Leftovers #123
Last one of the month, it's a freebie!
I’ve been doing lots of cooking with the same produce on rotation: feta, yoghurt, eggs, green beans, kale, potatoes. And I’ve been spending probably too much time at Welk’s, a general store on Main Street that feels like a perfect mix between an old school hardware store and a fancy market. I bought a Bialetti 20cm non-stick pan for tortillas and a new cleanser and a box of Ghia spritzes in one trip. It’s so perfect to me.
We’ve just landed on Vancouver Island for the long weekend. I’m looking out from the living room directly onto ocean, forest and then mountains that are peaking out under the clouds. I’ve read two chapters of Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants (lol) and I never want to leave.
Cooking
A lot of Vietnamese-inspired salad rolls with a peanutty dipping sauce. Mainly filled with tofu, carrots, green beans, shiso leaves, coriander, mint and sriracha. The dipping sauce has been a mix of peanut butter, a tiny bit of miso, a splash of yuzu ponzu sauce, a heavy splash of Mother Root Ginger, and a squeeze of lime. Or sometimes I just add peanut butter to my lime miso vinaigrette.
This salad in different guises. I’ve named it Shoulder Season Salad because it straddles that strange period between summer and autumn. Its distinguishing flavour profile? Fresh but warm.
A new hyper-fixation breakfast: toasted porridge bread from Small Victory slathered with thick Greek yoghurt and topped with Trader Joe’s Green Goddess seasoning, two fried eggs, kale sautéed in the egg pan and some crumbled feta. Plus lashings of Valentina hot sauce.
Also a breakfast plate of leftover salad ingredients + avocado + feta + kimchi + boiled eggs on Greek yoghurt.
Saving
This maple miso butter and orange wine (!) spatchcock roast chicken.
A Japanese-inspired version of steak frites? Yep.
The way this tuna tartare is sliced is actually quite erotic to me.
I love how Jenny makes meals for TV characters: this time it’s a pumpkin, brown butter and sage pastina for SATC’s Sam (but specifically when she’s sick).
This might be redundant seeing as peach season is over BUT DID YOU KNOW THIS PEACH CUTTING HACK??
Reading
Can I fall back in love with fine dining? - Financial Times
The Parasite of Malibu – The Cut
The feral 25 year olds making Kamala Harris go viral on TikTok - The Washington Post
Americans have lost the plot on cooking oils - The Atlantic
The Messiness Of Black Identity - The New Yorker
I am no longer constantly worried that everyone I love is going to die a horrible, painful death – Eliza McLamb
The AI crisis: how we could solve it, and why we don’t - Maalvika
Watching
Obviously Nobody Wants This. I love Adam Brody as much as I did when I was 13 and made his initials the beginning of all my passwords. It’s like Netflix mined my life to figure out exactly what I want to watch right now. They probably did.
Subscribing
To my friend Sarah Johnson’s newsletter. Sarah makes beautiful clothes - small batch, effortlessly chic pieces from quilted jackets to Grandad shorts. She very kindly mentioned me in her newsletter the other day and I had to give her a shout out here. I cooked a gochujang roast chicken over potatoes with marinated tomatoes a few weeks back.
Recommending
Pizza Coming Soon which is a delightful Japanese snack bar in Vancouver just down the road from where I’m staying. Obsessed with its html website and authentic lofi feel but also it’s kale miso caesar salad and the chicken karaage and salmon tataki and the founder’s elder millennial attitude.
Colourful Standard socks! I am usually a Le Bonne Shop stan, but I think these ones might be better for autumn/winter because they’re a little thicker and longer. These ones are blood red and really satisfy my need to include red as an accent in almost every outfit I wear.
Listening
Shook by that peach cutting technique. Will be employing it as soon as peaches are back!
just got those socks thank you!