Leftovers #190
Had a slightly whirlwind couple of weeks. Settling into bi-coastal life, by which I mean travelling between Cornwall and London for work, which makes me feel very grown up, and also means I can hug my city friends in deliciously designed wine bars even more. Lots of pondering romantic entanglements and consulting my tarot card reading with Renata (you can read more about that in my essay, The Romance of Control), stealing moments of sunshine in between Cornish mizzle, lighting the fire when the latter occurs, and planning for guests arriving in my house which will happen almost weekly over the next two months. Absolutely jonesing for a summer sojourn to Marseille after seeing some friends basking on rocks there last week, and can’t face my feed for all the heavenly pictures of 3daysofdesign in Copenhagen. Not exactly sure why I’m not there.
A heatwave of sorts is forecast this weekend, which means a full day of beach time on various coasts, reading Jem Calder’s I Want You To Be Happy, and eating things like snow peas dipped into houmous or a mortadella focaccia sandwich from Roundhouse. Completed Desperate Housewives this week (only took me two decades), rewatched Sentimental Value and plan on dipping into Jim Jarmusch’s new film, Father Mother Sister Brother. For now, it’s time to don some kitten heels and Kate Spade bag for a dinner party in Helston - gotta get your kicks when you can in Cornwall.
Good things to consume (bodily)
Made a surprisingly good aubergine pasta last week: shallots in a little olive oil cooked until soft; add a few crushed and chopped garlic cloves; add a whole aubergine cut into cubes; add some more olive oil and fry until aubergine is cooked through; throw in a tin of chopped tomatoes, 1 tbsp tomato paste, 1 tbsp gochujang and 1 tbsp miso paste + 2 tsp sugar. Let it all simmer under a lid for about 40 minutes – season to taste. Serve with casarecce pasta and lots of crumbled feta. If I had it, I would have swirled some tahini in there too.
What a surprise, I roasted a chicken on Sunday. Marinaded a spatchcocked bird in gochujang, Mother Root, soy sauce, lime juice and some water. Cooked it for 50 minutes at 200º. Crisped up some rice in butter, added the juice from the chicken and placed the pieces on top. It was banging.
Not usually a cauliflower girl but had this sudden desire to make a roasted cauli salad. Roasted florets in olive oil, chilli flakes and some ground cumin and coriander with 1/4 jar of Bold Bean chickpeas and the cauliflower leaves. Plus a big sprinkle of salt. Served with a tahini sauce (tahini + water + lemon juice + salt), pomegranates, wild rice salad and home made yoghurt flatbreads.
Re-created my previously made courgette rice but did it differently: cooked rice in chicken stock whilst cooking the courgettes down with chilli flakes and garlic and plenty of salt; crisped up the rice in plenty of butter, added the courgettes and a spoonful of chicken stock. Topped with creamy feta.
Today was the simplest but most delicious lunch: beans that had been simmered in chicken stock for a few hours, charred broccolini (hot pan, butter + oil, broccolini stalks, lid on right at the end, pinch of smoked salt) + creamy feta + olive oil drizzle.
Good things to cook this week:
Plenty of seafood to be caught on this coast: next time I do mussels I’m doing them with smashed olives.
Or perhaps it’s time to crack out Filson’s West Coast chowder?
For these frenetically colder evenings, I’m making pork meatballs with courgette, chard and orzo.
I know I will never make a lasagne, but I would like someone to make this spring green one for me.
Banh mi salad hits hard every time.
Considering getting a barbecue if the weather ever changes so I can make these Thai chicken burgers.
And also Ixta Belfrage’s cherry and coconut sorbet with TAHINI FUDGE SAUCE, heck yes.
Finally, Olivia Noceda I love you and your sweetcorn, peach and feta salad.
Good things to consume (culturally)
Been back on the New Yorker Critics At Large podcast – particularly loved the episodes Where Do Men Go From Here?, Why Earnestness Is Everywhere, and Our Modern Glut of Choice.
I am not one to listen to ‘relationship’ or ‘dating’ podcasts BUT I have found myself lingering on videos relating to this thanks to a recent romantic interaction that left me feeling quite confused. I landed on Esther Perel talking to Matthew Hussey about modern dating, which I did think had quite a few gems in there.
Obviously binged the entire season of Off Campus in two days (on the train to and from London, which was an interesting space to watch so much nudity). It’s so horny. Everyone is far too good looking. Loving the discourse about it being so obviously ‘men written by women’, by which they mean, the men are evolved, kind, emotionally mature and communicative. In our goddamn DREAMS. Men please watch.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, this New Yorker profile on ‘Andrew Tate’s Empire of Abuse’ is a harrowing but important read.
A fantastic essay on n+1 where the writer finds herself in Alaska on a fishing mission:
I imagined wearing waders, standing in the river with a clicker, like one fish two fish red fish blue fish five six seven million fish this year. I imagined the vastness of the tundra, and gazed about the drabness of my cubicle, and decided or resigned to escape from the gray indoors. Aren’t most fish factory farmed these days? I wondered into a puddle of soy sauce, staring at my reflection in a single-use plastic tray of gas station sushi. Who am I, anyway, if you are what you eat? I found the listing on governmentjobs.com: Fish and Wildlife Technician II.
Something I am constantly thinking: the growth engine of society where we never thinking we’re doing enough (this feels like a millennial symptom, also). Phoebe Lovatt explores this in her newsletter.
Also a VERY interesting personal read from Hilde von Bingen with a title so clickable I barely blinked: THE DRAMA is a documentary. About me.
Despite complaining that black people are not allowed to just exist, reviewers demand Emma’s blackness exist under a microscope—and furthermore, that the entire film include political signposting. It is insinuated in flashbacks to Emma’s all-white high school that she was picked on for being black and, as her behavior in the film implies, likely a bit autistic.
I think my latest playlist is a very good one to listen to on a Wednesday afternoon, the back door flung open, a tall glass of icy Arnold Palmer sweating on the table outside, sheepskin on a sun lounger, half way between napping and working.
Thanks so much for sharing my work!