Leftovers #107

A wedding, a River, a pick me up; Sofia Coppola's reading list; + good, cheap house wine 🍷

Two wonderful close friends married each other last weekend. It was the first time our group had all been together since the last wedding, in 2022, and the air was heady with hope, romance and foreverness. Imperfect strangers collided, and everyone reminded each other of their greatness and wholeness; their tender capacity to tear up at just one mention of love.

We sat across from each other, reaching over for the bread, asking someone to pass down the platter of salty feta and fresh cucumbers and charred aubergines and whipped butter, drinks and smiles spilling over, a few stolen glances kept to ourselves until the end of the night, taking note to actually plan the annual holiday so this didn’t have to end in a flower-filled hall in Clapton.

The next day, summer filled the sky and I sat opposite a perfect stranger reading my copy of The Paris Review, the sun and the hangover and the potential all conspired to cast a dizzying, cinematic glow on the weekend. We cycled to the pub declaring it the beginning of the season, drank pints in a garden filled with people we now knew, and stole a few more glances until we cycled home and collapsed on the sofa. There was only one thing to do: watch the butter melt in a hot pan, hear the crackle of rice, the spit of oil underneath orange juice hued yolks, and let everything rest, then soften.

Lake District, 2021

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Cooking

I made a promise to myself that I would make a Spanish tortilla without ruining it and I had not kept that promise until I visited my friend Lucy’s kitchen studio in Brockley (shout out Studio B – available for hire! – and the best online deli biz On The Table) and pored over multiple videos on how to poach, soften, salt and flip. Recipe coming this Friday, feat a thyme-tinged oil and a grapefruit-spiked salad with soft, salty cheese.