Hello and welcome back to my Chill Chats interview series!
If you haven't read them already, you can read Holly Wolfe's interview here and you can read Michael Gannon's one here!
Click here to see the Chill Chats section on my blog so you'll never miss one ahaha!
Suzanna Melinn is the superstar who created Banana Melon Kitchen! (Click here to check out Banana Melon Kitchen's Instagram and click here for BMK's Facebook!) The dishes she creates are literally works of art, she has a real gift! And oh my god you haven't lived until you've eaten a Banana Melon Kitchen brownie, they're the BEST brownies I've eaten in my 20 years of existence, no joke!
Suzanna eats a plant-based diet and is doing such a fab job of making plant-based food cool and funky and amazing!
She's so kind and hilariously funny and witty and she has the coolest style I've ever seen. Her creativity is so inspiring and I absolutely love chatting with her!
Thank you Suzanna for being such an amazing human being!
Here's what we chatted about, I hope you enjoy it!
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1. Favourite fruit?
My favourite fruit is a mango, I always say the same thing, mangoes 100%. Mangoes or bananas.
Bananas are like my everyday normal fruit, but mangoes are like my special fruit, mangoes are my ultimate favourite, but bananas are the ultimate staple.
2. Favourite veg?
Kale, I actually love it, I eat kale every day. I massage it, massage kale every day, people think I'm weird! It tenderises the kale. I massage the kale with lemon, olive oil, and salt and then eat it like maybe with a tahini miso dressing, put that on top, toasted sunflower seeds, I'd eat that every day, it's my favourite thing!
3. What's the one meal you couldn't live without?
Dinner! It's my absolute favourite meal, I look forward to a massive dinner. The kind of meal, oh Massaman curry my favourite. Massaman curry 100%, I love curries.
4. Favourite time of the day?
Morning at 6:30am, when everyone is asleep and it's really quiet, and I feel like I'm getting a head start, that's when I do all my work. Or, conversely, if I happen to be staying up late, like really late for work. Any time where it's really quiet I love, it's really peaceful.
5. What's your go-to breakfast at the moment?
My go-to breakfast is...I'm actually having a green smoothie or buckwheat waffles! My green smoothie is like mint, broccoli, coconut yogurt, cucumber, blueberries, half a frozen banana, and supergreen powder. I feel so good afterwards, my body feels like it's alive, like I feel like I'm buzzing, I love it!
My go-to breakfast at the moment is a green smoothie but it changes all the time!
6. Favourite song?
My favourite song right now is "Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby" by Cigarettes After Sex, I listen to it constantly all the time, until I hate it!
7. What's your coffee order?
A latte with cashew milk!
8. Do you have any words of wisdom or a favourite quote that inspires you?
I actually do! Sometimes I find quotes a bit novelty-ish but one that I love is: "Don't chase people. Be an example. Attract them. Work hard and be yourself. The people who belong in your life will come find you and stay."
9. If you were to make a smoothie what would be in it?
It'd have to be a smoothie bowl. Using frozen bananas I make like a banana ice cream with a bit of vanilla, and then I make a chocolate sauce with cacao, dates, and peanut butter. Then I have it with strawberries and hemp seeds sprinkled on top! That's my favourite because it's like strawberries and cream but it's like sexy!
10. If you could change one thing in the world what would it be and why?
I would change the focus away from making money, to a broader outlook where people think about community. I think people need to change from looking introspectively at the individual, to looking more holistically. Everyone's so focused on how they look or how much money they can make, all material goods. I just wish people would see the bigger picture.
11. Favourite snack?
I don't really snack but I would say smoked almonds are my favourite thing ever, ever! Or Pink Lady apples!
12. What's your top tip for staying healthy?
Never diet! Focus on how you feel, not how you look.
100% never ever diet ever ever.
And eat hemp seeds cuz they're so good for you!
13. Who inspires you?
My grandad, he was such a kind man and he never had a bad word to say about anyone. I try to be more like him every day.
14. What is your biggest achievement so far?
I think finishing my masters in Interaction Design is my biggest achievement.
And for Banana Melon Kitchen, it has to be the Irish Times, that was the best.
(In case you've been living under a rock, Suzanna was featured in the Irish Times in January on their "50 People To Watch Out For In 2018" list, so basically she's class!)
15. Favourite café or restaurant?
Café Paradiso, unreal food! I didn't even have to think about that!
I like Meet Me In The Morning in Dublin. Ooh and Kaph for coffee in Dublin, coconut latte.
16. Hummus or guacamole?
Guac!
17. Where's your favourite place in the world?
In Clare where I live, at the top of a hill by my house with all the trees, I love it!
18. What do you do to stay active?
I love when I do martial arts. I love kicking things! I also do yoga and stretching.
19. If you could have dinner with any 3 people, dead or alive, who would they be and why?
That's so hard, there's so many people!
Yannis Varoufakis, Russell Brand, and Roland Barthes! I'd love to pick their brains on everything.
Ooh and Michel Foucault, he's a French philosopher.
Ohhh and Alexander McQueen as well, I love him!
20. Favourite item of clothing you own?
A necklace that I got for my birthday but I'm not wearing it now because I broke it, but it's gold and it's a medallion, I got it in Spain.
21. Favourite dessert?
It's obviously chocolate something, I don't eat anything unless it's chocolate!
I'm obsessed with brownies but it has to be a fudgy brownie.
Anything chocolate and hazelnuts!
And brownies, really fudgy and gooey, not cakey, if it has sponge get out the door!
Fudge fudge fudge!
22. What's the highest percentage of dark chocolate you've ever had?
99%. I used to work in a chocolate stall and they had all different types of dark chocolate, and I got to learn a lot about chocolate I'll tell ya!
23. Favourite thing to put on toast?
Avocado!
Or almond butter, banana, and maple syrup. And hemp seeds, I sprinkle them on everything!
24. Favourite herb or spice?
I use cumin on everything, or smoked paprika mmm!
25. Since I've asked you so many questions, what's one question you have for me?
Suzanna: What excites you most in life? What gets your creative juices flowing? What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Me: I love when I zone out creatively. Say I'd be typing a blog post and I'd be listening to some electronic music and eating some food, and I just zone out and type and create and I just love it!
Also, I can't really put it into words but I love helping people be better versions of themselves, if that makes any sense! I love talking to people, sure I'd talk to the wall!
I just love chatting and actual human interaction and making other people happy. It sounds so cringey but it's true!
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| We had the most amazing lunch in Good Day Deli, it was too good I actually didn't take a picture of it cuz it was eaten so quickly! And of course there was coffee involved, a flat white with cashew milk to be exact! (Shoutout to West Cork Coffee, love ya!) |
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| And of course we went to Soma too! Love love love Soma a lot (in case you can't tell already!) |
So there we have it, Chill Chats #3 with Suzanna!
Big love to Suzanna for being the grooviest, coolest, most inspiring human!
And make sure to check out BMK's Insta and Facebook and keep an eye out for Banana Melon Kitchen brownies and other treats in places like Soma, The Rocket Man, and O'Herlihy's Kinsale!
Click here to read the other Chill Chats (if ya want)!
Thank you so much for reading this and I'll see ya next week for another blog post!
Big love,
Darragh
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