A contender for my favourite place on planet Earth, Canterbury brims with independent gems that just don't get the parade they deserve, almost masked by a plethora of chain restaurants. I implore you to look that bit harder to find the cafes that are just so darn themselves, they feel like old friends waiting for you with open arms. Here's just five of the best places to get a cuppa, have a natter and jot dreams in your notebook. Boho Cafe Just over the bridge on Canterbury's High St. sits Boho Cafe with a sprawl of colourful tables and chairs at its front, and hustle and bustle behind its long, slender windows. Aptly described by the owners, Kris and Kate, as 'the kitchen table', it's hard to deny its Kentish charm although, in reality, it's far from quaint or twee. Rather, it's brought to life by the tenacious personalities that have influenced it. You'll be hard pressed to find anywhere as unique, from the old clocks on the wall, the Mexican paraphernalia, and a menu equally as colourful. Celebrating its tenth year this coming March, if you haven't been yet, I insist that you do. And have the Winston Churchill burger. The Veg Box Source: The Veg Box Cafe Although the Veg Box has been run by Adam and Liz for a long while, there are still many that are unaware of this gem, tucked just off Jewry Lane, above the Wholefoods store. One of the only vegan and vegetarian cafes in the city, the menu boasts seasonal stews, curries and delights, and is open past the lunch time rush, making it the perfect hiding place to do a spot of loitering. If for some reason you don't make it in for lunch, there's always Liz's recipes to follow on her website. She's been perfecting them for a long while in the cafe and at home, so if you do happen to whip any up, I'm sure she'd be thrilled to hear about it. Waterlane Cafe Source: Create and Kate Where else have you ever found a cafe come river tour? Waterlane cafe is another little known hot spot for seriously excellent coffee and ambience, overlooking the River Stour and its quieter, more rural excursion of the three tours you can take in the city. The kind of place that mingles singles on laptops, or poring earnestly over books, and couples leaned in close in conspiracy, it's away from the main high street, making it a great spot for a date or leisurely catch up with an old friend. Kitch Source: What Olivia Did With better health at the heart of its mission, Kitch is a wonderfully alternative choice, with a diverse menu of low-sugar and thoroughly Instagrammable cakes and plates. Unlike anywhere else in the city, Emily has carefully curated a bright and modern offering under an old Tudor roof that's just perfect for a cool younger and older crowd alike that likes to eat conscientiously. Wild Goose Source: Alfie's Explorations Seamlessly blending Spanish influence with British garden cocktails, the Wild Goose sits in a corner of the Goods Shed, a disused railway building adjacent to Canterbury's West station. Wonderful not only for a small plate and a nightcap en route to London, or surrounding villages, you can easily lose yourself over the rim of your teacup watching the bustle of the farmer's market, or tuck into my personal breakfast favourite, the rich and muddy morcilla with buttery scrambled eggs, which they serve until 1pm. No need to rush your Sunday morning. Cafe St. Pierre Like a little slice of France, Cafe St Pierre is somewhat iconic, even though if you blink, you're likely to miss its unassuming corner position at the lower end of the High Street, despite the winking pastries that are piled high in the windows. Really rather snug inside, I like to cram myself into a nook and order a proper French hot chocolate and a croque monsieur so thick with grilled cheese, it's a knife and fork job. For some reason, it's always raining outside when I'm there, so you could say it's a rainy day joint for rustling your damp newspaper and trying not to catch the eye of the gingerbread men calling to you from the counter, or be dazzled by the gleam of glossy tarts. And there you have it, some of the best cafes and things to do in Canterbury. There are a few I've missed off but will return to tell you of one day soon - if you're a local, where are you favourite haunts in Kent? And, if you're heading down to Kent for a visit, do drop me a line and I'd be thrilled to tell you more.
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One B Corp I’ve been following for a while is Klean Kanteen, a reusable cup company! From eco-friendly water bottles to insulated thermoses, Klean Kanteen has been helping people divert from disposable cups for over 20 years. In this article, we’ll talk about the history of Klean Kanteen, their prod
It’s time once again to pick out of the box of destiny! Last summer, Drew Burnett and I resurrected the box that I used as a kid to choose a restaurant to eat at. (For the full explanation, check out the article on the first “Box Pick” at Brookside Cafe in Preston, Connecticut.) In short,
A coffee-loving businessman has opened what could be Britain’s smallest cafe – inside a disused red phone box. Luke Thorpe has transformed the disused BT...
July 2012. The good old British phone box was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott to commemorate King George V's Silver Jubilee. BT ArtBox is a campaign to raise money for ChildLine which involves artists designing replicas of the Scott phonebox.
Daniel Boulud is now in charge, and the scrambled eggs are heavenly.
This is a guest post from Johnie Gall of Dirtbag Darling. For many surfers, eating fresh, beautiful food from the sea is habit. For Jane and Myles Lamberth, co-authors of The Surf Café Cookbook, it’s a way of life – so much so that their passion for surfing their home break on the coast of […]
The mundane November chill has set in perfectly along the the south eastern coast of India. Usually known to be drier than most places, it is now when the rain and sun playing catch, almost always during the weekends.In this particular story we explore the design and architecture of a space known to create a symbiosis of lime and stones, palm trees, pastels and textures thereby giving it a sense of beautiful proportion. In Conversation with Abhhay Narkar, the architect behind the charming Coromandel Cafe in Pondicherry. The Coromandel, originally home to a French Judge is seeped in French culture with it palm filled courtyards and pastel painted walls. It is impossible to miss the dancing shadows and whispers of the palm trees. Q. What was the curation process like? Since you've also designed the interiors and chosen some of the furniture, was it all ideated upon or were there also elements of spontaneity that were added, in terms of furniture, interiors as well as the structure itself of The Coromandel. Initially when we started the discussions, the plan was to have the cafe upstairs on the rooftop terrace, as a botanical glasshouse restaurant and the store downstairs. But then issues with serving the food upstairs cropped up as we didn’t have lifts and making a kitchen upstairs was not an option due to functional issues like loading unloading of goods and raw materials. Considering the ease of serving from the ground floor kitchen and maximising the open landscaped area as additional covers for restaurant, it was decided to move the main restaurant to the ground floor level. This gave us better circulation and overlap of activities from indoor to outdoor to covered verandah and bar seating. The kitchen and the bakery block at the back with its sloping roofline contains the premise perfectly, both in functional as well as aesthetic ways. The sloping roof and the bamboo chics give a perfect cover to the waiting staff in rains and privacy to the kitchen without hampering the ventilation of the otherwise open kitchen planning. The French villa La Maison Rose was synonymous with its pink colour architecture and majestic palm trees at the entrance. The identity building exercise started for us from this point itself. Kiran, our client for whom we also designed and built the new Amethyst in Chennai, had already frozen on the names for the café and the retail space as Coromandel and Chintz. The brand identity logos for both the units then were the amalgamation of the site features and the feeling the names invoked. The idea further got extended as the interior décor in the form of wall arts. The majestic palm trees that adorn the central space of the café and adding intimacy to the otherwise huge volume of the architecture are artworks we specially designed. We engaged artists from Bhopal to scale it at real scale and they painstakingly painted these on the walls with great difficulty as the lime walls of the building would soak in all the paint the moment they touched the colour brush to the walls. It left them no flexibility to achieve the effect we wanted. We made several experiments with the base coat of the lime based paint and added some adhesives to make it less absorbent so that the artists had a bit more ease to paint. The walls of the long and narrow parlours around the central hall were conceived as chintz artworks. We kept the feel here really light and faded in contrast to the defined and stark palm leaves in central hall. The design of the floor to ceiling book display cabinets of the bookstore was in response to the tiny room space available which needed to house a large number of books on display as well as store. So we created all the walls to be the visual display for books. The sliding stairs add to the vintage feel of the entire architecture around. Q. Coromandel is in the heart of Pondicherry. How did the location influence the design? Back then Pondicherry had two distinct quarters : Tamil Quarters and French Town. Most houses and buildings in the Tamil quarters have been rebuilt. But the French colony remains a heritage getaway. We looked at a lot of houses and cafes within the French Town while ideating for the Coromandel. People have revived a lot of these lovely French architecture masterpieces and given them a new function. And a lot of these buildings and their renovated interior decors do justice to the original era and some are handled with modern interventions and interpretations too. We wanted Coromandel to be nothing like what already existed around there. We wanted it to be more indulgent and eclectic without being too overpowering and away from its architectural roots. It had to be one of a kind. So a lot of brainstorming happened in our design studio in Delhi and we came up with the designs that you all see today. The furniture has been handpicked and placed such that they enhance each other as well as the space they exist in. Q. You have played with a lot of different materials at the Coromandel. There is cane, tropical cushions, Athangudi tiles, Leather upholstery, marble and wooden benches. Was the material palette designed on purpose to be this versatile? People come to Pondicherry for holidays and there is already a very aware design fraternity based in Pondicherry and Auroville. Not to leave out the non Indian population that has come from varied parts of the world. And all of these end users have brought with them a lot of visual experience they have collected through their travels, profession and education. So it was very important to cater to them and others in a setting that is more universal yet different than the usual hum-drums of their city life. The location of the café also helped us choose natural materials as our basic palette so that we are in sync with its surroundings. The café had red cement floor everywhere. In the central hall though it was damaged beyond repairs and matching it to the old floor in the surrounding verandahs was not possible. The most obvious choice of using Athangudi tiles was pushing our timelines so we worked with Bharat floorings from Bombay. We kept the colours of this new tiled flooring very low profile (grey and deep reds) as we did not want the flooring to clash with its painted walls. We retained the original lime walls everywhere to retain as much original materials while restoring these lovely buildings in the French town and it also gelled very well in our material palette. The exchange between space, function and aesthetic is a constant theme throughout the space. The use of negative space is noteworthy. The interiors undoubtedly brings about pure joy, having aligned the visual and physical experiences of the visitor. Q. What according to you is the pièce de résistance? There isn’t any one particular furniture that I would consider the most significant, but a lot of people find the wall murals really fascinating. The wall mural surrounds the users in its majestic subdued elegance and that’s something most people take back with them. That apart, the fact that the visual connection with the flora and fauna flows from inside to the outside really opens up people to a very relaxed experience. A lot is often also spoken about the off white fabric chandelier. Inspite of its huge height, it is placed very low so that you walk around it and not under it. It adds a different charm while moving away from the norms. On taking a closer look, you will notice furnishings that have a reference to Pondicherry in their designs and details. The chair on the extreme right is named “Feels of Pondicherry”. Despite the ceilings being so high, the space feels intimate, imbued with warmth. The decor possibly has a role to play. Q. There is a constant uninterrupted dialogue between the interiors and the exteriors of the place. You've managed to preserve and infuse vegetation in the space. Considering you've worked on an already existing structure, did you have to work around the greenery or were they added on later to enhance the surroundings. What would you like to say about this. We as designers really liked the idea of having the Coromandel as an open space. And luckily for us, Kiran was on the same page as ours. In fact, a lot of people would tell us it was going to affect the lighting we had inside the cafe. But we were very clear that we wouldn’t touch the architecture of the building. It was supposed to function a certain way and we wanted it to remain that way. If you notice, through all the doors inside the cafe, you will always be able to see in the surrounding parlour room. Every door has these wooden shutters that we retained and enhanced which can be opened and shut without actually opening or closing the door to achieve the desired transparency or privacy. The big tress were always there of course, but Kiran planted all the shrubs around the place. The trees became the identity of the brand so we worked with it. The cafe very evidently accommodates the changing sunlight throughout the day, its soothing effect penetrating the space. It is difficult to tell if the design supports the light or vice versa. Q. You'll always find traces of a former dweller at a home. For instance, the Coromandel walls on the exterior were always pink which have been retained. Were there other traces from the past owner that have been incorporated while remodelling the structure? Yes, like I’ve mentioned, the big palm trees were always a part of La Maison Rose. The colour of the building hasn’t been touched on the exteriors, it was always pink, hence the name. The mango tree existed. We’ve built things around these trees, keeping them as they were. An existing unsafe well has been modified into a circular wooden seat-out which has become an important feature of the landscaped outdoor seating. Q. When I look at the Art Gallery which you have designed in Delhi and The Coromandel in Pondicherry, I see a versatile aesthetic coming to life. Is there any particular thats constant through all your work? A lot of architects have a peculiar set style that resonates in all their works. We think differently. We don’t believe that an architect’s set style should underline any project. We respond to the challenges thrown at us and respond to the surroundings, the nature of the project and give it its identity through our careful design solutions that attend to the functions of the project as well as the demand of the appropriate aesthetics. And hence most of our works stand out differently with each other. And that’s why the versatile aesthetics I believe. The Coromandel Cafe, Pondicherry - a destination within a destination On a personal note Abhhay, what does the Coromandel mean to you? It’s a special project for us. Also because it had the joy of working with an aware client like Kiran who over the years has become a close friend, so the time spent on the project with her is also as much fun and engaging. You know, it was rated the 5th Best New Cafes in the World by Condé Nast Traveller. It’s a project that we all are happy about at the end. And that’s very important. We’ll always hold it dear to us.
We batch cook and make "boxes" to eat throughout the week.
We found this Possum Pie recipe in a recipe box from the previous cafe owner. It's been on our menu ever since. —David Heilemann, Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Culleoka was planned as a town in 1857 for the building of the Nashville and Decatur Railroad.
I love making this for the Holidays, because of the quantity, and everyone loves it. Sponge cakes rolled into wafer sheets, and tied togethe...
I did it! I actually planned my posts ahead of time and managed to post a Shelfie Sunday on a Sunday! These are most of my classics shelves, with Folio Society, Barnes and Noble, and Knickerbocker...
Don't miss these coffee shops in Paris! Local recommendations for the best Parisian cafes in every arrondissement of Paris!
Dr. Who will arrive here soon ;D Rolleiflex Automat X Kodak Portra 160VC Bradford-on-Avon, 2008
Each Fy! canvas is produced using a 12 colour giclée fine art printing process. They're hand finished by experienced canvas framing teams. Ready to hang straight out the box. • 100+ year colour guarantee, our canvases are UV resistant and do not fade. • Professional artist stretcher bars milled from the finest quality European kiln-dried knotless pine. • 38mm depth.
The mundane November chill has set in perfectly along the the south eastern coast of India. Usually known to be drier than most places, it is now when the rain and sun playing catch, almost always during the weekends.In this particular story we explore the design and architecture of a space known to create a symbiosis of lime and stones, palm trees, pastels and textures thereby giving it a sense of beautiful proportion. In Conversation with Abhhay Narkar, the architect behind the charming Coromandel Cafe in Pondicherry. The Coromandel, originally home to a French Judge is seeped in French culture with it palm filled courtyards and pastel painted walls. It is impossible to miss the dancing shadows and whispers of the palm trees. Q. What was the curation process like? Since you've also designed the interiors and chosen some of the furniture, was it all ideated upon or were there also elements of spontaneity that were added, in terms of furniture, interiors as well as the structure itself of The Coromandel. Initially when we started the discussions, the plan was to have the cafe upstairs on the rooftop terrace, as a botanical glasshouse restaurant and the store downstairs. But then issues with serving the food upstairs cropped up as we didn’t have lifts and making a kitchen upstairs was not an option due to functional issues like loading unloading of goods and raw materials. Considering the ease of serving from the ground floor kitchen and maximising the open landscaped area as additional covers for restaurant, it was decided to move the main restaurant to the ground floor level. This gave us better circulation and overlap of activities from indoor to outdoor to covered verandah and bar seating. The kitchen and the bakery block at the back with its sloping roofline contains the premise perfectly, both in functional as well as aesthetic ways. The sloping roof and the bamboo chics give a perfect cover to the waiting staff in rains and privacy to the kitchen without hampering the ventilation of the otherwise open kitchen planning. The French villa La Maison Rose was synonymous with its pink colour architecture and majestic palm trees at the entrance. The identity building exercise started for us from this point itself. Kiran, our client for whom we also designed and built the new Amethyst in Chennai, had already frozen on the names for the café and the retail space as Coromandel and Chintz. The brand identity logos for both the units then were the amalgamation of the site features and the feeling the names invoked. The idea further got extended as the interior décor in the form of wall arts. The majestic palm trees that adorn the central space of the café and adding intimacy to the otherwise huge volume of the architecture are artworks we specially designed. We engaged artists from Bhopal to scale it at real scale and they painstakingly painted these on the walls with great difficulty as the lime walls of the building would soak in all the paint the moment they touched the colour brush to the walls. It left them no flexibility to achieve the effect we wanted. We made several experiments with the base coat of the lime based paint and added some adhesives to make it less absorbent so that the artists had a bit more ease to paint. The walls of the long and narrow parlours around the central hall were conceived as chintz artworks. We kept the feel here really light and faded in contrast to the defined and stark palm leaves in central hall. The design of the floor to ceiling book display cabinets of the bookstore was in response to the tiny room space available which needed to house a large number of books on display as well as store. So we created all the walls to be the visual display for books. The sliding stairs add to the vintage feel of the entire architecture around. Q. Coromandel is in the heart of Pondicherry. How did the location influence the design? Back then Pondicherry had two distinct quarters : Tamil Quarters and French Town. Most houses and buildings in the Tamil quarters have been rebuilt. But the French colony remains a heritage getaway. We looked at a lot of houses and cafes within the French Town while ideating for the Coromandel. People have revived a lot of these lovely French architecture masterpieces and given them a new function. And a lot of these buildings and their renovated interior decors do justice to the original era and some are handled with modern interventions and interpretations too. We wanted Coromandel to be nothing like what already existed around there. We wanted it to be more indulgent and eclectic without being too overpowering and away from its architectural roots. It had to be one of a kind. So a lot of brainstorming happened in our design studio in Delhi and we came up with the designs that you all see today. The furniture has been handpicked and placed such that they enhance each other as well as the space they exist in. Q. You have played with a lot of different materials at the Coromandel. There is cane, tropical cushions, Athangudi tiles, Leather upholstery, marble and wooden benches. Was the material palette designed on purpose to be this versatile? People come to Pondicherry for holidays and there is already a very aware design fraternity based in Pondicherry and Auroville. Not to leave out the non Indian population that has come from varied parts of the world. And all of these end users have brought with them a lot of visual experience they have collected through their travels, profession and education. So it was very important to cater to them and others in a setting that is more universal yet different than the usual hum-drums of their city life. The location of the café also helped us choose natural materials as our basic palette so that we are in sync with its surroundings. The café had red cement floor everywhere. In the central hall though it was damaged beyond repairs and matching it to the old floor in the surrounding verandahs was not possible. The most obvious choice of using Athangudi tiles was pushing our timelines so we worked with Bharat floorings from Bombay. We kept the colours of this new tiled flooring very low profile (grey and deep reds) as we did not want the flooring to clash with its painted walls. We retained the original lime walls everywhere to retain as much original materials while restoring these lovely buildings in the French town and it also gelled very well in our material palette. The exchange between space, function and aesthetic is a constant theme throughout the space. The use of negative space is noteworthy. The interiors undoubtedly brings about pure joy, having aligned the visual and physical experiences of the visitor. Q. What according to you is the pièce de résistance? There isn’t any one particular furniture that I would consider the most significant, but a lot of people find the wall murals really fascinating. The wall mural surrounds the users in its majestic subdued elegance and that’s something most people take back with them. That apart, the fact that the visual connection with the flora and fauna flows from inside to the outside really opens up people to a very relaxed experience. A lot is often also spoken about the off white fabric chandelier. Inspite of its huge height, it is placed very low so that you walk around it and not under it. It adds a different charm while moving away from the norms. On taking a closer look, you will notice furnishings that have a reference to Pondicherry in their designs and details. The chair on the extreme right is named “Feels of Pondicherry”. Despite the ceilings being so high, the space feels intimate, imbued with warmth. The decor possibly has a role to play. Q. There is a constant uninterrupted dialogue between the interiors and the exteriors of the place. You've managed to preserve and infuse vegetation in the space. Considering you've worked on an already existing structure, did you have to work around the greenery or were they added on later to enhance the surroundings. What would you like to say about this. We as designers really liked the idea of having the Coromandel as an open space. And luckily for us, Kiran was on the same page as ours. In fact, a lot of people would tell us it was going to affect the lighting we had inside the cafe. But we were very clear that we wouldn’t touch the architecture of the building. It was supposed to function a certain way and we wanted it to remain that way. If you notice, through all the doors inside the cafe, you will always be able to see in the surrounding parlour room. Every door has these wooden shutters that we retained and enhanced which can be opened and shut without actually opening or closing the door to achieve the desired transparency or privacy. The big tress were always there of course, but Kiran planted all the shrubs around the place. The trees became the identity of the brand so we worked with it. The cafe very evidently accommodates the changing sunlight throughout the day, its soothing effect penetrating the space. It is difficult to tell if the design supports the light or vice versa. Q. You'll always find traces of a former dweller at a home. For instance, the Coromandel walls on the exterior were always pink which have been retained. Were there other traces from the past owner that have been incorporated while remodelling the structure? Yes, like I’ve mentioned, the big palm trees were always a part of La Maison Rose. The colour of the building hasn’t been touched on the exteriors, it was always pink, hence the name. The mango tree existed. We’ve built things around these trees, keeping them as they were. An existing unsafe well has been modified into a circular wooden seat-out which has become an important feature of the landscaped outdoor seating. Q. When I look at the Art Gallery which you have designed in Delhi and The Coromandel in Pondicherry, I see a versatile aesthetic coming to life. Is there any particular thats constant through all your work? A lot of architects have a peculiar set style that resonates in all their works. We think differently. We don’t believe that an architect’s set style should underline any project. We respond to the challenges thrown at us and respond to the surroundings, the nature of the project and give it its identity through our careful design solutions that attend to the functions of the project as well as the demand of the appropriate aesthetics. And hence most of our works stand out differently with each other. And that’s why the versatile aesthetics I believe. The Coromandel Cafe, Pondicherry - a destination within a destination On a personal note Abhhay, what does the Coromandel mean to you? It’s a special project for us. Also because it had the joy of working with an aware client like Kiran who over the years has become a close friend, so the time spent on the project with her is also as much fun and engaging. You know, it was rated the 5th Best New Cafes in the World by Condé Nast Traveller. It’s a project that we all are happy about at the end. And that’s very important. We’ll always hold it dear to us.
Musician Kimmo Pohjonen at Cafe 1001 - Brick Lane - Concrete & Glass Festival
Shareholders have the option to engage in the annual general meeting either by attending in person at the designated venue or by voting in advance through postal voting.
The mundane November chill has set in perfectly along the the south eastern coast of India. Usually known to be drier than most places, it is now when the rain and sun playing catch, almost always during the weekends.In this particular story we explore the design and architecture of a space known to create a symbiosis of lime and stones, palm trees, pastels and textures thereby giving it a sense of beautiful proportion. In Conversation with Abhhay Narkar, the architect behind the charming Coromandel Cafe in Pondicherry. The Coromandel, originally home to a French Judge is seeped in French culture with it palm filled courtyards and pastel painted walls. It is impossible to miss the dancing shadows and whispers of the palm trees. Q. What was the curation process like? Since you've also designed the interiors and chosen some of the furniture, was it all ideated upon or were there also elements of spontaneity that were added, in terms of furniture, interiors as well as the structure itself of The Coromandel. Initially when we started the discussions, the plan was to have the cafe upstairs on the rooftop terrace, as a botanical glasshouse restaurant and the store downstairs. But then issues with serving the food upstairs cropped up as we didn’t have lifts and making a kitchen upstairs was not an option due to functional issues like loading unloading of goods and raw materials. Considering the ease of serving from the ground floor kitchen and maximising the open landscaped area as additional covers for restaurant, it was decided to move the main restaurant to the ground floor level. This gave us better circulation and overlap of activities from indoor to outdoor to covered verandah and bar seating. The kitchen and the bakery block at the back with its sloping roofline contains the premise perfectly, both in functional as well as aesthetic ways. The sloping roof and the bamboo chics give a perfect cover to the waiting staff in rains and privacy to the kitchen without hampering the ventilation of the otherwise open kitchen planning. The French villa La Maison Rose was synonymous with its pink colour architecture and majestic palm trees at the entrance. The identity building exercise started for us from this point itself. Kiran, our client for whom we also designed and built the new Amethyst in Chennai, had already frozen on the names for the café and the retail space as Coromandel and Chintz. The brand identity logos for both the units then were the amalgamation of the site features and the feeling the names invoked. The idea further got extended as the interior décor in the form of wall arts. The majestic palm trees that adorn the central space of the café and adding intimacy to the otherwise huge volume of the architecture are artworks we specially designed. We engaged artists from Bhopal to scale it at real scale and they painstakingly painted these on the walls with great difficulty as the lime walls of the building would soak in all the paint the moment they touched the colour brush to the walls. It left them no flexibility to achieve the effect we wanted. We made several experiments with the base coat of the lime based paint and added some adhesives to make it less absorbent so that the artists had a bit more ease to paint. The walls of the long and narrow parlours around the central hall were conceived as chintz artworks. We kept the feel here really light and faded in contrast to the defined and stark palm leaves in central hall. The design of the floor to ceiling book display cabinets of the bookstore was in response to the tiny room space available which needed to house a large number of books on display as well as store. So we created all the walls to be the visual display for books. The sliding stairs add to the vintage feel of the entire architecture around. Q. Coromandel is in the heart of Pondicherry. How did the location influence the design? Back then Pondicherry had two distinct quarters : Tamil Quarters and French Town. Most houses and buildings in the Tamil quarters have been rebuilt. But the French colony remains a heritage getaway. We looked at a lot of houses and cafes within the French Town while ideating for the Coromandel. People have revived a lot of these lovely French architecture masterpieces and given them a new function. And a lot of these buildings and their renovated interior decors do justice to the original era and some are handled with modern interventions and interpretations too. We wanted Coromandel to be nothing like what already existed around there. We wanted it to be more indulgent and eclectic without being too overpowering and away from its architectural roots. It had to be one of a kind. So a lot of brainstorming happened in our design studio in Delhi and we came up with the designs that you all see today. The furniture has been handpicked and placed such that they enhance each other as well as the space they exist in. Q. You have played with a lot of different materials at the Coromandel. There is cane, tropical cushions, Athangudi tiles, Leather upholstery, marble and wooden benches. Was the material palette designed on purpose to be this versatile? People come to Pondicherry for holidays and there is already a very aware design fraternity based in Pondicherry and Auroville. Not to leave out the non Indian population that has come from varied parts of the world. And all of these end users have brought with them a lot of visual experience they have collected through their travels, profession and education. So it was very important to cater to them and others in a setting that is more universal yet different than the usual hum-drums of their city life. The location of the café also helped us choose natural materials as our basic palette so that we are in sync with its surroundings. The café had red cement floor everywhere. In the central hall though it was damaged beyond repairs and matching it to the old floor in the surrounding verandahs was not possible. The most obvious choice of using Athangudi tiles was pushing our timelines so we worked with Bharat floorings from Bombay. We kept the colours of this new tiled flooring very low profile (grey and deep reds) as we did not want the flooring to clash with its painted walls. We retained the original lime walls everywhere to retain as much original materials while restoring these lovely buildings in the French town and it also gelled very well in our material palette. The exchange between space, function and aesthetic is a constant theme throughout the space. The use of negative space is noteworthy. The interiors undoubtedly brings about pure joy, having aligned the visual and physical experiences of the visitor. Q. What according to you is the pièce de résistance? There isn’t any one particular furniture that I would consider the most significant, but a lot of people find the wall murals really fascinating. The wall mural surrounds the users in its majestic subdued elegance and that’s something most people take back with them. That apart, the fact that the visual connection with the flora and fauna flows from inside to the outside really opens up people to a very relaxed experience. A lot is often also spoken about the off white fabric chandelier. Inspite of its huge height, it is placed very low so that you walk around it and not under it. It adds a different charm while moving away from the norms. On taking a closer look, you will notice furnishings that have a reference to Pondicherry in their designs and details. The chair on the extreme right is named “Feels of Pondicherry”. Despite the ceilings being so high, the space feels intimate, imbued with warmth. The decor possibly has a role to play. Q. There is a constant uninterrupted dialogue between the interiors and the exteriors of the place. You've managed to preserve and infuse vegetation in the space. Considering you've worked on an already existing structure, did you have to work around the greenery or were they added on later to enhance the surroundings. What would you like to say about this. We as designers really liked the idea of having the Coromandel as an open space. And luckily for us, Kiran was on the same page as ours. In fact, a lot of people would tell us it was going to affect the lighting we had inside the cafe. But we were very clear that we wouldn’t touch the architecture of the building. It was supposed to function a certain way and we wanted it to remain that way. If you notice, through all the doors inside the cafe, you will always be able to see in the surrounding parlour room. Every door has these wooden shutters that we retained and enhanced which can be opened and shut without actually opening or closing the door to achieve the desired transparency or privacy. The big tress were always there of course, but Kiran planted all the shrubs around the place. The trees became the identity of the brand so we worked with it. The cafe very evidently accommodates the changing sunlight throughout the day, its soothing effect penetrating the space. It is difficult to tell if the design supports the light or vice versa. Q. You'll always find traces of a former dweller at a home. For instance, the Coromandel walls on the exterior were always pink which have been retained. Were there other traces from the past owner that have been incorporated while remodelling the structure? Yes, like I’ve mentioned, the big palm trees were always a part of La Maison Rose. The colour of the building hasn’t been touched on the exteriors, it was always pink, hence the name. The mango tree existed. We’ve built things around these trees, keeping them as they were. An existing unsafe well has been modified into a circular wooden seat-out which has become an important feature of the landscaped outdoor seating. Q. When I look at the Art Gallery which you have designed in Delhi and The Coromandel in Pondicherry, I see a versatile aesthetic coming to life. Is there any particular thats constant through all your work? A lot of architects have a peculiar set style that resonates in all their works. We think differently. We don’t believe that an architect’s set style should underline any project. We respond to the challenges thrown at us and respond to the surroundings, the nature of the project and give it its identity through our careful design solutions that attend to the functions of the project as well as the demand of the appropriate aesthetics. And hence most of our works stand out differently with each other. And that’s why the versatile aesthetics I believe. The Coromandel Cafe, Pondicherry - a destination within a destination On a personal note Abhhay, what does the Coromandel mean to you? It’s a special project for us. Also because it had the joy of working with an aware client like Kiran who over the years has become a close friend, so the time spent on the project with her is also as much fun and engaging. You know, it was rated the 5th Best New Cafes in the World by Condé Nast Traveller. It’s a project that we all are happy about at the end. And that’s very important. We’ll always hold it dear to us.
‘Lots of villages in the UK have turned the red telephone boxes into mini libraries. Just take a book and leave one behind! Check out www.BookLending.com if you’re a kindle user’
Esk, a tiny township just an hour and half drive from Brisbane, is home to an impressive indoor and outdoor antique shop
You'd think that warm climes would equate to cooling food but it is quite the opposite. When in Asia, we eat hot food even in the sweltering heat. It was love at first taste the moment I tried beef rendang. It is a Malaysian stew that is spicy and aromatic yet with a fresh twist. If there is one dish that would resonate the Malay culture, in my opinion, this is it. It is so vibrant in colour, flavour and aroma. I always see beef rendang cooked in travel shows (as well as cooking shows) and it almost seem to be regarded as a national treasure and rightfully so. It is reputed to be the best dish in the world and that probably is not an understatement. I have tried a few beef rending recipes without success until I luckily found THE one. Rasa Malaysia's beef rendang recipe is the one for me because it is straightforward, easy and most importantly it resulted to the taste that I like even if I substituted some of the ingredients. I have adapted this recipe to my taste and this is really it for me. Although this dish is Asian to the core, it is perfect for eating on the opposite side of the globe. When it's cold, damp and grey, hot and spicy beef rendang on steamed rice is like manna from heaven. Ingredients for the spice paste: 2 stalks of lemongrass 6 cardamon pods 2 medium sized onions 5 cloves of garlic 1 1/2 inch cube of ginger 1-2 chopped red chllies Method: Crack the pods of the cardamom and take the seeds out. Discard the pods. Peel the tough outer covering of the lemongrass stalks and roughly chop. Pound into a paste with the cardamom seeds using a mortar and pestle. Puree together with the rest of the ingredients in a blender. Ingredients: 1/4 c. cooking oil 2 inch. long cinnamon stick 4 cloves 3 segments of star anise 1 tsp. turmeric powder 1 kg. boneless beef brisket or stewing beef, cut into 2" x 2" cubes 1 stalk of lemongrass, smashed 1 c. thick coconut milk 1 c. water 1 tbsp. tamarind puree or 1 tbsp. lime juice 6 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced (or grated zest of 1 lime) 6 tbsps. dessicated coconut 2 tbsps. palm sugar or light brown sugar 2 tbsps. fish sauce Method: Put the cooking oil in a heavy pot. Add in the spice paste and 1 tsp. salt. Fry until the mixture is soft and separates from the oil (this will take about 15-20 minutes). Add in the cinnamon stick, cloves, star anise, turmeric powder and the cubed beef. Fry on high heat until the meat is sealed and the mixture is dry. Add the lemongrass, coconut milk, water and tamarind or lime juice. Bring to a boil. Simmer until nearly tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Toast the dessicated on low heat in a dry pan while the beef is simmering. It is ready when it is medium brown in colour. Add the kaffir lime leaves (or lime zest), toasted coconut, sugar and fish sauce. Simmer until the meat is very tender and the gravy is thick. You can serve it like this or cook further if you like it dry. All rights reserved ©Adora's Box Copyright 2011. Please support Adora's Box by making your Amazon.com and mymemories.com (use the code STMMMS55174) purchases from this site. Click on their respective banners to proceed to their websites. It will not cost you a single cent more but will help sustain this blog. Thank you. You might also like Nasi Ayam (Chicken Rice) Aromatic Chicken Curry Nasi Lemak (Tamarind Fish and Coconut Rice) Thanks for dropping by. It would be nice if we could meet up on FACEBOOK or TWITTER.
We batch cook and make "boxes" to eat throughout the week.
