locanda locatelli

we finally made the journey to Giorgio Locatelli's restaurant near Marble Arch after months of planning a hypothetical visit "at some point". having had mixed experiences with Refettorio, where Locatelli consults, we were happy to find that Locanda Locatelli was yet another step up. locanda, which translates into "inn", lives up to its name with its unpretentious and rich flavours while still capturing remarkable complexity with each bite.

we started with an octopus carpaccio (carpaccio di polipo), which came with a simple accompaniment of tomatoes and basil. the octopus was the star of the dish, thinly sliced and losing the toughness that one tends to get when eating octopus, especially in sashimi.

the two pasta dishes arrived together: the malfatti with ricotta, walnuts and aubergine, topped with tomato puree and a slow-roasted basil leaf, and the tortelli with veal, parmesan and saffron filling. of the two, the malfatti was the more surprising, with the unexpected texture of the roughly diced walnuts and thinly sliced aubergine interrupting the smooth ricotta. the beauty was the basil leaf, which was roasted on a low heat for hours to arrive at the final papery crispness. the complexity of this pasta probably stands it amongst one of the best i've had. unfortunately, in comparison to this the saffron in the tortelli ended up rather lost in the rich veal flavour.

not pictured (but equally enjoyable) was the dessert, a strawberry and mango lasagne with vanilla ice-cream. the lasagne had a clear crystallised sugar coat on top, providing a crunch. the mango did tend to detract from the refreshing tang of the strawberry. while demolishing the dessert, we considered various combinations of fruit - strawberry and rhubarb in the lasagne, with a mint ice-cream?

the entire experience was made especially enjoyable with the attentive service, and after chatting with the waiter all evening, we traded recommendations at the end of it: Atari-ya from us since his wife loved sashimi, in exchange for Il Ponte, a restaurant in Barga, Italy, run by a friend of his.

Locanda Locatelli
8 Seymour Street
London W1H 7JZ

15minutes

A reference to the well known Warhol quote "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.", 15Minutes is a bar/bistro located in what used to be a ground floor gallery space at the corner of one of the 6 prismatic blocks in the La Salle School of the Arts .

Separated into 2 sections, the upper deck had an array of canteen tables and benches filling up the space, an L-shaped service counter borders 2 sides with a sliding blackboard menu at the back. At the lower deck, the space is furnished with loungey furniture with a drinks bar on one of the long sides with a stage tucked at the end. The overall space has a raw econo-chic aesthetics coupled with the high ceiling and exposed ducts and pipes. While their facebook group says it's "Good for kids", the place, unsurprisingly, attracts a crowd of mostly young creative types.

Although the Warhol reference is rather trite and the premise of the place sounds like one architecture school project cliche in another, they actually serve quite decent food here. The simple menu is made up of mainly pastas, pizzas, salads and soups. I had the prawn aglio olio with prawns that I quite enjoyed. The spaghetti had a nice firm bite and lightly spiced with a curry mix, giving the dish a delightful twang. And judging by what the other patrons ordered, they seem to make a mean glass of cocktail too. Unfortunately, the food did not arrive in 15minutes, as the name might suggest, and we had to rush through the meal so that we could make it in time for the plays that we were watching in the same building.

The words "Friends, food & fame" are boldly emblazoned on the glass in front. While you probably will not find fame at 15minutes, the place is unpretentiously chic and a wonderfully pleasant for chilling out IF you bring your own friends. Have to wait a little for the food though.


15minutes
Blk D, #01-01,
1 McNally Street,
LASALLE College of the Arts

excluded from art

The building must please everybody. In contrast to the work of art, which does not have to please anybody. The work of art is a private affair of the artist. The building is not. The work of art is brought into the world without there being a need for it. The building supplies a need. The work of art is responsible to no one, the house to each person. The work of art wants to tear people from their comfort zone. The building must serve comfort. The work of art is revolutionary, the building is conservative. The work of art opens new avenues to mankind and thinks of the future. The building thinks of the present. Mankind loves everything that serves his comfort. He hates everything that wants to tear him from his habitual and safe position and that bothers him. And thus he loves the building and hates art. Thus does it not then follow that the house has nothing to do with art and that architecture would not be counted among the arts? Thus it is. Only a small part of architecture belongs to art: the gravestone and the monument. Everything else that serves a purpose can be excluded from the kingdom of art.

Architektur, Adolf Loos

shutting up shop

'shutting up shop' is the title of a book of photos i encountered today - by John Londei, a UK-based photographer, who created this collection of portraits of tradespeople and their stores, all local small-time establishments that belong to that stream of forgotten trades and places. his project stretched over 17 years, beginning from 1973.

something in this work clicked with Susan Sontag's quote from a letter to jane (Jean-Luc Godard): "this photograph...is physically mute. it talks through the mouth of the text written beneath it."

in this case, Londei's subjects speak through his interview transcripts, in complete, anecdotal and nearly-nostalgic sentences. as anthropological documentation of a dying way of life, it is too sentimental; as story-telling, it is too systematic. and yet it works: i found myself pouring through the 60 sets of photos and text, including the afterword where Londei reports on the shops as they are today. most no longer in existence, some winding down due to financial pressures, others due to their owners' passing.

Woods&Woods x Work

A series of work wear created and presented in collaboration between Theseus Chan from WORK and Woods & Woods. Panels of fleece,waterproof cotton and woven plaid are put together to create pieces ranging from colour block blazers, shirt-jackets to carpenter pants and drop crotch shorts.

presented at 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road

woods & woods fw09

Woods & Woods fw09
"Stranger than Fiction"
8th july
presented at 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road

gldani

Came across these pictures of the Gldani housing in Tbilisi on the Social Housing after the Soviets blog. It documented the old Soviet social housing estate 20 years on after the fall of the Soviet Bloc. In some pictures, room extensions constructed in a variety of contrasting materials can be seen protruding from the utilitarian style slab blocks, some having balconies, some having bay windows and one with an overgrown plant spilling out of what might be a lush indoor garden. In another picture, the flat facade of the block is composed of a patchwork of different materials, with much of the original fenestration modified, some partially bricked to reduce the window opening (and probably creating a warmer room). Despite the variety of the modifications, the unspoken horizontal and vertical bounds of each individual unit is strictly adhered to and the structural integrity of the existing building is never compromised. There is a fine balance between private benefits and the public good. The ground floor too is being territorialized, with parts of it being partitioned and closed up into pockets of storage and garage spaces.

This post-occupancy modification of architecture expresses ideas of free will and individual choice, and also represents the shifting power relations between architects, end users and the authorities. Architects often,whether consciously or not, imagine new buildings as a finished products, with all needs and requirements fulfilled and future growth projected and accounted for. But very much like Barthes' dead authors, architects rarely have control during the post occupancy phase. Reality is complex and future outcomes are more often than not quite different from what we imagine. As much as the personal and irregular customization of the building is an affront to the ideology that the brutal Soviet style architecture represented, it is also a big Nelson Muntz "ha-ha" to the totality of the architect's grand and slightly delusional vision.

As much as I am excited by the vitality and ideas suggested by post-occupancy modification, I also relish the grotesque (in a good way) patchwork aesthetics of the trophic growth of the new volumes and textures, borne not of vanity but out of efficiency, economy and need; like an expanding colony of algae spreading out along the path of water dripping off the eave of a roof, or a creeper piercing through layers of old paint on a wall firmly grasping to the masonry underneath.

On the topic of organic growth, Kisho Kurokawa's Metabolist icon, the 1972 Nakagin Capsule Tower is falling into disrepair and faces demolition, its designed potential for organic expansion never utilized.

Social Housing after the Soviets

savoury ice creams

I've been toying with the idea of getting an ice cream machine recently, hoping to make some flavours that even the most adventurous of ice cream shops in Singapore are afraid to put out. In particular, the idea of a savoury ice cream intrigues me. This is not purely a wilful inversion of expectations, the concept is being explored by many in the culinary world right now. I've had a few encounters with savoury ice creams myself and they were mind boggling. Good and bad does not even suffice to descirbe or appraise those concoctions.

A friend whom I've been throwing food ideas around with, alerted me to a new ice cream stand at Skinny Pizza in Suntec City serving a selection of home made savoury ice creams. Skinny pizza, if you are not aware, is an off shoot of House and serves pizzas on a thin papadum crust (they serve excellent pizzas in y opinion though pizza purists might disagree). So the savoury ice creams really piqued our interest and we decided to go try it out. They had 3 flavours available which were parmesan pecan, truffled mushrooms and Mexcican chilli. The parmesan pecan ice cream had delightful bits of shredded parmesan cheese but some how it reminded me of a cheese cake more than anything else. The truffled mushroom ice cream wasn't quite the frozen mushroom soup I was expecting but I enjoyed the earthy rawness of the mushroom flavour. My favorite among the 3 was Mexican chilli which had a strong jalepeno note in the slightly sweet milk base, ending with a punch of heat at the back of the palate. I think the master's stroke was really the pizza crust cone. The saltiness and slight smokiness of the cone brilliantly complements the savoriness of the ice creams and with that, lifted itself from being the gimmick that I initially thought it was to being a vital component. It is also worthy to note that the ice creams did really well when used as a cold dip for the truffle fries that the place serves. The only general criticism I have for all 3 flavours is that the very discernable sweetness in the milk base detracts from the idea of a saoury ice cream, as if the creators were afraid to go all out savoury.

It turned out that they had only put out the ice creams a few days ago, though at a cursory glance,they did not seem to be popular among the patrons. We were the only people who ordered the ice creams the whole time we were there. I'm not sure if savoury ice creams have a future in Singapore but I sure hope that it will have a future in my home. Need to start saving up for that ice cream machine.