Author: Bunny Eats Design
Monday Bunday: Rabbit Teapots
I have a thing for teapots. I love the decorative, uniqueness about them and how they actually serve a purpose. I’m not a collector though as I only have 1 teapot and it doesn’t even have a rabbit on it. If I were looking to expend my collection, I might consider these… 1. Tea for Two by Shinzi Katoh. 2. Bunny Teapot by Clay Nest Pottery. 3. Bunny Teapot by Abby Berkson Ceramics. 4. Bone China Rabbit Teapot from Have You Met Miss Jones. 5. Rabbit Teapot by Christy Crews Dunn. 5. Ayumi Horie‘s rabbit teapots
Nice Jug.
It’s not often your Mum sends you to a corner of the interwebs that is both awesome and unfamiliar. Thanks Mum! Mum was making palmiers which she’d made a million times before, but when I said I wanted to make them too, she referred me to Videojug. Videojug! Where have you been all my internet life? Videojug is a collection of professionally made “how to” videos. Find out how to just about anything. It’s no frills and gets right to the point. There are 10 categories you can choose from or you can just type in a topic or a keyword into the search field. Often written instructions don’t quite describe how to execute a new cooking technique. How much sugar to sprinkle on palmiers? How more force to use when pounding beef carpaccio? The top viewed videos on Videojug today are: How To Kiss Someone Passionately How To Avoid Trapped Arm Whilst Cuddling In Bed How To Get Naked Together For The First Time How To Kiss Creatively How To Put On A Condom How To …
All Black Morning Tea
Like many people in the country yesterday, we had a themed morning tea at work. There were some great treats including an amazing black rugby ball chocolate cake, cheesymite scrolls, dark chocolate and the prerequisite sausage rolls and mince savouries. Yesterday, with the Rugby World Cup celebrations, we finally took advantage of the fact that we live and work in Mt Eden. We worked outside the stadium last night with a team of 10 and it was nice to be part of the festivities even if we weren’t going in. Relieved we didn’t have to deal with public transport, we had an evening of of walking from work, to home, to work, to the park to home again, finished off the night drinking beers with friends at home watching the game on TV1. It must be the first game I’ve ever watched.
A Taste of a Poison Paradise
We had a bit of a scare this week when Tofu ran inside on his own and sat under my desk hunched up, trembling and grinding his teeth. Teeth grinding in rabbits can indicate pain and he refused food and water including bunny favourites like carrots and pellets. When he gets his cheeks and arms rubbed, Tofu stretches out his arms to say “OOoooOooh yeah, dat’s good”. So he got plenty of that and it was a relief that he was responding to touch. He was hunched up like this for over an hour. We kept him warm by covering him a folded towel, patted him and tried to entice him with food. Rabbits graze all day so it’s a concern if they refuse food for any period of time. It’s often bad news. Suddenly, he was fine again. All the untouched food we had laid before him, was demolished ate with great fervor. He devoured everything. Heatstroke? The last time he was sick (last summer), we suspected it was heatstroke. But Auckland is only about …
The secret to making Vietnamese Spring Rolls
Vietnamese spring rolls (or summer rolls) are one of my favourite things to eat and I always order this as starter when we visit a Vietnamese restaurant. The light, refreshing roll contrasts with a punchy sauce and I feel like I never get enough of these things. The beauty of making food at home is you can have as many pieces as you like. You can eat as many as you like for a main course without confusing your poor waiter. I’ve made these rolls once before but it was a messy failure. My mistake was to soak the rice paper in hot water and for too long. By the time you roll up, it disintegrates and you can forget about trying to eat them with any ounce of dignity. I have found the secret which I will share with you below. When we were eating in Hanoi, Vietnam at the start of this year, I noticed that the rice paper rolls were a tad under softened. That led me to believe that the rolls …
An Inkling
The latest buzz around the design and illustration forums and sites is the upcoming release of the Wacom Inkling. With this teched up pen and receiver, all your drawings on paper are recorded to later be plugged by usb into your computer. You can record drawings in layers as well as outputting them to vector. This is great for those that are used to drawing with ball point pen, but those who are addicted to pencil (and eraser) might find this hard to work with. I suppose the next step up from this pen is a pencil with an eraser end that records both drawing and erasing. I’m totally looking forward to its release this or next month.
Tofu Tuesday: Camo-Tof
Monday Bunday: Rabbit Salt and Pepper Grinders
You may have noticed these salt and pepper grinders in some of my food photos. They are bunny themed without screaming “crazy bunny lady”. I think the minimal design is very smart. Available heaps of places online and in real life brick and mortar shops.
Whitianga Scallops
The seafood people came bearing scallops that had been plucked fresh from Whitianga. I can’t resist a fresh scallop so I bought a bag of them for $26. I was hungry and fresh seafood is a weakness. When they are fresh, the are sweet, tender and not at all fishy. They have this this flavour that reminds me of oysters and lobster. I wish there were more words in our vocabulary to define the difference. Scallops are one of those seafoods that I have yet to overindulge in. Even when we’ve travelled to destinations where scallops are plentiful, we haven’t eaten to our limit. In New Zealand, we eat both the white adductor muscle and the orange/white coral. They are sold as one. Both the orange and the white part are equally delicious. I would feel cheated if I were served scallops with only the adductor muscle. I might eye the server suspiciously and impore, “Where is the rest of my scallop?!”. Scallops in the morning? I woke up thinking about scallops. The Koala asked, …
The Fridge: Chicken Caesar Wrap
Everyone always raves about the gourmet pies at The Fridge in Kingsland. They truly are magnificent. But people forget about their amazing wraps too. This wrap is all I ever want for breakfast after a night out. It’s fairly mild, but that creamy, tasty anchovy mayo and layers of bacon balance it right out. I wish I’d placed a toy in this photo for size comparison, this wrap is impressive in it’s girth. If you’re impressed with things like girth that is…
Farmers’ Market Demos
Zo from Two Spoons recently brought my attention to the farmers’ market cooking demos that are running from 4 September 4th to 23 October in conjunction with the REAL New Zealand Festival. The demos are free. Yes! Free! One of my spring goals is to visit a new farmers market, so the timing is impeccable. There is a competition to be a Market VIP for the day with great prizes including a chance to meet with your local chef. Visit this link to enter. You can visit the schedule on their website or over on Facebook. The Auckland demonstrations are: 15 October 2011 at Parnell Farmers’ Market. (10am – noon) Chef: Julie Biuso 23 October 2011 at Grey Lynn Farmers’ Market. (10am – noon) Chef: David Schofield More info on Grey Lynn Farmers’ Market can be found here. More info on Parnell Farmers’ Market can be found here.
Hello Spring!
Woot! It’s that time of year again here in the Southern Hemisphere. Spring runs from now until the end of November so those hearty winter stews make way for lighter, brighter things like salads and BBQ. Raw food is back on the menu. Seafood comes back in full force. Stuff in your garden and in other people’s gardens start to bloom again. You’re happier eating lighter food and you start eating it outdoors. Here is my list of 10 spring inspired tasks to tend to my growing edge: Eat a flower Forage something and cook with it Make Vietnamese Spring Rolls Have a spring themed picnic Make a white sangria Visit a new farmers market Make macadamia and coriander pesto (using garden bounty). Make Oysters Kilpatrick Deal to a freshly caught fish Prepare a raw meal What are you looking forward to this spring?
Buh-bye Winter
Your growing edge is the part of you that is still learning, trying new things and experimenting. It’s the area of your life that you are improving and working on. To push my growing edge as a foodie, I wrote a list of foodie tasks I wanted to achieve over the cold months. Tomorrow is the first day of spring so let’s look at the “To Do” list I wrote at the start of Autumn. I completed 8 out of 13 tasks I set for myself. Not amazing, but an ok first attempt. I wrote a blog entry on all the tasks I completed and links can be found below. 1. Learn to make Chinese soup. Done! I shared my recipe for this here. 2. Hold a cheese and red wine tasting party. Done! Photos of the event as well as the colourful tasting notes on the cheese and wine. 3. Overeat at a steamboat. Done with pleasure on a cold winter’s night. See here. 4. Get a slow cooker. This didn’t happen. I did …
Tofu Tuesday: Broccolimorph
From Wiki: Broccoli: is a plant in the cabbage family, whose large flower head is used as a vegetable. Lagomorph: The lagomorphs are the members of the taxonomic order Lagomorpha, of which there are two living families, the Leporidae (hares and rabbits), and the Ochotonidae (pikas). The name of the order is derived from the Greek lagos (λαγος, “hare”) and morphē (μορφή, “form”).
Monday Bunday: Smorkin’ Labbit Stool by Kozik
In celebration of seeing Frank Kozik speak over the weekend, this week’s Monday Bunday is about one of his biggest collectables, the Smorkin’ Labbit Stool. 30 inches high and made from fibreglass. I would love this in my house. Black is sold out but the white version is still available over at Kid Robot.
Labbits at We Can Create
When I heard that Frank Kozik was coming to We Can Create this year, I was there already. I collect Frank’s bunny inspired labbit and dunny toys and he is one of my design heroes. Geek out! Frank Kozik was the grand finale for We Can Create and I was super stoked that he talked a lot about his toys. He even mentioned that his fans regularly sent him pictures of their toys on wedding cakes and in different scenarios. Frank Kozik Graphic artist, San Fransisco Unlike many of the other speakers, Frank seems to enjoy designing for niche and an underground. With any successful artist, Frank questioned if people were collecting his early gig posters because they liked his work, or because people were collecting their favourite band’s poster – no matter what it looked like. After many years in the music industry Frank called it quits and went to Japan for a while. There, he was inspired by toys and revisited old friends like Hello Kitty. Toys are non-exclusive because of their multiple nature. Unlike artworks, …
Day Two – Genius At Work
Things I learned from the second day at We Can Create. Chris Graham Film director, New Zealand From Chris Graham, I learned that as a director (or a designer) you need to assert your vision. Even if you are working with big names and you are no-one. People will respect you for it. He also reiterated a concept about portfolios I’ve feel strongly about: If you present the kinds of work you want to do, you won’t have to pitch to do it later. Look at your portfolio as a pitching tool. Engin Celikbas from Kesselskramer Advertising, Amsterdam Companies are changing and becoming multi-disciplinary. Hype and a different perspective will make your project memorable. Eric Rodenback from Stamen Design Data visualisation, San Fransisco Eric Rodenback from Stamen Design brought together data with interesting ways to present it. It sounds geeky and it is geeky, but it’s wildly entertaining, beautiful and educational. He works with graphs, maps, diagrams like you have never seen them before. One thing that I found interesting: To protect their hard work, …
Day One – Inspired
I’m officially a fan of Auckland’s new creative symposium We Can Create. Symposium is a pretty fancy word for conference. But conference isn’t the right word for my last 2 days at Aotea Centre. Hosted by Te Radar, who has hosted many Semi-Permanent events over the years. Te Radar always gives great anecdotes that aren’t particularly relevant, but always educational, entertaining and New Zealand inspired. Here are some photos I took as well as stuff I learned from each of the speakers. Te Radar Presents: I was in great spirits after the first 2 speakers. I go gaga over typography and illustration so kiwi typographer Kris Sowersby and New York illustrator Sara Blake just blew me away. Kris Sowersby Typography, New Zealand Who even knew that we had a typography designer here in NZ? I didn’t. Sara Blake Illustration, New York I was amazed that Sara was a freelancer on top of her day job. Freelancing hours being 8pm to 4am. Her thoughts on fucking up and having the freedom to make ugly stuff was inspirational. …
A Tasty Hole
Beef osso buco was on special at Nosh this week so I bought a couple of medium sized pieces before I knew exactly what to do with them. Like many odd ball cuts, osso buco can refer to both the cut and the dish. Meaning “bone with a hole”, osso buco is traditionally a braised meat and vegetable dish and there were many variations to be found online. It is pronounced exactly the way it is spelled and I admit, I bought this cut for the marrow. I’ve never cooked marrow before, but if you enjoy eating savoury, rich, fatty, buttery food then you will probably like marrow. I read a few recipes and articles and then did my own interpretation of osso buco. Chinese celery, soy sauce, avocado oil…I can vouch for it’s inauthenticity. Onions, carrots and celery are referred to as mirepoix (pronounced Mer-pwa) in French cooking or “the holy trinity” in Creole. Both parsley and celery were on my shopping list but when I saw chinese celery which looked like a cross …
Bunny Eats Design 