On starting afresh
Featuring vegetarian January, Steerswomen, and drunk hamsters
Hi friends! We’ve kicked off a shiny new year, full of possibility - though so far it’s mostly been marked by a reversion to our early-pandemic hermit habits, given the recent surges and busy work periods for both of us. Social isolation notwithstanding, I enjoy harnessing power of a new year - it’s a fresh page to write in, a chance to reimagine who you’d like to be, a time to take stock of the things that are great about life and those that are less great, and nudge yourself towards making things a little better.
There seems to have been a backlash against traditional resolution-setting recently, driven, I assume, by the fact that we’re moving into the third year of a global pandemic and things are hard enough without trying to relentlessly police yourself (and then feel bad when you don’t succeed.) And that’s totally fair! But I think it’s possible to set resolutions - or intentions, or whatever you prefer to call them - in ways that aren’t so prescriptive, that don’t rely on abhorring the person you are now.
One of the “alternative” or “kinder” models I’ve seen floating around, obviously cribbed from the common performance review framework (ironic, given the framing) is the start/stop/continue assessment - I particularly like how the “continue” element can be used acknowledge past success and growth you’re proud of. So that’s how I approached resolutions this year.
My continue was obvious: I’m proud of the strides I’ve made towards incorporating more active exercise into my life, and I’d like to continue intentionally making time for movement each day.
For stop, I’m trying to rejig my relationship with social media. I take the first part of January on total hiatus from Twitter, Instagram & Facebook every year, and it reliably improve my focus, prevents me from doom-scrolling for hours, and makes me less stressed. But I also miss out on a lot of genuine value; Twitter, in particular, has been wonderful for learning from experts in my field, and for making real-life friends and professional contacts.
In an ideal world, I’d be able to use Twitter in a way that maintains the thought-provoking, useful content but loses the hot takes, bad-faith arguments and general intellectual junk food. I suspect the path forward here is to make better use of Twitter’s curated list and mute functions, which I’m testing out - but I definitely welcome advice here. I’m also trying to keep my use strictly desktop versus mobile, which helps mitigate the cycle of constantly checking for updates. Finally, I’ve put the kibosh on tweeting before bedtime, which triggers anxiety that I said something unintentionally inflammatory and will thus wake up to hate mail.
As for Instagram, I love it for recipe discovery and staying in touch with friends, but the stories function is addictive and every time I click on the Reels button I emerge two hours later no better for the time spent swiping. I try to avoid this by deleting the app altogether until I want to actually post something, which works pretty well given the mobile and desktop web interfaces don’t let you post, make interacting with stories more annoying, and don’t let you scroll through Reels (yet.)
For my start category, I stuck with goals that were more fun — after a meat-heavy December (and a general realization that I’d slipped into eating more meat than previously) I decided to do a vegetarian January. The goal here was mostly to build up a repository of recipes that don’t have meat as a central ingredient, so I haven’t been strict about sourcing, for example, vegetarian alternatives to the Thai curry paste, fish sauce and oyster sauce I already have on hand. (Though if folks have recommended vegetarian subs, I’ll happily stock those on my next buying spree.)
My other start resolution, stolen shamelessly from my friend Sam, is to cook at least one recipe from each of the 40+ cookbooks I own. I have an unfortunate tendency to cook sporadically from my collection and turn my attention to whatever shiny new internet recipe comes my way - not the best argument for continuing to justify using up all the shelf space in our smallish SF apartment.
So, how are those food resolutions going? Vegetarian January has been great so far, though I will confess to having once accidentally ordered lox bagels only to realize my error once they came out from the kitchen. That slip-up aside, it’s been fun to be forced to try new recipes and order veganized versions of our takeout favorites.
In terms of the cookbook challenge, I’m at four books down, thirty-eight to go. The hardest part is likely going to be the stash of baking books I accumulated back when I baked far more often than I do now; a plan for cake dropoffs is definitely in order.
The real food winner this past week was Kenji López-Alt’s Korean Fried Cauliflower: not really a straight swap for the real thing, but it lights up the same pleasure centers in your brain. (Plus, it prompted me to finally open the bottle of Kirkland vodka I’ve had sitting in my pantry for years, which I originally bought to make Kenji’s tempura recipe.)
The fried cauliflower batter calls for sesame seeds and coconut flakes for texture - I left out the latter because I’m weird about flaked coconut despite liking all other kinds, but even just the sesame seeds lent a really nice crunch. We tore through the entire bowl in record time, leaving the rest of our dinner neglected.
The other fun experiment of the week was Daniela Galarza’s green socca, a vibrantly colored take on Niçoise chickpea pancakes. One of my trusted foodie colleagues has been evangelizing the wonders of socca for a while now (hi, Divya!) and so when this landed in my inbox, I felt compelled to give it a go. The one problem is that I do not own a proper blender, and discovered after the fact that socca batter made by whisking vs blending needs to be rested a bit to ensure a nice creamy center. So my socca was a tiny bit dry (and probably a bit thick thanks to poor technique) but we ate it with feta and it was still delicious. I’m definitely going to try the traditional greens-free version sometime soon, with a proper rest this time.
What’s next on the agenda? I’ve been eyeing Bettina Makalintal’s crispy fried tofu, most recently in its iteration as a vegan boneless buffalo wing. (I mean, LOOK at it!) I also managed to finally find lotus root at H Mart, so that’s on the agenda, and I’m intrigued by Nik Sharma’s recent recipe for curry leaf viniagrette. Stay tuned!
I’ve already read a number of wonderful books this year, including Seven Days in June, a second chance romance I originally passed on because I thought it was going to be very literary. While it does thoughtfully explore difficult topics (including abuse and addiction), it’s also warm and funny enough that Sam explicitly commented on how much I was laughing. On a more sobering note, I’m also reading Empire of Pain about the Sackler family (of oxycontin infamy) on audiobook during my morning walks, and it’s as great as everyone says. Thanks Josie for the nudge to finally download it!
This past week I tore through Rosemary Kirstein’s Steerwsoman series, prompted by this amazing book recommendation thread on Twitter (shoutout to Dustin for reminding me to go look them all up!) It is really hard to talk about these books without spoiling what makes them amazing, but the fact that I stayed up way past my bedtime reading every single one should serve as its own data point here.
The series is set in a feudal-ish society, and follows a Steerswoman called Rowan, member of a class of (mostly female) wandering scholars, discovering information about the world and meticulously recording it. Steerswoman are required to answer any question asked of them truthfully, and people have to answer their questions truthfully in return - if you don’t, you’re put under their “ban” and no Steerswoman will answer your questions again.
That already-interesting conceit aside, it starts off feeling like a pretty standard middle ages fantasy quest - but as you read, you slowly realize that it’s a very different kind of story. Kirstein is a master of dropping breadcrumbs as she goes along, building tension and excitement along the way.
This is the point at which I have to disclose that there are only 4 books of 6 currently released, and the most recent book was released in 2004, so… we’re risking a George R. R. Martin situation here. But the first four are so good, and the fourth illuminating enough on the central questions, that I’d still wholeheartedly recommend the series.
That’s all for now folks! See you next time. As usual, if you have thoughts, I’d love to hear them - feel free to hit reply on this email or pop a note in the comment box! And if you need 5 minutes of serotonin to counteract your holiday-Monday-scaries, might I suggest this piece about drunk hamsters? You’re welcome.
FYI, ACA Open Enrollment is still open in CA, CO (sort of), DC, KY, NJ, NY, MA and RI - ping me if you need a hand.