My April diary: Moldy lemons and the best fries in NYC

What I ate, cooked, and planted in April.  

🍋 Home cooking

My favorite home-cooked meal was Asha’s Saag (written about here) and a pantry-friendly version of Dishoom’s gunpowder potatoes. I made the saag with spinach, kale, and fresh turmeric, and for the potatoes, I swapped in lemon for the lime and finely chopped, water-macerated red onion (to reduce the bite) for scallions. We ate it with jasmine rice. 

My friend Eric told me about a charred scallion dressing he made recently that he thought I would like. He was right, of course. I followed the recipe, but swapped the agave for maple syrup and used a mix of green garlic and scallions. We ate it on tacos and salads and in small, stolen spoonfuls here and there.   

I was shaken to discover my preserved Meyer lemons molded??? (Very confident that it was mold, not yeast). But the lacto-fermented kumquats I made in February made it through (the recipe was from Ferment by Holly Davis).

Pre-mold.

Speaking of fermentation, I started up a batch of water kefir with an envelope of Culture for Health kefir grains that have been chilling in my fridge for a year. Water kefir is a fermented drink, fairly similar in taste to kombucha, but made with sugar water rather than sugar tea and kefir grains rather than a scoby. 

I started making my own kombucha last year but let the habit slide, what with wedding planning and travel. I credit a month of daily kombucha drinking with curing my decade-long gut issues, but before I acquired a new kombucha scoby, I wanted to see if I preferred water kefir. The water kefir is easier—fewer ingredients, easier to keep sanitary, and produces more manageable batches. It’s also caffeine-free, my main desire to switch off kombucha being so I can sip at night. It does require near-constant feeding (every other day, essentially!), but I am hoping I can keep it in the fridge in between, sourdough starter style. 

I did a lot more cooking due to a micro “pantry challenge” Skylar and I did, where we avoided going to the grocery store for two weeks (!), but more on that in the next letter.  

🫐 The garden

The big month! Nearly everything has been sowed or transplanted, but I will keep the basil, peppers, and tomatoes inside, warm and under lights, for a couple more weeks. Even though the threat of frost has passed, tomatoes and peppers don’t like temperatures below 50F. But the herbs, flowers, peas, and potatoes are planted, and I’ve already begun my constant walks to the backyard to look at the garden and think about things. 

Two more tiers left to plant on the vertical planter. Blueberries bushes!

Foxglove, oregano, parsley, peas, chard and some not yet germinated cilantro.

The only unfortunate thing is that the squirrels are going at the little seedlings this year—I’m hoping my marjoram and mint resuscitate. I was also foolish and bought another bay leaf plant at the neighborhood nursery. Let’s see how long it lasts.

I purchased and planted a few varieties of blueberries, including Silver Dollar, Sunshine Blue, and Top Hat from Fast Growing Trees, and I hope the acidic fertilizer I found is enough to keep them flourishing. I’m picking off the buds as much as I can to help establish their root systems, but two of the bushes were quite mature already—I think I’ll get a couple handfuls this year. 

I’ll share a garden update in June or July, but you can read about my 2023 garden and my 2024 garden plan. 

🍟 Eating out

It was a light month. We went to Llama Inn in Williamsburg for a date night after being reminded of its existence by the 100 Best NYC Restaurant List on NYT.  I would describe the vibes as….mid-tier LA restaurant, but I may be prejudiced against the bad branding. The food was very good, but not for still being hungry after a post-tip $175 (!!!). 

Afterward, Skylar and I wandered to find one more drink and a snack, but it was windy and chilly and we didn’t run into anything promising (maybe also why the night felt very LA—failed bar-hopping). Before heading home, we popped into a liquor store, Bedford Wine and Spirits, which had a shockingly good selection of natural wine, and I was thrilled to spot Martha Stoumen’s. I first found their wine at La Casa Sena Wine Shop in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a couple years ago on my way to a solo writing trip in Abiquiu (yes, Georgia O’Keeffe’s town and unfortunately the novel is still unfinished…) and haven’t had luck tracking it down in New York City. I grabbed the white and red Post-Flirtation. Just as good as I remembered.   

This was before a mouse ate that avocado on the counter.

Friends and I dined at Minetta Tavern before a Wednesday night showing of Cole Escola’s play, Oh Mary! (hilarious, perfect! A must-see). I had a gin martini with a twist, of course, and the butter lettuce salad and frites, with a plan to save room for dessert. Do they have the best French fries in New York City? They might. I didn’t save room for dessert, but thankfully Chelsea ordered a chocolate caramel tart and I stole some bites. 

🌾 Reading

I finished Upstairs Delicatessen by Dwight Garner—a breathless food memoir by a well-read New York Times book critic. I usually don’t like books about books (unless it’s Amina Cain), but the unrelenting references were made palatable by how earnest and charming Garner’s perspective is.  

I picked up Flour Lab by Adam Leonti and Katie Parla and Southern Ground by Jennifer Lapidus from the library, too. One of my next plans is to start baking with freshly milled flour (via the Mockmill KitchenAid attachment), so I’m trying to gauge which reference books to buy.  

And I read Orbital by Samantha Harvey and Worry by Alexandra Tanner, both for my book club (have I mentioned I have hosted a monthly book club at my apartment for the last seven years? The crew affectionately calls me the book club dictator—I pick every book with little input and feedback). I would recommend both!  

🍳 Links and things

• I hate to participate in generational talk, but I fear I’m a millennial overwhelmed by short-form video. But, one of my goals this year was to film a TikTok/Reel—please indulge my first about my favorite kitchen objects. You can watch it on TikTok or Instagram. 

• ICYMI: I published a newsletter with some of my life story and an explanation into why I write about food. 

• As a relatively recent cast iron convert (I haven’t used a stainless steel pan in months), I loved this post by

  Angie Venezia
  with careful instructions on how to pull off a cast iron-fried egg.