Cheese, Book, Restaurant, Thing #27
Bertha the cheese, a great sophomore novel, saucy onions, NYT Games ranking
Hi!
Cheese: On Four Fat Fowl’s website, CamemBertha is described as “not just another Camembert, this one has soul.” While I’m not sure that I tasted “soul”, exactly, I do agree that it's a fun and cheeky cheese.
I ended up carrying CamemBertha in one of my many tote bags for about 1.5 hours on a 70-degree day. When I took it out of my bag to put in the fridge, Bertha (just gonna call her that for short) was literally oozing out, so I figured it was my dairy duty to eat it right then. Wow was this peak gooey-wonderfulness, especially when smeared on some olive bread. There’s a funk that keeps trying to come out, but it stays at just a hint. Okay, fine, maybe it has a little soul. Plus, even when hanging out in the fridge for a few days, Bertha is still a super gooey cheese. P.S. If you haven’t tried St. Stephen from Four Fat Fowl, it’s also a must-buy. Like butter… in cheese form.
Book: Hooray for authors with second novels just as good as the first! I was captivated by Xochitl Gonzalez’s Anita de Monte Laughs Last, just as I was by her first book Olga Dies Dreaming. The book follows two parallel stories taking place decades apart: 1) Raquel, a Brown University undergrad majoring in art history and 2) Anita de Monte, a Cuban artist who died young. There’s also a third narrator: Anita’s awful husband Jack Martin, who has a lot in common with Raquel’s boyfriend Nick. You can see how the stories collide already…
I liked this book enough to even accept the light magical realism that occurs, a literary trope I’m usually extremely allergic to (sorry, Gabriel Garcia Marquez). While none of the characters are perfect — some are downright horrendous, yet realistic — Raquel is clearly the hero here. You can’t help but hope she gets the flowers she deserves.
Restaurant: A few weeks ago, we hit several Rockville, MD international grocery stores & restaurants (honorable mentions: the king oyster mushrooms and Turtle Chip selection at Lotte, the spanakopita at Mastiha Bakery). I can’t stop thinking about the cevapcici (grilled beef sausage) from MezeHub, a Balkan-Mediterranean grocery store and restaurant. While both the sausage and pita (served warm, with peak fluff!) were excellent, what separates this dish from so many other similar iterations is the melty-creamy onion sauce that the pita absorbs beautifully. There’s no bite to the onion, just a smooth ride of allium goodness mixed with a punchy beef kebab. Order ahead if you can: MezeHub can get crowded — at least during weekend lunches — and the kitchen makes everything to-order, so it can take awhile.
Thing: My current ranking of NYT Games:
Connections
Strands (in beta!)
Spelling Bee
Wordle
Sudoku
Vertex
Tiles, for when I need something mindless for a few minutes
Letter Boxed (I really don’t like Letter Boxed)
I welcome discourse on the above, as long as it doesn’t defend Letter Boxed.
<3, Carey