Warm, Squidgy, Fudgy

Embroidered jeans, an analysis on Tony Soprano, wall art and an earplug test.

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!

Would you just look at this photo? It’s absurd. Sydney in Spring should be illegal it’s so beautiful. The colour of the sky-water-flowers-trees combo is just enough without being too much. The ground covered in flurries of purple (jacaranda), pink (bougainvillea) and red (Illawarra flame trees). Not to mention the scent of jasmine. I’m still blown away by it all every year. If you’ve never visited Sydney, come in October. I’m still coming down from the high of listening to Dolly Alderton at the Opera House (shout out to SoRo for being my date). It was the same night as the US election and when Dolly walked on stage, she asked us all in the audience to “scream at the sky” together about it all, which we promptly did. It felt good. It feels so good to be in the company of thousands of women, doesn’t it? I hope you enjoy this month’s recs, I feel they’re quite delicious.

You know when you’re eating something and you wonder, how the hell did they stumble on this combination? Something so perfect, yet so incredibly random? Enter Ante’s potato mochi with everything bagel sprinkles. A warm, squidgy, fudgy, undeniably chewy potato mochi is fried so the exterior is only-just crisp while the inside stays warm and soft. It’s then rolled in that toasty everything bagel combo of poppy, caraway and sesame seeds, dried garlic and onion. It’s so textural and comforting, you can’t quite believe it. How did they think of it? I’ll never know, but I do know I need at least six more. Here’s a better photo than the one I took.

The male mind cannot comprehend the allure of Tony Soprano. This Substack really spoke to me because I’ve been rewatching The Sopranos lately and have been tentatively treading down a similar path of thought. Far from shallow, this is actually a very thorough deep dive into Tony’s hotness, and the boxes men think we want ticked. Please enjoy this quote and come for me in the comments:

The Sopranos is mostly about Tony solving one problem after another. First it’s Johnny Sack, then it’s the air conditioning, then it’s Janice, then it’s A.J., then it’s the Feds, then it’s his mother (well, it’s always his mother). There is nothing more unattractive than a man who is incompetent or incapable of solving problems. Women need to know you got it. Tony gets things done. He knows how to handle himself. I pray for the women who have to send their husbands to the grocery store with a picture of what scallions look like.

Ok suffer through this bout of shameless self promotion with me for a sec but we’ve just launched a food version of Celebrity Heads at Buffet! Food Face is so, so much fun. I’ve played a DIY version for ages but we finally pulled out all the stops and made it an actual product in time for Christmas this year! A small miracle that took lots of teamwork. The premise is simple; your opponent selects a card for you from 100 possible options - drinks, dishes, notable people in food or ingredients. You ask “yes” or “no” questions until you guess the card on your head! It’s giddy, and not to mention hilarious watching your husband trying to guess he’s a schnitzel. Free shipping on the Buffet shop!

A quick-fire rundown of the miscellaneous finds we’ve loved this month. In this edition: cool embroidered jeans, posters that don’t suck, a food cover with BEADS on it, and a method to take the edge off the household noise.