meals' table: fire

 I would move to Australia just to dine at Firedoor, where Lennox cooks everything with fire - 200-day aged steak, octopus, cabbage, caviar, everything. I have fantasies about doing this in my backyard. Everything in the menu reel was droolworthy. Note to self to make tamarind marshmallows.

I'm a sucker for visuals of people cooking on some little outdoor setup on these kinds of shows. Grilling a salad on a farm right after picking the ingredients and baking a fish in fire by the ocean was no different. So rustic. So romantic.

There's a scene where he roasts (what I think is) a flayed lamb on a cross in some sort of empty warehouse while talking about his mentor and friend shutting him out. I felt.. emotions.

pockets of joy

LNY tradition of dumps and friends lives on. And expanding it to include the dumplings of your people. Any iteration, savory or sweet, of filling wrapped in carbs will do.

And the first thing that always comes to mind as an alt dumpling is empanadaaaaaas. I love empanadas. I almost forgot about them prior to my first trek to South America. My mind being solely focused on hunks of meat, just slabs of meat seared over the fire and washed down with bottles of red wine. It wasn't until we crossed the border from Chile to Argentina and stopped over at La Esperanza for some carne empanadas that I remembered how freaking satisfying these little deep fried pockets of goodness are.

Deep fried, not baked, because apparently back in the day, having an oven was rich people status.

These little landing spots, the only sign of human activity for miles, were where we could pee, stretch our legs, and obtain sustenance. And sometimes take selfies with baby goats (not pictured).