thereadingeater-blog

[thereadingeater-blog]

2/15– French toast with condensed milk and milo (kind of similar to ovaltine) from Kopitiam, a traditional Malaysian coffee house in New York. I also got a Malaysian iced coffee. It was really sweet/chocolatey. Restaurant is in Chinatown.

[thereadingeater-blog]

1/20– I didn’t eat this, but my friend Nina did. It’s a pita pizza with mushrooms, mozzarella, feta, za-tar and poached eggs. SO GOOD. I had the Mediterranean breakfast with eggs, za-atar bread, potatoes, labne and a crunchy cucumber salad.

I highly recommend Dar 525 if you’re looking for a reasonable bottomless brunch in Williamsburg.

[thereadingeater-blog]

At first glance, “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert, looks like one of those extremely cheesy self-help books. And it sort of is. But her writing always seems to find me when I need it. I think anyone who reads this book will take away different things, but I specifically took away a few tips for life changes I’ve been struggling with. Might as well sum them up:

—You can choose to be a tragic artist or a happy one. Tragedy doesn’t add to your work as the adage has been told. It often comes at the expense of it.

—If you’re stuck in a rut, to create something you want to create, do something else creative.

—The piece of advice that spoke to me: Gilbert talks about how the ego can really mess up your creative process. If you’re too much of a perfectionist that you can’t put anything imperfect out onto the page, then you’ll never make meaningful work. If half of the reason you’re writing is to be successful, then that insecurity is going to hold you back. You need to write without any expectation of reward, but just to write.

It certainly poses a question for people who choose creative careers. She really warns against it, but i see people making it in the freelance community all the time —- albeit, sometimes with much stress. Overall, I would highly recommend the book to any writer.

[thereadingeater-blog]

I made “the colony” pizza from New York’s Emily. Obviously not as crispy as the one served at the restaurants, but the jalapeños, pepperoni, mozzarella and honey evoke a balance of salty and sweet. And don’t we all need more balance?

[thereadingeater-blog]

Caffe Reggio -- Greenwich Village, NY. Down a now fairly busy street in the Village, Caffe Reggio has a sense of macabre to it. Although it is Italian, to me, it seems similar to a place you would come across down a dark alley in Barcelona. Opened in 1927, it allegedly brought the first cappuccino to New York. Its rich history includes a visit from JFK and artists such as Bob Dylan. Two friends and I ordered tiramisu, chocolate mousse, and a cannoli in honor of my friend’s birthday. I ordered peppermint tea, but my friend got the hazelnut cappuccino, and I can truly say from my limited NYC coffee adventures that it was the best I’ve had in this city. 

[thereadingeater-blog]

“Men Explain Things To Me” by Rebecca Solnit. I thought this was a great overview of feminism. It filled in details to create a wholesome picture of feminism, with facts, figures and anecdotes I hadn’t really known before. I’ve been so deeply engrained in the modern feminist movement that I didn’t even realize there had been a #yesallwomen movement. The picture attached to the post is from one of her essays about Virginia Woolf. The essay itself really explores how capitalism is deeply engrained with misogyny in that it promotes individualism, but the individuals that have always gotten ahead are men. This excerpt comments on how the elements that really make the world go round --- say, love, compassion, kindness -- don’t necessarily fit into the capitalist equation of efficiency. 1/12