Hi everyone,
I’m back! I hope you all enjoyed Lesley’s newsletters while I was out on parental leave — I loved getting her emails in my personal inbox.
My leave started with a month of confinement — there’s a Chinese tradition called zuo yue zi, which translates literally to “sitting the month.” The idea is that after giving birth, mothers’ bodies are very vulnerable, given all the changes they’ve gone through in the past 30-plus weeks, and the first postpartum month should be dedicated to healing the body and bonding with the baby. In ancient times, this meant not leaving your house, not getting the body cold or wet, not receiving any visitors, and consuming a strict diet of warming and nourishing foods. These traditions are, of course, very restrictive and not realistic for most. Those who want to follow these rituals tend to stay at a dedicated postpartum center or pick and choose what makes sense for them.
With both my pregnancies, I was able to implement some of these practices — and as with most Chinese traditions, there is a large food component. My mother-in-law, who is Cantonese, cooked meals that included the recommended foods, which include pork knuckle (high in calcium and collagen), lots and lots of ginger (to boost the immune system), and papaya (said to stimulate milk production). I largely avoided cold foods (I missed ice cream a lot). And I did manage to mostly stay indoors, aside from doctors’ visits, and focus on resting and healing by napping whenever possible. Thankfully, I live in a city where it’s also possible to get excellent sushi delivery.
After 30 days of confinement — and lots of FOMO — my main objective, aside from keeping a very small child well-fed, was to get out of the house as much as possible. I visited just about every coffee shop within a 20-minute walk of my apartment with a snoozing baby in tow, and became a regular anywhere with a stroller-friendly entrance, strong air conditioning, and comfortable chairs. I went out of my way to visit as many bakeries as possible (we’ll save my pastry crawl favorites for future newsletter), and toward the end of my leave, felt comfortable enough to dine at a restaurant with the baby (Via Carota, because apparently the trick to walking in is to go at 2:30 p.m. on a weekday), and even take two short, baby-free trips to Seattle and London.
Throughout it all, I dined incredibly well, and I’m grateful for friends who are willing to tolerate a crying baby and eat at bizarre baby-schedule-accommodating hours. Some of my favorite meals: Rolo’s in Queens, with its fantastic wood-fired meats, including the roast chicken and pork T-bone. Musang in Seattle, a Filipino restaurant where the pancit, corn riblets, and fried veggies we ordered for our vegan dining companions were so good we had to get seconds. Roti King in London, a gem of a shop that serves the South Asian flatbread in multiple savory and sweet preparations. And a birthday meal at Laser Wolf at the Hoxton Williamsburg, because Michael Solomonov’s hummus is truly one of my favorite things in the world.
Speaking of Solomonov’s hummus — it’s one of 100 recipes in the upcoming Eater cookbook, which comes out in less than a month. We’ve just launched a preorder campaign that includes a bunch of exclusive goodies (special merch, a Goldbelly discount, brand-new content). Because preorder numbers are the most important early indicator in the book sales world, I’m offering an extra bonus for newsletter subscribers. The first five people to reply to this email with a screenshot of their receipt and their mailing address will get a personalized note from me on a special Eater postcard. Stay tuned for our cookbook launch events, where you’ll get to meet author and Eater restaurant editor Hillary Dixler Canavan and various other Eater editors (including me)!
Below, as always, you’ll find some of my favorite reads from the past two weeks. If you liked this email, please forward it to a friend or encourage them to sign up here.
