How could summer be over...
...when there are so many tomatoes yet to ripen
Welcome to the inaugural edition of my ✨personal newsletter✨, the name of which I will avoid mentioning in text as it is all but certain to change. Consider this my desperate (misguided? self indulgent? delusional?) attempt to escape the trenches of social media, and find comfort in the nostalgia of earnest, long-form blog era internet content. The collapse of Twitter / launch of Threads earlier this year really solidified to me that the golden era of Being Online is over — no matter how hard we post, it will never be 2008 again — but I also feel a small flicker of hope that freedom from monolithic platform algorithms presents us with a unique opportunity to establish smaller, more intimate pockets of the internet again.
It’s also my first attempt at writing “seriously”, or at all, about food aka the first love of my life. I’ve thought a lot about the composition of this project, whether to treat this newsletter as a main artery, with connections to other veins, or try to have it completely self contained… one singular deranged rant. For now, I’ll break out recipes into their own page. I hope you’ll follow me on this journey, but if not I will still occasionally check my DMs, and you conceivably have my email address / phone number, so please be anything but a stranger.
WHAT’S COOKING
If you’ve spoken to me in any capacity in the last six months, you’ve probably heard me talk about making pizza. “We could have a backyard… with a pizza oven!” was an embarrassingly large part of our leaving Brooklyn narrative, but I’m pleased to report dreams have in fact become reality. The Roberta’s pizza dough recipe has become our reliable go to, although I want to experiment a little bit more with some locally milled flours.
Our summer 2023 menu has a few hits that will definitely be back next year — N'duja & ripe jammy stone fruit are a stellar combination — but I also look forward to playing around with some fall flavors now that the leaves are changing colors. In general, we’ve become lot more confident in our cookery, and are now starting to play around with other oven bakes. The famous La Mortazza is one such example, alongside crisping up some meats and other things that can handle the oven’s inescapably high temperature. The standard mortadella recipe was great, but we’ve also found success with a vegetarian pesto, broccoli rabe situation, and a Calabrese sausage, fresh mozz, fennel seed infused oil, tomato sauce dealio.
While a non-trivial amount of my time in NYC was spent defending the Montreal style bagel – it’s just simply a better fit for me, I’m sorry to say – I still miss the ubiquity of these pillowy boiled rings of goodness out west. While Portland isn’t a bagel desert (Speilman… Bernstein’s… are the names that come up most often), procurement feels more like a special treat than an ‘every bodega, every weekend’ type of lifestyle. I’ve been taking on the challenge of making bagels at home, in a few different styles. I started with Michael Solomonov’s Jerusalem Bagel from Israeli Soul. While essentially the perfect sandwich bagel, I found them to be significantly more labor intensive than this Montreal style recipe I’ve been making obsessively. Boiling the bagels in honey water makes the whole kitchen smell… amazing. Ideally, I’d be finishing them in the pizza oven, once we have wood firing figured out (dual fuel, baby!), but they’re still delicious in their current state. I have no real notes, only that a very short proof seems be most successful in emulating the iconic St. Viateur bagel density. Glazing over a few failed experiments with mushroom powder, dehydrated mushrooms and fennel, I’ll simply say: I will not in fact be developing a PNW inspired bagel recipe as previously promised very often and loudly to many people; I appreciate your respect for my privacy during these difficult times.
Ok, to round up my obnoxious “I used to live in Brooklyn” content, I WAS successful in adding a Portland twist to another NYC favorite, the black & white cookie. This black & pink cookie recipe largely follows Claire’s until you reach the icing bit, where rose water and petals are introduced for a subtle floral twist. Portland has a storied history with roses, but today they’re used quite ubiquitously by local companies and as a symbol of the city. All in all I’m quite pleased with the taste of this cakey-cookie tribute to my current and former homes.
Via a visiting friend / viral TikTok, I’ve also been enjoying making banana milk lattes in the mornings. Layering ice, Korean banana milk, and espresso is the prescribed recipe, but 1:2 cold brew concentrate:banana milk is how I’ve been enjoying it lately. I think I might actually prefer a variant with melon milk, although experiments with the taro flavor were less successful. In any case, it is yet another item on the recurring H-Mart shopping list.
Last but certainly not least, a nasturtium cocktail recipe from a zine I picked up in Paris in the spring is… delicious. The peppery nasturtium flavor really picks up in the aftertaste. Crudely: a nasturtium (petal and leaf) infused simple syrup, shaken with gin and dry vermouth makes for this beautiful, pale orange drink. One thing about me is that I will never take a good picture of anything, but you get the idea.
FROM THE GARDEN
I’ve always been a lemon verbena fanatic — it’s been one of my favorite herbs for as long as I can remember. The scent of it alone is transformative, and not at all soapy to me… although that seems to be one of its primary applications in this wretched place (North America (this is a joke)). I’ve tried growing it a few times, to varying degrees of success, but this first year in an adequately sized garden I’ve finally achieved a meaningful yield. Now, what to do with all this herb?
First and foremost, David Leibovitz’s lemon verbena ice cream recipe is perfection. My ice cream maker had been collecting dust, but it was well worth reviving for this velvety taste of summer. To serve in a more modern, see: trendy, way… a generous drizzle of olive oil and pinch of flakey sea salt goes a long way.
Using fresh or dried leaves in a simple tea infusion is my favorite caffeine free night time tea… although, I’ve also been pillaging the leaves from the sweetbay magnolia in my front yard for a tea that is a close rival, but that’s a different newsletter.
My other favorite preservation technique is to simply place dried leaves and sugar in the food processor for a few pulses, and use in place of sugar wherever a slight floral lemony taste might shine.
I have… so many green tomatoes from a single(!) heirloom San Marzano plant that took over a solid eighth of our large raised bed planter. Even after the squirrels pillaged their bounty, there are more tomatoes left on the vine than I thought possible. We’ve solidly entered the fall portion of the Portland weather itinerary, so I decided to pull them off the plant in their unripe form. I’ll probably pickle some, make fried green tomatoes, perhaps make some sort of chutney, top some pizzas… life is full of possibilities.
BEST BITES
I’m in love with the food culture in my new-ish home of Portland, OR. Never have I lived in a place where enthusiastic, sincere support of local businesses and entrepreneurs is so deeply engrained into the rhythm of everyday life. Food criticism is of no real interest to me — there are already far too many culture vultures clogging up the airwaves (“oh, he like hates hates social media”), and I famously know nothing about anything. But I love to celebrate local businesses doing delicious things, and also think creating some kind of journal of bites that have moved me will be interesting to look back at, at some undetermined point in the future.
Bánh Chuối Hấp from Bui’s Natural Tofu has steadfastly become one of my favorite desserts in town. The starchy, somewhat sour banana and tapioca steamed cake is finished with a luscious coconut cream sauce and crushed peanuts. I could eat this everyday — thankfully it re-steams very well after just a couple minutes in a bamboo steamer, so I’ve been stocking a few portions in the fridge to have throughout the week and also get anyone who happens to be in the vicinity of my house hooked on this absolute gem of a treat.
It’s a little toxique to rave about the No 1. Hamburguesita from Paradise Hamburgesa, as the seasonal pop-up in Guero’s backlot has closed up shop for the year… but here’s hoping they return next summer. If they don’t, I will be trying my hardest to replicate this standout Mexican burger at home. A thin beef patty generously dressed with American cheese, avocado, raw and caramelized onion, roasted jalapeño, and a savory crema type sauce (paprika? chipotle maybe?), perhaps a little cotija — The balance between meat and veg, the fullness of each bite, this fairly small burger is so deeply satisfying.
GIFT GUIDE
I’ll concede, this is an obnoxious section to include in a newsletter… but it’s an enjoyable part of many that I read, so I feel the need to give back and help others escape the unbearable weight of existence with some retail therapy, if only momentarily. It is not easy work, but someone has to do it.
This Holy Duck Chili Oil was given to me as by a friend / houseguest over the summer, and it’s become one of the most cherished things in our fridge. You can feel the duck fat coat your mouth with this thin layer of velvety, umami goodness — it really has a richness I’ve not tasted in other condiments. It’s been our favorite since we’ve run out of… another very good garlic-forward chili oil that was gifted to us. Hmm… a trend emerges?
PRINTED MATTER
One ongoing project I’m working through is making sense of my cookbook library. The primary problem right now is storage (cookbooks are big!), but a few built in bookcases should resolve this issue eventually. More than physical organization, I’m also working on a way to virtually peruse and catalogue recipes, for quick retrieval and meal planning. This month, I’m looking forward to cooking through some of Molly Baz’s new book More is More. Now that I am not working, I’m cooking a much larger percentage of our meals, which means a more diverse mix of special occasion and utilitarian cooking than I’m used to. The date lemon broccolini side from Cook This Book has become a dinner party staple for us and many folks we’ve made it for. Of what I’ve cooked so far, the hot sauce-braised short ribs and gingery clams with tofu have been standouts.
Not at all the same thing, but I’d be remiss to not immortalize my goofy summer zine in the text of this newsletter. Now that I’ve Gone Digital™, I’m not sure what it means for my quarterly zine making practice — I think they will become more specialized and deal less with general life updates, which I suppose is how they started. This issue, I bought some stamps and inkpads which will hopefully be of use in the future. I categorically refuse to print on anything other than this old low res document printer we have at home... dare I say I hope that future editions become even more “handmade”. If you aren’t already on my physical mailing list, you know how to reach me.
Until next time / humbly yours,
Remi xoxo