Rima Suqi

Justin Gignac is into garbage. He treats it as art by putting garbage he collects from various areas (ie: Times Square) into plastic cubes that he says won’t leak or smell (let’s hope), signs them and sells them as art. His latest edition is baseball related- garbage from both the Yankess and Mets “Last Opening Day” at each respective stadium. They’re limited editions of 20 each and sell for $100 each. Maybe the Yankees versus Mets debates will ultimately be decided by which stadium produces the better garbage. See for yourself.

I just got back from my first trip to Australia, which involved a couple days in Adelaide, a gluttonous tour of the Barossa region, and a few days on Kangaroo Island at a new property called Southern Ocean Lodge.
Wow. The structure was designed by Australian Architect Max Pritchard and is, hands down, one of the coolest places I’ve ever stayed. Part of it is the surrounding environs – the lodge is perched on bluff above the Southern Ocean (hence the name) and all 21 rooms have Ocean views from pretty much everywhere, even the shower.

Here are some shots of the exterior:
See if you can find the hotel in this shot – it blends in pretty well during the day.

At night it glows:

21 rooms are all named after ships that wrecked around the island, and stagger down the hill in one fairly straight line:

this is the huge lobby, with lots of places to sit/hang out, tons of books and magazines, and a full bar that’s available for guests to raid at any time, at no additional cost (the nightly rate of, ahem, $900 is all inclusive).

This was my room:

View from the bed:

View from the shower:

A super-deluxe room:

And that’s it … for now. I will try to put up a full travel journal – including our search for the perfect, saltiest meats – this week.

There’s something kind of embarrassing when you’re in another country, meet one of their rock stars (music or otherwise) and have no idea who they are, as just happened to me yesterday. I’m on a whirlwind tour of Southern Australia and met the absolutely inspirational Maggie Beers. Maggie is a chef with a hugely successful line of foods (pate – yum!) ice creams, etc., has written several books and has a television show. She is a major rock star here yet before this trip I had never heard of her. We had lunch with her at her shop – incredible pates, a wonderful tabouli-inspired salad with pomegranate seeds on top, pheasant and mushroom terrine, and elderflower ice cream.
Maggie’s latest cookbook, called Maggie’s Harvest, just came out. It is a weighty tome — 736 pages! — filled with “over 350 of Maggie’s signature recipes, detailed descriptions of her favourite ingredients and inspiring accounts of memorable meals with family and friends. The recipes highlight Maggie’s philosophy of using the freshest and best seasonal produce available in the Barossa Valley and treating it simply, allowing the natural flavours to speak for themselves.”
What can I say – I’m superficial. I’d buy the book for its cover alone – it’s embroidered. Never seen anything like that before but I must say, this is one book you can absolutely judge by its cover. Pre order it at amazon (available April 30).

Foodie. Or enough of one for the James Beard awards, as per the following press release:

KIM CATTRALL TO HOST
THE 2008 JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION AWARDS

New York, NY (April 2, 2008) – The James Beard Foundation announced today that celebrated actress Kim Cattrall will host this year’s Awards Ceremony and Gala Reception. The highly-anticipated annual celebration will take place at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center on June 8, 2008 and will celebrate winners of the prestigious 2008 James Beard Awards in the Restaurant and Chef, Books, and Design and Graphics categories. A leading figure in the entertainment industry, Kim will shine a new light on the awards and further enhance the Foundation’s mission to elevate the nation’s consciousness of America’s culinary culture. The James Beard Foundation will announce Kim’s co-host at a later date.

Confused? So was I. So I read on and found out the connection between the Sex & The City star and culinary masterpieces:

Kim has a known interest in the culinary world which has been enhanced through her boyfriend Alan Wyse, a personal chef.

What should I find in my email today but a message from the people at Oooms who have created great products such as the twig flash drives and this lovely item. If it looks familiar, it’s because it was designed in 2003 and has been sold at Moss for several years.
Oh, sorry. It’s a dildo. That’s right, your very own, Dutch designed, glazed ceramic, personal, um, accessory. When I asked what was new about it, Guido (his real name) Ooms emailed back “We just never found the time before to set up a nice email and have the pouch designed etc.” So there you go. Same dildo, new pouch. $215 at Moss.