Melbourne

My name is Philippa, but you can call me Phil…

Feb 08

Photo by Catch/Compose Photography

About ten years ago, I used to think that anyone who bought recycled toilet paper was a bit of a hippy.

The extent of my interest in sustainability was putting out my recycling bin each week, and even then I didn’t separate paper from plastic. I was living in a bit of bubble, where I didn’t really think about the world around me but all the while was wondering why my life wasn’t much fun and I didn’t seem to be all that happy. I spent most weekends inside, watching DVDs with the blinds shut, and a couple of blocks of chocolate for company. It was an unconscious life, in every sense of the word.

Keep reading…

The Wish List.

Dec 09

Hey, everyone’s doing it. We had a bit of fun compiling some gorgeous goodies that we’d absolutely love to be gifted from our loved ones. We hope they’re reading!

By Ming-Zhu …

1. The Centre of Gravity gift pack from Aesop.

2. A much-rumoured great vegan-friendly dinner at Vue de Monde.

3. A pair of black, mod skinny jeans from Nobody.

4. The Edible Balcony by Indira Naidoo.

5. A 3-month membership to The Coffee Circle from Ritual Coffee, Tasmania.

By Cassie …

1. Anything from the Grown Botanical skincare range – but especially the cleanser, toner and facial exfoliant.

2. A pair of Sosume’s silky shorts in charcoal, of course.

3. This incredibly timeless Ecochic atelier bookshelf on wheels, made from recycled timber.

4. A Shade of Turquoise handmade rug made from custom-dyed recycled cotton t-shirts. Made to order, from Green at Heart on Etsy – with a minimum 3 month wait…but soooo worth it!

5. Recycled timber flower mat. Designed and made in Melbourne by Bonnie Ashley and Neil Downie of Bonnie and Neil, and available via State of Green.

… Of course, we’re just getting our hint-hints out early. Next week, we’ll share our picks on gift ideas for friends and fam. Can’t wait! Have a great weekend!

-Love, Ming-Zhu & Cassie xx

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The Pre-Loved Collection + Fair Fashion

Dec 02

We featured the doubly-adored threads from Body by Dainy Sawatzky here a few weeks ago. We’re fans for the simplicity, comfort and innovation of their range, and also because they are manufactured locally – in Melbourne – from ethically sourced fabrics.

Well, now Body have announced the launch of their pre-loved range. They’ve taken business shirts that customers have donated and have used them to create a small, but handsome new range of “pre-loved” skirts, shirts and dresses. Click on images for more detail.

The Selvage Shirt

The Shirt Skirt

The Wall Street Dress

In other sartorial news, Cassie and I are both off to Fair Fashion for Moral Fairground/Fair @ Square – at the BMW Edge at Federation Square, Melbourne, this evening. It will feature appearances by labels Bento, Cylk and Sosume – plus a whole lineup full of other ethical fashion heroes, and is partnered by the inimitable Peppermint Magazine. More information on the event is here.

- Ming-Zhu. x

The Crimean, North Melbourne

Nov 23

The menu on the wall for this restaurant & bar had me instantly curious.

With a footnote about each kind of produce being carefully selected from various farms, there’s also a mention that chef, Alric Hansen, collects herbs on morning dog walks around his property. Quaint enough – you know I love that stuff.

The Crimean, on the corner of Peel and Queensberry Streets in North Melbourne, is a venture between Melissa Macfarlane, Frank Moylan, and Lazlo Evenhuis. Together, Macfarlane and Moylan had previously established the Farmers Arms in Daylesford and the Royal George in Kyneton. During their time at the Farmers Arms, the pair were instrumental in establishing Daylesford Macedon Produce, a food-centric collaboration and network of producers, growers, providores, suppliers, and restaurateurs promoting their regions’ offerings. These guys are thus no strangers to sourcing produce at its origins, and it’s through this particular Eastern Euro, Black Sea-inspired theme, that they proffer some of Australia’s best regional produce.

Tomato salad, chive quark & crisp rye bread.

It’s still pretty rare to come across this kind of upfront information restaurants. For me, that openness rates highly, as I’m increasingly mindful and hence choosy about what I eat, particularly meat. Finding quality and affordable dining with a conscience can be a bit tricky, which is really why I wanted to share this place with you all. It’s great to see establishments this genuine about the way they source meat, selecting from small and manageable, high quality farms. The Waechter Dux ducks come from the Barossa Valley in South Australia, where they roam vineyards and fruit orchards and snack on Barossa-grown grains. The Gippsland Moondarra Wagyu is used to create a sensationally in-house cured pastrami. The Berkshire pork comes from Strathfieldsaye near Bendigo, and Glenloth provide the corn fed, truly free-range, roaming chickens from the Mallee region of North Eastern Victoria. Vegies come from the rich soils of Kyneton, north-west of Melbourne. Each of these producers place great emphasis on sustainable, responsible farming practices and providing the best care for animals.

Shopska salad

Having since visited The Crimean a few times, I’ve had a chance to sample a good portion of the menu, but I’m not here to write some kind of review if it all. (Yet, I still have to say that the beef & pork pelmeni with sour cream, paprika butter and horseradish are just ridiculously addictive, and thankfully you can get them both at the bar and in the restaurant.) There’s plenty in the way of vego options too, and some visually spectacular salads and starters, as you can see here. The bar menu holds some local brews from Hargreaves Hill, Bridge Road and 3 Ravens, alongside the more foreign and extensive assortment of brews, spirits and wines. I’ll be grabbing a Beton after work some day soon; this Becherovka and tonic beverage is far more refreshing than its concrete namesake lets on!

The interior is also awesomely decked out, so go check it. And say hi to Frank for me.

The Crimean Restaurant & Bar, Tuesday – Sunday. Lunch: Fri – Sun.

-Cassie

P.S. We’ll be announcing our next giveaway on Friday. In the meantime, be sure to hear about it by signing up to our newsletter. x

What we love Wednesday: a good dose of clean.

Nov 16

Today’s post is a quick wrap of some gorgeous, emerging cleaning brands I’ve come across of late. There are some real, genuine shifts going on in the household maintenance realm, towards far more simpler and honest products, so here’s to them. It’s so easy to get on board. Here’s who and what we love this Wednesday:

Planet Luxe

We discovered this new label via Lucy over at The Design Files because clearly, packaging aesthetics rate highly on the Luxe agenda.

Planet Luxe are keeping it seriously simple, dedicating one product to each cleaning purpose -namely, the dishes, floor, laundry, shower, toilet; and make that two choices for the hands. Drawing on a particularly Aussie-inspired scent palette, the Planet Luxe range includes ingredients like Kakadu Plum, Lemon Myrtle, Blue Eucalyptus and Lavender in simple combinations with vanilla, rose geranium and sweet orange. You can purchase from their online store, where they’ve listed all ingredients for each product on their site.

www.planetluxe.com.au

Goodbye Detergent!

Who said scourers had to look shitty? And, who said they even need soap? Although these guys are designed and made in Japan, I had to give them a good look-in. They look so fresh, my only problem would be that using them would ruin their beauty, and I’d eventually have to recycle the box. Fortunately, they’re tough-as, and designed to last up to 6 months. And since they’re all made from recycled materials and natural materials including walnut shells, peach seeds and corn cobs- what can’t go in the yellow-lidded bin can go in the compost. They’re also dishwashable, for a new lease of life. Oh Yes.

www.goodbyedetergent.com

Solution Living

Coming from Sydney’s breezy Northern Beaches, Solution Living have a clear love of citrus oils, lavender and simple modern living. Their ingredients are all organic and fair trade where possible, and all recyclable, of course. Catering for laundry, kitchen, floors and general purpose, this product line is super simple. You can tell, huh? Their online store also stocks other ethical, eco-savvy cleaning brands including the more familiar EcoStore, WotNot and Baby Organics labels.

www.solutionliving.com.au

Project Green

I couldn’t finish this post without a shout out to the guys at Project Green, based over in Melbourne’s Inner-West. I purchased their bathroom cleaner from Green Collect last week, so I’ve got their goods on trial. I’ve found its vanilla scent works a treat on freshening the fridge, as much as it’s good for tiles. Not just a pretty brand label, Project-Green is actually a cleaning and labour hire services co. with their own product line to match. It’s a great little model, which enables them to be in total control of their business values, and they get to clean with products they know and trust. Word.

project-green.com.au

-Cass.

Getting the good fish: sustainable seafood

Nov 11

These days, we’re pretty clued up on the state of the worlds dwindling fish stocks, but in wearing our consumer hats, how do we navigate what this means when it comes to the crunch? How well do we know where each and every piece of seafood we bite comes from, who caught it, what it actually is? Let alone asking, is it ‘sustainable’?

Sustainable seafood at St Peter's, in Melbourne.

Last night I went to a public forum on the topic of sustainable seafood at the University of Melbourne, hosted by the Marine Sciences Association of Australia. The talk was headed up by reps from various aspects of Australia’s fishing industry, but I really went for the perspectives of passionate seafood chef, Oliver Edwards. You’ve gotta love a passionate, ethical foodie. With fellow enthusiasts, Chef Oli co-created GoodFishBadFish. It’s a great resource for learning what fish can be substituted with others, what Australian species are more sustainably grown and harvested, as well as housing reviews on seafood restaurants.

Like many such forums, I suspect that most of what was said preached the obvious, to the converted few. Yes, understanding the provenance of fish, and being able to verify labels (did you know that since 2007, there is only one legal name for each species as it can be sold in the marketplace?) are basic to discerning what might be classified as sustainable stock. Yet even a forum hosted by those most passionate about educating the public on eating good fish, struggled to provide easy and clear answers on the how, where and what you can eat with a clear conscience. Even the term “sustainable seafood” is bandied-about ‘bluewash’ and there’s pretty well grounded concern that the industry, like much of the meat world in general, thrives on the lack of accountability and transparency that runs up the human food chain, ‘seals of approval’ included.

It seems the onus for now, is on us critical consumers to actively be asking the hard, awkward, annoying questions ourselves. If you’re going to eat the fruits of the sea, Oli suggested that conversations with your local fishmonger are key. Get to know them, get them to know what you’re looking for and make it clear that you’re not going to grow complacent. Don’t settle for vague. Don’t settle for ‘yes, this is sustainable, you can eat it’. We need to be wiser than that. If you don’t know the answers, ask: where they came from, how old do they live, at what age they spawn, are they raised wild, or farmed? (BTW, aquaculture is the new norm.) If they’re deep sea creatures, live to be 100 and don’t have babies till they’re older than you – the chances are that eating that species any time soon is not cool. Further to this, learn to adapt. That recipe you want to make – does it really need that fish?

In relative terms, our domestic fisheries are much better managed than most on the planet. But when I asked the panel (rather nervously, but oh well) whether we could move beyond this notion of sustainable seafood, couched comfortably in a market economy of oversupply, to one where shortage is not a horror, but a norm – well, the room went sniffly, and a bit restless. Some panel members said they weren’t sure what I really meant, but one member did and I think he agreed. The reality is that however well-managed our domestic fisheries may be, we still import a whopping 70% of all the fish we eat. And I think that says a lot, in that we might be taking better care of our own backyard, but so long as we externalise what we can’t control – there’s some way to go yet.

So, finding the good fish. We recommend:

St Peter’s Restaurant & Bar: 6 Melbourne Place, Melbourne VIC. stpetersrestaurantandbar.com

Esposito seafood dining: 162 Elgin Street Carlton VIC. www.espositofood.com

Fish & Co. sustainable seafood cafe: 41 Booth St, Annandale NSW. www.fishandco.com.au

- Cassie.

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