This Saturday, I spent the morning walking the east side—drinking coffee, reading a book, and exploring shops and restaurants along the L.A. River from Echo Park to Frogtown to Atwater Village. And then, I enjoyed myself so much, I invited friends to do the exact same thing again on Sunday morning. I’ll be including a full guide in this Friday’s newsletter (subscribe here, if you aren’t already), but it reminded me how much more you can see of a city when you go on foot! Here’s what else I’m up to this week:
Summer in L.A. feels so magical—there are free events every weekend, if not every night, that embody the things I love so much about this city, from its diverse mixing pot of cultures to its love of food. This Saturday, start your day at the Baja Food and Wine Festival on Olive Street, then head to the KCRW summer night series, at Chinatown Plaza, which is always so much fun with confetti firecrackers, DJs, and great food. This week, I’m also attending a Creative Morning with the female founders of Rewilder, trivia at Frogtown Brewery, and a conversation about wellness trends at WeWork. Truly, it feels like there’s something going on every night!
It’s been years since I’ve made beer can chicken—my last two attempts ended in spills and tears, but also some of the most delicious, perfectly cooked chicken I’ve ever enjoyed. This weekend, I decided to revisit the recipe with a decidedly millennial twist. Instead of a beer can, I used a can of rosé. Here’s how it works: After prepping the chicken, you pour yourself a glass of rosé, then add some garlic and herbs to the remaining wine in the can and plop the chicken, standing upright, directly on top of it. This bastes the chicken from inside, creating moist meat and perfectly tender, crispy skin as the fat drips from it while roasting. It’s fool-proof—as long as you don’t tip the chicken (and the boiling can of rosé) while taking it out.
Tomorrow night, I’m heading to my first bookclub at a girlfriend’s house, so it felt like kismet that I came across a book that bears an eerie, hilarious resemblance to our own group text. Hey Ladies: The Story of 8 Best Friends, 1 Year, and Way, Way Too Many Emails tells the story of one friend group through their (many forms of) communications—texts, emails, Instagram DMs, Snapchats. Wherever you are in life, chances are you’ll see an element of yourself and your best girlfriends in this laugh-out-loud funny book, which is so readable I nearly finished it standing at the bookstore shelf.
P.S., If you have any recommendations for a bookclub book we should start with, I’m all ears!
Last night, Jonah and I watched Love, Simon after seeing billboards for it all over L.A. I had a feeling I’d like it, but didn’t expect to love it quite as much as I did. In it, Simon Spier is in his senior year of high school when a classmate anonymously comes out as gay in the school’s blog, which inspires him to respond and admit to the anonymous person posting that he, too, is gay. It’s a beautiful, funny, and complicated love story that captures so many quintessential high school moments—from bullies to well-meaning adults who do more harm than good, and putting yourself out there. Even though it’s a high school comedy, it feels profound—I highly recommend everyone watch it.
Also, Molly Yeh of My Name is Yeh‘s Food Network show premiered this weekend. I had the honor of working with her at Food52 and she’s always inspired me with her recipes and her bravery when it comes to blooming where planted (after studying percussion at Juilliard in New York, she moved with her husband to his family’s beet farm in North Dakota and become an accomplished cookbook author). You can catch her show Sundays at 11 am.
You don’t have to look far to find a story about a breakup—a Modern Love episode that ends, “The couple separated shortly after this was published,” or friends going through divorces—so it felt refreshing to come across a podcast dedicated to people staying together. In Committed, host Jo Piazza covers the stories of couples who made it through ‘unimaginable circumstances’ and out the other end stronger. Listen here.
I also highly recommend The Daily‘s coverage of Trump’s Child Separation Practice, and immigration—this morning’s episode addressed what migrants are fleeing in their hometowns, and the life-threatening obstacles they often face just to reach our southern border. It’s incredibly touching and thorough. I’m blown away by the amount of work that must go into creating each episode.
