmmm.

T2 or tea too

Any tea shop that sports a chandelier out of Turkish tea glasses, and has the ceiling height to do so is a tea shop I want to visit.

T2 or tea too, started by Maryanne Shearer in 1996 in the Fitzroy suburb in Melbourne, Australia, has done a phenomenal job filling the world with more tea, or more specifically, filling Australia with more tea.  T2 currently has a network of 30 retail stores around the country and is a fabulous example of a design inspired travel destination.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

I love T2’s dark, modern, sleek and spacious store interior that is filled to the brim with colourful fun things to smell, see, touch and taste.  T2 carries approximately 200 teas from Asia and Europe and has a wide array of fun tea accessories from tea cups, mugs, jugs, pots, saucers and more.

There is something very attractive about the masculine looking nature of the store interior, coupled with the brand’s bright colour palette (black, red, orange, pink) accented with Asian aesthetics and patchwork on the website-T2’s look is a stark departure from the image of a typical tea shop that one would conjure up and I think it is fabulous.  I can’t wait to visit when I eventually make my way over to Australia.  Has anyone visited a T2 shop before?  Would love to hear about it.

Katrin Moye

I have a philosophy about tabletop items.  My philosophy is that people develop an emotional relationship with the stuff (tabletop items) they use and the items with the strongest emotional connection get used the most.  Think about the items in your home that you may be “afraid” to use because of how breakable it is, or it has been categorized as a special occasion only item because it is fragile.  UK based artist, Katrin Moye has a down to earth perspective on tabletop items and why she got into ceramics: she wanted to create pieces that people were not anxious about handling.    Just look how sturdy her mugs, dishes and jugs look.  I love the items from her dotted stripe collection as well as her tiny hoops and dandelions collection.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 

Räder Poetry et Table. Breakfast

I am a big fan of breakfast sets (dishes, plates, cups and bottles), so I have to share my new find this weekend; An adorable line of breakfast-ware titled “Poetry et Table. Breakfast” from German design company, Räder (Hartmut Wheels).  I have never heard of this brand before but was immediately drawn to its  in-store display which had a beautiful breakfast scene set up on a large wooden table, accessorized with Räder’s breakfast accessories (similar to the photo below- minus the food).

I love the simplistic design of each of the ceramic pieces and how the design integrates graphics of chickens,  cows and pigs in an artistic and modern way.  I don’t speak German so I can’t translate what is written on the items but I would imagine it has to do with the company’s sweet, “poetic” product description on their website which reads:

“All in butter. The day begins. The eggs cook. Life is’ today ‘higgledy-piggledy. The grapefruit is sour again. But where the milk to the coffee kisses, because the joy of sitting at the table. Take newspapers, bread and a poached egg. And Sundays sometimes two.”

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Unlimited Editions Prints + Letterpress

Today’s post is dedicated to a very cool annual art festival that kicks off this weekend (for the entire month of May) in Brighton (UK), called the Artists Open Houses.  One of my favourite studios that is a participant in the Artists Open Houses event, and which has curated an impressive collection of typography, prints and letterpress pieces, is called Unlimited Editions.

Unlimited Editions it a true treasure trove for all things typography and print related.  If you can’t hop on a plane to visit their studio and store in Brighton, they do ship most items around the globe.  I am in love with their linen backed London route master bus destination blinds (unfortunately these signs are not for shipping and you do need to get to Brighton to make this purchase).

Julia Trigg‘s Signals- 1935 typographic ephemera print:

Lina Meier Studio‘s Vers Libre candle holders:

And….. of course prints by Unlimited (the husband and wife team behind the store/design studio)

Photo Sources: 1-6, 7, 8, 9, 10 

Which print do you like?  Is anyone attending the Brighton Artists Open Houses this year? Be sure to leave me a comment below.  I would love to hear from you.  Have a nice weekend.