Guys, we’re here. Summer, or as Telstra coined it in a recent newsletter; “disaster season”. Yay. Climate catastrophe(s) aside, we’re excited to bring you more Highly Enthused flava each month - we’re now splitting our recs into two newsletters, one from each of us per fortnight (this is SoMo going first!), so it’s not as long between drinks. We crave your feedback, so if you have any more suggestions, hit us up by commenting below or replying directly to this email! And, also, a big gracias to all who signed up to access our annual Gift Guide, something we LOVE putting together each year. If you bought something, spill! Two of those cute Japanese ginger graters just landed in my mailbox, we truly do want all the things we suggest!
December is a crazy time for most, but it’s feeling especially hectic this year - I’m 8 months pregnant, wrapping up work before mat leave, celebrating our son’s birthday AND our wedding anniversary in between all those regular December parties/drinks/gift shopping lists. Those rare nights where I can pour myself onto the couch to watch something summery and delicious as the insects buzz outside and the evening stretches on and on and there’s no reason to open my laptop, feel so good amongst the BIZZY.
We’re living in Sydney’s east at the moment, so I’m leaning into all the lushness this patch of town has to offer, trying to squeeze in new places to eat while we have the time. No matter how you’re feeling about the arrival of summer - panicked, hopeful, fatigued, excited, BUZZING - we’re with you. Now, onto the good stuff.
Eat
I stumbled onto this March SMH review of Northern Chinese spot TBC by Grape Garden just last week, and was convinced to go that very night. It lit me up! Serendipitously, my sister called checking what I was up to just as I was walking out the door and boom, I had a date! This place is TINY, spilling out onto the belly of Kings Cross on Bayswater Rd. I speak with not a drop of hyperbole when I say it was one of my favourite meals of the year. The service was so warm, so hospitable, helpful and sweet, we were charmed before we’d taken even one bite. He sold us on the lamb and barramundi steamed dumplings, and bright, porky, spicy Dan Dan Noodles, which he generously ladled into two bowls for us to easily split. The shallot pancake is cooked in duck fat(!), YES, while the cabbage salad with salted peanuts is sharp and crisp. I can’t wait to go back. Go GO GO.
Read / Watch / Listen
When MAID came out on Netflix a couple of years ago, I stayed up until 3am watching it on my laptop, which I have rarely done since uni! I read the book as soon as I finished the series, a memoir by Stephanie Land about poverty, domestic abuse, house cleaning and navigating the US welfare system. Stephanie’s second memoir, CLASS, picks up right where she left off, living in Montana to study for her creative writing degree as a single parent still navigating how to get from one pay-cheque to the next. Her story is so addictive, full of such trauma and step-forward-step-back progress through the backward system, that’s it’s so hard to put down.
Buy / Do
Ok here’s something for you if you’re pregnant, but that also works if you’re not! I’ve been living in these Bae The Label Bike shorts, in Cornflower Blue. They’re incredibly stretchy and so comfortable, especially in that phase of pregnancy where you cannot stand anything gripping you too tightly around the middle (read: always). Throw a long shirt over the top, roll up the sleeves, rinse and repeat.
The Fast Five
A quick-fire rundown of the miscellaneous finds we’ve loved this month.