Pasta, Flowers and L'theanine
Mood boosters for April and beyond.
Highlighted by 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! SoRo is in Mexico eating allll the tacos and paletas. The majority of each newsletter is free, but there are five extra recs in each for paid subscribers. Thanks for being here!
I go to Westfield at Bondi Junction all the time, nearly always with my baby. Until very recently, we lived three blocks from there, picked our parcels up from there, went to Kmart for photo frames, Uniqlo to suss the new cashmere range, the new rice bowl place for lunch, and the movies with our kids. An unhinged monster stabbed six to death there on the weekend, including the mother of a 9 month old, the baby itself now in intensive care. What I can’t stop thinking about is the USA, where this happens multiple times a day, but with guns. People there must feel this terrorised and on edge all the time, not knowing if today is the day. It’s unfathomable that something like this could happen here, in a place that usually feels so blandly safe. If you were there, I hope you’re ok. It felt weird to write this newsletter and not mention it, it’s on all our minds.
Anyway, onto some distractions.
Eat / Drink
What is this newsletter for if not tooting the horn of my husband, figuratively. I took this photo of him and when I looked at it later that night I thought, wow, I married The Bear. Maybe it’s just the apron. He’s opened a new restaurant, Fabbrica on Victoria St, Darlinghurst and it’s where I’ve eaten lately, with zucchini flowers fried and drizzled with hot honey, ribbons of mafaldine spicy and smoky with ‘nduja and hunks of prawn, conchiglie green with cavalo nero and blobs of tart buffalo curd. There’s a long communal table down the centre that makes it feel like a party, each group bleeding into the next. I literally detest tiramisu but if I were to eat it, it’d be his, here, crunchy with hazelnut praline. Read on, and Book it.
Read / Watch / Listen
Throughout this fourth trimester I watched all six seasons of Outlander - I’d never seen it! I was so deep, so invested, so hooked, that now it’s over I feel a bit sad and lost, not sure what to do with myself! Embarrassing to be so incredibly behind with the discovery of this show, and so I’m looking for something to fill the void. Pls make suggestions in the comments. In the meantime I’m subscribed to so many Substacks I can barely get through them all, they’re my favourite things to read at the 4am feed to keep me awake. One that I save the most is by one of my favourite cooks, Carter Were, a Kiwi living in the Northern Rivers - her cookbook Carter’s Cookbook (now available digitally) is well-thumbed in our house and her newsletter is a similar vibe. Pared back, plain but delicious, real food with no agenda but to be wholesomely delicious. There’s a ginger cake with maple I’m poised to make as well as a honey and miso granola on the list, once I’ve gotten through my haul of Farmer Jo.
Do / Buy
One of the best things about being alone(ish) on maternity leave in a new house is having a fair bit of time to fiddle with all the new corners. As much as I wish I had $700 to spend on an original Akari lamp, alas I do not, but my beautiful sister bought me for my birthday a very lovely dupe, the Absolutely Necessary Lamp from Dennis Did It. Reasons to love it are A) the soft glow and delicate legs and B) the height. It completely hides the power point behind it. Glorious.
The Fast Five
A quick-fire rundown of the miscellaneous finds we’ve loved this month. In this edition, a can of calm and energy, a set to wear on your summer hol this year, a cardi to grab if you’re staying put this winter, a flower to look out for and a CUTE hook for your wall to hold your coat.