Normally I am the kind of person who is incredibly annoying about her birthday, but I was in a little bit of a funky mood when it rolled around last week. It’s partly because I’ve been ridiculously busy, partly because of *gestures wildly to everything going on in the world* and partly because I’m entering the last year of my 30s. It’s a weird time, and I am feeling weird and existential about it! As such, I turned to the best remedy for that mild malaise in my arsenal: a big dumb shopping spree at the fancy grocery store.
Every year on my birthday for the last decade or so, I’ve rolled up to my favorite fancy grocery store — Central Market, the Texans in the house will know her and love her — and lost my everloving mind. This felt especially important this year. As I cling onto what is left of my sanity, I need fancy snacks and condiments to put a little joie in my vivre. Armed with a hundred bucks or so in birthday money and a complete abandon, I walk down the aisles and buy whatever the hell it is that I want in that moment. That means splurging on the jam that is probably only $9 because it’s sold in a cool-looking jar, buying some fancy-pants French mustard, and treating myself to the good butter.
In this particular haul, I also grabbed a jar of preserved lemon paste that I hope will bring brightness to dishes when the fall produce starts to feel a little heavy. I did cringe a little bit at the price of a pound of frozen Louisiana crawfish tails — $26! — but tossed ‘em into my cart anyway, because being frugal on your birthday is boring and I’m not a boring person. I did, however, have to force myself to walk away from the cheese case before I purchased more bloomy rinds than any human could reasonably eat before they go bad.
I cannot recommend this strategy enough, because it offers both immediate and delayed gratification. Sure, I’m going to eat all of the chocolate-covered dried cherries I bought in less than a day, but the mustard will continue to make my boring workday lunches a little bit more interesting for weeks, and those are the kinds of little luxuries that make life worth living. At least for another year.
In completely unrelated but EVEN MORE EXCITING news, Ravenous published our first freelance piece yesterday, and it rules. I couldn’t be more thrilled to have Niko Stratis’ work on Ravenous, and that’s all thanks to the support of our paid subscribers. If you want to see more work from talented writers like Niko, consider joining the flock. At just $7/month, you’re getting the best food writing on the internet for less than the cost of a Wendy’s value meal, and helping us hire the coolest writers around.
When we started Ravenous, we set out to build a place where the five founder-owners could write about what excites us, and we want freelancers to have that space here too.
Bird Droppings
- The Tiny Chef Show, the web series starring the internet’s favorite weird little green guy, is making a comeback!
- Elon Musk’s SpaceX allegedly owes a Bay Area chef $70,000. Darryl Bell, owner of Stateline Road Smokehouse, claims that he prepared two different private dinners for the trillionaire-owned company’s employees and never got paid, which would suck even if barbecue restaurants weren’t working with impossibly tight margins right now. (They are.)
- Speaking of horrible restaurant economics, one New Orleans chef is convinced that the only way to save her business is to stop operating as a restaurant, and pivot to events and catering.
