Spent £17 on mushrooms for you / 'Cause I'm silly

I baked a curry this week. A sort-of mash-up of the classic feeling of proud domesticity that only having food in the oven creates, and the type of exhaustion so deep that stirring scales of slowly-translucifying onion seemed too much to approach.Cooking is emotional, I think, and so many TV shows I comfort myself with agree. Cooking is fun, cooking is easy; you can do it at home with your imaginary children. Cooking is a passion, cooking is an obsession, cooking is aggressive. Watch a man karate chop a vegetable with his knife. Slice al pastor like an ear from a snitch.I like to cook for people I love. I took 1kg of plantain to my friend's house as a gift last week, because I couldn't cook them for her myself. I am tired of only feeding me. When I cook, I imagine dishing up in a full house, and I miss everyone I know. Other stuff

• The subject line of this email is from a song by Dry Cleaning. This piece on them by Casey Chapter for Florida State University News is great, a collection of well-chosen quotes from larger interviews and on-point observations that made me feel hella nostalgic for student publications.

• Actor Ryan Ken absolutely nails the British media's coverage of racism now, and to be honest, all the time. His "oops racism...aaah racism" bit should be taught in schools.

• Nicole Johnson, CEO of Rusty Rabbit importers, has become the first black woman to own a Champagne brand sold in the UK (and the second in the US) with Lapin Rouillé. Read an interview with her from Travel Noire - her quote "In 2021 you can still say that??" is particularly important.

• Wine, history, archaeology and pottery? Hell fuckin' yeah. "Thriving Wine Trade In Islamic Sicily Revealed By Chemistry Of It's Pottery"

• Buy cool t-shirts, support the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament. For my Burum Collective friends, there is also a great Welsh one :)

• Another reason to ban fast fashion: widespread sexual violence reported at H&M garment factories in S. India.

• This piece from Vittles on food hype, commodification/corporatisation of street food and lockdown boredom is so, so good. "...in the absence of anything else to do, food and eating has become a replacement for culture itself, with people eating their way out of boredom."

• This week in Pellicle, chef and food writer Tim Anderson (who won Masterchef in 2011, which was the last time I was happy with who won it!) writes about Fumio Tanga and his bar/restaurant/hangout Sho Foo Doh. Can I add here that I am Fully Weirded Out that a brilliant piece on Izakaya bars crossing with UK pubs came out in Pellicle this week, considering Tom and I have been non-stop obsessed with them for over a year as part of our Corto plans.

My Stuff

• I filed my first piece for a national newspaper this week. It's coming out on April Fool's Day! Haha seriously

• I was also accepted into the Guild of Food Writers! Which is cool. I'm v chuffed about it.

• In case you missed it: Bun! The Taxonomy Of The British Bread Roll

• I'm up for travelling ANYWHERE as soon as I can. Offer me a commission. Tom can run the bar.

• If you enjoy my writing and would like to buy me a Beak - Gurr (my current beer of choice), thank you! The easiest way to do so is via my Ko-fi profile.

Sho Foo Doh by Grace Helmer for Pellicle