Passage Paradis

Sunday, May 18, 2014

When Things Are Looking Black...........

It's hard

(Photo: Ben Pentreath)

not to appreciate

its muscular

graphic

pussycat

......NO, I mean, PUNCH!

How was the weekend? Hope it was a good one.

Friday, May 16, 2014

Weekend Wonders

Andres Amador of San Francisco.

Is who did these things.

Aren't they stunning!

It's a wonderful world sometimes isn't it?

I mean, at least these are!

Don't you think?

Could they make your weekend a little bit sweeter? Have a good one!

Bonus link: Interview with Phillippe Petit on Creativity and Risk Taking. (Yes, the Frenchman who tightroped between the World Trade Centers Twin Towers. The movie about this was so beautiful, inspiring, tragic.) One of my total heroes. Everything he says has such clarity, simplicity and truth.

HaPPY WeeKend!!!

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Dream House - Venice Home and Garden Tour 2014

La-La LA-LA-LA!!!!! I fell in love

at the Venice Home and Garden Tour.

I don't think I was the only one.

But really, if there is such a thing as Heaven, I would be the most deserving one at the Pearly Gate.

Please believe me, whosoever Thou might be who makes those Big Decisions. I need this kitchen. those windows.

I am truly the ONE for this little nook alongside the Fireplace. Someone who will appreciate and actually READ all those cookbooks piled on the (so ME!) vintage scales. Those white dishes, just my style, so simply stacked. (In Heaven there are NO earthquakes - note to Self and God!)

Those shiny white tiles: I'm a humble person, they suit me down to the ground, I don't need no "tumbled" anything or fancy color combos. What can be more pleasing than plain shiny white tiles in full sense-surround at stove side????? (In Heaven, the grout lines don't turn gray, you don't actually HAVE to eat, the marble surrounds don't get spattered and Sriracha stained. The cheese-baked-on to Le Creuset gratin dishes will wash themselves.)

This is the kind of house that turns up in decorating magazines. For people who can afford beach houses. I can't, and so I don't usually like such houses, or really such magazines. But for this house, I can make an exception.

Because of it's swimming costume theme. (And the kitchen.)

And its roll-top, claw footed, perfectly green-stripe accented bathtub with a banana tree just outside the window.

If this house were mine in Heaven, there would be angels at my table. (Can you see their wings glimmering in the beachy light?)

I would make pastries for them. Puff-pastry. Encasing perfectly de-boned tiny game birds. Set out on Fiesta ware. (Which you can't see in the glass-in cupboard but I know it's there, as it will be when I get to Heaven.)

Dishes will wash themselves so that I can just spend my non-entertaining days running my fingers over these smoothly immaculate surfaces.

My Ohana, Duke Kahanamoku will be waiting for me there. In the HAWAIIAN ROOM. With all those nice cushions. Aaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!

I love being in love. It's HEAVENLY.

(Yes, the house is a vacation rental: You can find it here. It sleeps ten. You might need ALL those friends, or a lottery ticket, to cover a weeks rent. But you probs won't regret it. It is steps from the beach.)

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Eat Global, Think Local! - Brixton Market, Part Three

Brixton is a hipper, slightly smaller scale, multi-ethnic Borough (and sometimes, Spitalfields) market.

It won't disappoint!

It's open till 11 p.m.

You'll be spoilt for choice.

You'll have plenty of company.

Whether you're lunching with family

(the prices are so much gentler than in more touristy London)

or (as besotted as I am with Falconware and) planning a Jamie-style dinner with your own folk.

All the fixings for celebration are here, and the means by which to record such a one.

On the other hand, GELATO????? (Every place looks empty because we were there on on Monday or Tuesday morning which is closing day for many. I am assured that this quiet is not NORMAL.)

Have I mentioned that there is a sweet granny-chic quality about the place?

Even when the granny is a chubby nice Thai one selling "Happy Dumplings" (which unhappily, don't get great online reviews).

Need wine for that celebration?

Or would you rather celebrate at foodie-ambitious "Salon"?

With its rustic charms and single menu format that has drawn both raves and grumbles.

But listen, you have options! Like this "good owl' trad caff" for brunch with Bowser and Bestie?

(There's a good second hand book store at the other end of this arcade and just across the street.)

Tea-toast-n-eggs?

A crusty sandwich?

A rainbow of fishy fantasmagoria? (I have never been to Billingsgate but this is by far the best selection of fish I've seen almost anywhere purveyed by a range of Pakistani and Somali-possibly fish mongers. Impeccably fresh and varied. This is only one of several very high standard fish shops in the market.) If you are visiting London and have somewhere to cook I'd suggest you just: "SAY YES"!

Don't know what this lovely place is called but their table settings

and bookcases (!) suggest they care! DEEPLY.

A little boringly, I thought (I would have gone for Thai food), Mr. Paradis plumped for pizza at the original, flagship, Franco Manca.

(We'd previously very much enjoyed it in Chiswick here.)

They make a very tasty-and-tender sourdough crust! So yes, I would eat it RIGHT NOW.

This post has only very superficially scratched the surface of all that Brixton Market offers. Please report back to me what you did there?! If I go back, there will certainly be another post. Rock on, Brixton Market, you right there on Electric Avenue.

*For more on Brixton Market, check out this review by the Guardian's Jay Rayner the erstwhile Musketeer of Mangia. For better or worse, his review confirms what we ourselves witnessed: that "Honest Burgers" (not shown here) is apparently justifiably, one of the very best options here. So much or just, "so-so" for multiculturalism!