1. putting my time in things that don't impact what I care about
2. that entertainment in the city is mostly based on novelty and sexiness, or spectacle and luxuriousness; I am over distractions to sate a lack of meaning
things I still like:
1. music on Spotify, the small finds in my discovery playlist, but I don't agree with how artists are not adequately compensated
2. jazz
3. damien rice when the algorithm plays him
4. playing piano
5. the way the strings resonate on my vintage suzuki guitar
6. keeping the important things close
hobbies on rotation:
pottery, watercolor, piano, poetry. hiking.
things that are difficult:
writing, writing short stories, writing plays, writing characters, writing story arcs, writing a pitch. that my pieces are not finished nor polished enough when I let them go. trying new things when writing poems.
dishes that i have obsessed over and obsessively made multiple times in a row in the past calendar year as they come to mind:
1. chicken larb
2. punterelle alla romana
3. steamed fish (salmon/striped bass/sea bass) with ginger and scallions
4. potato kugel
5. baked mackerel
6. poulet roti
7. arroz con pollo
8. mushroom "chicken"
9. corn tortillas
10. chile verde
11. hatch chile chili
12. chicken tinga with roasted ripe red anaheims and roasted ripe red aji dulces and three kinds of tomatillos
13. green chickpea falafel
14. chicken tagine
15. roasted fennel
16. roasted cauliflower/broccoli
17. miso cacio e pepe
18. cacio e pepe
19. pan fried squid
20. white beans and leeks
21. french onion pasta
22. mushroom rice
23. shitake chicken
24. rainbow cookies
25. amaretti cookies
dishes i've made when uninspired:
1. roasted chicken thighs with miscellaneous spices and herbs
2. pan-fried chicken with miscellaneous spices and herbs
3. chicken soup
4. roasted honeynut squash
5. kasha
6. sardines and potato salad
7. salmon pokè bowls
8. blanched or sauteed water spinach/ sweet potato leaves / tatsois
9. miso roasted eggplants
10. roasted tomatoes
11. soba
12. vegetable barley risotto
13. sauteed garlic chives and tuna
dishes that I did not obsess over but made well:
1. miso corn
2. homemade chili crisp
3. summer peach gelato
4. hummus
5. tahini
experimental dishes that I will not be repeating:
1. traditional pork bolognese - bland and greasy.
2. turkey dan dan noodles - turkey tastes weird and is not a satisfactory substitute for pork. the pork version is amazing.
3. gluten-free, dairy-free, seed-oil-free, I can't, but actually can believe it's not "Mac nor cheese" - got the flavor with spices and nutritional yeast but not the joy and dopamine that comes only from cheese
4. instagram recipe of mujadara - too acidic and sweet
5. roasted lean leg of lamb - no fat makes for a nasty, dry, spongy texture
6. gluten and egg free five-spice oven "fried" chicken - texture is meh, flavor is whatever
7. gluten and egg free southern oven "fried" chicken - texture is meh, flavor is whatever
8. vichyssoise - gross texture and bland
9. red borscht - high effort, gross texture and bland; easier to just buy
10. braised squid - bland and mediocre texture
11. lazy green curry mussels - canned curry paste and frozen precooked mussels are both mistakes; this needs to be wholly made from fresh ingredients
dishes I attempted multiple times but failed at:
1. focaccia
easy snacks that I don't count as real cooking:
1. sundried tomatoes, italian mortadella, anchovies, ricotta, and honey toasted on top of bakery-sourced focaccia
2. pan-fried soup dumplings
other tasty things:
1. seasonal sauteed ramps from the farmers market
2. the seedy sourdough from lost bread
3. donkatsu from a hole in the wall in flushing
4. ripe bartlett pears
5. pizza bianca with mortadella from forno del ghetto
6. bonci's
7. chilean muscats
tl;Dr:
currently obsessed with piano but I have to finish a piece I'm writing before the end of this week.