“You should know that our correspondence is my way of holding on to life, taking notes on it, and thereby preserving something of my—otherwise almost worthless, or even entirely worthless—existence on this rapidly degenerating planet…”
Beautiful World Where Are You, Sally Rooney’s structurally experimental second novel, is told partially through the email correspondence of the two main characters, Alice and Eileen. They write to each other about politics, philosophy, and morality, but also (arguably more importantly), love, sex, and friendship.
It’s an interesting choice, depicting two Millennial women communicating over email as opposed to text, FaceTime, or even phone calls (who remembers those!). When I was six or seven years old I begged my parents for an email address. I think the appeal had less to do with actually emailing people and more to do with being mature enough to be trusted with an email account. My first two emails, “annaseven” and “arrox96” were used to spread chain emails, send funny YouTube videos to friends, and converse with cousins on other sides of the country. Nowadays, my email is synonymous with work and spam.
As far as I know, I don’t think email is a popular mode of social communication amongst Gen Z and Millennials, but BWWAY may have convinced me that it should be. In a time where content and correspondence are condensed into bitesize pieces—short streams of texts, TikToks, Instagram pictures and their captions, 280 character tweets, voice notes—there’s something beautifully intentional about the notion of sitting down for a half hour to write to someone, even if it’s still digital. Emails allow you to live some life in between them—the pressure to text the special people in your life everyday can be suffocating. How much can you update a friend about after a singular weekday?
Since the beginning of January, my friend Ellie and I have embarked on our own email chain, perhaps with less explicit political content and more complaints about how we can’t go drinking and dancing because of distance/pandemic/life. It’s made me approach my inbox with a renewed excitement, and I cherish her words for the following days until I see a new reply. And, as Haley mentioned earlier, Thanks We Hate It is also a long-form digital correspondence. Every other week, I hear her voice in my head as I read about all the different things that have mattered to her lately, and consequently, they start to matter to me, too.
Like Alice writes in the above quote, I love having these records of friendship, a way to know decades from now who and what kept me company through these months and years. I don’t have a hot take, I am simply here to gently endorse emailing your friends.
One noodle, two ways
Ben and I go grocery shopping almost every night, either right when he gets home from work or after he finishes working out. The latter is the best time because the bins of reduced-price foods are overflowing, and the store is nearly empty. Every yellow sticker purchase gives me a little burst of satisfaction.
A few days ago, I scored the jackpot at Waitrose: several packages of the fresh (and incidentally vegan) lentil noodles were pushed to the back of the reduced case. I picked up two and schemed what I would make with my marked down treasures. I ended up with a rich, buttery gochujang noodle dish and a savory soy balsamic noodle stir fry, both of which I will be sharing today.
However, I am not going to give measured, cross-tested recipes. I never really do, I suppose, but I am really going the conceptual route today. These meals, while delicious, were made off-the-cuff and with vibes only. I want to give the ingredients and the tools to make an approximation of what I ate, but the joy of cooking (for me, at least!) is playing around in the kitchen with your own taste as your guide.
I’ve been really inspired by Rebecca May Johnson’s new Substack, dinner document, and Alicia Kennedy’s In the Kitchen series. I love their flexible, intuitive, and exploratory approaches to cooking and recipe-making and seek to emulate them in my own practices. For the first recipe, I was also influenced by Bettina Makalintal, who I’ve seen make delicious kimchi butter noodles a few times, and by these recipes from Bon Appetit and Food 52.
Also, I know it is a cardinal sin of food writing to not post accompanying pictures of the recipes, but to be honest the kitchen I use at the moment has terrible lighting and the counters, backsplash, and wood violently clash together. I attempted to take a couple shots, but to be honest I think they would put off anyone from reading about the recipes, let alone making them. Hopefully you can use your imagination, and if not, look at Bettina’s lovely, cheesy picture above!
Sweet and Spicy Gochujang Butter Noodles
Sesame oil
Shallot — Thinly sliced. You could just as easily use yellow or red onion, scallions, etc.
Garlic
Mushrooms —Not entirely necessary but adds a lot of rich, umami flavor. Any kind will do—I used baby portobello and sliced them somewhat thinly.
Gochujang
Butter — I use vegan butter—Miyoko’s is the best if you are in the United States, but in the United Kingdom I like Flora.
Vegetables — Again, use what you like. I had some cavolo nero that needed to be used up, but I imagine other hearty greens, broccolini, or eggplant could be great here. Or leave them out if you want the noodles to be the star of the show.
Broth — I used mushroom broth to accentuate the mushroom flavors that have already developed, but use what you have.
Soy sauce
Sweetener — I used some agave syrup I had, but cane sugar, brown sugar, or honey work, too.
Noodles — I used my trusty Waitrose lentil noodles, which are slightly softer than pasta noodles. I think fettuccine or spaghetti could work here, as could an egg or wheat noodle, like a lo mein, ramen, or even udon.
Parmesan — Can absolutely omit to make vegan or use nutritional yeast in its place.
For two people, I start with a glug of sesame oil on a frying pan. Using medium heat, add the shallot and garlic to the pan and cook until soft and fragrant. Then, add the mushrooms, turning up the heat and cooking for a while until they release all their water and start to get some nice color. This can take a little while, about 5-10 minutes. Try not to agitate and mix them too much so the color and texture can really develop.
I then turn the heat down back to medium or medium-high and add some gochujang butter (I take a heaping spoonful of gochujang and mix it with about equal parts softened butter until fully combined). Mix it in and let it fry for a couple minutes. I then add the vegetables, mixing them in until they’re coated with the gochujang butter. Cook until the vegetables are starting to soften but are not completely cooked through, then add 1/4 or 1/2 cup of broth—enough to really loosen things up but not so much that it’s completely soupy—and a dash of soy sauce and sweetener.
Once the sauce cooks down and reduces a bit and the vegetables are tender, I add the fresh or pre-cooked noodles. Mix them in and coat them with the sauce, and let cook for another few minutes, or until your desired sauce consistency is achieved. If I want it extra glossy and creamy, I add another pat of butter at this point.
Plate and serve with grated parmesan.
Savory Soy Balsamic Noodle Stir-fry
Olive oil — Sesame oil would work here, as would any other neutral oil.
Tofu
Scallion — Finely sliced with the light and dark green parts separated. You could use another type of onion, like white, red, shallot, etc.
Garlic
Red pepper flakes
Vegetables — I used mushrooms and some frozen leafy greens that included cabbage, kale, and spinach, but again, choose veggies you like.
Noodles — Same as above recipe, except I would err on the side of a slightly firmer wheat noodle. I think spaghetti would work well here.
Soy sauce
Balsamic vinegar
Sweetener — Again, I used some agave syrup I had, but cane sugar, brown sugar, or honey work, too.
Chili oil — Use less if you don’t like heat, and adjust the amount according to red pepper flakes you added earlier on.
Parmesan — Can omit or use nutritional yeast, but it adds a nice salty kick at the end.
Again, for two people, I start with a glug of oil on a frying pan. On medium-high heat, add tofu and fry until it has some nice color and texture. This can take a little while especially if the tofu is not pressed and has excess liquid, so be patient. Then, add scallion whites and garlic, cooking until fragrant and soft. At this point, add a pinch of red pepper flakes, or more if you like it hot.
Add vegetables to the pan and cook until done—timing will vary based on types of vegetables. Stagger the cooking if necessary—add bigger, denser things first and smaller, thinner ones later. While the vegetables are cooking, make the sauce by combining equal parts soy sauce and balsamic vinegar, a dash of sweetener, and a teaspoon of chili oil. Adjust to your liking.
When the vegetables are done, add the noodles and fry for a couple minutes. Turn the heat down and add the sauce. Toss to coat, and if necessary keep the heat on until sauce has reduced and clings to the noodles and vegetables.
Plate and serve with grated parmesan and scallion tops.
One thing about me: I love Valentine’s Day. I don’t care if it’s cheesy or cringe or over-commercialized, I love love and any excuse to celebrate it. I also resent the idea that you must give in to those negative characterizations of the holiday—it doesn’t have to be flamboyantly romantic or consumerist bullshit if you don’t want it to be! Spend time with friends, cook dinner at home with your partner, treat yourself to a new book. I also don’t believe that these celebrations are meant to be limited to one day, but rather that this is an excuse to be more intentional about it than you might normally be. TL;DR is let people have fun and love each other, today and every other day. Ben planned a surprise date for me and took me to The Clarence Tavern for dinner and a natural wine bar called Silver Linings for drinks afterwards. It was lovely!
I love following Justin Capone on TikTok (@justin.capone). He primarily makes cooking videos and they’re so gorgeous. A feast for the eyes and the mouth. He recently made a traditional lasagna alla bolognese and it looked dreamy. You can tell he really spends time on these meals and takes the time, effort, and love to make all components from scratch—it makes me want to do more project cooking.
Some gorgeous love poems I stumbled across on Valentine’s Day. Some are old favorites, and some are new.
I watched The Worst Person in the World and loved it. It captured so many aspects of love and life in early adulthood in a tender and beautiful way that I was not expecting. I teared up at the end and then fully started crying while scrolling through the user reviews on Letterboxd (lol). I loved this bit of Carlos Aguilar’s review of the film for Roger Ebert:
“For our transient time here—an inharmonious symphony of beginnings and conclusions, small triumphs and big disillusions, all without a grand design—perhaps the plans that fell through, Julie’s and ours, don’t matter as much. The value is in the bravery to see the crumbles of a former dream or a past relationship and still try again in earnest from scratch; to be aware that the same mistakes may come along and that growing pains may never vanish, to embrace that we are on nobody’s timeline but our own.”
On a side note, Oslo is beautiful and I said “I want to move there” no less than five times during the run time.
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