Welcome to Mood Mellow.
We’ve heard that this cafe is owned by a famous Thailand artist who has a wife that loves to cook and bake, it would explain the delicious pies and cakes. Someone has been working hard on making this place on of the nicest places in Chiang Mai. In an area where you trip over new hip places opening every day, this is quite an accomplishment.
Each of the menus of Mood Mellow is handmade and unique and don’t get me started on the food. It’s delicious! Great Italian food, great Thai/European fusion and some very healthy things as well. Our personal favorites: the sour dough bread with cashew hummus, bell pepper paté and raw vegetable ‘fries’, the lemon pie and the chocolate & salty caramel cupcakes.
Rượu thuốc means medicinal liquor and is a special Vietnamese drink. I’ve never seen anyone drink it but I guess there must be people drinking this. Vietnamese people believe Rượu thuốc will improve their health and in this case, make them a super man. It comes with different animals and herbs. The most famous is the snake or scorpion version. I particularly liked this white horse penis one.
A long time ago, I studied art and my main focus were the male genitalia. I don’t know how I came up with that but somehow all of my work was penis-related. I once crocheted a giant penis table-cloth in traditional Doily style. It was beautiful. I still have it if anyone is interested.
Even though I don’t make penis-related art anymore, I can still appreciate things like this. And a white horse, that almost sounds like unicorn. Unicorn penis alcohol, who wouldn’t want to drink that!
On a Friday-night we found ourselves in a former bicycle factory with no idea what was going on. Somehow we found ourselves at one of the opening parties of Beijing Design Week. China has an amazing amount of talented designers and they gathered in the Dashilar hutong to show what they create.
We have already shown you one of our favorite pieces. Designers Aida Studio strung and lit 1,664 of Beijings famous ceramic yoghurt jars to compose Milkywave. It is an impressive chandelier that looped through a two-story stairway.
Most part of Beijing Design Week was situated in the Dashilar Hutong of Beijing. In addition to design aficionados, the hutong inhabitants also stopped by for a visit, making for mixed crowd. Most shops and showrooms were situated inside of ancient courtyard houses. It gave us a little glimpse of real hutong life. One of those courtyard houses had been taken over by GCDKDesign.
Sometimes you find people who are extremely good at what they do, and Mumo is one of them. We fell in love with his furniture. He loves working with wood and makes some of the best looking tables we have ever seen. His furniture was being displayed by designers platform Jue. We wish we could tell you more but the Jue-website is in Chinese.
Creative platform Nuandao was responsible for a whole street of quirky and crafty designers. Nuandao has created a platform where young designers of all sorts can easily sell their work. There was also a skateboard brand, showing some decks.
We left Beijing Design Week feeling inspired and amazed by the creative talents China has to offer.
Walking around the abandoned buildings of Listvyanka was one of the highlights of our time in Russia. The smell of freshly smoked Omul was in the air and in the background was beautiful Lake Baikal. The atmosphere was peaceful, and you could see nature in the process of claiming back the earth.
