All year long (Fresh corn only in July) = Luxirare Steak'n sides

Same with peppers. The long peppers are the ones that look like skinny acorns, those are the spiciest. The red peppercorns are my absolute favorite. It has a perfumy, rosy taste to it. Salt and pepper flavorings can change the flavor of the meat.

Fresh beets, shallots, corn, Gnocchis.

Spinach is cooked and drained in cheesecloth. Getting prepared for creaminess.

Meat and stone. Very archaic no ? Notice the marbling on the meat. EPIC !

Fresh beet. Ladies, please note that this can also be used as a lipstain.

Onion + Garlic sauteeing in olive oil and butter...getting ready to meet ravaged beets.


Time for C.R.E.A.M...Cash Rules Everything Around Me.


Slightly boiled gnocchi in flour.

With mini onion rings, OR shallot rings.



Gnocchi pillows.





Pantone Sides. My favorite was dipping the gnocchi into the creamed spinach....


I only use the pink salt and red peppercorn after the meat is cooked. You can crush the peppers but I like to chew on them.
 

September to February = Moule Pasta

I just invested in this antique fettucini machine. I absolutely love the look of it, and I'm constantly in awe of old food making devices ; they just seem a lot more interesting in its functionality than the ones we see today.







So what's cool about this device is the name of it. Its called "La Chitarra" which in italian, means GUITAR, and if you look at the structure it does mimic the base structure of a guitar. Someone should really invent such a device for cutting fabric strips of BIAS, especially for super annoying fabrics like chiffon. If you're an avid sewer you know you just dread the feeling of having to cut bias strips yourself. If you're interested in La Chitarra, you can buy them here!! Or if you're not hooked on the price, you can also google "chitarra pasta maker".





So apparently you're supposed to use this roller and apply pressure on the pasta sheet so that the wires cut through the sheet.
It took a while to do this, longer than I thought it would take anyway.



After you keep rolling back and forth, the pasta sheet starts to separate through the metal strings and falls into the box below. I had a hard time with this and realized you have to flour the sheet so that it doesn't stick.










One of my favorite ingredients about making a pot of Mussels are the shallots. I like a lot of shallots, and sliced garlic.





Theres nothing easier/simpler to make than mussels, just sweat some garlic/shallot/red pepper flakes and thyme in some olive oil, put the mussels in, and pour in a good helping of white wine. I obviously don't measure how much wine I put in there, the alcohol cooks off and as most of you already know.. always use a wine that you wouldn't mind drinking! I used white wine because I wanted a simple broth. Actually, the simpler the method, the tastier the mussels I think. I've used tomato sauce for mussels but I like the clean taste of just the mussels and white wine.





I served the mussels in a pot before adding the pasta. I've added the pasta in before, but its a nuisance to eat pasta in a haphazard bed of mussels.



Proper way to eat mussels; use an empty shell to clasp onto the meat of another mussel. There are no forks used in France.





Pasta water.



So after a good deal of the mussels are done, I just used the same pot and placed the cooked noodles inside of the broth and remaining scattered mussels.

All year long = Luxirare Sanguine Twist

Sanguine Twist

Classic Borscht Soup ingredients broken down into a Pasta sauce + Parpardelle noodles.

Typical ingredients of Borscht include, beets, onions, dill, yogurt or cream, beef broth, and etc.

Beet juice is perfectly good for lip stain. My lips still look pinched.

Durum Flour and Egg.

Dill, garlic, onions, beats, some fennel. These will be extracted into juices.

Yogurt. Full fat content. A typical garnish for Borscht soup

Uncomfortable sourness + thickness.




Onion extract, garlic extract, fennel extract, beet extract..more on "why" later...


Dough is slowly coming together< Beet extract makes sense now?



Dough should be somewhat transparent.

1 inch wide.

Drying rack. Super fresh pasta is mushy and just plain weird.


Its like a Damien Hirst Animal incased inside a transparent box......mummified dill leaves !


Yogurt warming up with onion, fennel and garlic extract. Very little amounts of extract is used, these juices are powerful.


Yogurt is slightly warmed with fresh dill, garlic extract, onion and fennel extract. Beet Parpardelle sits in the middle.

Luxirare = Hardware Closures

> BALENCIAGA - BURBERRY-THE CRAMPS-CAROLINE BESSETTE KENNEDY //

November to February = Luxirare Truffle Fish & Chips

 

On a contemplative note, keeping an online diary about fashion and food is questionable. How does one categorize such disparate subjects and why does Luxirare think its ok to combine the two? This idea came to me after having overdosed on Shrimp Lo Mein with mysteriously translucent shrimp, rolling around in total fatassery with cold noodle remnants stuck onto my sweats. I thought, Hey I'm probably not the only person who is obsessed with flavor and fabric. After all, isn't this the very fate practiced by our predecessors? Sewing and searching for gastronomic perfection? Isn't that what our grandmothers did? Make food and sew? In fact, through reading other blogs I am understanding that this food and fashion obsession is pretty common. I wonder what Margaret Thatcher would think of this self sufficient collective. We need more DVFs, or more Chanels, or more Kawakubos, or even more DKNYs of the fashion world. I've had it with the men designing for women thing. Women know better..or do we...? I sometimes wish Margiela was not Martin but Martina.....Sadness.

Fish and chips, but truffled. I always need an excuse to add truffle flavor to food. The same way Masa chef adds truffle flakes to his sushi...I am not sure how authentic these are, but I have a great deal of respect for traditional British food despite its horrible reputation.

All white fish is good, I chose Tilapia. But Cod is pretty common as well. Potatoes are for frying, and the lemons will be pillaged for their juice and zest.


This is where the truffle action comes in. Truffle flavor infused two ways; I add the truffle oil to the fresh mayo, and then add the truffle cream to the batter for the fish. Both of these truffle products extremely potent. One cannot afford fresh truffles everyday. Flour with salt, cayenne and garlic powder + Cornmeal for fish.....


I've had my fair share of frustration for catching the elusive, extra crispy, Stand-the-test-of-Time potato fry. I went to Pomme Frites with my ex friend during my sophomore year of college, almost everyday. They had the best thick cut english fries ever. But one day I caught a glimpse of their SECRET and we realized that the potatoes were actually BOILED before they were fried. Secret to extra crispy fries? Boil them first, freeze them, and the fry them twice.


North Korea vs. South Korea, they will never be together again....
So these are the eggs, separated both the egg yolk and the whites for this recipe. Egg yolks are for fresh mayo. Inside yolk mixture is lemon juice, grated rind, and white wine vinegar...I'll explain why the whites are needed in a bit...

While the food processor works on the yolks, pour in White truffle oil slowly. It will turn into a thicker, mayo-y mixture. I've added horseradish as well.


The egg whites need to be beaten into foam for the fish batter.



A bit of flour, and the White truffle cream for the batter. Mix time. After trying several attempts at making perfect batter for frying, I found that fluffed egg whites make for the crispiest texture. I've tried beer as well but I didn't find that as effective. Ultimately it's the air pockets and protein structure of the egg whites that makes the batter "stiffer" when fried. Also fish is dipped in cornmeal before being drenched in batter.


Frying Machine.

How to tell when your oil is ready......Place a chopstick in the middle and wait for the bubbles....




Lightly floured potatoes after they were boiled, waiting to be fried as well. I start out with a really high heat frying temperature for the first fry, and then fry them again at a LOW&SLOW temp. Fries should have a visible Crust with a soft interior.

Little portions. Fish 'n Chips with truffled mayo + horseradish.

Christopher Kane Topshop Capsule 2008

Sarah (works at Alexander Wang), by Kenneth Chau

> THIS DRESS REMINDS ME THE COLORS OF RODARTE !! //

Novembre à Février = Luxirare Black Gnocchi

Black Gnocchi

Main Entry:
he·do·nism

Pronunciation:
ˈhē-də-ˌni-zəm

Function:
noun

Etymology:
Greek hēdonē pleasure; akin to Greek hēdys sweet — more at sweet

Date:
1856

1 : the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the sole or chief good in life
2 : a way of life based on or suggesting the principles of hedonism

There is no difference between truffles, or heroin. Both provide immediate forms of pleasure without having any lasting financial, intellectual, or artistic value. The smell of a truffle is elusive, its that one second of "clicking" between your taste buds and nose that goes away after a 1-2 chews. To try and hang on to this "flavor" is nearly impossible. Trust me I have tried.

Truffle season is almost over, and I picked up a few from the store at a relatively cheap price, each one costs about between 40-60 which was alot better than what the internet was offering me. On an interesting note, COSTCO was selling cheap truffles (fresh + whole) on the internet but they immediately sold out before I could get my hands on one...

Black gnocchi infused with black truffle cream with whipped egg emulsion and fresh truffles.


Black truffle cream, or I see it more like ground truffles preserved in oil.




Before adding the truffle cream, I added a touch of black food coloring.




From the S.O.S food store on Avenue B between 6th+7th street. This store shelves hard to find, rare cuisine ingredients and it is the only place I buy my truffles.

Truffle fanatics like myself all know this ; must preserve truffles in rice.

Egg + Butter + Salt + touch of Lemon emulsion. Otherwise known as Hollandaise, a classic french method.

Luxirare = Chain Gang

Chain top + mask


Delicate body chains a la Bliss Lau or Erin Wasson are nice, but I prefer something more carnivorous, something directly from the inspiration source, not the cleaned up version.


I wish it was socially acceptable to wear masks instead of huge sunglasses, why are these things saved for Halloween?


Chainmail headpiece.


I took the laces out a long time ago to replace them with thin chains.


Just these two things with a flannel shirt = my fave outfit.


Back of the same belt.


Zippered thigh high tights (back view). Margiela totally used these as inspiration and added a heel to equal a thigh high boot. I think all of you saw these boots on Carine Roitfeld during NYFW.


Soda Can opener bag.


I don't know, this bag, even though I purchased this about a month and a half ago at a Salvation Army it just smells like Margiela as it just re-uses recycled can openers.




Iphone, brown moleskin for flashes of ideas I always forget, Nars matte red lip crayon, burts bees, muji pencil case, $20,
keys, Shichimi spicy pepper for those times when you're in the airport eating Udon, and business card case.






Lonely pencil, Lonely lead, and Lonely pin.