hungry ghost 2011 gift guide

A Gift Guide Synopsis...

I have been completely smitten this year with the Swedish Perfumer By Redo. When I was in Stockholm, I had fifteen minutes to spare before leaving for the airport. I made mad dash for the shop (literally running down the street!). They are definitely on my to give list for the holidays. The perfumes and candles are so lush and layered, and luckily are now available on-line and at Barney’s New York. For the little ones in your life, check out the newly launched,  organic, European inspired, children’s underwear line, Goat Milk. I am forever a fan of The Mast Brothers, who we were lucky enough to photograph again this year for French GQ. Stop by their newly renovated chocolate factory in Williamsburg where they will be working around the clock, like elves, making chocolate for the holidays. Don’t miss out on a little whiskey for your pocket flask from Brooklyn’s own King’s County Distillery. Brooklyn gets a little more love from me with a shout out to the Diner Journal and to my rainy day haven Bellocq Tea Atelier, in Greenpoint. Start the year off looking divine in some new Warby Parker glasses. Catch up on the last 400 years of food writing with Penguin's, The Great Food Series (you will be needing those glasses about now!). The Nontron knife, from one of France’s oldest knife companies, makes for the perfect small gift. You can’t go wrong with Mauviel copper pots or the brilliant cutting boards of Andrea Brugi for the Gastronome in your life! Anything from Nigel Slater will do just fine.  Last but not least, if you can wait a while.... a knife from Cut Brooklyn, destined to become a treasured hierloom.

Happy Holidays From Hungry Ghost!

 

click on any image to get to link. 

1.        

Gypsy Water is a glamorization of the Romany lifestyle, based on a fascination for the myth. The scent of fresh soil, deep forests and campfires illustrates the dream of a free, colorful lifestyle close to nature.

Ingredients:

Top: Bergamot, lemon, pepper, juniper berries
Heart: Incense, pine needles, orris
Base: Amber, vanilla, sandalwood

2.      

http://byredo.com/en/content/view/store-locations

ENCENS CHEMBUR

Eau de Parfum

Originally a picnic spot outside of Mumbai, Chembur is the place where Ben Gorham's mother was born and raised. Ben visited Chembur many times as a child and returned after almost 15 years to find the area developed. Lingering still, however, was the evocative incense from a Hindu temple.

Ingredients:

Top: Bergamot, lemon, elemi
Heart: Ginger, temple incense, nutmeg
Base: Labdanum, amber, musk

3.      

PEYOTE POEM

Fragranced Candle

Fragranced Candle/Bougie Parfumée, 255g/9 oz

Burning time: 60h

Ingredients:

Top: Juniper berries, clove buds
Heart: Tonka bean, hyacinth, fir
Base: Vanilla, black amber, patchouli

4. Nontron French Knife/ Copper Hewitt National Design Museum

5. Warby Parker Glasses

6. Swedish Vegetable Brush

Made by hand in Sweden, this brush gets the dirt and wax off of your vegetables, while allowing you to leave the vitamin laden skin intact. Perfect for cleaning young and organic vegetables, as well as potatoes, carrots, beets, and other scrubbable fruits and veggies.

 

7. White Enamel Cutlery

 

a limited quantity also available at Love Adorned

8.      

Also available at ABC HOME
 

9. Grey Staub

10.    

- Something for every food lover

Throughout the history of civilization, food has been more than simple necessity. In countless cultures, it has been livelihood, status symbol, entertainment - and passion. In the Great Food series, Penguin brings you the finest food writing from the last 400 years, and opens the door to the wonders of every kitchen.

11.    Hugo Guiness drawing at John Derian

12. Diner Journal

13.    

14. Nigel Slater Tender British Version

American Version at Amazon

15. Mast Brothers Chocolate

16. Kings County Distillery

17. Bellocq Tea Atelier Afghani Chai 

No. 18, Afghani Chai

A hand-crafted evocative blend of Organic Assam black tea, organic red poppy flowers, green cardamon, star anise, ginger, clove and black pepper.  Invigorating and warming, Afghani Chai may be either steeped or traditionally boiled in water with milk (add a handful of chopped fresh ginger for additional heat, if desired) and sweetened to taste.  Fragrant and seductive, chai is perfect to enjoy anytime and makes your home smell utterly divine.  

 

18. Copper pot

19. Cut Brooklyn Knife

obsession.

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. It was a nice one, kind of quiet.  I love cooking at my Dad’s because he has a plethora of beautiful things that inspire chopping, mincing, stuffing and eating. Everywhere I turn there are beautiful eclectic collections of dishes and bowls and strange and unusual objects. An antique taxidermy falcon lives next to a wooden swan and a bowl full of misshapen eggs. He is antique dealer and like me with my honey, a bit of a hoarder. I know it is not nice to covet, but covet I did for many years his beautiful French Sabatier knives. I remember when he bought them. It was the late 1970’s and they were very fancy as far as knives go. Over the years after much use they have come to be replaced by newer and shiner non-carbon steel knives, smaller knives, but they always remained in their place. So this weekend when he gave them to me I nearly fainted, as I never imagine him parting with them. I suddenly feel very grown up.

One of the greatest things about my father is that he simply indulges whatever current object obsession I might have and right now I have a bit of a knife one. He has seen many obsessions come and go. As an antique dealer and a purist, he has of course raised an eyebrow at some of my choices over the years, which I was always able to defend with “It’s a prop. I can use it in a photograph.”  This past weekend I went in search of copper pots. I always find it is best to have one thing in mind when looking.

In New Hampshire a giant copper pot suitable for the kitchen in Oliver Twist suddenly appeared in the junkiest of shops. I justified my need for this giant cauldron by telling  my father “everyone needs a big stockpot and just think... if we had had it yesterday we could have made the turkey soup in it and the patina is SO nice!”

He took the pot from me, and did not tell me I was insane. Instead, he walked to the counter and battled the antique maiden and got that pot for a price lower than I could ever imagine and it was awesome.

 

  Vintage Sabatier.... 

nomad and rishikesh

 Written post October snow storm.

Soho was very quiet the morning after the bizarre and historic October snow. While  everyone slept, I found the perfect moment to escape into Nomad a global approach to interior style, a new book from  Sibella Court. Nomad, follows her previous books, A Stylists Guide to NYC and Etcetera. Her book is a personal journey of her travels that inspire her sense of style , her interiors and her soul. There is a story about about her mother that is both incredibly real and personal. This is not just a book of suggested places to visit, it it a personal journey. I worked with Sibella, a kindred spirit, many times during her stay in New York and I was always inspired by the bits and pieces of travels she carried with her to every shoot. Like a tiny Weaver or Bower Bird she constructs the most elaborate nests wherever she is, pebble and shell, pieces of string, fragments of fabric all find their way to her into her pockets and onto her walls, sets and tableaus.

Nomad is divided into sections by country. She covers Italy, India, Syria and Mexico. Sibella gives  a personal account of travels through these countries and takes us to some of her favorite places. There are many beautiful travel photographs that make me want to pack my bag and hit the road. I have said before that I too collect things on my travels, like sea salt and honey, but it really goes far beyond that. On my last trip to Istanbul I had an entire fleet of paper cups wedged into my tripod bag, as they were just too beautiful to leave behind. I am a pilferer of matches and menus as well. I too am always looking for bits to bring home, things that remind me of a place or something I can later use in a shoot. I am a bit of an obsessive collector in that way and that is one  reason I enjoy working with stylists who share that same obsession. Last April, I was in India on assignment for Conde Nast Traveler. The days were hectic and the weather in the Northern Himalayas was unseasonably bad! A monsoon had rolled in and threatened to eradicate all blue skies with blinding rain and wind. It was one of those times that we had to wait it out a bit, something which is very hard for me to do when I am on a job. After giving in to the weather one evening we decided to take a couple hours and travel the twenty minutes down to the town. The town of Rishikesh is really very special as it marks  the beginning of the  River Ganges as it comes down from the Himalayas. The river is very clean there and it is a very sacred place. The Beatles wrote most of the White Album in Rishikesh in 1968 when they visited the now closed Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram. Even in the rain, the little riverside town at the edge of the Ganges was busy with activity. We sat through Ganges Aarati ceremony, performed each evening at sundown at the Parmarth Niketan Ashram and listened to the most beautiful chanting and watched brilliant flowers and candles of offerings float silently along the river. After the ceremony we walked across a suspension bridge over the Ganges to the other side of town where the evening market was taking place. Single light bulbs hung on cords  illuminating each vendors stall like a perfectly styled theatrical stage. One  thing I have found is that markets stay open quite late in other countries ( it was on this same trip, though in another country, that we found ourselves making our way towards a hidden spice market on the outskirts of Dubai at nearly midnight!) It was in that hour or so in Rishikesh that I found some of my favorite souvenirs. A brass Ganesha, some ribbon, two pairs of tiny handmade shoes a pair of scissors some prayer beads and a medallion, but more than these it is the image of the little town in the blue evening , music floating up between the mountains that I will never forget.

Like Sibella, I am inspired by travel and try to make the most of wherever I am at any given moment. I carry my finds home where they work  their way into our lives. These bits are always there whether in a box of treasures or on the wall to remind me that I really did stand at the edge of that river clear across the globe.

You can buy Nomad at Anthropologie. And visit Sibellas shop The Society Inc. in Sydney Australia where she has landed.

 

My collection of bits from an evening in  Rishikesh

Copyright © 2011 Andrea Gentl all rights reserved 

quince and medlars.

Medlars are a rather uncommon fruit one that most people have not heard of. They are native to the Mediterranean and are a close relative to the Hawthorne tree or pear tree.

A few weeks ago, Maggie Nesciur from Flying Fox had a few little boxes of Medlars at The New Amsterdam Market. They had been collected by Ezekiel Goodband of Scott Farm in Dummerston Vermont (whose name I just adore) where she had gone in search of heirloom apples. Though they are native to the Mediterranean, they somehow grow in Vermont where Goddband has some trees sprinkled throughout his orchard. Like the amazing fruitier that she is Maggie couldn't resist sharing some of these tiny gems at her stall at the market.

When I purchased the Medlars they were quite hard and very tart as they were not at all ripe. I kept them on my counter in a little bowl for a full two weeks until they began to soften. A Medlar is ripe when it is almost rotten and very soft and juicy quite like a persimmon and  when it is a beautiful orange red inside. I had a quince around and decided it was high time to make something of these uncommon beauties.

I decided since I had such a small amount to make a Medlar quince butter with a few apples thrown in for good measure.

I cut them up and threw them all in to a pot (seeds and all) with two cups of water, the juice of one whole lemon and let them cook down to a veritable mush. I put them through the Foley food mill; one my favorite kitchen tools and discarded the remaining solids. I ran it through a fine sieve after the food mill just to make sure the texture was very smooth and there were no remaining bits of pulp or seeds. 

I returned the mixture to the stove added one more cup of water and a cup of sugar and let it cook down until it was thickened.

The result is something akin to apple butter but with a subtle quince and pear flavor. The color is a beautiful pink and the three little Weck jars lined up on the counter were incredibly satisfying. I canned two of the jars in a water bath so I could save them for long-term storage.

So far we have been eating it on toast with a little slice of Harpersfield Tilsit cheese from Upstate New York that has been aged with a smoky Lapsang Souchong black tea. The smokiness of the cheese and the tart sweetness of the Medlar is the perfect combination.

rainy day bellocq.

There is nothing quite like a cup of tea on a rainy afternoon. With rain on the horizon this weekend what better thing to do than to head to Greenpoint, Brooklyn to visit the beautiful new Bellocq Tea Atelier. It is a veritable visual feast in there! Every corner is an insanely beautiful tableau. Tea tasting  at Bellocq is a must and it should not be rushed!! My favorites of the moment are the Afghani Chai, Hindu Holiday and Gypsy Caravan.  

If you can't make it to Greenpoint any time soon, you can sometimes catch Bellocq at The New Amsterdam Market at South Street Seaport on Sundays. Check the market list for and update of weekly vendors.

Bellocq teas can also be ordered on line here.

 Copyright © 2011 Andrea Gentl all rights reserved 

prop styling Kim Ficaro

food styling Susie Theodorou