lend me your eyes #106: on garlic
plus, severance, the substance and storks
so, is there something wrong with garlic? i swear that the garlic of today, whether bought at a supermarket or a smaller, non-chain shop of some description, is not the same as the garlic of the past – and i don’t mean the distant past, necessarily.
it’s frequently small, scarred, dry and just a bit sad. it’s not the most garlicky garlic. some places seem to have a separate option, designated as ‘large garlic’, priced at a premium. that stuff is better but… when did this all happen?! is this some sort of scam perpetrated by Big Garlic? more likely, there’s a real (and probably depressing) reason, like it’s probably climate change, isn’t it?
i’m afraid this isn’t really going anywhere as i have no insight or intel, and just wanted to vent about garlic. but while we’re on the subject, i recently pulled up a small handful of wild garlic from a nearby spot, and used it to make a pesto with pumpkin seeds, pecorino, and zaytoun’s gently peppery evoo. i ate it with leeks sautéed down – double allium! – and linguine. a bit of a long-winded weekday lunch but such are the perks of working from home.
things i’ve enjoyed reading (and playing) lately
severance, the substance and our increasingly splintered selves.
“increasingly, we choose to splinter ourselves. the person you present on instagram or facebook is wittier, prettier, more accomplished than the person your spouse or roommate knows. your 500 ‘friends’ never see your pre-coffee-uncombed-depressed-in-bed self (unless sharing that self is your social media personality — in which case that becomes the curated, theatrical fragment of you). in the 1800s, karl marx talked about the alienation of labor; today people talk about not “bringing their whole self” to work. many of us strive to be one person here, another person there, another person there.”
“many of us would rather experience physical discomfort than sit quietly with our own thoughts, as a 2014 university of virginia study found. nearly half of participants sitting alone in a room for 15 minutes, with no stimulation other than a button that would administer a mild electric shock, pressed the button”
a livestream of a stork pair in sussex.
yes, a literal pair of storks.
bracket city: a daily word game that i’ve been enjoying.
enjoyable, but my success rate is middling, at best.
this week, make: halloumi with spicy olives and walnuts.
this, from
’s new cookbook lugma, looks perfect – i’ve yet to try it myself but i can’t wait.liner notes
a track i’ve been enjoying lately
until next time! 👋🏾
love the sound of the storks x