After hearing my siblings fawn over The Taste of Things—a movie released earlier this year set in 19th century France—I decided to cozy up on a Friday evening, decompress on my couch, and rent the movie to watch solo. I was overwhelmed by how deeply I enjoyed watching the movie, a story of a man and his personal chef-turned-lover as they prepare meals together, for one another, or for esteemed guests. The movie is seductively soothing: a French countryside, a beautiful kitchen, and food that is prepared with a sense of devotion. I can’t quite discern if the movie is a love story between people, or a love story between people and food. In either case, I was entranced. The way in which Eugenie and Dodin express their love for one another through food, and the intimacy of the silence they share as they sit at a table across from one another, was salient and beautifully produced.
My friends and family know by now that my expressions of love and care are frequently manifested in acts of cooking or baking for others, or sharing special meals. To me, this feels like the most significant driver behind getting into food, restaurants, baking, writing about food, etc. in the first place. It is a corner of my life that I so deeply love to share, and I very much enjoyed watching a film that so wonderfully depicts that exact sense of sharing.
I am also feeling incredibly lucky for my friends and loved ones, their health and happiness, and the time I am able to spend with them, especially as I sit on Cape Cod reading with my parents :) This week I wanted to pay tribute to that and my favorite little meals I have shared with others. My mom is a special feature this week, sharing a moment/meal that she associates with her loved ones. Enjoyyyy xo
Agi’s Counter
Agi’s has been featured here before, though I visited last week with my dear friend Niamh—my first time dining there in the evening. I was at the tail end of a rough day that involved a bad e-bike encounter and a mildly bad mood. Truly, all I wanted was a comforting, delicious meal with a friend. Agi’s was the perfect place for it; we booked a 7:15pm reservation an hour beforehand, and I showed up to sit at the bar in track pants and ballet flats. Niamh looked much cuter. Tucked into the corner of the restaurant, we sat and chatted in a way that felt truly decompressing. There was no pressure, we didn’t have too much to really catch up on, just some minor updates. We were really there to enjoy the food and sit in each other’s company which is one of my very favorite things to do. We ordered a healthy amount, though the dishes at Agi’s are pretty small, so it wasn’t overwhelming.
We shared the Dip & Chips, a bright pink beet dip mixed with caramelized onion sour cream and egg jam, topped with smoked trout roe and dill and served with fresh potato chips. It was so good. It was followed by lightly battered and fried squash blossoms filled with a pimiento cheese, and served with a crucial lemon wedge. Next was a caraway caesar salad made up of full, multi-colored radicchio leaves, breadcrumbs from Agi’s potato pullman bread, grana padano, lemon, and a lovely amount of dressing. The sleeper hit was the heartbroken beets, tender golden beets marinated in vinegary fresh chamomile honey, served with sheets of creamy blue cheese. The star of the show was the cheesecake which, hands down, was the best cheesecake I have ever (and probably will ever) have. It was rich and creamy and cold, tangy and sweet, with a drizzle of olive oil and blueberry compote on top that added a very good textural bite. I don’t know how they got the blueberries to be so perfectly in-between crunchy and soft. Pics below. Moral of the story: Agi’s is an ideal Sunday dinner spot, especially when in good, comforting company. I love eating dinner with my friends!
Noodles Anton
On an entirely different note, I wanted my mom to share something that was a dish or a meal she strongly associated with sharing, whether with family or friends. It took her about thirty seconds to make her final decision—Noodles Anton, which is actually called Noodles Antin just not according to my mother. A not-totally-appealing noodle casserole, Noodles Anton is something my mom would describe as “a brunch specialty and a whole production.”
The ingredients, to the best of my mom’s memory, are as follows:
Egg Noodles
Sour Cream
Cottage Cheese
Onions, garlic, and Worstershire in a blender
The noodles, cottage cheese, and sour cream, with the little blended mixture are poured into a pan together and baked in one of my Grandma’s two casserole dishes, one was black and the other green, and it went into the oven “for a long time.” Whatever that means. My mom shared the following, thanks Abby :)
My memory of that particular dish is of pure comfort. It was special - something my dad only made every so often (maybe for a birthday or Mother’s Day). I had asked him to make it each week - as we had lunch or brunch with my grandparents every weekend. And only occasionally did he haul out the blender and take the project on. It was an event and at the end of the morning, the kitchen was a mess. And the noodles? Sublime. Creamy, salty, garlicky. Delicious. I haven’t made it myself in decades (I always think of it as a production - when really, it isn’t.), but now that I am thinking about it, I think I need to. Soon.
Hearing my mom talk about her childhood, specifically pertaining to my grandparents, is always a treat. She has many sort-of odd dishes that I am not always eager to try, but it is so clear how deeply nostalgic they are for her. I love the thought of mini-Abby at the dining nook in Washington D.C., jonesing for egg noodles from my Grandfather who often answered “not this weekend.” Though Noodles Anton weren’t a weekly occurrence, my mom made sure to tell me about all the special meals her father made her. Notably, they were mostly breakfasts and egg-related; he was creative in how to get my mom to eat eggs with her aversion to egg whites. The result was poached egg yolks and scrambled eggs with cream cheese. He was a special guy and we miss him, and his interesting cooking, very much.
An Endless Bakesale
Since Covid lockdown, my desire to make food and then share it has manifested itself primarily in baking projects. While I have a litany of skills I still need to learn/perfect, I have always loved baking as a means to clear my head, even if the result was a humble sugar cookie. During the unrelenting anxiety of the pandemic, and the year of very tense shoulders that followed at school, I found that baking and distributing the final products to my friends was a special way to offer some comfort to others in the form of a sugary treat, and a way to offer some comfort to myself, working my angst out through hours of kneading and hand-beating.
Now, it is a lot more of a logistical challenge to be baking and dispersing said goods to my friends. I have a lot less time to be experimenting with recipes and procuring random ingredients, and it is not the most fun to travel across the city with a birthday cake, 2 dozen cookies, very large meringues, etc. I’ve done it, I just can’t say I love it. Still, over the years, baking has evolved into my ultimate mode of sharing, an activity that I will happily devote hours to for the people I love, or as a constant source of calm during somewhat-turbulent twenties. It is a way to share something that makes me happy, and makes others happy. How cool is that, ya know? I’ll attach some of my favorite recent projects below. I would love to bring some of my more exciting projects into the newsletter from time-to-time. Hopefully this will encourage me to be a bit more adventurous and consistent in my baking, and a bit better about documenting it.
I have a few dreams of the desserts I can put together for my family while I am on the Cape… though I am unsure what those will look like beyond the blueberry cobbler I made last night— the Chez Panisse recipe pictured above. Any favorite recipes I should try? Julia Child’s Berry Clafoutis?
In other news, I will have lots of food imagery, meals cooked, and meals purchased, following my Cape vacation with my private chef brother, keep an eye out for a little coastal Massachusetts newsletter situation…
Most excited to return to our favorite places:
Cottage Street Bakery (We’ve already had a half dozen dirt bombs, and I am sure more are to come.)
loveeeeee the abby quote and this has me thinking of your banana bread >> known to save lives and heal souls