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I've told you before of my longstanding devotion to Aesop, the Australian skin- and body-care company, and FINALLY they have arrived in New York. They put so much thought and creativity into everything they do—from their all-natural, socially-conscious products to their creative store design—that it's a pleasure to support the brand. First they opened a kiosk in Grand Central Station, and now their 40th stand-alone location has opened in Nolita, with University Place and Bleecker Street outposts slated for later this year. The unifying design theme, from local architect Jeremy Barbour, is the use of repurposed editions of The New York Times. It creates a soft, faintly industrial look that's a fine, neutral backdrop for the products. Run, don't walk, to stock up on their wonderful Geranium Body Scrub, Fabulous Face Oil and Vetiver Deodorant. They've also launched Thirty Views of New York, a month-long series of recommendations from a diverse roster of cultural luminaries. Every day through October 11th, a different contributor shares a favorite location in New York. It's all part of Aesop's "passionate engagement with the cultural landscape," and is of a piece with their excellent newsletter, which pulls together an international listing of interesting and timely things to do, eat, watch, read, etc.On my way to Tribeca the other day, another new store on West Broadway caught my eye, and I stopped in for a quick look. Turns out it was Treasure & Bond, new from Nordstrom but disguised as a downtown hipster boutique.
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I can scarcely believe that August has arrived already! The dog days are nipping at my heels, urging me towards the hammock. (I will put my feet up, I will put my feet up.) I miss you already. It will be all I can do not to tell you about every delightful morsel that passes my lips, every bear that climbs over the fence behind the bedroom window (yes, this happened last week!), every adorable gherkin that goes straight from the vine to the jar of pickling brine in the fridge. But rest and recharge I must, and focus on my novel, where progress is slow but steady. Much like G's rehab. He is slouching toward wellness, and his second coming will be glorious to behold.If you haven't been following the blog since its inception, I urge you to check out posts from summers past during my month off. There are plenty of seasonal recipes (like panna cotta scented with lemon balm and korean barbecue and blackberry-geranium sorbet) and images of other Augusts to keep you inspired and engaged. Or maybe you need a little time off, too. Perhaps you'll visit the new Aesop kiosk in Grand Central, made entirely out of more than 1,000 copies of The New York Times. Or catch the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met before it closes next week. Or finally get to Brooklyn to eat at Fatty 'Cue. (See you there!) Or read a great book. Live in LA? Maybe you'll track down that Korean taco truck to see what all the fuss is about. Live in Chicago? Maybe you'll score a reservation at Grant Achatz's new "Next" restaurant. Maybe you'll buy a new juicer, or a fabulous pair of fall boots, or the quintessential Gray Kunz spoons like the ones I got from my thoughtful friend Louise. Whatever you're doing, I hope it makes your toes curl and your tongue tingle and your mind race and your heart swell with passion, like a true glutton for life.See you after Labor Day!
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The corn and tomatoes are in, signaling high summer. My refrigerator is ridiculous, bursting with cucumbers and chard from the garden, and okra and padrón peppers from the farmers' market. Never refrigerate your tomatoes, it ruins the flavor and texture. Just leave them out on the counter in a cool spot. (This is a tip I learned from Martha Stewart many years ago and I have never forgotten it.) On Monday, August arrives, and with it my last post for a while. Time for a little vacation—staycation, really, as G's leg is still healing and travel is not yet a possibility. We may take some local trips, inspired by this recent article on great spots in the Catskills from the most recent issue of Travel & Leisure. Here are a few more ideas for things to make, see, do and get (oops, sounding a little like Goop) as the mercury rises...
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I grow old . . . I grow old . . .I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.These lines from T.S. Eliot's The Love-Song of J. Alfred Prufrock come to mind whenever I bite into the first peach of the summer. Food is memory, is love, is comfort. The peach evokes summers past, Augusts at the beach, the steady thrum of the sea like the beating of my own heart. Only one of these will go on forever. With age comes introspection, but I sometimes wonder these days if solitude of mind at any age has now become a willful act. There is so much stimulus around us, everywhere at least one screen conveying essential information at all times. With the touch of a finger we are connected to thousands of people, opinions, conversations, comments. Is there any escaping this feeling that we are missing out if we aren't constantly checking in, tweeting, reporting, connecting? My old college pal Bill Powers has written an eloquent book, Hamlet's Blackberry, that looks to great thinkers of the past—Plato, Shakespeare, Thoreau—for ways to approach the digital dilemma and, ultimately, to disconnect. But there really is no way back; Pandora's box is open. And out of it, along with the demons, have emerged wonderful tools to enhance our lives.
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Speaking of noodles, have you gotten your hands on David Chang's new magazine, published in collaboration with McSweeney's? The first issue is thick and jam-packed with everything you ever wanted to know (and more) about ramen—the dish with which Chang first took the food world by storm—and some other things, like Chang's travels in Japan, how to make his bacon-dashi broth, and a few interesting ways to cook eggs. This quarterly publication is available on newsstands, or you can subscribe here, and a companion app will also be available, although it's still in the works. If you're not already a fan of Chang, this might convert you, or it could send you running screaming in the opposite direction. There's definitely a macho-badass-hipster-cognoscenti vibe you can't escape, but if you can embrace that shit in all its fucking awesomeness (are you feeling it?), there's an assload of fascinating information in Lucky Peach. Which is, incidentally, what Momofuku means in Japanese.
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July 4th may be my favorite holiday. It has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with freedom. It's a chance to celebrate the founding of this country which, though seriously flawed and in grand decline, is still the place I choose to call home above all others. This year, we also raised a glass to gay marriage in New York! What a day. It dawned clear and warm after days of torrential rains and lightning storms. G had to stand outside in the downpour for hours the day before to smoke the first half of the 60 pounds of pork we served to the hoard of hungry revelers. It was nothing short of heroic. Gin cocktails were sucked down, pickles were scarfed, ice cream sandwiches demolished. Groups congregated in the screened-in porch, on the lawn and front patio, and even in the house. Dogs frolicked and begged. Screams of laughter rang out, joints were passed and kids got purple popsicle juice everywhere. In short, a great party. 
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We're expecting 60 people at our house for pulled pork on the 4th and I am up to my eyeballs in chores! The bustle around here is impressive. And guess what—THE BATHROOM IS FINALLY DONE!!!!! I even had a new shower curtain made from one of those antique batiks I got in Indonesia. I promise to post pictures very soon. Anyway, all this to say that I'm much too busy to be writing here, but I couldn't resist sharing a few snaps I took at a lovely party the other night. Cooking for such a crowd gives me renewed respect for caterers. How do they manage to keep doing it night after night, for people they don't even love? I imagine they work like dogs. This party we went to, a 50th birthday celebration for a dear friend of many years, was intimate and beautifully orchestrated. It didn't hurt that it was being thrown by hosts of impeccable taste and sophistication, in the most beautifully appointed pale-grey apartment. Would it surprise you to know the owner is one of the pivotal geniuses behind the Martha Stewart brand? And the other host is the co-author of this gorgeous tome. Every detail was perfection, including the artful nibbles by Gaylinn Fast. 
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This blog has been live for about 18 months now, and I was accruing posts for about 6 months prior to that. So it's about time I organized some of this material in more user-friendly ways. It's happening incrementally, so even though there is a seasonal archive listed, I have to go through and code all the recipes before they actually appear there. Sigh. There are only about 300 of them so I should be finished sometime before the apocalypse. And I got my gorgeous new multi-tasking domestic goddess illustration up, but my banner images went all wonky and reverted to seasons past. Bear with me. It will all come right before you know it. Not the most professional approach, but the best I can manage at the moment. There is a new print icon next to recipes, which now allows you to print only the recipe and not the entire post. And soon there will be more new and improved features: stay tuned. I would really appreciate any feedback or requests in terms of how this site functions. It's a work in progress and I value your input, gentle readers. Without you, I'm nothing (except a harried woman running between the stove, the computer and the garden). Have a fantastic weekend!
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It's Memorial Day weekend. The start of being outdoors all the time. If only the torrential rains would stop we might start working on our tans. (Not.) Or our gardens. But still, the sun will go down (if it ever comes out at all), and then you may be looking for a way to while away a few evening hours not spent on your porch drinking wine and watching the fireflies. As you may remember, I am addicted to fond of high-quality, commercial-free television drama and I have recently been enjoying two new shows that I can recommend without reservation. The Killing is yet another AMC winner (they also have the incomparable Mad Men and Breaking Bad). Adapted from a Danish show of the same name, it stars the laconic and lovely Mireille Enos (above)—whom you may recognize from Big Love, where she played the much-abused twins at Juniper Creek—as a Seattle detective investigating the murder of a high-school girl.
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With my trusty driver, Toto, in an air-conditioned Toyota minivan, I ventured forth into the heart of Yogyakarta to do a little shopping. Beneath sulky grey skies, the city was smelly and palpably damp. Our hotel is in a rather unattractive neighborhood close to the airport, and the view out the window included some classic Third World sites: shanties with corrugated-tin roofs; entire families perched on a single motorbike, the parents with helmets and the barefoot babies without; scrawny chickens strutting in roadside ditches. The strange dichotomy between progress and tradition is perhaps best summed up by a poster I saw for a local technology convention, featuring an ox-drawn cart laden with the latest computers and electronics. Even the batiks for which I was shopping are evidence of this tension, an ancient craft now more and more being executed with mechanized techniques. Of course, I was in search of the real deal, the artisanal, hand-printed and –dyed version that is so much harder to come by.
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