Something for the Weekend: 28.09.24
Omnivore, Spice Bags, A City Village, Damon Albarn and My Substack Summer (Erm, Winter)
Omnivore with Rene Redzepi, streaming now on AppleTV+
My approach this week is akin to a photo dump. I’ve not done a roundup for a while and I’m pulling together literal scraps of paper, voice notes, snippets from my Notes app, snaps, and recycling a few things from Insta. It’s a very mixed bag and longer than normal so you may need to open it outside email, on the app or desktop. Enjoy.
Take four
In the opening of the first ep of Omnivore (more on that below), Rene Redzepi says something like we are what we eat. If there were a psychological assessment of my diet without context I think perhaps I’d be committed to some kind of facility. This last week I’ve been in Perth. I’ve eaten very well, and it’s been hugely varied.
For those who say that burnt Basque cheesecake has had it’s day, head to Sonny’s and disabuse yourself of that ridiculous thought. Sweet, a little sour, salty, and as you can see there’s the slightest ooze or wobble to it.
I mention below that I don’t eat breakfast, but the caveat to that is gelato. I caught up with Chez De Bartolo of ChiCho Gelato. Still the real deal after over a decade of growth from a mobile gelato cart to shop fronts and a central production lab. I can whole heartedly endorse the limoncello gelato that’s on right now (grab it while you can), even or especially when It’s bucketing down.
A good Caesar salad is truly a wonderful thing. The Luis’ rendition at Lawson Flats is pushing all the right buttons on flavour, freshness, saltiness.
Do you have cravings that you just can’t explain? Something from your past, or close to, that abruptly take up residence in your brain. Enter the spice bag, an Irish favourite originated in Chinese takeaways. Essentially, fried chicken and chips, tossed with stir-fried onion, chilli, capsicum, and your favoured spice mix. Apparently curry sauce is optional, but why wouldn’t you? I’ve read recently that it was “invented” in the 2010’s. Perhaps it was in bag and name form, but I’m sure that across Ireland and the UK it’s been a thing for decades even if we didn’t call it a spice bag. I have distinct memory of eating something very similar (perhaps without the chicken) as far back as the 1980s.
All that aside, helped no doubt by the fact that it’s had a moment in the last year, I took myself off for a spice bag at JB O’Reilly’s in West Leederville (a pub incidentally that in the past has sold more Guinness per year than any other pub in Australia - not sure what their count is these days but a decade ago it was around 80k pints). The verdict: It was grand.
Turning the tables
A couple of people that I’ve interviewed this week asked me the same question (I like it when the tables are turned) about whether I have a routine when I’m in Perth in “review season.”
I do. I tend to skip breakfast (excluding gelato), as it’s calorie intake that’s not required. Whether that’s healthy I don’t know, but I’m commonly eating at least two big meals a day, so lets not talk about what’s healthy.
I like to walk where I can as it feels like passive exercise but it has the added benefit of being akin to scouting things out. I’ll stop and look at places, take in what has changed, and even deviate from the plan. You can’t do that from the backseat of a speeding Uber.
It’s taken me a number of years but I recently realized that I’ve created a village when I’m in the city. I have my home away from home, the Quay hotel (great rooms, big bathrooms, lots of natural light, not too fancy, central, and the people are great). I have my coffee shops of choice - essential - where I get very good coffee, a little bit of chat, and city life.
At Telegram in the State Buildings great coffee is a given - I’ll bounce from a long black to a flat white but increasingly filter - but there’s also the surrounds of this heritage building and chat with owner Luke Arnold (I think the word legend is bandied about too liberally but not in Luke’s case).
A little closer, Howard’s Groove have me hooked on their filter (see empty your pockets below) and it seems that over a week the two filters per day will be different each day. Opened as a partnership between popular coffee shop Smooth Operator and coffee roaster Twin Peaks it’s a spot to people watch and get my notes down.
Groucho Marx famously sent a wire to a Hollywood club he’d been accepted into, reading, "Please accept my resignation. I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.” I’ve always liked that train of thought, as I’ve never been a big joiner of clubs of any form. The idea of traditional private members clubs doesn’t sit that well with me for various reasons but Lawson Flats is a small island within that thought. I’ve begun to use it as a place to work, to read, have the odd meeting, lunch, an afternoon coffee etc. If I needed a loophole, I’d add that I’m not a member - I’m lucky enough to use it as a guest through WAGFG. I said to someone the other day that it feels like a shared workspace, club, and a creative YMCA rolled into one.” The cultural curation is fantastic, not least the art collection.
Artwork by Nadia Hernández. Photo by Trainos Pakioufakis.
Empty your pockets
From Insta Stories. Thought it was cute, got bugger all views. So in the interest of zero waste content, here you go.
It’s a blur
Not to be contrarian but since the announcement about the Oasis reunion I’ve gone even further down the blur rabbit hole. Both bands were a defining part of my youth but over the years blur have remained more of a constant and by extension of that Damon Albarn’s wider work, whether it’s Gorillaz; his solo work; The Good, The Bad & The Queen; and various collaborations.
In recent weeks I’ve gone back to his two solo albums, this BBC documentary made around the launch of Everyday Robots, and this Apple Music interview and studio tour with Zane Lowe. On repeat in the last few days, this collaboration with Icelandic musician Kaktus Einarsson.
On the blur front, The Ballad of Darren which came out in 2023 is up there with their best work. The documentary To The End, roughly following the lead up to their Wembley shows is perhaps as interesting as a look at male middle aged relationships as it is the music.
On repeat
There’s so much that I’m listening to at the moment and I’ll maybe add more in the next Something for the Weekend but in clockwise order this is what I’ve got on repeat.
Efterklang, Things We Have In Common. New album from this Danish post-rock outfit. Magic Chairs which they released back in 2010 was my introduction to them and they’ve been a constant since. Probably one of the last physical albums I bought, at a store in Reykjavik (still remember the thrill of discovering new music by placing headphones on and using the instore system).
Hayley Blais, Wisecrack. I was brought to the Canadian artist and this album through an Insta recommendation from Rachel Syme (staff writer at The New Yorker). It was Syme’s on repeat for a year and I offered Angie McMahon in retun.
Laura Marling, Child of Mine. A single release from Marling along with Patterns and No One’s Gonna Love You Like I Can from her new album which is released in less than a month. One of those voices that I can never get bored of.
Madison Cunningham & Andrew Bird, Crying In The Night. I came to these couple of songs for Andrew Bird - a friend having bought me one of his albums about twenty years ago and so began decades of listening - but I left with a stack of work to stream from Cunningham. The beauty of collaborations is sometimes introduction.
Angie McMahon, Light Sides. Last years Light, Dark, Light Again is a favourite album of the last several years and so music from McMahon has become an occasion.
Square eyes
So, so much TV at the moment but my picks are all from Apple.
In recent years I’ve grown more and more disinterested in food shows, but Omnivore is phenomenal. It’s not that often that I feel compelled to send expansive messages to people about work, beyond just a few lines, but I messaged Ben Liebmann the Sydney based EP on the show. An edited version:
“Just finished Omnivore episode 2, having reactivated my Apple TV subscription for it (and a bit of Time Bandits action). I'm currently eeking out the series rather than binge. Difficult. That feeling that it's precious TV and you want it to last a little longer. What an absolute fucking triumph. Literally sat up close to the TV, mouth slightly ajar, brain fizzing with the visual impact and the cut. I think the tuna issue is such a complex one but it's many limbs are covered off or hinted at - history, culture, craft, big money, environment - without being laboured or basic, and without offering definitive answers. I love that it's not a vehicle to see Rene in every shot, stroking a tuna and nodding thoughtfully (such is the way with these things). His sparing appearance and his V.O. really add weight.”
Put very simply, I am both late to the party and obsessed with For All Mankind. I thought it was a straight space race drama. I had no idea it was based on the premise that the Russians got to the moon first and that that kicked off a different trajectory. Inner space geek engaged. I’m mostly through season two and I am already slowing my pace of watching because I don’t want it to end.
I had high expectations from Time Bandits. Taiki Waititi and Jemaine Clement taking on source material from Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin, and added a film that I’ve seen again and again over the years. I had an early wobble with it - I think because the bandits aren’t the iconic bandits of the original - but I’m in now for what is a smart remake. No spoilers please.
Wolfs, the Clooney and Pitt straight to Apple release is as fun as it looks. Other than the obvious star power it has that one crazy night feel which seemed to be more of a narrative device in films of the 80s or 90s.
If you’re not watching a flatulent Gary Oldman et al in spy thriller Slow Horses then, and sorry for the language, sort your fucking life out. In fact don’t read the last bit of the newsletter, just jog on and get watching.
Finally, My Substack Summer (Erm, Winter)
Substack have done something akin to the Spotify end of year wrap with their ‘Substack Summer.’ A good idea in some ways, and you’ll find mine below, but it does slightly grate that this platform (and this is a point that’s probably more for other Substack writers, as well as the team at Substack) is so northern hemisphere centric. We’re coming out of Winter not Summer. How about a bit little bit of love for the southern hemisphere Substack? Anyway, whinge over, here’s my winter wrap which proves me wrong when I say “I don’t have enough time to read.” It seems I’m reading plenty.
Highlights
☕ I read the most in the morning
💌 I subscribed to 17 new Substacks
🎧 I listened to 14 minutes of podcasts
📽️ I watched 174 minutes of video
❤️ I liked 77 posts
💬 I left 11 comments on posts
📜 I scrolled 51 meters in Notes
🕵️ I discovered 16 new posts via Notes
Top Substacks
From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy by
Essays, criticism, and interviews on food culture, media, and politics sent out on Monday morning. Paid subscribers receive additional posts on Fridays and have access to commenting, the recipe archive, and more.
Top post this summer: What Was ‘Parts Unknown’?
Vittles by
Vittles is an online magazine based in the UK and India, publishing new food and culture writing.
Top post this summer: The Last Restaurant in Chinatown
Mark Diacono's Garden To Table by
Food - from garden to table - and everything connected, by James Beard shortlisted and multi award-winning author and photographer Mark Diacono, of Otter Farm, once of River Cottage.
Top post this summer: Tomato leaves, baked beans, Joel Fleishman and a seriously good tomatoes on toast