March (and change), linked
I've been earning my bookworm status.
Hello.
Day ten of month four, and goodness me if it doesn’t feel like I just swept up the last of the Christmas pine needles. Much of last month found me on the go, chasing spring-breaking children. Luckily, I rounded out the month with a few days in London, revisiting old favorites and spending three and a quarter hours at the city’s most controversial lunch spot.
Hosting a single 1 PM seating five days a week, The Yellow Bittern is clear about its intention. Proprietor Hugh Corcoran and his partner Lady Frances Armstrong-Jones (daughter of Princess Margaret’s first husband, the Earl of Snowdon) invite (interesting, they hope) people to take the midday meal as an act of subversive resistance. Everyone, Corcoran has been known to argue, can find the pocket change and time to step away from the hustle of modernity to connect at the table.
Initially offering an à la carte menu, the restaurant now offers a single set menu. The price, 50 pounds sans alcohol, covers enough food to negate the need for much more than a light dinner of half a toastie and a couple bites of salad for a late dinner (which is, yes, what my husband and I noshed on after a long stroll complete with pub stops back to our hotel).
Corcoran is a fine (excellent) cook. Our meal included the famous wheaten bread and butter, watercress soup, scallops with green garlic, beef shin pie, rhubarb almond tart, and carrageen moss with whiskey sauce. We opted out of the optional oysters and cheese, though had my stomach been able to hold it, I would have welcomed both.
Though the place has been accused of having a political agenda, there’s no overt propaganda. No paper leaflets fluttering about. Ottolenghi (who, for the record, I adore) has been heard muttering about the project's hubris. There is a downstairs shop filled with used books and copies of Luncheon magazine.
In a whisper, The Yellow Bittern gently demands that guests slow down. Be here. Pay attention. This, while difficult in the world as it is, makes it no less a noble pursuit.
In today’s (absurdly long) letter
111 eggs + 30 guests + 1 bedroom flat = party ✨ false memories ✨ a stunningly saturated cookbook ✨ the savoy, two ways including a first-hand look at simpson’s grand divan ✨ 9 essays on everything from baking at the top of the world to the glory of Publix subs ✨ 8 book reviews including memories of a catholic girlhood | nonesuch | a parish chronicle | all things barbara pym | and what will likely be a smashing US success from a nascent twenty-three-year-old rising talent ✨
You’ll note I’m skipping full sections on watching and listening recommendations this month. Here are the quick Cliff Notes:
I slogged through the new season of Industry that honestly made me feel gross.
I inhaled the show regular readers already know I am deeply obsessed with.
I watched a gorgeous, food-infused, tragedy of a movie starring do-no-wrong Tilda Swinton.
I listened to these albums and gladly started paying for a subscription to The Honest Broker. Ted Gioia loves old books and smooth jazz and so too do I.
Be well. Be kind. Do the Work.
The Omelette Party: Can Jemima Kelly recreate Martha Stewart’s mythic midnight dinner party? (Financial Times, Jemima Kelly)
Last fall, as part of a client project, I spent a week or so with Martha, plastering her classic and newly reissued Entertaining with a rainbow of sticky notes. I marveled at the copious bushels of vegetables, perfectly formed cabbages, radishes, carrots of a tangerine hue. But mostly I dreamed of whether I could pull off the infamous omelette party.
On Algae Oil (From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy, Alicia Kennedy)
A clear-eyed personal reflection on the latest in the spiffy squeeze bottle cooking oil craze. In a favorite tiny Vermont mart, I circled the stuff for several weeks before finally giving in to the “in-the-know” prestige automatically granted via countertop lazy Susan placement.
The Most Beautiful Freezer In the World (The New Yorker, Cree LeFavour)
Cree LeFavour has long written books about living on the edge. A couple years back, she embarked on a challenge that pushed the physical limits of that category. I followed the series when she published it on Substack and am thrilled to see it in essay form.
Kitchen Projects for Easter and Spring (Kitchen Projects, Nicola Lamb)
If you didn’t hit the mark with your Easter/Passover baking or TGIS (that’s Thank God It’s Spring) menu, Nicola Lamb’s got your back. I made the festive buns from Sift last spring, and I just felt so f*&^-ing proud when they came out of the oven.
How to Eat Rhubarb (The Dolce Vita Diaries, Skye McAlpine)
In case you’ve not the time for firing up the oven, Skye McAlpine reminds you that chopping a few stalks of in-season rhubarb, sprinkling with a pinch of sugar, and giving them a quick roast opens up a myriad of mouthwatering sweet and savory treats.
Kia Damon’s Audacious Florida Cooking (Hannah Goldfield, The New Yorker)
I don’t care what you think you know or feel about the Sunshine State, apparently you haven’t lived until you’ve had a Pub Sub. I never miss a Hannah Goldfield column but this one bursts with joy from the outset.
“Around lunchtime one recent Friday, the chef Kia Damon stood in front of a produce display at a Publix grocery store in St. Cloud, Florida, bobbing her head like a d.j. “Yeah! Yeah! Take a shower!” she said, holding a finger in the air as a sprinkler system released fine sprays of mist onto neat rows of cabbage and kale. “Me next!” Damon, who wore loose denim overalls with a baggy T-shirt and a vintage Orlando Magic hat, was eager to cool off: we’d just spent several hours on an airboat tour of the marshes of Lake Tohopekaliga, scanning the waters for gators and herons under the high glare of the sun.”
