Turning Japanese...

Abi here again. I was lucky enough to visit Tokyo last
October and came back even more enamoured of Japanese design, culture
and general obsession with all things kawaii (that's "cute"). 



I
discovered the delights of the 100 Yen shops (or 78p shops if you do the exchange rate thing); nothing like our depressing pound shops
they are multi-storey caverns of absolutely everything useful,
useless

Orchard Cafe, London

I was tipped off a while back about Orchard Cafe in central London by contributing ed, Abi, who not only said the food was spectacular, but that the interior was pleasing too.

Since then, I have interviewed its head chef/co-owner, Andrew Dargue about his food twice for the Independent and the Simple Things, but have yet to actually go. Crazy, as I am vegetarian and Andrew is also the founder of

The Kitchn is doing a cookbook!

A tiny post for anyone who doesn't read The Kitchn, the excellent off-shoot of the ace American interiors website, Apartment Therapy.

I can't get enough of its mix of totally do-able daily recipes that use everyday ingredients (and not too many) in interesting ways and lovely – homely not hi-techy – kitchens (like this beauty). If you don't read it I urge you to sign up to the daily emails; it