I'm everywhere, I'm so Julia
No sleep. Bus. Club. Another club. Urgent Care. Another club.
We are not yet two calendar weeks into the month of June and I have amassed enough #LBGTQpride to last the rest of the year.
If you’d like to take that as a joke, I can tell you about the intense social stamina required of a hot young lesbian in the fabulous town known as Brooklyn, NY. How it is an exhausting (and exhilarating) time to be a person. How sometimes it feels like we all over-index on various substances, Charli XCX, lack of sleep into extra coffee, and saying yes to plans you really should skip.
However, if you’d like to take that seriously, I can tell you about the dreams I have made come true for myself recently. How seeing things come to fruition is a fabulously honest way to get the brain to make serotonin. How investing time and energy into a goal can feel oh so delicious.
Starting with the former (more on the latter later!) I think it’s fair to mention that in typical Hayley fashion, I have pushed the pedal to the metal socially riiiiighhht as my physical health is in shambles. It’s not Pride Month for me unless I am in Urgent Care multiple times. And I wish this were a joke. This year’s health scandal roulette has given me a mysterious lung infection that I am rocking through. It’s not contagious, and I am on multiple steroids to aid it. But my god is it making me laugh. And then cough because I am laughing so much.
June in New York is too special to sacrifice, hence the urgent-care-to-club pipeline. The city has a palpable heartbeat year round, but the first month of summer mixed with the high concentration of gay people make June a bit of a whirlwind - for better or for worse. Each day has been a new multifaceted hero’s journey. On one especially long day last week, ButchersNY and Lesbian Food Account had a dinner that we said “is not a Pride event but not not a Pride event”.
It was a dream day. I got up, and sat with my nebulizer to vaporize steroids into my lungs. I then hit the kitchen, finishing all prep for the four-course plated meal I was about to serve. I arrived on site to hand write menus, set things in motion for dinner, and work with Patrick to ensure the vibe curation was exactly right. I watched my friends, old and new, filter through the door and get seated. I cooked a meal that felt creative, delicious, and true to my culinary style. I mingled and I laughed. After dinner, more bodies filtered through the door and we poured amaro and finished the wines. Groups of gay people piled into cars towards B*shw*ck to see a perfect GGDJ (Gay Guy DJ) and dance until they kicked us out of the venue. Despite ~14+ hours on my feet, I was feeling so pleased and I could have gone much longer. As a wise woman once said, I got stamina they say I’m an athlete.
On a more serious note, regarding the mention of “making my dreams come true”, I want to save some details for a bit later. But the concept of cooking in a restaurant has been something I attached onto from a very young age, constantly citing I wanted to be a chef when I grew up. To make that unadulterated dream, the one you have before you grow up and realize life is so much more complicated yada yada, come true is well… epic.
In astrology (a canonically gay topic, but not necessarily for me) there’s the title of Your Big Three. Your sun, moon, and rising signs. In my writing, The Big Three is going to be a way to categorize my thoughts into buckets: Fuck Yes, Excited For, and Yum As Fuck.
Fuck Yes: dispatches from the food world and the gay world. Small and large wins. Things that make me say “F YA!!!”
The James Beard Restaurant & Chef Awards were this week in Chicago. Some highlights to note:
Dakar NOLA won Best New Restaurant - and it is cool as fuck to have West African food win such a high title, in an industry that has historically overlooked a whole continent of culinary prestige.
New York has its own category for Best Chef and there were amazing representatives like Nasim Alikhani from Sofreh and Jeremy Salamon of Agi’s Counter who were nominated. But congrats to Charlie Mitchell of Clover Hill for the win!
Will Colman hosted the red carpet and crushed it. So great to have a queer chef take this on during Pride! The whole JBF social team really impressed me - the social rollout was done very well.
Excited For: where/what I want to be consuming soon.
Tonight I am going to stop by The Fly and see if I can get a table for Kia’s Swamp Princess Pop-Up. Her food, her recipes, and her writing are all inspiring to me.
Similarly, in terms of those who inspire me who are having a pop-up tonight, DeVonn Francis will be cooking at Rhodora!
If you’re looking for something fun and outdoorsy to do on Sunday may I suggest the Treetop Journeys x Lesbianfoodaccount hike? If you like the outdoors and eating food then boy do I have great news for you: I am cooking for a Treetops day excursion on June 16th! You get transportation to and from the city to a gorgeous hike that culminates in a five-course meal by moi. My friend Aimee, fka yungkombucha420, will be leading a foraging portion of the hike. Which will be fabulous. Use discount code “friend” for $35 off your ticket!
I am addicted to brat, which has quickly solidified itself in the gay canon. Don’t be afraid to reply to this email with your top 3 favorite songs of the album at the moment (subject to change of course/I won’t hold you to your ranking).
Yum As Fuck: something I made recently that I really loved
I love fish en papillote - “in paper” - because it is so easy, so self-contained regarding mess, and so delicious. I recently made a citrus miso cod en papillote for the ButchersNY x LFA dinner last week and I am eager to share it because this would be a really great thing to recreate at home.
For the marinade, you’ll need:
Cod for however many you’re serving. You can tell any fishmonger, or fish counter at the grocery store, that you want about 4-6 ounces per person. Ask for fillets already portioned or get one whole fillet and cut it into the sizes you want.
1/2 cup miso - or less if you don’t want that much, it’s your life.
1/4 cup olive oil (or any fat, but it’s important to use a rich oil because eventually it will be cooked in this, and because fish is a lean protein you need to impart a good amount of fat to keep it moist and delicious).
2 tbsp sake or dry white wine
Zest of one lime
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp honey or sugar
S&P to taste
Marinate your fish in the morning and let it sit in this mixture all day. When it’s dinnertime, scape off excess marinate and assemble your parchment packets with citrus, scallions, fish, and your veggie of choice. I chose tangerines and mandarins, but you can use oranges. Lemons and/or limes could work too, but maybe add a touch more sugar to your marinade in that case. Asparagus was in season but this could be great with zucchini, broccolini, yu choy, or peas. Bake at 350 for 16-18 minutes-ish. Longer if your fish pieces are bigger. Serve with rice!