The Sweet Snack Life

A tart for all occasions, a face lift without the face lift and a Japanese Happy Meal.

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!

I can feel the silly season approaching. It’s not even November yet, but my diary is bubbling with dinners and barbecues, my messages lighting up with “we should organise something before the end of the year”. And look, I love an overpacked social calendar like any extrovert who lost months of their social life to a pandemic, but this year I kinda just want to lie dowwwwnn. I’ve got library books I need to finish and a neglected veggie patch I need to spend time with! I realise this makes me sound approximately 70 years old. I’m sure I’ll muster up the social bandwith soon enough, but in this last little calm before the storm you’ll find me hiding out at home.

It was my sisters birthday this month, and we offered to host a little baby-friendly family gathering at our place. Having been physically attached to a small baby for four months now, Anna had a yearning for “wine bar snacks”: small rich and delicious bits and pieces you can toss in your gob one handed.

The menu included about 5 different cheeses, saucission, radishes and hand whipped butter (so easy and looks so impressive), rockmelon drizzled in EVO, red wine vinegar and draped in prosciutto, two dozen of the most insanely sweet and creamy oysters from Sydney Rock Oyster Depot (find them at Kings Cross or Carriageworks markets); and the crowning glory - this Hetty McKinnon Carrot, Brie and Hot Honey tart. 

Having previously made and eaten this tart in my gluten-eating days, I can confidently say it is delicious. And watching my family gobble this down hot from the oven in about three minutes confirmed my memory is correct. The only alteration I make is cutting out the onion/garlic powder to cater for my sister-in-laws allium allergy - I replace it by smearing the puff pastry with seeded mustard before piling on the brie. I also don’t bother slicing it into a circle! Going for a more rustic rectangle means you use up all the puff pastry and get more delicious crunchy edge pieces.

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is a tricky documentary to pin down. It’s simultaneously a portrait of one of the 20th and 21st centuries most impactful photographers and artists, a reflection on the power of community and collective action and a searing take down of the pharmaceutical industry in general and Sackler family in particular. If you read and loved Patrick Radden Keefe’s book Empire of Pain, then this is the doco for you.

Nan Goldin is the artist, photographer and central figure of the story. We learn her life story, the tragedy in her family that led her to furiously reject the mid-century passion for repression and secrecy, and follow her glorious, unkempt, subversive and intimate explorations into photography and the art world. Now in her seventies, the next great project of her life came about accidentally - she became addicted to painkillers after being prescribed Oxycontin for tendonitis in her wrist. After getting clean, she sets her sights on forcing the art world to reckon with its own dependency on the money the Sackler family (owner of the company who makes and sells Oxycontin) pumps into the art world. Her triumph is never assured and watching her and her activist group throwing pamphlets at the Guggenheim and performing die-ins at The Met reminds you of how hard won every bit of progress we make always is.

You know we love a facial here at Highly Enthused. An excuse to spend an hour lying down and walk out with my skin glowing feeling like I’ve just had the best nap of my life? Sign me up! I’m still loyal to old favourite Luna Beauty, but I’ve been fascinated by all things buccal massage (I’m not even on TikTok so I can’t blame that) and wanted to try a facial that incorporated it. Enter Skin by Pippa James!

Conveniently located (for me) upstairs in a bright and lovely old building in Annandale, I booked myself in for a 60 minute Holistic Face Release treatment. It’s definitely a splurge! But after 60 minutes of lymph activation, face lifting and buccal release, I left with my head feeling lighter, my puffiness subdued and my jawline newly defined. Pop this one on your Christmas wish list for sure.

A quick-fire rundown of the miscellaneous finds we’ve loved this month. In this edition: The combo I’ve christened the “Japanese Happy Meal”; a new artist to listen to; a retro cocktail that deserves a come back; a weeknight fish stew; and a chic hotel recommendations website to bookmark for your next holiday.