Love This: Bright + Bold for Spring

Here are some stylish, bright and bold home accessories that I found  for spring while browsing the web.  Hope you are having a great Wednesday (aka hump day).

Hans im Gluck

From a food perspective, I consider myself an omnivore who flirts with a vegetarian and vegan lifestyle.  Maybe that means I am a flextarian.  I have also heard that term tossed around in the food circles.  Labels aside, I eat meat.  Not a lot and not often but I do eat it every now and then when I get a craving for iron or whatever the reason my body is prompting me to choose meat.  One of the pleasures I have when travelling is eating at local burger joints.  The specialty burger shop is overdone (don’t mind the pun) in North America.  Please note this is not a complaint.  The ubiquity of the burger that has been reinvented, re-topped, grilled, cooked, spiced, and rolled is wonderfully creative and as a off-and-on again consumer, I appreciate the efforts of these new burger warriors.

However, in Europe, the specialty or niche burger market is more of an anomaly; more the exception than the rule.  So when I find a place that looks like it might have good burgers, or perhaps I’ve read a review guiding my search of good burgers, I often pop in an check it out.  This past year, I have dined on burgers at Burgermeester in Amsterdam (goat cheese and apple burger to die for), Yes Burger in Prague (a solid chicken burger) and Die Burgermacher in Vienna (Oriental Lamb burger).  The newest addition to my list Hans im Gluck in Munich.  I expect this list to continue to grow, so if you live or will be travelling to Europe and want to jump on the European burger bandwagon, do check back for new recommendations.

As a restaurant, or burger grill, Hans im Gluck has a neat and unique interior with floor to ceiling real birch trees mirrored by birch tree wallpaper that looks like it could come from the Copenhagen based design company, Ferm Living. The restaurant also has wood panels on the walls, mixed high top and regular height tables, wooden tabletop accessories holding toppings in amazing Weck jars, and most importantly, an extensive menu of meat-non meat burgers that are messy, but quite satisfying.

I tried a beef burger with hummus, olives and arugula that literally went all over the place and required two trips to the washroom to get the sauce off my fingers.  Given the interior design, I felt like I was sitting in a modern camp site or cool looking forest while eating a burger.  I expected the waitress to come over and ask whether I wanted a side of roasted marshmallows with my meal.  That was a joke.  I will be honest with you my dear readers, Hans im Gluck was not the best tasting beef burger that I have ever eaten, but it was a solid contender on innovative flavour combinations and all in all, I was satisfied with my late afternoon lunch.

To appreciate the beauty of the restaurant’s interior, I’ve included a couple other day time shots with better lighting.  Unfortunately when I snapped the pictures above, it was quite dark in the restaurant.  Any other cool European burger recommendations out there?  I’m always eager to learn about new spots.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3

Kitchen Spring Cleaning + Weekend Roundup

I was looking around my kitchen this past weekend after accidentally breaking yet another one of the delicate Riedel O glasses, thinking it may be time for a spring re-fresh; a few new accessories and gadgets to freshen-up  the kitchen environment  for spring.  You know, the typical spring cleaning you do on your wardrobe where you edit items in and out? Same idea, but for the kitchen.

I would like to add a couple new tools and delete some others that are on the brink of no-return- frayed plastic edges, chipped or broken ceramic and glass.

Kitchen editing for spring, makes cooking more enjoyable when you have a new tool to play with.  Not that cooking and entertaining isn’t fun, in and of itself!  It’s just that, sometimes when you have something new and fun to use, culinary pride and excitement, that can diminish due to the monotonous rhythms of life,  gets renewed.

One of the concepts I noticed that appears to be making a comeback online is the “general store” e-commerce site where you can shop across several product categories, of niche brands for the home and the site gives you the feel of being in a general store. One store in particular, whose items I loooooove is Father Rabbit out of New Zealand.  Father Rabbit has a wide variety of great, classic pieces for the home that have a bit of a vintage flare but could easily mix and match among contemporary accessories.  I think my favourite kitchen items are the five photos I have selected below.

Photo Sources: 1,2,3,4,5,6, 7

Outside of a good spring cleaning, something that seriously needs to happen in my house, here are some other things I found this weekend that I thought you might enjoy.

1. Mim Design’s (Australia) interior of Joy Cupcakes.  The quilt patch colourful wall, mixed with hanging wooden spoons on the wall, upside-down cupcake wrapper lights and a marble counter top (looks like marble) with a fringe that mirrors a doily is just spectacular.  The store has lots of natural light but clearly screams, modern cupcake.

2. Design Attractor’s (Czech Republic) colourful Restyle Prints sold through Etsy.com.  I, of course like this Retro Tea Prints, particularly the ones seen here, and here.

3. Seventeendoors’ post (Sweden) for the most stunning black and white kitchen I have seen in a while.  It’s got floor to ceiling tiles, great eclectic hanging lamps, a chalkboard cupboard and a mix and match of stainless steel, black and white.

I had too many carrots…

I opened my vegetable drawer to find out that I had too many carrots.  In my efforts to reduce my carrot supply, I set out to make a carrot cake.  Nothing like a carrot cake recipe that typically calls for 4 to 6 cups of grated carrots to burn through my stash.

I have had a page ticked down for a carrot bran brunch bunt cake from the LCBO‘s Food and Drink magazine (old issue) for weeks now and decided to do something about it.  I already went grocery shopping today and when I was assembling the ingredients, I realized I was short an egg (I had three out of four eggs).  After debating the potential baking repercussions of being short an egg in a cake, and not wanting to go back out and buy a dozen more eggs, I decided to regroup my baking initiative and look for a new recipe.  The problem is, when you look for a new recipe, you never have all the ingredients in your deviation plan, so you end up in the same spot you started out.  One egg short of a cake.

Carrots were on the brain.  Determined not to give up, I found a carrot cake recipe in the Rose Bakery (Paris) cookbook, Breakfast, Lunch, Tea,  that seemed a bit too decadent for what I was intending to bake (more healthy-brunchy-less rich carrot cake for dessert), but it was usable as a base.  I modified the recipe’s 2 cups of flour with a mixture of 1/2 cup white flour, 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour and 1/4 cup wheat bran and added a handful of golden raisins, 1/2 a can of pineapple chunks and another handful of crushed walnuts. I also skipped the frosting and tested it out with some blueberry jam.

I think it turned out well. It is a carrot cake mutt; a hybrid of several carrot cake-bread-loaf recipes which was transformed into something that turned out moist, crumbly and delicious.  (Thankfully- the baking gods do not always smile down on me when I get creative and mix different recipes!)

If you are looking for something a little more decadent, there is a great recipe here.

Photos for a Happy Thursday

Today started out rather grim.  It was rainy and cold and quite miserable in the city.  The type of day where you want to stay home, curl up in a warm afghan, with a book, a big pot of green tea and hibernate.  My energy felt totally drained by the grey skies.

This afternoon, instead of coming straight home to spend the afternoon working, I decided to take myself to a two hour dance workshop that was being run not too far from the college where I teach.  Let me tell you, it was a blast.

Post dance class, my body is super sore from the work out as dance is not in my repertoire for exercise but I got to laugh at myself, and my apparently clumsy, and slightly uncoordinated movements (all important things). Sometimes you just need to switch things up a bit.  When I left the studio, lucky me, the sun had come out which is what I am looking at now out of the west facing window of my flat as I write this post.  I am keeping my fingers crossed the weather stays like this all weekend.

What is making you smile this afternoon?  Here are some photos that may help.

Round out tea with coffee: Fourbarrel

Yesterday I posted about an exciting tea expansion that will no doubt hit the tea world by storm.  Today I am shifting gears into coffee.  My fiance is currently in San Francisco attending a cool technology course on how to gamefy processes while I am in Prague slowly loosing my voice from lecturing four days in a row.  I used to sing and perform on stage and apparently I have forgotten the appropriate techniques for preserving your voice but still making yourself heard and projecting in a room without strain.  Mental note, go back and check up on vocal straining.

Back to coffee. One of the questions my fiance and I always toss around prior to travel, regardless if it is for pleasure or business is where will we get our daily fix?  He:coffee, I:tea.  I mean, that is one of the most important things to figure out after  answering”what hotel will I be staying in?” Blue Bottle coffee in San Francisco looks like it is the most talked about coffee business in the city, but I was immediately attracted to a spot called Fourbarrel, a coffee shop opened by Jeremey Tooker in 2008 in the Mission district.  This”vertically integrated” coffee shop is backed by some serious interior design and is for the coffee junkie who appreciates a good bean.  The company sources, roasts and serves coffee in a very modern, industrial setting, and to borrow the words from a review by the website, The Architect’s Library, this cafe “uses architecture to AMP up the conversation.”  There is also a lovely video about Fourbarrel coffee that I posted below, if you want a behind the scene’s look at their business.  Seven Summit Productions (the company who made the video) really did a terrific job with this one.

I am waiting to hear the report from my man on just how large of space Fourbarrel occupies, but from what I can tell, the scale of Fourbarrel looks massive.  It was designed by Boor Bridges Architects and truly imbues a large scale, industrial chic atmosphere with its wooden tables made from salvaged beams and its vintage metal school-or draftsman looking chairs. I’m drooling over the interiors and totally jealous that I am no in SF right now to experience it myself.  Next time/next trip!  Has anyone been to Fourbarrel?

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

Kusmi Tea on the Up and Up

I got home from school this afternoon to read an exciting email about tea.  Word on the street from Adagio Teas is that one of my favourite tea brands from Paris, Kusmi Tea, is on the up and up with plans to embark on an international expansion of tea bars!  How wonderful that the world will be filled with more colourful, ornate tins of tea.

I love the story behind Kusmi tea.  Sylvan Orebi and his family who specialized in trading coffee and cacao, purchased the defunct Russian tea brand and revitalized the moniker turning it around into a luxury tea success story.  I am a big fan of their green jasmine tea as well as their Be Cool herbal blend with liquorice and mint.

Note, if you have never tried or purchased this brand before, I am warning you, don’t cringe at the price per tin.  This tea is not for those who prefer Lipton’s tea bags.  It is “special” tea to enjoy, versus sipping in mass quantity.  Kusmi can be particularly pricey depending on where you purchase it in North America.  Best bet is to find a friend in Europe and ask them nicely to bring you back a tin.  If the exchange rate is favourable, even better!   Any favourite flavours out there?

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3 

Easter Markets in Prague

I spent some time walking around the various Easter markets that have been popping up all over Prague’s square this past week.  I snapped some shots  to capture the colour and vibrancy of these markets that will be replaced by the markets of the next holiday or farmer’s markets (my hope).

Prague’s colourful Easter markets are filled with sweet smells, colourful eggs, ribbons, bunnies, chicks, toys, flowers, honey, pussy willow branches, and small gifts made of wood and glass.  Also sold is the traditional whipping stick!

Whipping stick. You read it correctly.  Apparently the Czech custom (dating back to the Middle Ages) is for men to whip women on Easter day in order to bring fertility to the family.  There is another tradition involving the woman getting to dump cold water on the man’s head but that was anecdotal and I am not sure if the water is part of the official custom or just in retaliation from being whipped.

While I did not witness the public Easter whippings, I did enjoy walking around the markets!!  I have never seen anything like these markets before in my life.   Easter, as I recall, is not as publicly or festively celebrated in Toronto.

If you had the holiday off today, how did you spend it?