CITY COOKIE CUTTERS: Les architectes aiment ceux-ci

Cutters for biscuits that taste “monumental”

The cookies are cut to the shape of the most famous monuments in the European capitals of which become icons out of scale within a square container illustrated with the city plan. They are recognisable elements of a collective metal map that join orientation and identity.

Source: Ghigos Ideas

AGAVE: Survive 70 years, make love and die. 

Next time pause for a minute before having a shot and think about this magnifique plant. Probably you know the name agave from the bottles (if you having a good one it should write %100 agave). The plaint is officially called Agave tequilana, alternately blue agave or century plant. And why is it called century? Because it flowers once in 100 years. No joke! Ok c’est exagéré. It flowers once in 30 years in suitable climate but in harder conditions this may be up to once in 70 years. And you know what? It immediately dies after flowering :( What a life. Survive 70 years, make love and die. 

Actually we owe tequila to this caracteristique extraordinaire. We need sugar to produce alcohol right? So this plant, stores more and more sugar in its body for its once-in-a-lifetime flower. Every year the sugar amount gets more and before it flowers, it is harvested. Harvesting agave means getting rid of the spiny leaves and exposing the pinapple-like middle which is rich in sugar. Then these piñas (they look like pineapples) are cooked and fermented to produce tequila. Above pics show almost all the steps of tequila production.

Next time having your shot think about cette plante magnifique but beware! There are tequila lesbians out there. More than you guess. 

Salute!

More info about agave : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave_tequilana

More about tequila production: http://tres.noise13.com/tequila/history-distillaion/

5 things you should consider before drinking tequila:

http://dailygarbage.wordpress.com/2007/11/08/5-things-you-should-consider-before-drinking-tequila/

Gourmet Chef Ted Allen Cooks His Favorite Pretentious Foodie Bullshit Meal

“Because making fun of yourself is the best form of comedy” says Zeynep Arsel. 

Mandala मण्डल: A microcosm of the universe from the human perspective

Carl Jung saw the mandala as “a representation of the unconscious self,” and believed his paintings of mandalas enabled him to identify emotional disorders and work towards wholeness in personality. 

As I get more and more interested in permaculture and ayurveda I started to recall my memories of Mandala diagram studies in architectural history classes. Not only in Buddhist or Hinduist culture but you can find them everywhere, in the plans of great Ottoman mosques or in Gothic church windows. It is circular as its sanskrit meaning suggests but it is also directional, it represents the four directions - the main gates of the universe.

For me they represent 2D understanding of the 3D world which is said to extend to 4D with the time dimension. Looking at a Mandala diagram for some lazy hours can make me feel all dimensions through lucid dreams. 

Sweep slides on my stereo
Short wave ‘round my rodeo
Became from that of Savalon
But I’m flying to Istanbul
Oh so why don’t you meet me there?

OUR BEAUTIFUL GARDEN ON ULUDAG IN SPRING/SUMMER ‘02

Above are the pictures from my parent’s garden on the mountain Uludağ in the green city Bursa. This the garden which enriches Monsieur Chocolat’s cuisine with fresh fruit and vegetables. We plan to turn it into an ecological farm in the coming years.