The sixth season of one of my favorite shows, Somebody Feed Phil, came out last week. While watching the first episode, I felt the desire to articulate why it lights me up. It’s because he is doing my favorite thing to do, which is feed people in all manner of ways. He doesn’t cook, but he does feed. He feeds people at local stalls and restaurants that neither he nor they would have otherwise tried. He feeds us at home when he does cute little dances after eating something absurdly good.
He feeds us when he tries North Korean food on the Seoul episode and cries when the chef cries, sharing her story. He feeds me, sitting on my couch, when he befriends the woman working in the great coffee shop in Cape Town and they laugh together over bags of sweets.
It’s also one of the few food shows I actually enjoy. Those of us who professionally write about food in any way—my recipe developer friends to my restaurant writer friends—are tough on food shows. I won’t name names, but there’s a small collective of us who have relegated Tucci’s Searching for Italy to background TV, at most. Don’t come for me.
It’s interesting because Phil isn’t more innovative or even necessarily more knowledgeable than the others. No one would call him the new Bourdain. He’s just so passionate, joyful, curious, nerdy, so himself! His relatability makes the travel, the compassion, and the food all the more accessible. If he can shake his hips in his dorky orthopedic shoes during Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, we all can. He’s the genuine article and the antithesis of the floaty-dress-wearing influencer, holding her breath, posed as if she just took a step and it happened to accentuate her legs right in front of a place that sells tacos. (She didn’t try them, but hears they’re amazing.)
Do I eventually want his job? Yes.
Back to feeding people… This weekend was Finn’s seventh birthday and per his request I made a chocolate cake with chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream and with Oreos not only on top but crushed in between the layers as well. The excellent cake and frosting recipes are both courtesy of Odette Williams’ Simple Cake.
He also requested that we go to Wat Thai Temple, which hosts a weekend food market. Twenty-some odd stalls selling some of the best Thai food in all of Los Angeles. We had pad see ew, pad kra pao, khao soi soup (which was mind-blowingly good), we had mango with sticky rice, we sat in the sun, and we joined in on a drum procession that happened to be going on in celebration of one of the temple’s monks
Please know that if you are after food recs at any point, you can hit reply to one of these emails and I will oblige. Another friend recently texted asking for restaurants in Cappadocia, Turkey, and it made my whole day…
Let’s play a game. This is a classic that one of my best friends and I play over text whenever one of us thinks of a good trio. Without warning, at any time of day, one of us will text three names and these three words: f*ck, marry, kill. So, let’s play! Here are two rounds we recently played…
Brit Edition: Tom Hardy, Jamie Dornan, Jonathan Bailey.
Silver Fox Edition: Oscar Isaac, Brad Pitt, Lee Pace.
Comment with your picks. I’ll put my selects for both rounds at the end.
If you’re in LA… First, book a cooking class with the fantastic Ashley Fahr at La Cuisine, in Venice! A Sunday dinner pasta class, for example, or a private class for just your crew. She’s a joy and is insanely talented in the kitchen.
A friend asked for a lunch rec in West Hollywood or Beverly Hills area. My picks:
In full transparency, I don’t know how responsible their sourcing is (we all remember the Belcampo scandal), but my sense is that these places are pretty trustworthy.
9 Things to Read & Watch
Total frustration that inspired a thread of innovative ideas and good resources. “Can we talk about dating apps? Yeah, let’s not.” My favorite was the idea for an event where friends “pitch” their single friends, called IDKWTS - I Don't Know Why They're Single.
This NYT op-ed is worth a read, for all parents but at the very least for fellow divorced parents: A 50/50 Custody Arrangement Could Save Your Marriage.
I loved this piece on a 62 year old woman who only dates men in their 20s. It’s not because I feel like copy/pasting her lifestyle for myself. It’s because she’s so straightforward and unapologetic about what she wants. The revolution of it is in her clarity: “I'm public about all of this because we need more role models of how to live your life very differently from the way we're expected to, and still be amazingly happy.”
British humor is my favorite humor, and Liz Truss vs Iceberg Lettuce is why.
I watched (binged) The Empress on Netflix and really enjoyed it. Don’t sleep on Derry Girls, either. Netflix also reminded me of The Duchess, which I watched in 2020 when it came out but I don’t hear enough about it. If you haven’t seen it, it’s hilarious. Also I mentioned it before but I need to scream it from the rooftops: BAD SISTERS!
Last week, we shopped for many things including a classic, beautiful knee high black leather boot and I think I’ve found mine: Emerson Fry’s tall boot.
Signing off to go tell Jamie Dornan we’re getting married, Tom Hardy that he’s my side piece, and Jonathan Bailey that he should sleep with one eye open. As for the silver foxes, I’ll marry Mr. Pace, f*ck Mr. Isaac, and let Mr. Pitt swim with the fishes.
xoxo,
Nicole
Mmmm that cookies and cream cake!