MIXES I FORGOT TO TELL YOU ABOUT

I made a few mixes in the last few months. Here’s two of them:

First up is a mix that I made for my good friends at Duke Bistro. They’re an amazing restaurant that opened in October above the Flinders Bar (which is also a cool place for legends), if you live in Sydney and haven’t eaten there you need to punch yourself in the face.

One of the best things about Duke is they stay open till 2am on Fridays & Saturdays and all they play after midnight is mad rap. So I made them a mix called RAP FOR DINNER.

RAP FOR DINNER (click to download) 

Tracklist

BEANIE SIGEL feat GRAND PUBA & SADAT X bread & butter

LIL’ WAYNE la la la

8BALL & MJG feat YOUNG DRO bring it back

T.I. rubber band man

GUCCI MAN & PLIES wasted (remix)

DR DRE feat HITTMAN, KURUPT, NATE DOGG, SIX-TWO xxplosive

RICK ROSS feat NE-YO super high

BIG BOI feat GUCCI MANE shine blockas

CHRISTION feat JAY-Z bring back your love

JUVENILE feat SOULJA SLIM slow motion

2PAC how long will they mourn me?

THE PHARCYDE passin’ me by

GZA liquid swords

PUFF DADDY feat THE LOX, LIL’ KIM & NOTORIOUS B.I.G. it’s all about the benjamins

THE CLIPSE gangsta lean

The good folks at TwoThousand were nice enough to put this mix up on their site.

Earlier in the year my friend Nick, who runs Gay Bash, one of the most fun parties to play in Sydney, started a new party called Shameless. The party is dedicated to all things Shameless, especially all the daggy songs you secretly love but would be too embarassed to play elsewhere.

So here’s my daggy as fuck Shameless mix:

SHAMELESS MIX 1 (click to download)

Tracklist

Billy Idol – Eyes Without a Face

Eurythmics – Right By Your Side

Toto – Africa

Blondie – The Tide is High

Culture Club – Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?

Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer

Nik Kershaw – Wouldn’t It Be Good?

Billy Joel – Don’t Ask Me Why

Chicago – If You Leave Me Now

Wendy Matthews – The Day You Went Away

Air Supply – All Out of Love

Chris Isaak – Wicked Game

Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street

In The Mix hosted this mix on their site. Thanks!

I made a whole bunch of mixes this year, maybe you should download those too?

YO LEVINS X FAVELA ROCK

END OF THE NIGHT – THE RAP ONE

YO LEVINS APRIL CLUB MIX

HOT DOG DAY

We had some good pals round one Sunday in Spring for a hot dog feast.

GRILLIN SUM DAWGS

We grilled some yellow peppers too.

The homie MItch Orr helped out with these professional mustard squiggles.

Ultimate dog – Kosher frank, roasted tomato salsa, chipotle mayonaise, roasted yellow peppers and mustard.

The dogz were a hit with the boyz and the girlz.

Om nom nom nom nom.

MO PHOTOBOMBS

These were all taken while I was on tour with the Stereosonic Festival.

HALONG BAY

We ended our Vietnam trip with 3 days aboard a boat, cruising through Halong Bay, surrounded by nothing but small islands.

It was very relaxing. Besides the day trip we took to the Mekong Delta, we had planned each day in Vietnam ourselves, so it was a change of pace to be on board a cruise where all of our activities had been organised by someone else. It was cool to be taken out of our food-focused comfort zone for a few days, especially after the gorge fest that was Hanoi.

On our first morning our boat was met by four women in small rowboats who picked us up and took us for a ride.

I tried to row but I sucked at it.

We were taken to a local fishing village where kids as young as 5 were tearing through the water in rowboats. 

These kids were so badass that the school had been flipped over and was out of use! They said it was because of storms but I reckon the girl in the pink sweater did it just to see if she could. So badass.

One afternoon the staff aboard the boat prepared a bbq for us on the beach. It was the best food we ate on the cruise – fresh seafood and meat cooked over charcoal.

I bought these sunnies at the market in Hoi An. They’re meant to be Ray Ban knock-offs but the logo says ROY & BON. Money well spent!

Clearly not content after the amazing lunch they’d cooked us, I got the staff to help me find clams in the sand. Then we cooked them over the charcoal and they were delicious!

We went kayaking each day. I dove off the front of the boat into the water a few times too. It was quite the OUTDOOR ADVENTURE™. And what OUTDOOR ADVENTURE™ is complete without a guided tour through some sweet caves?

 

Cool stalactites, brah. 

When we escaped the sweet caves, we were attacked on the beach by a gang of adorable puppies!

Aren’t puppies just the best way to end a cruise?

We headed back to Hanoi for one last night and went straight to Fanny for the best ice cream sundaes ever:

The next morning we boarded our planes for home. Boo hoo.

In conclusion: Vietnam is a fucking radical place to visit and is especially great to eat at. Somehow, after eating 5 meals a day for 2 weeks, I lost 3 kilos, so that makes Vietnam even more magical!

99% of the photos I used in these blog posts were taken by my girlfriend Bianca. She runs an awesome blog called Sandwichface and is the greatest person to travel with ever. Here’s me and her wearing sunglasses on a rowboat:

XX

HANOI PART 2

Even though 90% of the reason we had come to Vietnam was to eat mad shit, our stomachs were only so big. With so many amazing, unique foods on offer that we NEEDED to try every day, we were bound to overdo it at least once. And boy did we overdo it today.

The breakfast at our hotel is pretty decent – B fills up on eggs and I slurp down a bowl of pho ga before we head out for some morning beers. Hanoi specialises in bia hoi – fresh beer brewed every morning and poured out of kegs by thousands of beer vendors across the city for a couple of cents a glass. It’s delicious.

So was the bun cha we ate yesterday, maybe we should eat another bowl at a new place?

It wasn’t quite as good as the bowl we shared the day before but it was still pretty awesome!

We were north of the lake for reasons besides bun cha. We were looking for a pho spot that served up a darker, beefier broth. The place was called Pho Thin (13 Lo Duc Street).

Although this was easily the most run down place we ate at in Hanoi (not hatin, just statin!), the smell billowing out of the pots was wild, and the bowls of soup the staff were putting together at lightning speed looked incredible.

What set this pho apart from the rest of them was that the beef was stir fried before joining the soup in the bowl. It was such an intense, beefy taste. I think this was the best bowl of pho I’ve ever had.

SMAAAAAASHED!

I really shouldn’t have finished the bowl right to the bottom. I mean, I had to, a rule is a rule – but I’ll recount what I’d consumed so far this day, and keep in mind that it was barely midday!

– 1 bowl of pho ga

1 bowl of bun cha

1 bowl of pho

2 iced coffees

– 2 glasses of beer

I was done. Totally game overed. We walked back to our hotel, clutching our bellies. I collapsed on our bed and enjoyed 3 hours of food overload crazy dreams before B woke me up and informed me that it was time to eat again. Lucky me!

We visit this lady for some Bánh cuốn nóng, little rice dumplings with pork and mushrooms inside.

They were very nice, but most importantly they were small! Was this all we were gonna have to eat tonight? Was I going to get off this easily?

Oh no! It’s B’s biggest weakness! Banana fritter vendors! 

Surely that counts as dessert right? Something sweet to end the night on? Wrong again!

We walked past these little fellas and figured we better eat them too. All the banana fritter did was increase B’s appetite for deep fried goodness…

These little prawn cakes are fried until crispy. Then you wrap them in lettuce and dunk them in the sweet papaya dipping sauce. Very good. 

Minutes before I was set to explode, Bianca found the place she was looking for:

Bun Bo Nam Bo means ‘noodles from the south’. They serve up big bowls of awesomeness – beef, noodles, bean sprouts, papaya, lettuce, herbs, carrot, peanuts and shallots swimming in a sweet sauce.

As full as I am, this is crunchy and fresh enough to eat till it’s finished. “I probably shouldn’t have eaten all that” I think as we waddle to the nearest corner for a final bia hoi.

While we drink, a local man comes up to me, killing himself laughing. He wraps his hands around my left thigh and then wraps those same hands around his own waist. Although he cannot speak English, his message is clear: “Have another beer you fat, western asshole!” 

AND I DO.


HIP HOP XMAS DOG

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet my bro Hip Hop Xmas Dog.

I bought this at a Coles supermarket a few years ago and after 3 Christmases, we still haven’t had to replace the batteries!

HANOI PART 1

Almost 2 weeks into our Vietnam trip we found ourselves in Hanoi. We found ourselves there because we bought plane tickets. Plane tickets to Hanoi. 

Immediately Hanoi asserted itself as the best city in Vietnam. “Enjoy the excitement of Ho Chi Minh with the relaxed attitude of Hoi An!” it yelled. “Walk as many of my streets as you want and I dare your eyes not to pop out of their sockets as they marvel at my people’s clearly superior way of living!”.

Just one hour passes and we start wishing we had added another week to our trip just to hang out in Hanoi. We need to soak up as much of this amazing city as we can in the few days we have here. We also need lunch. Bun cha time!

Just around the corner from our hotel is Bun Cha Nem Cua Be Dac Kim. We set out in the afternoon on the hunt for pho, only to find that all the pho spots had shut early. So we stumbled into Bun Cha Nem Cua Be Dac Kim (67 Duong Thanh St) with little idea of what bun cha was other than a fun dish to say over and over as loudly as possible. 

We sit down and are quickly served a plate of rice noodles, some herbs, lettuce and two bowls filled with a sweet vinegary broth. One of these bowls has some green papaya chips floating on the surface while the other is swimming with charcoal grilled pork and pork patties.

After pretending that we knew what we were doing and trying to wrap the noodles, pork and herbs up in the lettuce and stuffing into our mouths, we notice the locals doing it the right way – you pick up some noodles with your chopsticks, dip them into the sweet broth, add some herbs and slurp some pork, herbs, noodles and broth at once. It’s amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa etc.

We also order some fried crab spring rolls (nem cua be) which are as crunchy as they are crabby. They’re real good slurped up with the broth too.

2010 marks the 1000th year since Hanoi was established and the West Lake was all fancied up with balloons and drinking Bacardi like it was its birthday.

Every bench around the lake is taken by body of water enthusiasts, who sit amongst countless couples tying the knot and taking pictures.

There are at least 6 couples getting hitched in this photo!

All laked out, B and I head back to our hotel for a siesta before we embark on another nightly food pilgrimage. This time we’re going to chow down on a recent craze in Hanoi – a greasy combination of a kebab and a banh mi. Seriously!

The doner owner at Cafe Goethe (56-58 Nguyen Thai Hoc St) shaves some pork from his glistening pork pyramid and puts it on a Vietnamese roll with lettuce, tomato, mayo and pickled red cabbage. If it was a lot later and I was a lot drunker I would probably proclaim this as the greatest thing I’ve ever eaten, but sober at 7pm it tastes pretty great too. 

Around the corner we buy another banh mi kebab from a street cart that has no name but proudly displays its certificate in public health inspection out the front. Maybe its name is APPROVED?

By 8pm we’re two sandwiches deep, clearly it’s time to eat a massive bowl of pho. Hours of stressful “best pho in Hanoi” Google searches lead us to Pho Gua Truyen (46 Bat Dan).

There’s a line out the front which is crazy because apparently Vietnamese folks don’t queue for NOTHING. So naturally we’re excited about these noodles.

Huge hunks of aged beef hang next to the counter, dripping fat on to the floor. The aged beef is called chin but out of habit I order pho tai, which comes with rare beef. When our bowls are sat down in front of us I’m disappointed, but still pretty eager to get my slurp on.

Why would I be disappointed? This pho is the real deal, super flavoursome, great noodles and a generous helping of tender meat.

The sriracha chili sauce sits in buckets on the table. Maybe it was made at the restaurant? It’s thinner than what you get in the bottles and a little feistier too.

Out of respect, I finished that bowl of pho to the bottom. It’s important that you do that when pho is good. And this bowl was great, but as we walked back to our hotel I couldn’t stop thinking about how good the pho chin with the aged beef would’ve been. For the next four nights I slept uneasily, pondering over what could have been.

BUT FOUR DAYS LATER WE RETURNED TO PHO GIA TRUYEN AND I PROUDLY ORDERED THE PHO CHIN…

…AND IT WAS SPECTACULAR. SPECTACULARLY SPECTACULAR.

So of course I smashed my bowl with much respect. But in a rare feat of being able to eat as much as her fat boyfriend, Bianca respectfully finished her bowl of noodles too! The pho chin was that good!!

RESPECT.

GET AT ME DOG

bow wow wow yippie yo yippie yay

VIETNAM BOMB

I had to do one while I was there… apologies to the chinese tourists in Hoi An. Photo taken by Bianca Khalil.

HOI AN 2

At night in Hoi An, the tide rises and the river extends itself up the streets. Some of the buildings in town are used to having their whole first floor completely filled with water during the wet season!

B and I head to the other side of the river in search of a snack that makes no sense to me: banh dap, a sticky rice cake stuck between two crunchy rice cakes, served with a shellfish dipping sauce. “How the hell does that work?” I would think every time B reminded me of this snack we had to add to the long list of mad shit we needed to eat in Vietnam. “Is it like a sandwich?”

“No it is not like a sandwich at all, good sir” I think to myself as I snap the above photograph. Banh dap is a big sticky glob of rice batter, squashed between two thin, toasted rice cakes. It’s tasty as fuck and the dipping sauce rules too. It’s hardly big enough to be our lunch though, maybe we should go back to that amazing banh mi spot we had those life changing sandwiches at yesterday. Yes let’s do that!

OK LOOK AT THAT! Amazing right?! Now look at the pic of the banh mi we had yesterday – this one is bigger and better! You can check out what Bianca had to say about it here. She breaks down all the ingredients we think were stuffed into the baguette: Processed pork, roast pork belly, fried egg, pate, onion, cucumber, tomato, lettuce, mint, coriander, soy sauce and 3 kinds of home made sauce.

We took a video of the awesome sandwich being constructed which I’ll put up soon, it’s so awesome to watch! In the meantime hopefully these photos will satisfy our banh mi lust (yes that is a thing now).

Since heading back to the banh mi stand ended up being so goddamn awesome we decided to pay another visit to the lady who sold us that killer bowl of cao lầu. She was happy to see us again!

The day before we ate our bowl of soup while the vendor next to us bugged us to buy banh xeo from her stand. We bought one of her little fried pancakes today and I’m glad we did!

Banh Xeo is different here to what it was like in Ho Chi Minh City. Here the pancake is much smaller and you roll it in rice paper before you dip it in sauce! It is as crunchy as it is delicious, although I definitely prefer the banh xeo we had in Ho Chi Minh. This one is a great little taste to have before a big bowl of yesterday’s great memories is plopped in front of us.

Is it as good as it was the day before? Of course, maybe even better! Will I be able to have another bowl of these beautiful noodles again before I kick the bucket? I hope so!

Thanks for the good vibes, Hoi An. Thanks for the fresh beer. Thanks for the cheap suits and shirts. Thanks for letting me laugh at the young locals desperately forcing flyers for the one nightclub in town into my hands every day. Thanks for wetting my shoes during high tide. Thanks for that fucking sandwich! And for the two fucking sandwiches I had after that! Thanks for those noodles too, can you please send us a few bottles of your magic water so we can make them here? Thanks.