Tejal Rao is the California restaurant critic of The New York Times
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7/20
- all of the plum paintings in the Department of Agriculture’s watercolor collection
- Klancy Miller’s new magazine, and looking at food through the gaze of Black women
- A Burning by Megha Majumdar (still thinking about Lovely, hearing her voice in my head)
- The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey — maaaybe a vampire-contagion dystopian novel is not the ideal thing to read in the middle of a pandemic for some folks, but somehow ideal for me
- devoured The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
- making this easy dough about once a week for the perfect, crispy-edged, King Arthur cheesy pan pizza (for sauce I just puree some canned tomatoes, add lots of olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper)
- Melissa’s lemon possets with strawberries (but really with almost any fruit on top)
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ヽ( ★ω★)ノ
cooking
Baked rajma; Maangchi’s bean sprouts (if you have whole dry mung, you can easily grow your own sprouts over a few days, it’s so simple and satisfying); my basic kadhi uses up exactly 1 quart of straus yogurt; kale sauce plus toasted cumin seeds with paneer, or plus pasta, or plus random herbs in a frittata; Marcella’s bolognese; Natasha’s scrap tarts; Simone’s chilled noodles (and you can make the sauce veg with finely chopped mushrooms instead of meat, it’s really good)
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groceries
cherries are in from K&K Ranch at Hollywood and Torrance farmers markets (order via DM);
Kong Thao’s farm boxes for the best spring produce at various pickup points; Botanica reopened with spring produce, provisions, coffee and TP; Yang’s for eggs, whole chicken, produce, Bub and Grandma’s bread; Porridge + Puffs for rice, chickpeas, pickles, flowers; Psychic Wines for wine and cider; Cookbook for tinned fish, beans, cheese, dairy, some produce; Narrative Food for weekly subscription deliveries of local foods (chicken, sausages, pasta, mixed veg); Fresco Market for bigger grocery store shopping; Fig Earth for seeds, soil, potted plants, herbs etc.
ヾ(o✪‿✪o)ｼ
Takeout
lamb birria tacos from Birria Pa La Cruda in El Sereno (Sundays only); Poncho’s Tlayudas for tamales on the weekends; Mole de los Reyes; the boiled fish from Sichuan Impression travels really well; Kang Kang Food Court to stock up on frozen dumplings; Hail Mary for spring-y summery pizzas; Hotville is delivering chicken; pickup tacos plus extra Sonoran-style flour tortillas from El Ruso; Meals by Genet for fresh injera and Ethiopian food; taco nights at Broken Spanish; pickup from Jitlada
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⊂(◉‿◉)つ
5/27
- Hyori’s Bed and Breakfast, the perfect quarantine show (h/t Meghan McCarron)
- you can order Nicole Rucker’s blueberry-rhubarb pies now for a no-contact pickup next weekend — I ordered the cherry-rhubarb crumble pie a couple weeks ago and it was so, so good
- blood sausages are back at Poncho’s, and if you want to buy extra, they freeze really well from raw
- this soothing, strategy card game Morels, for two players (h/t @flybyjing)
- Angela’s cast-iron sourdough discard pancakes, you can use pretty much any fruit
- Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong
- listening to new Carly Rae Jepsen, Dedicated Side B AND Emotion Side B in my living room and pretending to be falling in love and on vacation
◦°˚\(*❛‿❛)/˚°◦
5/18
- That Kind of Mother by Rumaan Alam
- MF Doom - Special Herbs
- Samorost 1, 2 and 3 (long), Botanicula (medium) and Chuchel (short) games all by Amanita (you might need Flash)
ヘ(^_^ヘ)
5/11
- Speed Dating for Ghosts if you’re not feeling impatient — cute, weird illustration and writing
- João Gilberto - Voz e Violão
- Roots Manuva - Brand New Second Hand
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5/4
- The Talented Mr. Ripley — a bunch of people on Twitter were watching the movie and it made me want to read the book, and god, it was so delicious and scary and good
- sped through Trust Exercise, which got me feeling maybe too many teenage feelings
- Perfect Tunes made me so nostalgic for New York (specifically the mid aughts New York of flip-phones and DuMont Burgers and smoking in stairwells)