La Chica Mandita

more circles to attend to

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Fri, 27 May 2011 18:06:00 +0000

ie early start time, in a theatre, no smoking, nice sound system, pretty visuals.

This is a great incentive when the usual option is a very, very late start time, like 1am, at a bar, all smokey ie lingering smell in clothes and hair, bad bass mix and nothing to see [short people understand what I'm talking about].

and if the old fogeys can hack it,

maybe some new sounds too from Pedro Piedra

Rainbow coloured oracle love

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Fri, 27 May 2011 01:27:00 +0000

Love this.

Can't wait to see this.

Brown man....¿where are you?
I'm waving at you

Kaz Killa

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Sun, 01 May 2011 14:12:00 +0000

Sick sniffle sniff boring boring day especially after an ace day out yesterday.
I didn't realise but it must have been a Kaz Killa ride*.

That is the ride that takes you all over the city, with various pitstops for fotos, food and suppply pickups until the basket and carrier are weighed down with goods, followed by an uphill pedal back to the depto. I thought it was all ok, especially after macchiato, bimbimbap and the snack of bagels with vegemite

[top dato!].
Then the dripdrip started and my head was fully congested and I wanted to collapse.

Crap

And there were lotsa things to do

some dancing,

and then some scoping and then some more music fun.

Instead it's cups of tea and a hunkering down kinda weekend.

brighten up with this

*This is how I wiped out Kaz, on just her 2nd day here,

which then saw her in recovery mode for the rest of

her trip last year, poor love.

Getting a hit

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 23:39:00 +0000

Yesterday went into town, centro. Haven't been in for a while and luckily it was still the same exciting foreign, city place of eye candy, snapshots and otherness. phew.
Principally the occasion was to order some more of our soy milk and organic coffee from Puerto Rico and then maybe some art seeing. We spent a bit of time huddled in the upstairs office for our order por mayor and hid our disapointment but not surprise that both desired products were outta stock and not around for another month. hrmpf. Trialling a new milk and coffee for in-between.

Onto art time. I really like going up to AFA . You can lock your bike inside the foyer. And you could have lunch at the neighbouring Sindicato de Folkloristicas Club which I really will do one day. The whole gallery-inside-the-building concept is a bit like Melb's Curtin House only without so much cool school and with a real life concierge and lift with metal grate sliding doors. But I use the stairs cos its only to the first floor [or the 2nd floor if you are chilean; 1st floor is the ground floor and that's why you never get a G button in the lifts here]. Then its through the magic neon lit, wallpaper beloved entrance to a surprise view of the peeps in the street below and the sexy cinema across the way. When finished oggling the view and AFA's curious collection of books not for sale, we caught the last days of the floaty architectural experiences from Juan Martinez Macari in his 1940-45 project.

[I think it finishes up on 29 abril]

nothing to see here

same view, different exhibition

lunch date soon

Minimal and intricately pressed architectural diagrams of a selection of Art Deco liner style houses from around Estadio Nacional were strictly grouped in plan-elevation-elevation-plan order. The slight third dimension giving a breath to the austerity. And since our last visitor had her tour eye focussed very much on this style of architecture, and the added dismay of very little information around on this era, this was a fitting display of the underrated Santiago 1940's architectural style. Ace to see a meticulous dissection of it. Now just need to see someone do a book on the Art Deco buildings of Chile…pf. There's a good writeup here and now that I think about it, ol' Juan looks quite like Dave Burrows

Passing the Feria de Libro in Plaza de Armas on the way home, I picked up a couple of books I have had on my wishlist for ages, for cheaper than shop price. I think books here have lately been undergoing a bit of a rennaisance, in terms of content and design. Although still a bit pricey, there are more books all the time on esoteric cultural matter, fotography, art. And all looking a lot prettier these days. And there were heaps of titles including my favourites from LOM and Ocho Libros. I'll go on about the books another time.

So in and around Plaza de Armas is still going off, hey Pedro?

AFA, Calle Phillips 16, 2 piso, oficina A.

Top tip: Look up before entering the building and wonder how I can get up to that cross bridge please.

You'll know what I mean when you are there.

Never cross a bunny

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 14:10:00 +0000

bunny across the road

There are no hot cross buns here. At least I couldn't see none.

So, we made our own.

I think they were a medium success.

I followed this receta by getting Flaite to read it out so I wouldn't get flour in the keys. In the end I don't think I put enough flour in as the dough was very sticky and batter-y and not so doughy.

I left it to rise overnight and had dreams of the dough overflowing the bowl and seeping across the floor and up the bed and covering us in a doughy doona of sultanas and mixed spice....

then I woke up and slip-slapped that dough into bun shapes, popped 'em into the oven sin cruces and after being instructed to double their baking time by Flaite,

we got

golden brown sweet 'n' spicy bunnies

Pastel de Choclo casero dance remix

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 17:12:00 +0000

choclo detritus

The choclo or gigante corn cobs, started to appear in January. I am always a bit freaked out by their oversized look. In fact, I always prefer my produce to come in smaller sizes; apples, kiwis and tomatoes always taste better when they are smaller.
The fearsome looking choclos got overlooked for awhile in favour of the more recognisable, slender maiz or choclo americano. I happily ate the huge choclos prepared as freshly made humitas that were touted at the feria for 500 pesos each, steaming warm and authentically parcelled up. But I had to pass over the home made Pastel de Choclos because of the unknown meat content.

tipo casero

Then I went to Quinoa, the vegetarian restaurant that doesn't make loud noises about being vego but simply "fresh from the market". Here I had my first Pastel de Choclo, served up in the traditonal greda dish, hot hot hot from the oven. And it was good and evidently easy to make. I now had a solid reason to buy my own choclos.

As a starting point I used trusty Clasicos vegetarianos del mundo. However, I discovered their version of the recipe was only really good for learning how to make the choclo topping. Handy, as this was what I needed the most. The rest I significantly adapted or made up to match the Quinoa version.

We have been using Plenty religiously since it was gifted and the enthusiasm ol' Yotam has for berenjenas is contagious. We have made all of his aubergine recipes and I have the burnt aubergine cooking technique down pat.

So,this is what I used for the filling of the Pastel.

The aubergines can also be prepared over the asado, whilst waiting for the carbon to get to the right temperature, before any meat gets cooked.

So, Pastel de Choclo is a good dish to make the day after an asado,

saving some barbequed vegies for its filling.

And this is how I made it!

Pastel de Choclo con berenjenas

Makes enough for 4 folk using one largeish baking dish say 20 x 30cm or 4 single serve dishes, preferably round
TOPPING INGREDIENTS
4 choclos, kernels scraped off, discard cob and leaves [can substitute for regular sweet corn even frozen corn kernels will do, about 5-6 cups of kernels]
1 medium onion, diced
2 tbs olive oil

FILLING INGREDIENTS
4 hard boiled eggs, peeled and sliced in rounds
4 eggplants, medium, roasted with the flesh scooped out, skins discarded
400g mushrooms, sliced
olive oil for frying

1-2 zapallo italianos [zucchini], oven roasted and diced up [optional]

1/2 tsp oregano, fresh and chopped
1/2 tsp cumin, toasted and lightly ground
about 20 black fat olives, pitted [in Chile the amargo ones]

brown sugar for top sprinkling

METHOD
Heat oven to 180C
Hard boil eggs, peel, cool and slice.
If roasting eggplants, put them on first and get them going. Balance the whole aubergine directly on a gas element and roast until skin is burnt. Turn until all the sides are burnt. It's ready when a sharp knife can slide easily into the flesh. Then remove from flame and put on a plate. Cut open lengthwise and scoop out flesh and set aside. Discard the skin.

TOPPING
In large saucepan, fry onions in the olive oil until soft and golden. In a blender add cooked onions with corn kernels and blend until smooth. Return corn mix to saucepan over low heat and stir mix until it thickens, about 5-10 mins. Then set aside.

FILLING
In medium pan heat some olive oil and fry mushrooms until soft. Add eggplant flesh and zucchinis if using. Mix thru and then take off heat and mix in the oregano, cumin and olives.

ASSEMBLY
In the baking dish fill with half the filling mix
then make a layer of the sliced eggs
then cover with the rest of filling
then slather with the corn mixture completely covering the dish
then sprinkle with the sugar
then bake for 45-60 mins trying to make the top go golden brown
then eat it.

greda is gold!

Beats for treats

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:58:00 +0000

love love this clip..cool cool grabs of santiago..our ace town

I am bouncing my way to the kitchen with this track.
DJ Raff rocks and he is makin' his way round the country and
I think I will go to the show at GAM.
But that is ages away.
Meantime I'm gonna make pastel de choclo, vegetarian style.
Yes it is possible...

Growing up greener

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 19:50:00 +0000

This got me thinking about the little jardin del patio...and how much it has growded and greened up the depto
Starting with feria crates, lined with old plastic, filled with compost soil and then with seedlings bought from the nice man with the seedlings cart on Irarrazaval.

Then water, wait, water, wait, kill bugs in the middle of the night, wait, rearrange for maximum sunshine, wait, water

pickpickpick,eateateat

go to seed.....

¡Ataque!

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 02:01:00 +0000

I have found about a zine fair that I can actually go to. Arriba!
It's an 'Attack of the Fanzines', with plenty of folk involved, some I heard of and new folk I ain't.
It's happening in the ever flaite but always hip Plaza Brazil, Sat 2 April at 1600hrs, where the kids will give it their all with the second round of their monthly attempt to zine-up the barrio.
I missed la primera but my hosting of incoming visitors was maxed out over the summer months and I didn't get in much computer time hence the inability to find out wtf is going on in this town.
That and my growing reluctance to leave my hood.
For this I will leave my 'hood.

New Year bunny trickery

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:25:00 +0000

Right, so I am going to forget that there has been a[nother] huge lapse and go with the Chinese New Year as my due date to catchup, review the gone year.
Cheating maybe but this is outta control.
And the promise for a year of conejitos is quite a nice prospect.

Standby

A month ago in Madrid

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:59:00 +0000

Madrid is cool.
Even when the metro is on strike and your hotel receptionist doesn't know where to catch the airport bus from [cos he only ever takes taxis there, you poor pleb], and your feet are about to fall off from pledging allegiance to Reina Sofia and her mountain of overwhelmingly awesome art and you are too sick to have a caña with your unbelievably delicious array of tapas Madrid STILL is an awesome town.
It´s kinda like BA but not so obsessed with the well dressed and a bit like Santiago but not so noisy and dirty.
They have electric buses.
They have a hot new airport terminal.
They have hotels inside old apartment buildings, like in Kowloon.
There's lotsa old skool, cobbled streets, new architecture, sweet style and shopping, tons of music, super tasty food, heaps of art, zillions of tourists but still tranquillo.
There is so much fun it pops out your ears.

i bought a cool tea towel from a vintage store ie stock from the 1970´s and as i shopped the radio was playing 'mandy' by barry manilow.
i stood behind a very stylishly dressed old lady at the traffic lights and then noticed she had her shirt on inside out. i decided not to say anyhting.
i saw guernica.
i discovered some new amazing artists and saw old faves.
i could understand the locals....que mas necesitas¿?

i can't wait to go back.

Brussel sprouts are having a renaissance

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:43:00 +0000

Yay for brassicas

There yet

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:22:00 +0000

Well, that was 3 months o fun.
I did do a few things like helping to finish the house,

finding more stuff,

making a pincushion

lovin' pompoms

shining bikes,

and chasing a few rainbows.

And it will only be 10 days 'til I write again.
Promise

Are we there yet?

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:52:00 +0000

Almost

Epico

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 08:22:00 +0000

It's been an epico couple of months.
I'm so blog behind I don't know where to start....
Renovating a house, then adding a nephew, churning out zines and keeping up trans tasman relations have all been making this bunny busy.
Oh, and an earthquake too!

So, let's start with these renovations.

Sleeping arrangements

And things you find hidden in houses

And a little nephew hand

Long time coming

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 06:30:00 +0000

Well, over a month is a bit shameful but now it is time for the chronicles of Cromwell

Start with at least one rundown old house circa 1952

get together some amigos from around the country and globe,
mix in a few power tools, paint and plaster
and something should get renovated.
So far, so slow but so good...

My place and yours - cinco minutos

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:33:00 +0000

before
Even a digger needs a siesta sometimes.

after
Five minutes peace and some dead hedge gone.
Just in time for the gale force winds.

My place and yours - wherever i lay my hat

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:57:00 +0000

Once again the only thing I manage this week is someone elses fun idea
These guys go with me everywhere.
Your alteregos should always be around to remind you of your
inner Good Bunny and Evil Wolverine.
And travelling along is a little packet of scissors, glue and pens
for instantaneous make sessions.
I am featuring the 'I heart NZ' pencil gifted from kazandy cos we are in
Kiaoraland now.
And I like it.
Actually, I like all those 3 things-the pencil, kazandy and NZ.
phew.

My place and yours - that's nice, that's different, that's unusual

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:15:00 +0000

Well, it seems all I do here is play Mike's meme.
Nothing like a bit of discipline. Ha!

As I have been pretty far from my actual place but still having nice places to rest my often weary head, I am really relying on other people's places for now and for the next wee while.
This week I have been staying with my nana.
She has a lovely apartment. It is very neat and tidy.
And of course, always has plenty of food.

There is a dishwasher in the kitchen.
Quietly redundant but still very useful as phone table, envelope holder, pen place and naturally an extra pantry.
Innovative and fits this theme nicely.
Hooray for nanas!

Now I am off to do some renovations in Kiaoraland.
Chau por un ratito

My place and yours - my collectionSSSSS!

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:09:00 +0000

Oh yes, most definitely in the plurals and most likely not needed.

In fact, Flaite would probably say I collect collections! Is that possible?
Sadly, I also have had to collect store rooms so many lovely things are packed away, safe and sound, out of harms way but far from the loving gaze of their owner.
Que lastime.
So, for focus I asked my sister what she thinks I collect and to the best of her recollection [nice word connection] my collections include
clothes
vintage clothes
books
1950's glassware
furniture
old fotos and albums
&
zines

All true and I think I would add to this list:
bikes [yikes, more than three!],
cameras,
cute signs particularly spanish ones,

strange little cosas that only seem to make a collection
when they are on my shelf,
orange for the caravan,
red for life accessories,
and now lots of fotos of my collections

Such a shame most of it is packed away...

Between you and me space man

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:46:00 +0000

Between you and me this looks like the spaceman on swanston st.
en serio

A bit of matucana 100 fun.
There were already lots of post-its around so mine was a bit cammouflaged.

My place and yours - through the front door

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:15:00 +0000

Oh moving about means lots of front doors right now.
But last week was the special front door of the Viscount Royale.

And inside is special Orange World,

A retreat full of treats behind this front door

My place and yours - my secret weapon

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:45:00 +0000

A bit late but I have the good excuse of transiting the Pacific.

This is the best secret weapon EVER

My place and yours - blog casa matriz

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:10:00 +0000

I guess blog hq is the computer. This is my current screen foto.
I Love Arrieta Persa

In our little compact depto, Flaite has acquiesced to my taking over this part. It still isn't enough room and often I have to put in for special permission to take over the kitchen bench and the couch and the coffee table and the floor and the bed...
But now it is time to pack up for a little while.
We are going to visit Melbs, the caravan and Cromwell
So I am trying to sell lots of lovely bags, tidy, then pack.
[There's more descriptions of the specific cosas over at flickr]

Bunny brooch

mis zines

Recuerdos de Sur America

Drinking memorabilia

Sarah Kay booklet discovered in a corner of Argentina.
There's lots if you want one.

My sister sent me the old slide, in front of the miel.

It is definitely my mum and probably me, circa 1971

Bike Polo loco

noreply@blogger.com (Chica Mandita) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:09:00 +0000