The thing about publicly committing to something (like writing two newsletters a week) is that you feel slightly awkward when you can’t (read: don’t) follow through and an apology seems narcissistic because does anyone really care? Either way, I’m sorry. A month on the West Coast has messed up my internal timekeeping skills, and I’ve decided to just give into jet lag, going to bed at 3am and waking up at 10am and going straight into calls, shower be damned. Currently sipping a very strong coffee at my beloved Towpath Cafe, which has finally returned. So, as the sun peeps out of moving clouds and the sound of bells ding in the background and this coffee gets me more wired than necessary for 4pm on a Thursday, here are some leftovers from the past week.
Bright red house margs and a deliciously doughy meal at Rita’s, which involved fried chicken parmigiana, salt fish taquitos, clams, an obscene amount of garlic butter and two too many scones. Would recommend and will probably return next week.
Want to know about the woman who invented the kitchen? Slate has all the deets.
Put together a newsletter strategy and the first mailer for Nouveau Wines – it features my very good pals Becky and Huw from Paynter. You can read it here, or sign up to The Sip here, and maybe see you at their event with Gordo’s pizza tonight at Benk & Bo?
The simplicity of tossing boiled new potatoes, jammy boiled eggs (6 mins 30 secs, people!), a couple of anchovy fillets, some crunchy green beans, a few sliced tomatoes and a tine of smoked tuna into a bowl, squeezing some lemon and adding some really good olive oil (Citizens Of Soil!) and calling it a perfect park lunch.
The prospect of interviewing Max Rocha of Cafe Cecilia fame for this month’s Hoste newsletter and asking for the recipe of the bread and butter pudding (forgive the blurry, dark photo taken after too many vinos at a late dinner reservation), knowing full well I’ll never make it but simply go to the restaurant every week to pay for it instead.
Queued up this Borderline Salty podcast when I heard host Carla talk about how sad she was when she didn’t salt her pasta water and I really related on a visceral level. The episode title is ‘Salt The Hell Out Of It’, which I’m considering stealing as a chapter title for my book.
The heavenly idea of combining bright green cavalo nero with risotto, Stracciatella and a liberal amount of olive oil (the limit does not exist).
This Fanfare podcast featuring Ellie Pithers – a contributing editor at Vogue and someone I’m proud to say I went to school with – on a bonus episode about an imaginary dinner party with Joan Didion. A literal fever dream.
So. Many. Spring. Dishes. Photo courtesy of king of vegetables, Joe Woodhouse.