bonjuk news #12
Updated: 6 days ago
rewire your brain by gülferi yıldırım 28 sep - 1 oct
What if you don’t need to add more to your life?
What if you need to pause, reset and give your brain space to change?
Join neuroscientist Gülferi Yıldırım and practitioners Arzu Erensoy, Burcu Sergün & Meriç Fıratlı for four days of neuroscience-based mindfulness, breathwork, movement, yoga, sound and experiential practices.
A retreat designed around neuroplasticity, exploring how your brain can move out of familiar patterns and create new ones.
Reset. Rewire. Renew.
Come back to your life with new tools, more clarity, and a little more space in your mind.
Start with your brain.
Where magic happens. 🌀
Download the program
weekly tunes
Kotoe (Stil vor Talent, Berlin) makes you want to move, blending disco, acid and tropical sounds into a vibrant, genre-bending style shaped by her roots in Tokyo, Rio and Berlin. Unafraid to challenge expectations of the Berlin club scene, she has become a favourite among dancers looking for surprise, movement and deep, mood-driven beats.
Her sound has taken her to major festivals and clubs including Fusion’s Bachstelzen, Bucht der Träumer, Garbicz, Melt!, Objekt klein a, Wilde Renate and Kater Blau. Beyond Europe, Kotoe has brought her infectious energy to dance floors across Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
We're excited to welcome Katoe to Love Weekend, happening 24-28 September at Bonjuk Bay, where music, movement, and community come together for five unforgettable days.
bonjuk bites
mushroom & lentil lasagna
with slow-cooked tomato ragù & béchamel
Ingredients
For The Mushroom & Lentil Ragù
500 g mixed mushrooms, finely chopped
250 g cooked green or brown lentils
1 large onion, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
1 celery stalk, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp tomato paste
800 g canned tomatoes
150 ml red wine
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dried oregano
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
Olive oil
Salt & black pepper
For The Béchamel
60 g butter
60 g flour
750 ml whole milk
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt & black pepper
50 g Parmesan, finely grated
For Assembling
10–12 lasagna sheets
200 g mozzarella
50 g Parmesan
Fresh basil or parsley to finish
Method
STEP 1 — Caramelize the Mushrooms
Heat a large pan until very hot. Add a little olive oil and cook the mushrooms in batches so they brown rather than steam. Let them develop a deep golden color, season lightly and set aside.
STEP 2 — Build the Ragù
In the same pan, slowly cook the onion, carrot and celery in olive oil until soft and lightly caramelized. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for another 2–3 minutes.
Pour in the red wine and let it reduce by roughly half. Add the tomatoes, thyme, oregano and bay leaf. Simmer gently for 20–30 minutes.
Fold in the cooked lentils and caramelized mushrooms. Finish with soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. Simmer for another 10 minutes until the ragù is thick and rich. Taste for salt and pepper.
STEP 3 — Make the Béchamel
Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour and cook for about 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in the milk until completely smooth.
Cook gently until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Season with salt, black pepper and nutmeg, then stir in the Parmesan.
STEP 4 — Layer
Spread a thin layer of ragù over the base of a baking dish. Add lasagna sheets, more mushroom-lentil ragù, béchamel and a little mozzarella.
Repeat until you have 3–4 layers, finishing with béchamel, mozzarella and Parmesan on top.
STEP 5 — Bake
Bake at 190°C for 35–40 minutes, until bubbling around the edges and deeply golden on top.
Let the lasagna rest for 10–15 minutes before cutting. This is important; it allows the layers to settle instead of collapsing onto the plate.
STEP 6 — Serve
Finish with fresh basil or parsley, cracked black pepper and a little good olive oil.
Bonjuk Bites note: The trick is the mushrooms. Getting them properly caramelized before adding them to the ragù gives the lasagna the deep umami flavor you'd normally expect from a long-cooked meat sauce.
september, the sweet spot
September might be one of the best-kept secrets of the Mediterranean.
Summer is still very much here. The sea has spent months absorbing the sun and remains beautifully warm, the days are bright, and life still happens mostly outdoors. But around Bonjuk Bay, September brings a subtle change that makes nature especially inviting.
The mornings become fresher, the evenings cooler, and walking through the forest starts feeling good at almost any hour. The sun sits slightly lower in the sky, giving the landscape softer light and longer shadows. The sea, meanwhile, often feels warmer than the air; one of those small September pleasures that makes it difficult to get out of the water.
The landscape is changing too. After the long, dry Mediterranean summer, shorter days and cooler nights begin preparing plants for the next seasonal cycle. With the first autumn moisture, the surrounding hills gradually start waking up again. September also coincides with autumn bird migration, bringing movement through the skies as species travel south between Europe and Africa.
At Bonjuk Bay, where so much of the day is lived outside, these small changes are impossible to miss. Breakfast feels different in the morning air. Forest walks get longer. Swimming stretches later into the season. Evenings ask for that first light layer over your shoulders.
It is not quite autumn and certainly not the end of summer.
It is the sweet spot between the two and perhaps one of the best moments to experience the bay.
upcoming
There’s still plenty of summer left at Bonjuk Bay.
