A Bun Like No Other

Plus five ways to spin a pumpkin, cheap Italian real estate and oysters on the river.

Highly Enthused is a newsletter, once a podcast, concerning all the best things to consume in life. It’s written twice per month by Sophie McComas-Williams and Sophie Roberts, and today’s dispatch is written by SoMo! The majority of each newsletter is free, but there are five extra recs in each for paid subscribers. That’s often where the gold nuggets lie. Thanks for being here!

Far out, coming ALIVE in this Sydney sunshine this weekend. Are you the same? Hope you luuuurved our first instalment of A Day In The Life (Full of Links!) recently, we can’t wait to roll some more goodies out! In the meantime I’m gearing up for a Bali holiday in a week’s time, a bookend to my maternity leave that will hopefully leave me refreshed and geared up for a seamless office re-entry. Pray for me and my fuzzy brain. I haven’t been to Bali in a decade, am pre-gaming with probiotics as we speak. EXCITED! Lots of treats in this week’s recs - from an otherworldly Melbourne bun to a the vest that finally pushed me into joining the trend. Lez go:

I’m sure if you’re a reader here you do this too, but I STALK Melbourne restaurants, cafes and bakeries to Baby Reindeer levels, squirrelling them away for future visits (or pinging them to my sister constantly to try them for me, which she never does!). Iris Bakery In Brunswick has been burning a hole in my saved section for months and months and wow - it was a revelation. I knew what I was there for, the cardamom bun, twisted and fragrant, sugared and glazed on top. The space is warehouse in size but serene in feeling, bathed in sunlight. My sister in law expertly chose a pain au chocolate which was equally perfect, the enrobed chocolate slab still warm and gooey. Packing a big brick of their spelt and honey sandwich loaf in my suitcase was also one of my better decisions. Get there.

Scroll on if you’re not looking for parental content that truly sees you, but I think I’ve found it. Parenting boys in our post #metoo, far-right-leaning, socially isolated, online-troll world is a large, important and conflicting task. How do us feminists raise boys (especially white ones) who are emotionally competent, compassionate and kind, as well as aware of their inherent privilege? How can we help our boys grow up confident and open-hearted enough to connect with their friends, family and peers about their interior lives, not feeling like they need to plaster up and hide their feelings with traditional markings of masculinity and just talk about sport the whole time? Author and mum of three boys Ruth Whippman (she has a great Substack here) breaks all this down in her book, Boy Mum, by sorting through her own inner thoughts and experiences had while raising young boys in today’s political and social moment, and through interviews with plenty of boys and adolescents themselves. It’s heavy but it’s light and Ruth’s writing instantly connects you to her. I’ve never underlined and re-read so many passages so fast, or texted so many excerpts to my fellow boy wranglers. This book feels so current, urgent and in the end reassuring, and makes me want to hug our little men so tight.

When I’m not bookmarking Melbourne bakeries I’m drooling over dream Italian real estate, and some of it is seriously cheap (if a little crumbling). A 70k (Euros) apartment on Lake Como? A trullo in Puglia for the taking for less than a Sydney 1-bed? Doubtful that this is in our actual future but there is a world in which I could pay 7k for a rundown farmhouse in Liguria with potential. We can dream. Put it on the vision board, babes. My Cheap Italian Home is a fun follow in any case!

A quick-fire rundown of the miscellaneous finds we’ve loved this month. In this edition: The best one-pot, gingery chicken and rice dish, six ways to spin a pumpkin, an oyster shack on the Hawkesbury, a cute pink vest and some truly beautiful ceramics.