Friday Food Fest: Look for the red Cuban star!

Anybody who has begun to understand the great Mishtery, knows that seafood is my greatest love and yes, I would gladly have it over a perfect steak. At this point a lot of the readers might cringe, but I speak the truth. I am a lover of seafood. It is in this spirit that I decided on this wonderful recipe from the cookbook, Halfaampieskraal Celebrates written by Maia du Plessis  and Simon Scarbor.  Halfaampieskraal is a wonderful farm, perfect get-away inspired by Cuban influences.  I quite like the idea of a real piece of Cuba nestled in the Overberg. Look for the signature Cuban red star. Divertirse!  

Prawn and smoked paprika spaghetti

1 cup olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

10 cloves garlic, chopped

800 g green prawns, deveined

2 tablespoons smoked paprika

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tablespoon chilli flakes (optional)

sea salt

black pepper

600 g spaghetti

1 large handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped Heat the oil in a large paella-type pan. Sauté the garlic and add the prawns, moving them around the pan until they are just turning pink. Turn off the heat and add the smoked paprika, tomato paste and chilli flakes, if you are using them. Season with salt and black pepper.

Cook the spaghetti in lots of salted water until al dente. Drain, then add a cup of the cooking water to the prawns to loosen the sauce. Add the pasta to the sauce, sprinkle over the flat-leaf parsley and shake the pan to combine. Drizzle with extra olive oil.

Serves 6

Mish Fashionista

This year, I plan to visit the Mercedes-Benz Cape Town Fashion Week. I want to experience the fashion world, dip my toe into the glitz and glamour pool and form my own opinion about this creative industry. This week has been fashionably inspired and so far has lead me on a mission to discover who the influential designers of the 20th century were and who still remain relevant today. I thought I would share these three designers with you!

Coco Chanel

Coco Chanel creates the stapel LBD 1924

This fashion icon along with many French and Italian designers dominated the 20th century. This woman was brazen, daring and imposed style onto her willing consumers. In the 1920's she shaped the women's wardrobe forever. She made the 'Little Black Dress' a stapel buy for any women's wardrobe regardless of her age. She is also responsible for the putting women in more masculine attire like the women's suit. This woman is a surviver in the truest sense of the word, surviving the second world war and lots more. She embodied prestige, unmistakable style and unique taste! Numerous movies were also made in this icon's honour.

Valentino Garavani

Valentino red is the definition of Lady in red.

 Valentino Garavani is an Italian icon who perfectly interepts fashion for women and drapes her in the most delicate red that never goes out of style. He is responsible for the perfect shade of orangy red that would remain in style for years to come. Garavani's greatest gift to fashion besides the romantic red was in 1969 when he introduced the first pret-a-porter or ready to wear line. This brought him great success and forever changed fashion.

Salvatore Ferragamo

Designer of the wedge, Salvatore Ferragamo.

 Another Italian fashion icon is Salvatore Ferragamo. After the second world war, an ingenius shoe would be brought to life. Ferragamo's gift to fashion came in 1934 in the form of a wedge heel. This heel was primarily made with cork and wood as material. He made use of these materials as leather and wood was a scare commodity after the wake of the war.

Next week I will share some fashion phrases and define them. Do research the iconic figures in this influential industry, you might be pleasantly surprised by your findings! I know, I was. Don't take my word for it, see for yourself.

 

 

Mercedes-Benz Cape Town Fashion Week
18 shows | 4 days
25 – 28th July 2012
Cape Town International Conference Centre (CTICC)
Tickets will be sold by
Webtickets

Friday Food Fest: It's an Eastern affair!

This Friday Food Fest recipe was inspired by the Thailand Trade Show at the CTICC. Not a glam affair and I would not recommend attending the show because it purely is aimed at business people buying for their stores etc. This event is free and Non Traders are welcome. The show has many Thai products ranging from food, to kitchenware, some household and beauty items on show. They do sell a few samples to poke the interest of visitors, so there are a few bargains.  The trade show will ends tomorrow at 16:00.

Coconuts

Coconuts are signature ingredients in many Thai dishes. It is flavoursome and positively addictive when paired with chicken or fish. Today, I discovered how lip smackingly delicious Tong Garden's Coconut Cream Coated Peanuts  are and its pakaged in a cute can! It is so delicious, it is hard to believe its so healthy. Hmmm...

Foodie in the making

A blogger bro once asked me if I am a foodie, because I have numerous food posts and after finding the meaning of the word, I decided, I am a foodie-in-the-making!

Foodie is an informal term for a particular class of aficionado of food and drink. The word was coined in 1981 by Paul Levy and Ann Barr, who used it in the title of their 1984 book The Official Foodie Handbook. ~ Wikipedia  

The recipe I have decided to share with you is from You Let's Cook Step by Step by Carmen Niehaus. (Go get some coconut milk because this is the theme here!) This is a highly accessible recipe book no matter what your level of cooking expertise may be. It is great for begginers and teaches to fry up a steak to succulent perfection or to conjure up a malva pudding deluxe! Enjoy!

 Eastern chicken curry

  

Serves 6

CHICKEN

4–6 chicken breast fillets,

cut into strips

30 ml (2 T) soy sauce

250 g young green beans

125 g broccoli florets

45 ml (3 T) cornflour

1–2 ml (¼–½ t) turmeric

40 ml (8 t) canola oil

15 ml (1 T) sesame oil

125 g mushrooms, halved

1 punnet (125 g) baby corn

CURRY MIX

60 ml (¼ C) tandoori and

tikka paste

a few drops of fish sauce

250 ml (1 C) plain yoghurt

125 ml (½ C) coconut milk

60 ml (¼ C) chopped

fresh coriander

TO SERVE

peanuts for sprinkling

jasmine rice

1 CHICKEN

Drizzle the chicken strips with soy sauce and set aside for a few minutes. Heat 20 ml (4 t) of the canola oil and all the sesame oil in a heavy-based pan and fry the chicken strips in batches until lightly browned and just cooked. Remove from the pan and set aside. Mix the cornflour and turmeric on a shallow plate and roll the chicken strips in the mixture.

2 Pour boiling water over the green beans and broccoli and leave to stand for 1 minute. Drain and set aside.

3 Mix the cornflour and turmeric on a shallow plate and roll the chicken strips in the mixture.

4 Heat 20 ml (4 t) of the canola oil and all the sesame oil in a heavy-based pan and fry the chicken strips in batches until lightly browned and just cooked. Remove from the pan and set aside.

 

5 Add the green beans and broccoli. Use chopsticks to stir-fry the vegetables until cooked but still crisp. Do not overcook.

6 Wipe the pan clean. Heat the remaining canola oil and add the mushrooms. Stir-fry until just beginning to brown. Add the baby corn and stir-fry for 1 minute.

7 CURRY MIX
Mix all the ingredients together and add to the vegetables in the pan.

8 Return the chicken to the pan and heat through.

Sprinkle over peanuts just before serving with jasmine rice.

A Mish-Take would be swapping the peanuts for some cashews!

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Friday Food Fest is a saucy Mishtery!

 

M out of 10 review: Snow White and the Huntsman



Image Source

Not a lot of people know this, but the story of Snow White dates back to as early as the 1800s. Over the centuries many different versions would be rendered. The modern day version turns the first animated Walt Disney classic into an epic, dark adventure and far removed from the warm fuzzy feelings of previous movies. Starring Charlize Theron as Ravenna the evil queen, Kristin Stewart as the heroine, Snow White and Chris Hemsworth as the huntsman, this was surely a cast I had to see in action for myself.

This movie is an epic struggle of the queen who murders her king to take over the kingdom and become the fairest of them all. The queen soon discovers that she can only be the fairest once she consumes the heart of Snow White, and sends in the Huntsman to do her bidding. Snow White is the fierce heroine who in the end saves the day.

Visually this movie was frighteningly beautiful, as I had expected. Snow White and the Huntsman was set in Erindale Castle, West Sussex, England. Beautiful regal settings with rich history. This was a feast for the eyes but no less can be expected by the same producers as Alice in Wonderland. I am talking visual effects that really added layers to the movie with a 60-piece choir singing in vocal parts. Florence Welch added awesome musical dimension with her tracks for this flick. Look out for enchanted forests, melting mirrors and distracting dwarfs. You will see what I mean.

Lips, red as blood, hair black as night…
Bring me her heart, my dear, dear Snow White…

Charlize sends chills up and down my spine. Our fair queen, Charlize, perfectly embodied the essence of this character. She was cold, royal, cruel and wicked beyond words.  I loved her performance. She was without a doubt, the BEST in this screenplay and I am not saying it because she is quality export from South Africa. I do feel that the her progression throughout the movie was not very logical and it took too long before she took matters into her own hands. The movie felt very choppy in certain parts.

Image source:

As for Kristin Stewart, I can’t shake the Twilight persona. It is hugely disappointing because I could not help but feel like the awkward Bella Swan had stumbled onto the set of this Snow White. Kristin is Bella until she is cast in a role that takes her out of her comfort zone. There are moments in the movie where she is supposed to have real fair maiden moments and gives an unconvincing speech before charging the enemy. If you are playing alongside Charlize, you have to be able to meet her standards of acting. I feel like Rachel McAdams would have been better suited for this role.

 I would have loved to see more of the huntsman. I was disappointed that I did not see him topless, really. Guarding the heroine is a taxing task and at some point he should have gotten his shirt hooked, torn or something. In all honesty, I think his role was underrated. I feel like it wasn’t well thought through. He was Thor, come on! Although he was supposed to be a brut, it did not come across well. I blame the writers. A kitty compared to the lion in Thor. Also, what is the deal with the weak love triangle? If you are going to include romance, either pursue it fully or cut it. If Bella can kiss Edward, Snow White can certainly smooch the Huntsmen.

If you are into this new genre of classic turn dark fairytales, you will enjoy it without nitpicking too much. On the M10 scale, it gets a 5 for a great attempt but the mistakes adds up to a Mishtery maybe. Don’t take my word for it, see it for yourself.

Release date: 1 June 2012
Director: Rupert Saunders
Screenplay: Evan Daughtery, John Lee Hancock and Hossein Amini
Time: 2hrs7min
Prominent actors: Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron and Kristen Stewart
Genre: Adventure, Action, Drama

Mish fairs well at the Cape Town Book Fair!

I could open this post with a profound quote by someone like TS Elliot or Mark Twain or some scholar but that would be so brainy. I like this:

Image source

The more that you read,
the more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
the more places you'll go.
~ Dr. Seuss ~

This year was the first time our publishing company did not take part in the Cape Town Book Fair. This was truly a disappointing notion, but it did not keep me from attending. This celebration of authors, book launches and all things literature, spanned over 3 days from 15 to 17 June 2012. The fair was described as a three day extravaganza with launches, poetry corners, meet and the author sessions, book signings, coffee spots and digital zones for the e-book fanatics! It promised a specific hit for every book lover whether your poison is a fiction, nonfiction, children & youth or dictionaries! There was a lot to choose from.

If this fair was a book, and the exhibitors were pages, compared to last year, numerous pages were ripped out. The Cape Town Book Fair is but a mere 7 years old and already the numbers have dwindled. Brain Wafawarowa, Executive Chair of the Cape Town Book Fair was confident that 30 000 visitors would attend this Literature festival. Hmmm, do I think there were 30k visitors? Nope. Do we need this fair to be sustained and grow in number and popularity? Yes! Yes! Yes, and here is why!

The world is a book and those who do not travel only read a page. ~ Anonymous

Standing at the fair, lost without a stand in a myriad of books, authors, booksellers and publishing houses, I trailed the walk ways in search of authors, books, games or anything in particular that would tickle my interest. Even though a lot of exhibitors including Exclusive Books, Jonathan Ball Publishers and even ours didn’t have a presence at the fair, it somehow seemed like it did not take away from the fair’s variety.

 I discovered The Writing Room (www.thewritingroom.co.za) which offers courses and coaching in novel writing, memoirs and article writing, to name a few. Another stand that caught my attention was the South African Library for the Blind, known as SALB in short. SALB was at the fair to create awareness about blind readers and their shortage of books. We are so fortunate to have the gift of sight and yet spend our eyes on some less than noble things at times. Being visually impaired or becoming visually impaired can be one of the most challenging trials to endure. Many people, who become blind at an older age, either find it difficult to learn Braille or they don’t care to learn it because the loss of their sight is so traumatic. The library purchases books and has it set in Braille, recorded to audio and makes it available in their library. Ria Greaves , head of circulation at the library said that there is a need for audio books in English and African Languages. This is such a worthy cause to get involved in. All you need to do to help them is to volunteer to read a book for audio recording. To get involved, contact: Ria Greaves at ria.greaves@salb.org.co.za or visit www.salb.org.co.za . Give your voice to be someone’s eyes.

Ex minister of Arts, culture and science, Pallo Jordan and esteemed author André P. Brink were also found at the ANFASA stand where Sindiwe Magona was talking about her latest book, From Robben Island to Bishopscourt. Sindiwe pulls a crowd like no other. This candid author captivated the crowd with parts of her life story and off course, her latest book. A true inspiration with many accolades to her name, she believes her gift is to change lives and that it is never too late to make a change. I am not going to reveal too much about this author because this is a post all on its own!

Jane Raphaely

A great book to look forward to and the only purchase I made as recommended by TarrynJo. Hmmm Tarryn, this one is for you and I trust your judgement on this one! This book is the much anticipated autobiography by the Chairman of Associated Magazines. If rumours are correct, this book is set to be on the topseller list. Whatch this space. 

I would say the book fair was well supported but could stand to regain more of its exhibitors, lost visitors and build on what is a worthy fair. Maya Angelou says if you know better, you do better. As Saturday was Youth Day, I would say we have good reason and a responsibility to do better. The youth needs to know better and to inspire a culture of reading amoungst them, it is our duty to keep the book alive in the digital age. We have already gained a digital platform but initiatives like The Cape Town Book Fair will inspire the next generation of quality authors like Marita Van Der Vyver, Deon Meyer or Adam Small. Support the Cape Town Book Fair and sow a seed with our youth!