Reimagining
food prep, dreams, and justice
Hello and welcome to Wondering and Wandering! These newsletters start with something I’m loving (SO good); move on to one of my adventures, impressions, or encounters and their wider cultural implications and societal suggestions in poem form (Free Space); and end on some ridiculous thing I’ve experienced while living in New York City (Once Upon a Time in NY). Happy reading!
Nothing is quite what it seems (as they say), and the more I imagine beyond the observable, the more exciting everything becomes. Call it delusion, call it fantasy, whatever. Who’s to say what is or is not?!
SO good
Cooking. One of my favorite perks at my job used to be the free breakfast and lunch. Those were the days. Made-to-order breakfast and hot lunch! Right there in the office cafeteria! Thanks to structural renovations, those amenities have now gone away, leaving me to either pricey downtown restaurants and take-away options, stalking the events calendar for meetings with catering and potential leftovers, or preparing my own food. Most of the time, I pack a lunch, but I do enjoy opportunities for the former two.
To strengthen my preference and reimagine the possibilities for home cooking, I stock my fridge with brown eggs, fresh bread, and beautiful produce from a year-round Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. With this program, I have been introduced to foods I might never have (knowingly) tried, like sunchokes/Jerusalem artichokes and methi/fenugreek. What’s more, any ingredient you could possibly think of can be found in one of this city’s five boroughs. Any dish is possible. And, by choosing almost exclusively locally-sourced offerings, it feels extra personal to let them go to waste—that just won’t do, so I must get cooking!
For inspiration and guidance, I am a loyal Alison Roman fan (for dinner tonight I made one of her pasta salads. SO good, indeed) and a NYT Cooking subscriber. To see my favorite recipe review, click here.
Finally, imagining myself as a creator of deliciousness, rather than an expert scavenger of sorts, has done wonders for my palate and my self-confidence.
Free Space
Wake Up
That’s the catch with dreams. To keep ahold of them, you must be wide awake
Once Upon a Time in New York
Late last year, I took myself out to dinner (a favorite pastime) at Serafina TriBeCa, an Italian restaurant connected to The Frederick Hotel. I was seated between two gentlemen at the bar; the man to my left was waiting (with flowers!) for a date and the other was staying at the attached hotel—an attorney from the LA area and in town on business (“the lawyer”).
Not long after I sat down, the man in waiting began to gush to the lawyer and me about the woman he planned to woo that evening. They’d met when she was out to lunch with a friend; he approached her saying, “You are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on. I have to see you again.” Homie was smitten. He’d even thought up a cocktail, which he named after her, to have the bartender make upon her arrival.
Far beyond fashionably late, the cocktail’s stunning namesake eventually found her way, apologetically, to the bar. We then all introduced ourselves. The lawyer and I were now quite invested in the success of this date. Such a sweet match, those two. I hope they’ve maintained their fondness for each other.
As their date got underway, the lawyer and I began our own conversation.
At the time, I was interested in applying for law school (I’ve since tabled that move), and we initially connected over ideas of how and why I should go for it. Over the next two hours, I learned he is in entertainment law and represents everyone from young TikTokers to a few of the most prominent survivors and perpetrators of the #MeToo movement. He was in New York to defend a client who had been subpoenaed, intending to quash her court order to appear in Harvey Weinstein’s trial for sex crimes in the state. So wild.
Like any good attorney, the lawyer firmly believed in and practiced his commitment to providing legal defense and due process for every client. The concept of pursuing justice for both those accused and accusing, though, seems… complicated. In the months since our barside chat, I have thought a lot about justice and the means of achieving it.
Whether through jail time or revenge or compensatory or punitive damages, once caught, there are many ways to twist the proverbial knife. Whatever the chosen method, justice must be tied to liberty. To me, this looks like freedom to move on from the pain of surviving and the freedom to grow beyond the sins of the past. In all cases, justice is best served with accountability however it is most intimately felt.
I am grateful to those fighting the good fight and maintaining equal justice under law. May we all be a little kinder and fairer to one another so fewer and fewer defenses are necessary.
I imagine you’re on your way to the best sort of observable reality.
My best,
C