Hasta La Ideas

From condiments to a restaurant and a new cookbook, Mabu Mabu’s mission is about food and cultural connection

A professional chef for more than 25 years, Nornie Bero—who is from the Komet People of Mer Island in the Torres Strait—has just released her first cookbook, Mabu Mabu. The book is named after her company Mabu Mabu, which comprises a catering service, small-batch products and two venues—Tuckshop and Big Esso—in Melbourne, Australia, but that name itself originates from a phrase in Meriam Mir (spoken in the Eastern Islands of the Torres Strait, and Bero’s first language) which means “help yourself.” Mabu Mabu’s overall mission is to make Indigenous food and Australian native ingredients accessible. More than that, Bero wants to change people’s perspectives and set an example for kids who grew up like her. “The easiest way to change people’s views is through food,” she tells us. “Food is the way forward. Everybody smiles when they eat. And it doesn’t matter what opinion you have, food brings everyone together. Food is multiculturalism. Food opens conversation. Food is an experience that brings cultures together.”

Growing up in the Torres Strait—from Mer Island to Moa Island—Bero spent a lot of her childhood outdoors, picking fruits, fishing and cooking. When she was quite young, her father (a big dreamer with an entrepreneurial spirit) recognized her passion and gift for food. “Now that I’m older, I realize all the confirmation classes I missed to go pickle mangoes and tamarins probably led me down this path,” she laughs. When her dad got sick in his early 30s, Bero’s own trailblazing spirit was stimulated. “He never gave up on the dream,” she says. “Because he got sick so young, I guess I thought I’d have to achieve on my own and be the role model he wanted to be. I think I did it for both of us. So I went and I achieved as much as I could, and stood on my own two feet, and just to represent—to make him proud. I think that maybe half of it was for him and half of it was for me.”

Her father, grandmother and aunts all instilled a strong work ethic in Bero too. Leaving home at a young age and moving to bigger cities, she entered the hospitality industry as a teenager in the late ’90s. The field was—and continues to be—dominated by white, cisgender men. “I just worked around them and took their jobs,” she laughs. “I came up in a different time. A lot of lot of female chefs that I was friends with that came up with me at the time cried most of the days and left the industry. But I grew up around some tough people, you know, ‘I’m not going to let you deter me!’ I just worked triple as hard. You really have to have a thick skin in this industry. There’s still that boys club. I have restaurants in the industry, but there’s still a boys club out there that really dominates the industry. But I think women are the way of the future of this industry.”

Her first restaurant job in Melbourne was at the Grandview Hotel and she moved to various respected kitchens around the city, but often wondered why nobody was using Australian ingredients. Eventually in 2018, she opened Mabu Mabu and sold sauces, spice mixes and teas made from native plants—like pickled karkalla, wattleseed hot chocolate and more. “In Australia we have so many great power-packed natives, and we don’t use them. They grow naturally and we’re missing out on the amazing flavors that are here. As part of what we do at Mabu Mabu is we want to give you all those flavors, we want you to come and taste those flavors.”

One of Bero’s favorite ingredients is the bush tomato, which she refers to as “the Indigenous stock cube.” Indigenous people have been harvesting it the same way for many, many years. “They let it turn to almost like a raisin on the bush and then add it to stuff. It’s like something between a tomato and an eggplant. It’s also called a bush raisin because of the way that they harvest it, and we’re still now commercially doing it the same way. How cool is that? One native ingredient that is growing here on a little shrub can give you every flavor of a stock cube. And that’s only one ingredient.”

Mabu Mabu’s venues are the ideal way to get familiar with some of the ingredients, if cooking with them is still daunting. “We’re not here to give you a little sliver of samphire [a native succulent sometimes called sea asparagus] on the top and go, ‘Samphire!’ You’ll taste… nothing,” she laughs. “We give you five to six different natives in one dish so that you can have those multiple flavors and really taste what Australia is all about.” But ultimately, Bero wants to make native ingredients accessible to everybody. “I want people from all different backgrounds and all different pocket sizes of money to be able to afford it. I mean, it does grow naturally here, why are we making it into a superfood? For me, it’s normal food. It is our food of this country.”

That extends into agriculture too, with Bero explaining that focus in farming is less about native flora. “We need to start helping the farmers that are growing them so that we can commercially put them into kitchens. We do it for every other product, so why not do it for our own as well?”

The thing that was important about it for me is that I could represent people from where I come from and the many cultures that I grew up around

Now, with a cookbook—something she never imagined writing—Bero can spread the word even further. “The thing that was important about it for me is that I could represent people from where I come from and the many cultures that I grew up around,” she explains. “It was important to represent my culture and represent something different because I want to make a difference, you know. I want to be a good role model, especially for any Island kids that grew up like me—with a spear in their hand in the middle of nowhere—to dream big.”

For her, that dream is through food, but that goes beyond actual dishes and ingredients. “I think the food industry has an important part to play in bringing people together no matter where they’re from,” she says. “And I just want to make it a very equal place—for everyone.”

Hero image courtesy of Parker Blain for Mabu Mabu

Smart homes are becoming quite a craze these days! And honestly, who wouldn’t want a home powered by smart appliances that make your lives a whole lot easier, and do most of your tasks for you. Whether it’s cleaning appliances to help you effortlessly complete your chores, smart lights to perfectly control the illumination in your home, or thermostats to maintain the optimum temperature at all times – the right set of appliances can truly create the ultimate smart home for you. From a Google Nest Ceiling fan that ties together all your smart devices to a smart speaker that keeps track of your face at home – these innovative home appliances are all you need to create a living space that is futuristic, tech-enhanced, and an absolute pleasure to live in. Are you ready to build the smart home of your dreams?!

1. The Google Nest Ceiling Fan

Just like our appliances, ceiling fans have also received smart treatment in the past. The Nest Ceiling fan is a productive and more interesting take on the other smart fans that can only be turned on and off through a smart assistant. This new adaptation of a ceiling fan designed for the Google Nest lineup has been conceived as an all-in-one smart hub that would tie up all the smart products you have spread across each room in the house. The compact and stylish two-fin fan with an omnidirectional speaker, smart light bulb, sensors for the thermostat, and a smoke detector and alarm will replace each of the mentioned devices for good and leave you with a single contact point to create an interesting smart home setup.

2. Ember

Spurred by the recent trend toward midcentury-modern design styles, Koleda designed Ember to be subtly elegant with a bronze velodrome-style trim and stainless steel grille. The tastefully subdued appeal of Ember allows it to fit into any living area, from a boho minimalist-style bedroom to a living room filled with Bauhaus aesthetics. The versatile nature of Ember even moves past its looks to pack a lot of punch into such a compact build. Equipped with a heating capacity of 1’200 Watts, Ember can heat up to 215 feet with ease. Inside Ember’s cylindrical center, a ceramic heating element kickstarts the job by evenly distributing instant heat via a silent and powerful built-in fan.

3. Kano Sense

Designer Sam Beaney created Kano Sense, a universal smart home device that uses computer vision to convert everyday objects into smart home outputs. A gleaming one-way mirror lens and soft wooden frame give Kano Sense a heavy and familiar look. Kano Sense takes the shape of common smart capsules similar to earlier generations of the Amazon Alexa and Echo and contains embedded smart computer vision that analyzes everyday appliances like ovens and even ceramic mugs to turn interactions with them into smart outputs.

4. The Soove

The Soove doesn’t look like your typical smart speaker aside from its conical shape and the customary use of fabric that wraps around the product. It has an odd collar-like ring near the top, actually a sound cone that makes it more sensitive to almost every audio nuance around it. The most eye-catching part of the design, however, is the black glass ball on top and the two eyes that seem to be looking back at you and express some emotions by changing the eyes’ shape. In addition to listening for audible cues, Soove uses facial tracking to recognize a person’s emotions through their facial expression as well as physical states.

5. The HeimVision Assure B1

The HeimVision Assure B1 is a culmination of a lot of good ideas into one, neat package. It’s a CCTV but works as a two-way audio teleconferencing device too. It runs via an app, but can even be commanded via Alexa, making it simple to use without needing your phone around. The Assure B1’s basic kit (that’s the $79 one) comprises one wireless camera and one central hub that sits within your home. The camera features a tripod mount for easy installation and runs on rechargeable AA batteries for a solid 12 months (with the option of hooking it to a solar panel for uninterrupted continuous power).

6. The Klaustrafloria Planter

This tall cage-like planter has a sleek futuristic appeal. Available in a stark white color, the planter has been amped with phytolamps, a backlight, and an automatic watering system. A decorative cage, within which the plants grow, makes up the main body of the planter, followed by a base that consists of a removable inner pot, a water chute, a LED water level indicator, an auto watering system, and a 12-liter water tank. The removable inner pot includes containers that are filled with drainage rocks. Once planted, the plants sprout their roots through the slots in the containers, within 2-3 months. Water is supplied to the plant via the water chute which is connected to the reservoir of water below.

7. The Inlo

The Inlo is a series of devices that plug into the sockets in your home. Using wireless connections, Inlo communicates with all the Bluetooth and internet-enabled objects around your house, from your phone to your laptop, tablet, smart bulb, smart speaker, to even your door lock. Its ability to detect and communicate with wireless devices also allows Inlo to track your ‘presence’. If you’ve got a wearable on, you can program Inlo to treat the wearable as an extension of you – if Inlo detects your smartwatch ‘walking into a room’, it assumes it’s you wearing the smartwatch. Plug an Inlo device into every room in your house and you effectively create a network that allows this smart gadget to sense wherever you are in the house, adjusting things accordingly.

8. Decker

Decker is an all-electric appliance so grilling on it is devoid of fossil fuels like coal. It creates a smokeless experience which is perfect for an urban kitchen or a balcony. Young millennials and Gen Z have little access to the experience of cooking food on a grill. Using a BBQ grill indoors only creates a fire hazard but most living quarters don’t allow them because of the smoke and soot which can be bothersome in cities where people are often living too close to one another. The team elaborates, “We created a clear yet functional UI that displays options as and when the functionalities are selected. The display screen is a hi-definition OLED display that is touch-sensitive with multi-touch as well as provides haptic feedback to the option selected.”

9. Mr. Alfred

Mr. Alfred is a conceptual smart air-management system that looks like an elegant bar cart – the gold rails add a retro finish while the muted grey body gives it a rich yet subtle aesthetic. Instead of having four home appliances, you can just have one that does it all while saving space and upgrading your interior game. Mr. Alfred is designed to provide solutions for healthy air in your space by sensing the quality. It is precise and targeted at keeping your space clean. The sleek appliance is made of six important parts – the main body which is responsible to store and charge the detachable parts, a drone that monitors the space, a robot vacuum, an air purifier, a humidifier, and a dehumidifier. Fun fact: the three air-management parts rest on the robot vacuum that makes them portable.

10. Hearingbot

Called ‘Hearingbot’, this AI-powered robot comes with an integrated smart home system for seamless and reliable use throughout the day. One of the components is the hearing clock which wakes you up with vibrations while the Hearingbot smart home system raises the curtains for you. A cool feature is gesture recognition which makes communication easy for those who rely on sign language. The robot can recognize the signs and uses speakers as well as subtitles to communicate with its user. “It interprets sign language of the deaf through motion sensor and projects it into a projector.

The post Top 10 appliances to upgrade your smart home first appeared on Yanko Design.

Realme is one brand that is quickly establishing a name in the mobile industry. It may not be number one yet but we believe the OPPO sub-brand will soon cement its significant place in the mobile industry. It will not just come up with new and powerful smartphones but also wearable devices.

Realme is more known for its Android phones. The latest of which is the Realme GT2 PRO which is said to be one bold step towards more sustainable phones. New smartphones abound especially at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) but we’re also welcoming this new pair of Realme Buds.

Designer: Realme

The Realme Buds Air 3 is a pair of True Wireless Stereo earbuds. It’s the first TWS earbuds pair in the world that’s been certified with TÜV Rheinland High-Performance Noise Cancellation. TÜV Rheinland rating is more known for TVs but it also checks on active noise cancellation. The company has mentioned the 42dB ANC certification so you can be assured of a premium listening experience.

Realme’s Buds Air lineup is the Chinese company’s flagship offering of earbuds. Premium sound quality is often promised by manufacturers but not every model released comes with active noise cancellation. Others focus on keeping the prices down but have forgotten to improve quality.

One doesn’t need to be an audiophile to know if sound quality is good or not. If you wear the Realme Buds Air 3, you will know the difference. Don’t be fooled by the buds’ stylish appearance. The pair’s sellability goes beyond its aesthetics. The sound quality it offers is something that can match those from the more expensive and established brands.

Active noise cancellation by 42dB is significant and it’s made possible by an advanced R3 chip plus several noise cancellation algorithms proven to be effective. There’s also the smart de-wind design (anti-wind) that allows a comfortable listening experience no matter what the surrounding condition is. Other features include built-in microphones plus an aerodynamic internal structure, a 10mm driver, and a liquid crystal polymer composite.

There’s also a 546mAh battery that is enough to offer 30 hours of audio playback. If the pair runs out of battery, a ten-minute charge will give extra 100 minutes of usage. Expect the earbuds to deliver rich sound and deeper bass. Like most top earbuds out in the market, this pair follows AAC audio distribution standards.

The earbuds come in a charging case that is shaped like a pebble and looks a bit smaller and slimmer too. Its design is actually similar to the previous model you may probably not notice the difference. The pair still comes with an in-ear design but is more stable and offers a better fit.

The post Realme Buds Air 3 earbuds offer real active noise cancellation and true wireless stereo first appeared on Yanko Design.

A set of great handy stationery designs are extremely critical for any product designer! These are the tools that help and support you through your creative process. They can either make or break your entire design process, so it’s imperative to have a collection that really lets you work easily, efficiently, and effectively. And, we’ve curated a collection of innovative and nifty stationery designs that every product designer must own! From a modular pencil that reduces waste to a SpaceX-inspired pen, these products are sure to meet the unique needs and requirements of your creative process. And not to mention, they’re also super fun! They add a pop of life and color to your workdesk, while also managing to liven up your mood with their quirky + functional design. Which one of these stationery designs do you plan to use? Oh, and you can thank us later! Enjoy.

1. Tsugite

Tsugite is a reusable pencil system that uses a Japanese joinery method called tsugite. Park conceptualized Tsugite to come in a pack, stored with around twelve pencil bodies and their corresponding ends. The pencil body was crafted to form an arrow-shaped end piece that links into a horseshoe-shaped pencil tip. Once the pencil’s tip is too dull for use, the same body can still be used and another tip piece can be attached. While no hardware or joinery pieces are required to join the two modules together, users can rest assured the pencil tip and body are secure in place considering this same crafty joinery method is relied upon to build homes.

2. The O N Tape Dispenser

This is the O N tape dispenser by Fountain Studio, designed specifically to address all these issues while being aesthetically functional and good-looking. Most of all, it brings one-handed use to the good old tape dispenser, a feature that all of us will highly appreciate. The design of O N is centered on the two holes at the bottom. The first hole keeps the tape bonded and pressed to the rubber pad for uninterrupted, continuous usability. The second hole has a button along the cutter sign to cut the tape off when required. This way, the user doesn’t have to bring the second hand into play which can be an irk at times with conventional tape dispensers.

3. The DRILLOG

A cross between a brush, a pen, and a quill, the DRILLOG is stationery at its absolute finest. Designed and made in Japan, the dip-pen features a drill-inspired nib that catches ink in its different hollow grooves when you dip it in ink, and the ink gradually travels down to the tip by virtue of gravity, giving you a new, elevated writing experience that doesn’t just translate to great penmanship on paper, it’s also a sheer pleasure to look at as the ink gathers in the nib’s finely machined spiral grooves, and travels down as you write.

4. The Nominal Pen

Inspired by the democratization of space travel and how one private company, founded by Elon Musk is leading the charge to make space-travel accessible to all, the Nominal Pen is literally designed to look like a rocket… making it perhaps the most literal take on the ‘space pen’. The pen’s name comes from the term ‘nominal’, often used for when everything’s going smoothly and according to plan. Designed as a celebration of SpaceX’s recent achievements of being the only private company to send humans to the ISS and bring them back (while even retrieving parts of the spaceship to be reused at a later date – something nobody’s ever done), the Nominal Pen models itself on the Falcon series of rockets (the Falcon 9 Block 5 in particular).

5. Project Rotate x Yuki Kawae desktop Zen garden hand rakes

This collection between Project Rotate and Yuki Kawae features several different hand rakes, each capable of creating unique designs in the sand. A six-piece groove set consists of six handheld sand rakes that create wider sand designs. While the handle is made from natural wood, the rake is made from white trimming that takes on various shapes and patterns. The groove sets’ counterpart would be Project Rotate’s six-piece ridge set. The ridge set’s geometric rake trimming differs from the groove set’s curved, rounded trimming, but both sets are wide by design and form a unique base pattern for desktop Zen gardens.

6. Loop

Meet the Loop pencil – this clever design not only makes it easier to use the pencil till the end of its life but also uses the eraser to double up as a stand to keep your desk clutter-free! Loop has three parts and each has an important function to optimize the product – the pencil, the clip, and the eraser. Once the pencil becomes shorter, you use the clip which acts as an extended grip and it also doubles up as an attachment so you can clip it on your documents just like a pen. The eraser doubles up as a vertical pen stand so that the desk doesn’t have a cluster of pencils and you can easily find one that belongs to you. Loop’s simple yet modular design makes it effective, reduces waste, and maximizes the use of the product.

7. Fahredin Kosumi’s Wall Organizer and Mess-Free Planter

Fahredin Kosumi’s Wall Organizer and Mess-Free Planter is a WFH multi-functional, organizational wall accessory that allows users to organize their office and add some greenery in the process! Defined by an assembly system close to LEGO building blocks, Kosumi’s Wall Organizer and Mess-Free Planter come with base grids that attach to walls with 3M strips, requiring no hardware or tools in the process. Once users form their base grid on their chosen vertical surface, the fun begins. Stocked with over 20 different modules, Kosumi’s Wall Organizer and Mess-Free Planter come with hangers, magnetic clips, transparent storage containers, planters, and cubbies.

8. The four-side long tail clip

JaiYi identified that the existing clip while doing wonders to hold the paper in place also faces some ergonomic troubles – firstly, the pin’s handles tend to slip when we apply force to it. Secondly, the pressure points in the design are the creases in the pin which take the entire load, causing them to crack. On identifying these concerns JiaYi applied her design skills to transform the classic, and take it to the next generation along with us with the four-side long tail clip! The four-side long tail clip makes two simple yet radical changes – it elongates the handle of the pin, allowing us to apply the same amount of pressure while exerting lesser force and it adds a new pressure line, halfway through the design, helping relieve the pressure on traditional three creasings.

9. The Transforming Pen & Stylus

A uniquely versatile writing tool, the Transforming Pen & Stylus can be used and carried in a variety of ways. In its smallest avatar, the entire instrument measures just 75mm or under 3-inches in length, and when expanded, becomes a 115mm-long instrument that you can comfortably and effectively write with. The entire Transforming Pen & Stylus is made up of 3 machined metal parts that can easily be disassembled for maintenance, along with a replaceable ballpoint refill and a fiber tip stylus that can be replaced too.

10. The Co-Box

Meet the Co-Box, an electric pencil sharpener, minimal and geometric by design that is a worthy addition to every design nerd’s desk. The design is a white square shape, accentuated by an orange circle, reminiscent of the button we would see on our Braun machines. The circle also acts as an entry point for your pencil. The shavings get collected in a transparent box, to be disposed of at your convenience. The design history of our 20th century is filled with iconic design moments, each one a point in time when the object became a part of our everyday life, almost seamlessly – all because of the nature of their design.

The post Top 10 stationery designs that product designers swear by first appeared on Yanko Design.

Looking like the kind of fidget puzzle you’d find in Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, the Tetra is a 4-part puzzle that comes together to form a tetrahedral mass. The goal? Separate the 4 metal pieces as fast as you can!

The Tetra is a uniquely appealing desk toy that activates your manual dexterity skills, problem-solving abilities, and spatial reasoning. The 4 identical stainless steel pieces are designed to lock in only when oriented in a pre-determined pattern. Similarly, they can be removed only a certain way, making the puzzle challenging the first couple of times, and then fun and fidget-worthy after. When you’re not playing with the Tetra, it makes for a pretty mysterious and eye-catching objet d’art that you can place on your desk.

Designer: Revision for Craighill

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Available in both brushed Stainless Steel and PVD-coated black variants, the Tetra is engaging to look at and even more addictive when you begin playing with it. “On first glance the Tetra Puzzle might seem fairly straightforward; in reality, it’s anything but intuitive”, say the folks at Craighill. Solving it requires focus, attention, and an exploratory mindset that’s innately gratifying. It pushes your boundaries — if only a little bit — and invites you to learn something new.

The Tetra is just one of the many tabletop fidget puzzles from Craighill. Their arsenal also includes cube and sphere-shaped variants, all of which are sure to add a certain Je ne sais quoi to your workspace. Beyond its allure as a meditative object, it’s incredible to watch friends discover the magic for themselves. Whether or not you provide hints is up to you!

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