Leftovers #189
The joy of someone visiting from another place that feels like home (Los Angeles) is so unbelievably good. Isabelle arrived with California gifts in tow: salad dressing from her favourite sandwich shop in Napa, Rancho Gordo beans (my forever request when friends from the States visit), and a perfect fish dish cloth and metal fish lemon squeezer (a theme). In return I’ve been showing her the most Cornish time: a trip to Barbara Hepworth’s studio and garden and lunch at St Eia in the sun; an evening of Willy Mason at the Minack, set to a backdrop of Cornish mizzle; a drive up to the north coast where it always seems to be sunny for food at Four Boys and a stop off at Fee’s en route home; a windswept, sun-streaked dog walk from Gwithian to Godrevy to see the seals; a roast chicken around my table with bottles and bottles of wine and a projector showing of Past Lives next to the fire. Don’t mind me whilst I stare lovingly into the eyes of Bean the black lab like she’s the second coming!
Good things to consume (bodily)
With a faint taste echo of Dusty Knuckle’s egg, cheese and chilli sandwich, I made such a perfect breakfast this morning: Vicky’s multiseed toast + lashings of butter + shaved Stithians cheese (specifically Cornish and good but an Irish coolea works! Anything with a bit of tang) + fried egg + chilli oil. Actually so elite.
Not one to outsource my roast chicken, but shout out to Fee’s in Rock for such a delicious marinaded spatchcocked chicken that I picked up yesterday en route home from Four Boys. It was spiced with sumac, cumin, pomegranate molasses, garlic, ginger and turmeric. Served it with boiled jersey royals (my tip is to keep them whole, slow boil them in really salted water until just tender, then take them off the heat and let them sit in the hot water until you’re ready to serve so they stay hot and fresh – best with a huge slab of butter wedged in the middle like a baby jacket potato).
Asparagus boiled until just cooked, popped into an ice bath then dipped into homemade mayonnaise laced with wholegrain mustard? The best snack ever.
Cooked a sausage, broccoli and gochujang rigatoni the other night and it was unbelievably good. Recipe-not-recipe coming next week. Would always recommend matching your pasta shape to how you want the sauce to interact with it – little morsels of sausage stuck in the tubes? Yes. See also: orrichiette for pools of olive oil in the ears.
Dinners around my table this week have been springy!
Good things to cook this weekend
Miso and ginger carrot salad for that skincare glow (I’m buying into it).
Super simple asparagus, potato and ricotta frittata for all your heatwave picnic needs.
Lydia Pang’s ‘Hot Mess Wontons’ are high up on my list (especially because it’s not hot in Cornwall right now, typical).
Less a recipe, more an idea: Olivia Noceda’s egg cheese and honey toast.
Cold noodle salad with soy and hot honey – yes you need this.
Good things to consume (culturally)
Recently discovered the work of South Korean philosophy Byung-Chul Han, in particular his book Saving Beauty, where he argues against the smoothness and polish in the digital age. By villainising this easy, frictionless, smoothness, he invites us to consider how and why beauty – that is art, design, what surrounds us – requires something to rub up against, and why polished perfectionism might be ruining how we perceive the world.
“Jeff Koons says that an observer of his works should only emit a simple ‘Wow’. It seems that his art does not require any judgement, interpretation or hermeneutics, no reflection or thought. It intentionally remains infantile, banal, imperturbably relaxed, disarming and disburdening…It invites the observer to take an attitude without distance, to touch. An aesthetic judgement, however, presupposes a contemplative distance. The art of the smooth abolishes such distance…. Without the negativity of being refracted, beauty atrophies into the smooth…Without the negativity of death, life solidifies into something dead. It is smoothed out into the undead. Negativity is the invigorating force of life.”
Marta, a design and art gallery in Santa Monica, is my new design fascination. I love the way they curate their shows and I’ve found some incredible designers/artists through their exhibitions, including Korean-American furniture designer Minjae Kim. I enjoyed this interview Canyon Coffee did with them. Particularly enjoyed this answer about their morning rituals:
I make the coffee, Heidi generally makes the eggs and toast. It sounds so plodding as I recount it here, but there is nothing quite like it: a moment with one's other half, and the dog, and some sustenance, on a sofa, in a tiny hundred-year-old bungalow in a great city filled with excellent people, many of whom we have the pleasure of calling our friends and colleagues.
And if you’re hungry for more design knowledge, I love Hello Human’s video stories on specific pieces, their design week coverage from Paris to Milan to London to New York, and how they interpret design within our culture. Emma Chosick of gr8 collab is also a huge source of inspiration – always assessing the finery details of design from past to present; I will also always implore you to read Abigail Sandler’s Substack Price Upon Request, where she dissects specific objects with humour and architectural precision.
I’m writing some fiction again, and always searching The Paris Review for writerly tips. Will never not read words by Stephanie Danler – here’s an interview she did with TPR about her debut novel Sweetbitter.
Forgot how good this song was until I listened to it during the end credits of Past Lives:
Good things to consume (aesthetically)
Have been obsessed with Danny D’s Mud Shop for years now (his looks have absolutely nothing to do with it. Obviously) – and whilst I know the cowboy/horse theme is very on trend, I have a true love for horses (pony club since childhood!) and so his latest batch of oval serving platters is right up my street.
In love with these candle shapes from the Sessun x Mulier Studio collaboration.
Deeply obsessed with Alice Damiens’ workshop and studio – particularly this hand-carved wooden sculpture.
Wish I could have this wooden cabinet by Ryan Belli and Calley Benoit in my house.
always honored to be mentioned by you🧡