Fat Cats, Very good books, and Margaret Howell HQ

Our neighborhood cat just can't get enough!

When I filmed this, I had had enough to drink. Perhaps slightly more than enough at the book party in honor of Cally Blackman's 100 Years of Menswear . It was a lovely soiree at Margaret Howell HQ, which is probably the single best place on earth. Or at least in this country. But I digress. The book is so much better than most fashion books. It is a fabulous collection of images and traces changes in visual culture through menswear. Also, on a pragmatic level, you won't bust the spine on it like I did on that Richard Martin and Harold Koda
Jocks and Nerds: Men's Style in the Twentieth Century. Quick note to Santa: I have already ordered it. Please buy me a new computer instead.
I recommend buying yourself this book:



And buying me this lovely 17 inch Mac Book Pro:

Only Chanel can top the ice cream cup cakes

I've nearly run out of ice cream cupcakes. We will share the last one tonight while finishing Edvard Munch. It has taken us 3 nights of viewing. The fashion is sublime.

More sublime and magical and ridiculous is the SS10 Chanel collection. I've been trying to steal pics to post. But alas it isn't working. So click through here, details as well:
Here!

Back to Munch and the last cupcake.

Oh yes. ICE CREAM CUPCAKES! MINT CHIP ICE CREAM CUPCAKES!

One only turns the age I turned recently once. And this is how I wanted to celebrate:
Rarely does my mental image of my cooking match the actual results. This how they ended up:

Delicious. I use the chocolate cake and cream cheese frosting recipes from this CUPCAKE BLOG. I froze 'pellets' of ice cream in my idli tray, assembled and returned to the freezer.

Din, Din, Dins

The veg box yielded eggplant (aubergines) and cavolo nero. The mister and I made rice while at the gym, and started a daal beforehand.

1/2 -1 red onion, cut lengthwise in strips
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 eggplant, diced to inch size pieces
couple cavolo nero leaves, shredded
veg oil to coat bottom of wok
cayenne pepper
ketchup
salt

Steam the eggplant/aubergine until knife tender, then drain.
Heat veg oil in wok over medium high heat, add onions once oil is hot. Stir fry. Once translucent, add cavolo nero leaves and garlic, and a few spoons of water. Continue stir frying until leaves are nice and wilted. Add eggplant, stir fry. Add cayenne pepper and salt to taste and a good dollop of ketchup. Stir fry and serve with rice, daal, and homemade mango lassis.Delicious. We turned the leftovers into a soup.

Lahmacun vs. Jil Sander

There was only one queue to wait on today. And alas, at lunchtime, even Jil Sander at Uniqlo doesn't trump my hunger. Does that make me a bad person?

Amen!

Excellent! I have always hated Passing Clouds in Dalston. We nearly went to a night there but they wanted to charge 5 quid 'for the experience' as patchouli wafted towards me. I hate patchouli. I don't know about you, but 'the experience' doesn't cut it. So stupid. We ended up going to The Haggerston, an excellent pub, and spent our 5 quid there. I spend 5 quid there pretty often. Anyway, Passing Clouds seems to have made some more enemies! Excellent!

The only thing worse than fashion week is Stansted.

Fashion week is like the traveling. Too much hurrying up to wait, queuing, getting tickets checked, etc. The only thing worse that it is Stansted. Last time we flew from there, a family (mother and daughter in a cheap pink, father and son in cheap blue) were ahead of us in the queue. They seemed innocuous enough, despite the 45 minute queue to check baggage at 5am, until 3 minutes from the front of the line. The awful adolescent daughter started whimpering how she didnt feel well. Her mum was all 'we're nearly at the front of the queue.' THEN, this dreadful girl puked all over herself and her pink tracksuit. We nearly died. It was even worse when the mother took all of her used tissues and PUT THEM BACK IN HER LUGGAGE.