My Favourite Things
Should be emptying the dishwasher, should be folding a pile of clothes in the laundry basket, should be paying my Visa bill, should be finishing writing a piece for the Real Food Handbook* (which goes to the printer in an alarmingly few number of hours), should have eaten a decent meal instead of egg on toast, should be tidying my study, should be watering my tomato, basil, parsley and mint seedlings, should have gone to yoga … but on a beautiful balmy Sydney night, how much better an option to sit on the balcony and feel the breeze and fiddle online and shake my head at Sarah Palin on Youtube and deliver a blog post that’s long overdue.
That sweet breeze is brushing away thoughts of a foul-ish day and reminding me to think, at times like this, of favourite things. Have to confess, I love the “Favourite Things” column every weekend in The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Weekend magazine — each week, a different high-profile person reveals the material things that matter the most to them. Deliciously voyeuristic.
Indulge me, because my camera and I decided to devise something similar. Hardly food related, unless you consider the espresso pot that provides the fuel for my days.
From the top, you'll see: my Chinese children. Picked up in Hollywood Road, Hong Kong, in the last days of my time living in the city. Two divine porcelain figures that an architect friend described as Post Modern and which I feel are slightly sinister, but lovable nonetheless ... Cultural Revolution perhaps, the glory of the peasantry, porcelain propaganda. Then, on the left, a bottle of Jicky perfume (by Guerlain). It was my grandmother's favourite perfume and I finally found it at a perfume counter in Saks San Francisco a few years ago... it's musty now, a bit like grandma's always was, but it brings her back to me more definitely than anything else can. On the right then, my hardy little Bialetti one-cup stovetop espresso maker. Has saved me from bad days on more occasions that I can begin to remember. (Perhaps I should have added to this montage a pack of Single Origin coffee?) Below that, a recent purchase — a perfectly pure ceramic bowl I bought in the gallery shop of my wonderful Tokyo hotel earlier this year, the Claska (post on the Claska breakfast to follow, soonish). I love its lines, its serenity, its markings. Finally, below the ceramic bowl, my constant companion, a pendant I wear most days. Bought in San Francisco during the same visit as the Jicky (what a fruitful trip that was!), and so much loved ever since. A bit naughty, a bit battered ... damn, I wish I had kept the piece of paper that told me who the artist is.
To celebrate, I don’t know what — favourite things, bad Mondays, Christmas looming, my reappearance in this space after a fortnight’s absence — I thought it might be fun to run a little contest with a nice little prize.
I’d like to know what your favourite things are. Post a comment with an evocative, descriptive list of five of your favourite things and, after a decent period has passed and a decent number of comments have been left, I’ll decide on a winner, and send that winner, no matter where they might live, a copy of the recently released, rather luscious, flock-covered Fire, by Sydney chef Christine Manfield (Penguin, 2008).
It's a cookbook with travel stories, wisdom and tips from Tokyo to Istanbul, Hanoi to Marrakech. Perhaps not the easiest recipes in the world (spiced duck and green bean sambal; five spice roasted suckling pig with steamed garlic eggplant; chicken and lobster salad, foie gras and young coconut) but enticing for serious cooks and cookbook collectors nonetheless. Go to it ... give me your favourite things!
* Oh, the Real Food Handbook. I guess you want to know about that... it's my baby at work, a mini-magazine coming out on Saturday, November 15 with The Sydney Morning Herald. Great stuff in it, from old-fashioned afternoon teas, to backyard chooks.
