Skankynavia
March 6, 2013
Skankynavia: Londinium Leisures
I used to loathe this city when I lived here.
That was back in 1998 and I was poor as a peasant poofter pigeon. I went looking for the hip & happening 1990′s London which I’d always dreamt about while listening to BritPop all through high school — the city of Blur, Oasis, Suede, Elastica and all my heroes. But it never turned out neither hip nor happening for the insecure nerd I was and I ended up working as a night porter at a hotel outside the city.
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October 3, 2012
Skankynavia: L’Etoile
A new cocktail bar opened in Copenhagen in the spring of 2012.
The creation of the bar had been in the making for years. The owner is a friend of mine, who is an impressively ambitious and creative entrepeneur building bars around town with finesse and style. As soon as he mentioned the theme of his new bar, I was on board.
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September 12, 2012
Skankynavia: California Workin’ + Chowin’
In the spring of 2012 I suddenly felt the urge to not spend a depressing summer in Copenhagen.
Previous years had been a mixed pleasure of monsoon rain, heavy floods, grey skies and Antarctica beach temperatures. I seriously needed a shot of California.
Coincidentally the ever food-obsessed Umami Mart team decided to open a shop and hired me to design it.
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August 29, 2012
Skankynavia: California: Fast Food Frenzy!
I spent my summer of 2012 in California, my favourite place in the world — after my couch (ok, maybe Japan comes in as a close second).
It was a pure blast, from the moment I landed, designed and help build out the Umami Mart shop, just to get on the plane again a month later. Everything is just bigger, wilder, more real and more over-the-top, off-the-hook crazy than anywhere else I have been.
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May 23, 2012
Skankynavia: Brass Monkey (CPH)
A few months ago, I designed a ceramic mug shaped like a monkey’s head, for rum-based cocktails… and no, it wasn’t for selling in stores. I don’t think it would be very consumer-friendly.
Yet it had a purpose — the only tiki bar in Copenhagen, Brass Monkey had approached me to design a cup for their drinks.
Don’t suppose anyone wants a furry primate-shaped mug unless you work in a zoo or live on Planet of The Apes.
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May 9, 2012
Skankynavia: Munchin’ Thru Mallorca
Tourists and tapas.
Two things in this world which I am not a big fan of. Why then, would I go to Mallorca? The infamous Spanish tourist trap of an island, overrun by chubby European expats from the 1960′s and forward. Cardboard hotels, hoards of purple-haired 65 years old suburban working class wives smoking in the dirty hotel pools, “pig parties” with sangria, fake latin music and roasted pork fat galore into the early hours was how you went on a “real holiday” back then.
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March 28, 2012
Skankynavia: Rye Bread Layer Cake (FAIL)
So this weekend I was having a few people over for a potluck birthday party and I took it upon myself to make the dessert. A long time ago I remembered making a super delicious rye bread layer cake — crunchy, fresh and sweet with raspberry cream–but I couldn’t find the old recipe so I googled a new one online.
And yes, right now you’re probably thinking: “Don’t you know better?
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March 15, 2012
Skandinavian Airlines Design Competition – Vote for My Cup!
Remember when I designed the Umamimart travel mug back in 2010? Well, this spring Scandinavian Airlines (SAS as we call it in Denmark) called for submissions from designers to redesign their cardboard cups for tea and coffee, during air travel across the globe. They serve 70,000 customers in the air every day (!).
You see, when I’m not writing posts for Umamimart, I work as a designer and illustrator to put the daily rice on the table.
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February 29, 2012
Skankynavia: Moroccan Munchies
Confession: I’m kinda tired of Asian food.
Maybe because I eat it every day.
So when my Mile High Dining Club friend declared he wanted to throw a Moroccan inspired dinner I was totally there. Moroccan, African and Arabian are probably the less trendy food cultures compared to the Italian, French and Japanese kitchens these days. Which is a shame because that world of taste and food craft is neither hard to make nor expensive to eat.
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January 25, 2012
Skankynavia: Vigorious Rice Mix
The other day at my local Asian market — which is usually not very well equipped since importing food from Asia to an unsignificant little island kingdom like Denmark is incredibly pricey — I found these bags of grains. And I remembered the many crazy versions of rice I often came across when living in Tokyo. Blue, green, dotted in all colours, with grains, with beans, with nuts, anything you’d be sane enough to drop in a rice cooker.
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