Lockdown Consumption: Week 1
With all this time, give me good food, good content and maybe a wine. Read on for what I consumed in week one of lockdown.
EATING:
My first lockdown lunch was a bacon and fried egg sandwich made by the boyfriend. Its three key ingredients (Heller’s streaky bacon, a free-range egg, original mixed grain Vogel’s- for those of you who may need the clarification) meant it was undoubtedly delicious, but it seemed to be extra tasty because 1. I didn’t have to make it, 2. It wasn’t microwaved meal-prep or leftovers at the office (still good, but you know what I mean).
Any else finding comfort in food? We made a chicken and mushroom pie and it was glorious. No, we didn’t make the pastry (I’ll blame it on the lack of flour in NZ’s supermarkets and the always-outrageous price of butter but really, I’m too lazy and not ambitious enough to make it. Edmond’s puff pastry does just fine). We loosely followed NYT Cooking’s recipe: Modern Chicken Potpie by Julia Moskin- added leek, carrots and corn to the mix. Would easily recommend. Note: if you’re an impatient cook like I am, use less stock.
As soon as the weather cools down and I feel the fresh morning frost on the tips of my toes, my cravings for anything cinnamon and sweet pick up. Enter: a joyous apple and cinnamon loaf.
READING:
I finished a book! And like every other person in lockdown, I hope to finish a fair few more, because #goals. Everything I know about love by Dolly Alderton is everything I know that you should read. It’s like having a peek into another girl’s diary and realising that she’s going through everything you’re going through: her embarrassing moments have been your embarrassing moments, how she feels about a bad date is how you’ve felt about a bad date. Read it and weep, in a wonderful way.
LISTENING:
I’ve always known this about myself, but being in lockdown- with a boyfriend who is actually working and can't talk to me all the time- has confirmed it: silence and I are not good friends. That, coupled with the fact that being one of “Taylor Swift’s Top Fans on Spotify” has worked against me and severely skewed music suggestions to only of the pop persuasion, I’ve come running back to podcasts. Whisk me away and play sweet nothings in my ear, oh podcast.
The Dave Chang Show: I recently declared, to no-one in particular, “I wish Dave Chang was my uncle”. The cool one, obviously. So I could fly to America, stay in the spare room and jump from kitchen to restaurant, wine bar to bakery as per recommendation (and maybe he’d lend me one of his friends or two… Oh hey Chrissy (Teigen), of course, I’ll see you at 10am xx). What can I say, I’m obsessed with him and his ability to discuss and articulate culture, racism, stereotypes, prejudice (not your typical over-a-meal convo) over a delicious meal.
Girls On Top: As per the podcast description, “Three sassy Kiwi women ‘get on top’ of all the issues of the week. Some of the issues aren’t even issues at all but crikey they make for a good yarn.” And they do. It’s like sitting in on your older sister’s sleepover.
Snacks and Chats: I’ve been meaning to tune into this one for a while, so one Tuesday morning, I binge-listened to five glorious conversations between various New Zealanders. They all start with the same question, “Where are you from?” and as they say, “The stories go from there".
WATCHING:
Ugly Delicious, Season 2. Netflix. Don’t watch it hungry.
Ugly Delicious presents Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner. Netflix. Glorious but probably torture because it makes you want to eat out and travel, two things you can’t do now or in the near future.
Westworld, Season 1, 2 and now 3. Downloaded. When this was first presented to me, “Two seasons, ten episodes, totally doable”, I definitely said yes too quickly and should have watched a trailer. Many Western standoffs, rolling heads, buckets of blood and twisted plots later, I’m all caught up and asking the boyfriend, “when’s the next episode?”
The Gentlemen: I had recently come off a run of sappy Hugh Grant movies which made me really question his charming, crushable reputation (Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral) so it was extremely refreshing to watch him play a character with a bit more edge (though he was still a little hopeless). Shoutout to the tartan tracksuits though, I need that for #isolife.
