Christmas Shopping at TOKYO

It's that time of year again. People become hordes of cattle rammed through shopping centres, grannies sharpen their elbows to make up for their small size and delicate build, and you hear 'last christmas' thrice an hour, which is enough to send a mass of people (already at the very end of their tether) straight over the edge, into yuletide massacre mayhem. All in the name of Christmas shopping. Ho ho ho.

 

Luckily, it doesn't all have to be shopping centres (or grannies or carols, for that matter. not that i have anything against either). Which is why last Friday i trammed it through the frosty afternoon to Arabia and TOKYO's Christmas sale, in the hopes of finding presents for my nearest and dearest. 

These necklaces are made using a picture or photo, and you can get them with your own pictures, which is kinda nice. As would be giving one of these to your best friend with that pic of her passed out on the floor next to a puddle of vomit.<3

An advent calendar you can happily hang on your wall. None of that Disney-themed plastic crap with fake chocolate in it for me this year!

 

How can you not love these? A perfect gift for anyone. Especially your Grandma. And her sharp elbows. Nutty Tarts, i'm a big fan of your work. 

After all those christmas parties, going for the brown-paper-bag-over-your-head look might start seeming like a pretty bright idea.

 Lots of cool prints, too. I almost bought one daintily titled "Up Your Butt in 80 Ways".

 And pretty cards, too. Couldn't find the ones with the elf flipping the bird, tho. (a pic of which can be found from last year's post on this topic).

And then i saw this. The tentacled bunny had me enraptured from the get-go. It's like The Mad Hatter and Cthulhu made babies. Tea-drinking, totally looney, world-destroying demi-god, semi-lapine babies. Set me back 35 euros, which is not bad at all. And it goes nicely with the print i bought last year, of two girls having a macabre tea party wearing masks, seen behind the rabbit in the above pic. Similarly to last year, i sort of ended up buying lovely things for myself, and failing at getting presents for others. I guess i can always resort to baking, wrapping and lovingly giving out gingerbread vaginas.

Which is what i might do right now, accompanied by the four hour xmas playlist (!!!) i put together on Spotify last night at two in the morning, and an industrial-size mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows.

Have a rockin' weekend y'all!

Necrophenia and Cheesecake.

Are two things that i have been spending the last couple of days occupied with. And what a lovely pastime they make for those lazy days following Christmas. Before dubious images of what that may entail fill your mind, i’ll elaborate that Necrophenia (for those of you who have yet to be acquainted with it) is in actual fact a book written by one Robert Rankin, and cheesecake is actually something i baked for Christmas dessert.

In terms of goodness, the two are far from evenly matched. It seems now that i’ve gotten halfway through both (getting through the cheesecake has proved far easier, not to mention more enjoyable) i can justifiably conclude that the book (which features a rock band, Aleister Crowley, the summer of love, an army of zombies and the end of the world) cannot surpass the cheesecake (which features fresh mint, after eight chocolate filling and lemony raspberry-mint sorbet).

I think this is probably because of Rankin’s style of writing, which I find arch to the point of being supremely irritating, and the fact that halfway through the book, I remain oblivious to any kind of masterful plot it might contain. My disregard or lack of understanding for said book has nothing to do with the sugar high-induced attention deficit state in which I’ve so far been reading it.

I originally picked up the book because someone compared Rankin to Gaiman, who is the author of one of my all-time favourite books (that, and the fact that it had a neat skull design on the cover), which in itself sets the standard rather high. Yet to be impressed by Necrophenia, I think I’ll plough through till the end and hope it gets better.

This cheesecake, on the other hand, is pretty good. It’s a spin on the classic baked, cream cheese version, with melted after eight chocolates and fresh mint thrown in the mix for some extra minty goodness. Unfortunately this isn't a vegan version, but you can easily substitute the egg with an egg replacer and use vegan mint chocolate instead. I tend to stray from recipes when i bake, which is why the amounts are approximations, and i encourage you to adjust them as you go along, if need be. As the cake is quite rich, it's complemented nicely by a zesty raspberry sorbet, which is super easy to make. This cake will happily feed six greedy eaters, or eight normal ones. 

After Eight Cheesecake 

For the base

• about 200g (half a pack) of digestive biscuits
• handful of rice krispies (optional, but they add a nice crunch)
• 3 tablespoons of margarine

For the filling

• about 600g of vegan cream cheese (Tofutti brand is pretty good)
• 3 organic eggs (or your choice of egg substitute)
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar
• about 200-250g of after eight chocolates (depending on how much mint chocolate you fancy)
• about 1dl of sugar (give or take, as much as you feel is needed)
• chopped fresh mint (a handful, or as much as you like)

Crush digestives, add rice krispies and melted margarine. Line your cake tin (ideally 23cm in diameter) with the mix and pop into a 180 degree oven for ten minutes.

Whisk together cream cheese and sugar with an electric mixer. Add eggs one by one, whisking only until consistency is smooth. Throw in chopped mint. 

Melt most of the after eights in a water bath, adding a little water and the vanilla sugar. Chop remaining after eights into chunks. 

Mix melted after eights, chocolate chunks and whisked cream cheese together. 

Pour into cake tin, and place onto lowest level of oven. Place a dish of hot water underneath the cake tin to achieve best cheesecake baking results.

Bake at 165 degrees for about an hour and ten minutes. 

Raspberry-Mint Sorbet

• Raspberries (frozen work well for this)
• Juice of half a lemon
• Chopped fresh mint

Throw all ingredients in a food processor. Add lemon/lime/sugar to taste. When pleased with result, put mix into a freezer proof container and leave in the freezer until it has set, but isn't fully frozen. Use an ice cream scoop to serve sorbet with cheesecake. 

Enjoy. I recommend enjoying a slice (or seven) with a really good book.

Yuletide mischief.

Well i'll say. The run-up to Christmas has been hectic. i'm only now realizing that the day itself is, in fact, tomorrow. While the fact that Christmas has managed to sneak up on me is in part probably due to natural light being practically absent and days being disconcertingly short, it's also due to the fact that i've been too busy to sit around counting down the days like i used to, back in the day.


Instead i've occupied my time with a precariously balanced marriage of work and play. Going to work in the sleepy darkness of the morning and emerging therefrom at an equally dark hour seems to have wreaked havoc with any sort of natural body clock i might have once had. I find myself frequently at bars and other after-dark establishments until the wee hours of the morning, celebrating someone's birthday, little christmas, or simply the fact that it happens to be a Tuesday (which is a perfectly acceptable reason to celebrate). While this is all fun and games, the daily toiling, nocturnal frolicking and averaging of four hours of shuteye per night has finally caught up with me; i've managed to catch a vicious cold that has rendered me speechless, grumpy and achy. Which means i'll probably be spending Christmas in bed with some Finrexin and a pen and paper as my only means of communication. Which probably serves me right. Oh well, at least i had a good run. And some pics to document it. 

I've written before about the curative properties of various types of chilled, blended fruit beverages. Here's a christmas version i had one morning. I threw in frozen blueberries, cranberry juice, glogi, ice, ground flaxseed and goji berries. And it brought me back to life, it did. 

One happy night at Kuudes linja, where a couple of kids decided to dance on tables outside in temperature that was well below freezing. Altogether a great idea and a brilliant night.

 

One is never too old to believe in Santa Claus. Or receive a Cthulhu stuffed toy from said geriatric, while he downs drink after drink and makes lewd jokes. Which is what happened at this particular gift-swapping shindig. But hell, that little green, winged, octopus creature is the shit. Not many can say the go to bed every night with The Great Old One.

A day trip to wintery Tallinn, featuring my mother, sister, cousin and two aunts. Our expedition enjoyed some hardcore snowfall, delicious food and copious amounts of mulled wine to warm the soul. I never knew how much fun day trips with the extended family can be. This is going to have to become an annual tradition. 

I haven't managed to break the habit of buying presents for myself yet, and i figured a small bottle of perfume could be a personal Christmas present. I'll put it under the tree with a little gift tag reading "For Nina. Love, Nina". I love this perfume though, it' all old school glamour with powdery, rosy nuances in the mix. Also love the scarf the perfume is pictured on, which was a birthday present from a certain lovely lady. In addition to the perfume, I also bought 24 bottles of Crowmoor cider, but i figured putting a pic of the perfume might be a little more classy. And wont serve to advocate a careless lifestyle centered on late nights and whimsical fancies in the run-up to Christmas. 

Now if i could only heed my own words.   

'Tis the season of Christmas shopping.

It's gotta be done at some point, and each year the prospect of entering department stores crawling with super stressed-out businesspeople (who rely 100% on the generic gift-wrapping service, cause it takes like, at least three minutes to wrap that gift for your kid), industrious mothers who are on a marathon shopping trip (and are carrying twice their weight in shopping bags) and the scary Burberry-clad grannies with sharpened elbows (which are ideal weapons for swiftly dispersing of crowds - or people ahead of them in the line) seems less and less enchanting. 

So i thought i'd make a start this year by going to one of my favorite places for xmas shopping - the TOKYO xmas sale. Hosted by the students of TaiK (University of Art and Design Helsinki), the pre-xmas market features all sorts of art and design from underwear to baked goods. It's a great place to find something a little more unique, and a great way of supporting up-and-coming Finnish talent. 

Flipping the bird at Christmas. A welcome take on the traditional xmas card.

 

I spotted this underwear at the market last year, and since then i've been wanting a pair of these briefs. What a brilliant idea. The undies, like the accompanying baked goods, are the handiwork of artistic duo Tärähtäneet ämmät, and were among the coolest items i spotted at the sale. 

What i ended up buying was a beautiful set of 36 Ex Libris stickers featuring what looks like bird fetuses in glass balls, with a third ball for you to write your name in. Definitely too adorably sinister to pass. With only three dozen stickers, only my nicest books will get one. Gives me good reason to go back next year, though!

I bought something else, too. My first official investment in art. Two girls in dresses, barefoot, having tea and cupcakes with Venetian masks on. There's something really enchanting about the seeming normalcy of their tea party that i was drawn to. And with echoes of Roman Dirge, Tim Burton and Alice in Wonderland, i was happy to spend my remaining 35 euros on this. All i need to do now is frame it, hang it up, and admire at leisure. 

As a kickoff to Christmas shopping mayhem, the TOKYO sale was great. On the downside (or the upside) my gift foraging was kind of self-centered. But alas, fear not, i tell myself, because our fair city plays host to several other seasonal shopping sales: this weekend one can browse the traditional christmas gift selection at the 78th annual Naisten Joulumessut (Women's Christmas Fair), or jazz up the season by purchasing a fascinator and nipple tassels from the Burlesque/Rock'n'Roll/Vintage themed Ofelia Market. My plan is to attend both, and strictly refrain from buying myself anything. We'll see how that goes.

Naisten Joulumessut 2-6.12.2009, Wanha Satama, Pikku Satamakatu 3-5, Helsinki

Ofelia Market 5-6.12.2009, Kulttuuriareena Glora, Pikku Roobertinkatu 12, Helsinki