A Little Bit Rich
Weeknight noodles, French auto-fiction and the best tacos I've had in Sydney.
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 SoRo! 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!
We’ve had an exciting month over here guys! My boyfriend Andrew got in to the 2025 Tokyo marathon which means we’re headed to Japan early next year! (Please send me your best Japan tips! Neither of us have been in ten years). I also found myself - after a few months of mostly cooking at home - headed out to five restaurant meals in the space of 10 days. Ragazzi! Fontana! Ester! Fabbrica! Bistro 916! It was a delicious and buttery and pasta-y and parfait-y stretch and now I need to spend the next few weeks eating miso soup and plain rice to recover in both body and wallet. For pondering - is the true sign of middle age not being able to cope with eating that much rich food anymore? Like I said, exciting times over here.
Since my sister had her baby, I’ve been trying to head to their house after work once a week to cook dinner and spend a few hours establishing “favourite aunty” status with my niece. (This involves singing a lot of very silly made up songs and pretending to eat her feet). I treat dinner a bit like a “mystery box” challenge, asking them what ingredients they have they want me to use up and then riffing from there. Last time they had pork mince they wanted to use, and it reminded me of this ridiculously delicious Dan Dan noodle recipe I’d made for us once before. Don’t get turned off by the long list of ingredients! With a few shortcuts it’s easier to make than you’d think. Swap the homemade chilli crisp for any decent store bought one you like, and the sui mi ya cai for the last of that jar of kimchi you’ve got lingering in the fridge. Peanut butter can be subbed in for all or some of the tahini, and we also used these rice noodles in place of the standard wheat noodles and they worked SO well. Go heavy on the blanched greens to cut through the fattiness, or add some wedges of cucumber dressed in rice vinegar on the side. This has all the rich deliciousness of a long simmered bolognese, but is ready in a third of the time.
Love me Tender is a lean book - at under 200 pages not a single word is wasted. It’s auto-ficton, following two years in the life of the author - the unnamed protagonist - after she divorces her husband of 20 years, comes out as a lesbian and is cut off from her son by her ex. That summary doesn’t really capture the experience of reading the novel though. The pain of being separated from her son, the emotional distance and control she maintains while she and her ex fight for custody, her newfound identity and exploration of her sexuality, her addictions to swimming, cigarettes, sex. Everything is written in a style that is deceptively simple, incredibly spare and taut but always surprising. Certain sentences carry all the power of a gunshot. If you like Rachel Cusk and Annie Ernaux I think you’ll love this too.
I bought this leather jacket/coat in autumn last year, for about $200, off someone doing a closet clear out on instagram. It was one of those complete fluke purchases that has ended up being an essential anchor point for my wardrobe and/or entire personality. The coat is that gorgeous buttery leather you can only find in vintage clothes these days, and in an androgynous 90s cut that works just as well with jeans and jumpers as it does over a mini dress. It makes me feel 1000 times cooler than I actually am. It’s also one of those items that is surprisingly easy to find second hand! And is both significantly cheaper and significantly better quality buying vintage than buying new. I’ve rounded up seven options to get you started. If none of these quite hit, then try searching some combination of “90s leather jacket” “90s leather coat” “y2k leather coat” and see what gems you turn up.
1. This classic coat is shockingly cheap. 2. I love the shape of this one and the lapels. 3. Obsessed with the chocolate brown colour and oversized boxy fit. 4. Perfect 90s minimalism in this one. 5. The mandarin collar and swingy shape are 10/10. 6. A great oversized option. 7. The clean shape and PERFECT dark kakhi shade are amazing. (If none of you buy this one I might.)
A quick-fire rundown of the miscellaneous finds we’ve loved this month. In this edition: A gluten free treat everyone can enjoy, perfect tacos, an everyday mascara, my favourite cookbook series, and a spy show to binge.