Moroccan Fish Curry

This was a recipe I threw together from ingredients at home back in 2018. Just saving it here for reference. I basically called it a curry because of the coconut milk, but you’d also call it a stew I guess.

Pasta al Pomodoro

This is a basic pasta sauce I keep coming back to when I need to cook something quick for dinner. The idea for the recipe originally came from an Italian cooking show I saw once here in Sydney on the old community tv channel 31 way back in 2007 I think, and for the life of me can’t find the name of the program. Basically, it’s pasta al pomodoro, to which you can then add other ingredients as the mood, or available ingredients take your fancy.

Geometry Design Analysis – IND 0330

Background

This design is one of the carved masonry reliefs at Fort Agra, India. It’s a Mughal design c.1550.

It’s listed as IND 0330 in David Wade’s online gallery.

For reference, Samira Mian has a Youtube video showing a more complicated method for making this pattern.

Holding Up Your Pants

I’ve been digging back into my research on period Middle-Eastern clothing again, specifically the Moorish stuff for a change, and started thinking about the drawcord used to hold up your pants (sirwal). This cord is usually called a tikka in Arabic sources.

MOJO MARINADE

I fell in love with Chef, Jon Favreau’s indy movie from 2014. The soundtrack is completely kick ass, and the visuals are food porn. It’s just one of those feel good movies that grabs you in the feels and doesn’t let go. So I bought the soundtrack, and there’s recipes for some of the signature dishes in the show inside the jacket. So we decided to have burrito bowls one night not long after I’d gotten into the movie, and was just hanging for some Cuban food, so of course I volunteered to prep the meat. This is the mojo I came up inspired by the recipe in the CD jacket. That’s lamb back strap in the mojo, and it was delicious!

Snorkel Site Review – Clovelly Beach, Clovelly

Entry

Entry is either via the steps on both sides of the bay, or via the beach at the end of the bay. In either case, the entry is relatively easy throughout most of the year, due to the protecting sea rock walls at the mouth of the bay which dissipate most of the wave energy coming into the bay.

Experiments in Slit & Pull Straps

I’m looking at making a new pair of sandals to replace my current ones that I use for reenactment stuff. One of the issues I’ve had is the thin leather strapping I used on the 1st ones tends to dig in to the foot as they get tighter. So it was really interesting to find a technique for doubling up the strapping thickness in Veldmeijer (1).

An Overview of Men’s Abbasid (9th-10th Century) Persian Clothing

Introduction

The Abbasid Caliphate period in Islamic history saw the cultural focus shift from the Arabian Peninsular to Persia, and the rise of the Persian Secretarial class as the fashion trend setters and arbiters of fine taste within the Islamic world. The secretarial class, or Kātib as they were called, were able to draw their preferred fashion from across the Islamic world, and were highly influenced by the older Persian Court dress elements. (Stillman p41)

The Abbassid Caliphate ruled the Muslim East, and North Africa from 750 AD, and claimed universal authority, ruling from the capital of Baghdad in Persia. North Africa was lost to the Fatamids in 969 AD, they lost effective power to the Seljuq and subsequent Turkish Sultanates in 1055 AD and the Abbasid Caliphate eventually fell to the invading Mongols in 1258 AD.(Hourani pp 84-85 & Brett et al p124)

Site Review – Parsley Bay, Vaucluse

Snorkelling Site Review – Captain Cook’s Landing Place, Kurnell

This site is located just inside the south head of Botany Bay, and is actually quite a nice relaxing place to visit. This review is based on our visit in February 2010.