September is for making chutney
This chutney is a religious experience. It will define the word chutney for you. Thick, spicy, aromatic, sweet and rich in umami, it can be eaten with bacon, eggs, salad, cheese, steak, sandwiches, cold meats, pâté, and more. The only limit is your imagination.
Tales from Dublin Pubs: Molloy's of Talbot Street
This is one of Dublin’s few remaining early-houses and was once owned by two chuckle brothers from the West of Ireland who used their pub as a snare and knew how to set it.
Cultural Slavery
As a British Asian who arrived in England at the age of seven, I have asked myself, where do I belong? It is not easy to answer this question, even for those who never leave their place of birth. Where you live, and the culture that surrounds you, will affect you. It will shape your opinions and thinking, until you are also part of the cultural identity of that place.
Memories of bygone homes
I have lived in London nearly four years now; the time has passed like a heartbeat. A blink. It’s only when I go “home” that I realise how much time has passed. Returning to my hometown is strange. Mostly the same with a few things moved around and fewer people I know: a gallery of memories, myself a ghost, stirred by sights or smells. New memories in this realm don’t feel possible.
Tales from Dublin pubs: Clarke's City Arms of Prussia Street
We visited one sweltering summer’s day (admittedly with drink already taken) and found a pleasant exterior with a medieval door and lots of squared windows. On first entering it seemed silent and serene. Light was blissful and motes of dust spun basking in its beams. One can imagine how we were lulled and unprepared for what was soon to come.
Tales from Dublin Pubs: O'Connell, J. of South Richmond Street
Barman Freddie (who curses like a sailor and practices an old world pouring technique involving knives and generous spillages) is wont to enjoy his own supply behind the counter, and grows slower to serve and more moody accordingly.
Theatrical picnic: A homage to Heston Blumenthal and Albert Adrià
The creation of food is magic, as much an act of transformation as of necessity. It is little wonder that food is a source of escape and pleasure for so many. People eat to forget, remember, celebrate, commiserate and survive. Food is at the heart of the most sacred and secular rituals. At its core, the preparation of a good meal is a demonstration of love and the desire to give pleasure, a moment of catharsis.
Why debt is slavery
Debt is as much a pandemic as any virus because it touches so many people. It’s estimated that 75% of the world is in debt. Global debt reached $255 trillion in 2019, and in 2008 the time of the global financial crisis, debt was at $97 trillion. In twelve years debt has increased by 163%.
Ikigai: Find your own meaning
Meaningful work is a powerful tool for keeping us sane. In his book that charts his time at a Siberian Labour camp, Dostoevsky acknowledges that although the work is hard there is a salvation in following it through from beginning to end and seeing its use. The way to truly break someone would be to divorce the work from meaning.
Tales from Dublin pubs: Addison Lodge of Botanic Road
The Addison Lodge is a chameleonic venue phenomenon in existential crisis. This establishment is fighting for its life and the only reason it’s still breathing is because it’s located next to the lungs of the city: the Botanic Gardens of Glasnevin.
Mercurius: A window, a sea, a friend
What is Mercurius Magazine? And why does it exist? Our editors get creative with their perceptions…
Exercise in Utopia
Those who want to explore space will take a ship and sail across the stars. They will discover other worlds, full of wonders. They might peacefully colonise them, or establish local representative offices. Space trade will begin and intergalactic trade unions will be founded.
Surf Lessons
You never forget the first time you “catch a wave”. Squinting into the sun, looking backwards, waiting for the rising swell, capped by a white foam. Paddling as fast as you can to keep up. And then the feeling of being carried by something infinitely more powerful than yourself.
Tales from Dublin pubs: The Lower Deck of Richmond Road
The pub has a unique way of getting a helping hand behind the bar when it gets busy. They allow certain customers to do the unthinkable: cross over the threshold and step behind the bar to occasionally help out.
Whirr and Chime
Waiting makes you a passive consequence of externalities. Action transforms you into a cause. Even if the result is small, it still feels incredibly meaningful. And meaningful moments are ones that are the most pleasant to recall.
Time and patience: the essential ingredients of sustainable cookery
Recipe: Jellied rabbit served with chargrilled chicory and quail’s egg salad and buttery parsley Anya potatoes. Driven partly by a desire to understand my cultural and historical context, and partly by nostalgia for a time when fast-consumption and fast-production were alien I have wanted to try jellied rabbit for a very long time.
Does slavery still exist?
George Floyd’s death has massive and tragic consequences, but in the U.S.A there have been many other black men who have died at the hands of the police. What does slavery mean in today’s world?
On statues and nationalism: Stone is not as true as flesh
Whilst the past should never be forgotten or white-washed, divisions that result from divergent perceptions and emotional registers preclude any attempt to advance. Only through a more holistic understanding can we move forward. Protecting stone at the cost of flesh will not get us anywhere. Stone cannot deliver the whole truth.
Between nature and culture
It is normal to be worried and dissatisfied these days. Former icons are invalid, old narratives are deceitful, mainstream thinking is biased, our feelings betray us, and reason only hastens arguments against ourselves. One might say: our entire culture is opposed to nature, and nature is always right. However, this opposition seems misconceived.
Meditations: Tree of death
On the solstice 2020, I encountered the ancient Crowhurst Yew and had a conversation.
The never-ending quest…
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