Our Donut Anniversary
Plus: Russian Dining with Ben Mims, Sycamore Kitchen, and Cheryl Day on Lunch Therapy
Hey everyone,
Yesterday Craig and I celebrated our six-year wedding anniversary with a box of donuts (doughnuts?) from Colorado Donuts in Eagle Rock. Holy crap, these were the best donuts I’ve ever had: especially the buttermilk bar on the upper right. There’s one leftover in front of me right now and it’s the ultimate emotional intelligence test to resist it while contemplating the gym. UPDATE: I just took two bites and I’m not going to the gym anymore.
Ah well. Here we are young and svelte with our whole lives ahead of us and no knowledge of the word “Covid”:
Can’t believe it’s been six years since we tied the knot.
On Tuesday, last week, I went out for a Russian lunch with my friend Ben Mims at a place called Kalinka in Glendale.
Ben’s a good lunch companion in L.A. because he’s a bold eater, just like me, and so we had the veal tongue:
I think I liked the horseradish better than the tongue itself; the meat was a bit chewy.
Loved the herring under a fur coat (so fancy):
And the chicken schnitzel was top notch; almost like a chicken fried steak with gravy.
Oh and I had kvass to drink, which I’ve been reading about in my Russian cookbooks. It’s like a soda made with rye bread. I enjoyed it.
Later in the week last week, I went to one of my favorite lunch spots in L.A., Sycamore Kitchen, where I had their Mediterranean salad with Medjool dates and hazelnuts and blue cheese (though I think they subbed in Feta, maybe they ran out):
Couldn’t resist a dessert there, so had this blueberry oat bar which was too good:
What else?
Well, now that you know about the cookbook (!!), I can show you more of my recipe testing… though I’m not giving away the puns yet or that would spoil everything. So here’s some sausage rolls baking in the oven:
And some homemade ketchup to go with them (can you guess the musical? No, don’t!):
Here’s a clafoutis with pears and thyme:
And here are some of the first recipe tasters, Matthew and Antonio:
They were very impressed! You can also see a coleslaw in progress on their plates. The cookbook will finally give up my coleslaw secrets.
In podcast news, one of my FAVORITE cookbook authors of all time, Cheryl Day, is on the pod today talking about her Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, Georgia (which she co-owns with her husband Griffith). Her chocolate chip cookie recipe is my go-to (it’s the one I made in this video) and I loved talking to her, especially the discovery that she’s NOT from the South… she’s from California!
CLICK HERE to listen.
Also: if you missed it on Thursday, one of my best friends Jonathan Parks-Ramage has a new book out called YES, DADDY and he came on the pod to talk about the book and to let me analyze his lunch. We end up dishing about scrambled eggs and how his almost destroyed my marriage… it all comes full circle in this newsletter.
CLICK HERE to listen.
Okay, now for some links.
The profound significance of Netflix’s new show “High on the Hog” (NYT);
Meet the gay mixologist leading the alcohol-free spirits movement (Out);
How to get a table at Carbone (I just went here with my family! My mom is a powerful force) (New Yorker);
The new food stars of TikTok (The Guardian);
L.A.’s restaurant scene revs back to life, pop-ups face decreasing demand (Eater LA);
Stella Parks’s rhubarb crisp looks yumm-o (Serious Eats).
Before we go, a quick update on the newsletter: the free newsletter will now be every Monday (instead of monthly), and the paid newsletter will be every Thursday with exclusive content ONLY for paid subscribers. (Paid subscribers also get access to the full archives.) If you’d like to receive the Thursday newsletter too, sign-up here:
Until next time!
Your friend,
Adam