What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

Goodbye 2011! Hello 2012!

The Twenty-First Meredith Music Festival

Graveyard Train get the "The Boot"

As you might have noticed, I'm a music festival junkie (I've been to a fair few over the years!) - something about getting out of town, being in a crowd of people and listening to the bands you love, it's just brilliant. Anyway, this weekend marked the 21st birthday of the Meredith Music Festival so I thought I'd share one of my photos. It's a tiny snippet of a truly magical weekend, a phenomenon called "The Boot" whereby the audience raises one shoe in the air as a sign of appreciation for the band... immediately after this photo was taken my shoe was in the air too!

This song makes me happy

Go on, have a listen.

White Rabbit Says

A friend of mine has some damn fine artwork up on Society6, including this gem:

I must start living by this.

Onigiri

You're probably aware by now of my slight obsession with Japan (have you seen my other blog?), so this recipe post shouldn't be a surprise. These are onigiri, which are Japanese rice balls. There's a neat little intro to them over here. おいしい！

I've adapted the recipe from a few places to come up with something that works for me. Now tested it out a fair few times so it's ready to be posted...

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sushi rice (I use SunRice brand)
• 1 small brown onion
• A handful of mushrooms (any kind will do; I use 4-5 button mushies)
• 2-3 pickled gherkins (yep, the ones in a jar)
• Small handful of frozen peas
• 2ish tbsp Mirin
• 1ish tbsp soy sauce
• 1ish tbsp rice vinegar
• Furikake to sprinkle on top (I use a vegetarian version. Cut nori sheets would work too, or no seasoning at all... they're still good)

Rice Preparation:

The full article on rice prep (including photos) is over here, but I cheat a little with the timing, and use a rice cooker (check the packet instructions if you don't have one).

1. Rinse your rice like you've never rinsed rice before - put it all in a saucepan with running cold water, swishing with your fingers, then tipping out water and doing it again - over and over and over until the water runs clear.
2. Set it aside in a strainer to drain for at least 30mins.
3. Put it into your rice cooker (turned OFF) with 3 cups of cold water. Cover and leave to soak for at least 30mins.
4. Turn ON the rice cooker and let it do its thing. Usually about 15mins but might vary.
5. Turn OFF the rice cooker (i.e. don't leave on "keep warm" setting) and leave rice to cool for a few mins. Your rice is now ready to use.

Filling Preparation:

This is the bit I made up, but it works really well. There are some other filling ideas over here.

1. Finely chop the onion, mushrooms, gherkins and pop into a small saucepan.
2. Add the peas and sauces (mirin, soy and rice vinegar) then keep stirring until everything is warm and sauce has reduced a little (about 10mins).
3. Take it off the heat and place in a small bowl, ready for serving.

Putting Together:

Someone else has already explained this better than I can, so go ahead and read their post then come back. In case the link ever disappears, here are the basic steps:

1. Using a smallish bowl (8cm diameter or thereabouts), line it with Glad Wrap (i.e. cling film) so it overhangs the edge by quite a lot.
2. Pop a pinch of salt in.
3. Spoon in a good dollop of the cooked rice (almost a full cup, depending on how big you want your onigiri to be).
4. Press down in the centre with a teaspoon so the rice gently spreads with a hole in the middle, but don't pierce through to the bottom.
5. Spoon in 1-2 teaspoons of your filling.
6. Gather the Glad Wrap and pull it out of the bowl so you can shape the ball, ideally so the rice encapsulates the filling in a triangular-ish shape.
7. Gently unwrap the Glad Wrap and place onigiri on your plate.
8. Sprinkle with furikake or just leave as is.
9. Eat!

Marcel The Shell With Shoes On

Um. This is the cutest thing I've ever seen. Watch both.

I Was Young

I've been yearning for new music recently, Shazam-ing songs left, right and centre, including this gem by Gossling. Incidentally, she's playing at the Northcote Social Club next Friday, with Jen Cloher too. Hmmm...

Things That Amaze Me

"I'm having one of those "it's an amazing world" moments. You know when you forget for a while then something makes you remember again? Yeah."
- me, just then, on Twitter.

Kinda just inspired myself to write this list! In no particular order...

Google Street View
Being able to take a virtual walk through a faraway city you've never been to. Google kindly provides some recommendations if you don't have a globe handy to spin and plant your finger.

Shazam
You know the app that listens to a few seconds of a song and then tells you what it is?

I <3 my iPad & purple headphones!

Apple
My MacBook, iPhone, iPod, iPad... I know it's shallow to place so much appreciation on material objects, but they truly improve my life. Pretty much all of them. It seems particularly relevant today with the passing of Steve Jobs. What a brilliant man.

Google Goggles
Have you tried this? Take a photo of something and Google figures out what it is. Actually I suppose it's visual Shazam, huh? I know it's the second Google mention, but it's worth it. Trust me.

So I'm really saying, modern technology amazes me (among other things!). If you're reading this, you're in the 30 percent of the world population with access to the Internet, which is pretty damn amazing too. Consider yourself lucky.

In closing, I think everyone should listen to Louis CK's take on the modern world, just for a little perspective: "Everything's amazing, nobody's happy".

Goodnight x

High Noon

Street festivals are fun, aren't they? Something about the road being closed and a bunch of people in one place. This was the High Noon festival in Northcote last weekend. I spent most of the day just walking around, but something about it was just... nice.

Guilty pleasure

I'll admit it, I'm excited to hear new Florence & The Machine.