Go for the gold: Flourishing in the Kitchen

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Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Rebecca Jurkevich. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.

Monday, May 10, 2021

Flourishing in the Kitchen

Sam Sifton

Good morning. How are you? I drove out to the woods the other day before dawn and was in them as the sun started its ascent. I walked in silence that was not silent at all: bird calls; wind in the canopy; the splash of my boots in a puddle. I was hungry as I walked but not unpleasantly so. I thought about breakfast possibilities, about scrambled eggs and buttered toast, yogurt with a drizzle of maple syrup, crisp bacon, pickled herring. There I was for about an hour, a child of the city deep into nature, thinking about diners and coffee carts and appetizing stores. For the first time in more than a year, I didn’t think about the pandemic at all.

That was great and I hope you get the same chance sometime soon, early in the morning or late at night, to walk maskless and purposeless, spacing out about food. You could do that on city streets, a beach, a suburban roadway, in the desert. It’s pretty enjoyable.

My thoughts ran to recipes I may cook during the workweek: chicken wings to eat with celery and homemade ranch dressing; sheet-pan pierogies with brussels sprouts and kimchi; a cucumber salad with roasted peanuts and chile.

Like many, I’m still at home for work, which is frustrating in many ways but does free up time for slow-cooking things. I got to thinking about a midweek dinner of thit heo kho trung, Vietnamese caramel pork and eggs (above). (Here’s how to make the dish in a pressure cooker.) Red beans and rice jumped into my head. (Ideally that comes with a side of Kermit Ruffins, “Drop Me Off in New Orleans.”) Also, roast pork with milk!

I thought about salads: Tuscan kale; curried Waldorf; seaweed; wedge. I thought about desserts: a French icebox cake; chocolate-peanut butter swirl cookies; seis leches cake. The sun was pretty high by then, and the birds settling down. I drove home in a much better mood. I thought I might even be flourishing a little.

I could do all this in part because I spend so much time browsing around on New York Times Cooking. You should do the same. It’s the opposite of doomscrolling! (Yes, you need a subscription to do that. Subscriptions support our work and allow it to continue. Please, if you haven’t already, subscribe today.)

We will as always be here for you should something go awry in your kitchen or with our technology. Just write us at cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you. You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. We’re on YouTube, too: Here’s a recent and delightful video of Eric Kim making sheet-pan bibimbap.

Now, it’s nothing to do with artichokes or veal, but the National Gallery in London opened on this day in 1824. Take a look at some of the highlights of the museum’s collection — and absolutely at Thomas Gainsborough’s “Mr. and Mrs. Andrews,” portraiture and landscape alike.

Mosi Secret on Delroy Lindo in GQ? Click!

Here’s some new Modest Mouse for you, “We Are Between.” The band has a new album out in June, “The Golden Casket.”

Finally, in The Times, here’s a dazzling review by Parul Sehgal of Sarah Schulman’s “Let the Record Show: A Political History of Act Up New York, 1987-1993.” Parul writes: “I understand but can’t quite accept that this book is about 700 pages long — not when I tore through it in a day; still now, while fact-checking this review, I can scarcely skim it without being swallowed back into the testimonies.” You’ll want to read that. I’ll be back on Wednesday.