in good taste, vol. 106: getaways
dream hotels, retro tv, and apple cider braised chicken
(This issue has lots of images and links and may get cut off in your inbox! Open in your browser or the Substack app to read in full.)
Little moments of everyday pleasure and hobbyism have been ruling the day for me, largely in response to the November of it all. But also, this is the time of year that my mind starts to wake up and I generally feel more creative and inspired. I’ve learned how to propagate my pothos plant. Hopefully successfully, but I guess we’ll find out. I’ve also been collaging, thanks to my new photo printer (more to come on this), and getting really into lamps for my home office. I’ve been making the “I love lamp” joke a lot lately and even the cat is sick of it.
It is here that we find one another, in the 106th edition of a gazette concerning taste and tastes, thinking merrily about little getaways for the brain and body.
A SCATTERING OF GOOD TASTES
What I’ve been up to:
Bookshelf escapism: Reading a ton of fiction, thanks to the library ✌️and friends loaning books: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (my favorite book of the year? I am very behind the swell of culture on this one), All Fours (was about to give up halfway on this one, but am glad I stuck it out), Intermezzo (a book very much for the fans)
Incoming to my library hold queue: Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst, Don’t Be a Stranger by Susan Minot, Women’s Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery
Also leaning hard into interior design books lately. One current favorite is An English Vision by Ben Pentreath. So much inspiration! A cornucopia of beauty! I also like his writing style. Too many design books (just like cookbooks, honestly) read like they’re written by AI or want to treat their readers like they just fell off the turnip truck. I like that this one is unpretentious, presents new and interesting ideas, and seems to weight the write-ups in balance with beautiful imagery.
Cooking escapism: Highlights have been roast carrots with green ranch dressing, pernil, a trillion quarts of chicken stock, Thanksgiving dinner (more below).
Restaurant escapism: Having perfect duck marsala at our neighborhood fav Gigi’s (one of the best restaurants in Atlanta - all the news fit to print!), perfect hospitality at Ticonderoga Club, and a 10/10 tasting menu experience at Staplehouse.
Wine: Favorites that Adrian and I keep returning to have been Union Sacré Carbonic Sangiovese, Arianna Occhipinti SP68 Rosso, Foradori Teroldego
Admiring:
On the holiday inn beat:
this Swiss hotel that is cut off from the world for 12 hours a day. 10 rooms, stone-built, smack in the middle of snow and Alpine vistas. This quote from the proprietor is worth its own Grand Budapest Hotel sequel: “This morning, one of my waitresses quit … She jumped on the train and left for anywhere but here."
La Mission l’Ile de Yeu en France off the Vendée Western coast. I am imagining eating sardines by the pool, wearing a floppy hat, playing pétanque for money. Standard French fantasy stuff. Charm! Whimsy!
Fouquet’s in Tribeca (NYC) is on my dream list. I’m going through a bit of a pink moment right now (it’s the Millennial in me). This is just a beautiful hotel, like a strawberry macaron in hotel form, a little frilly and fussy and very coquette.
Speaking of dream stays, the NYT ran this list of cozy hotels for winter last year (gift link). First on their list is the Newbury in Boston, which we’ve stayed at once before for a night (and will again this year, to bookend our Berkshires Christmas). It’s outrageous, but worth the travel points-hoarding; it is a hotel that makes you feel like a movie star and once housed the favorite watering hole of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. Also on the list - I’m dying to stay at The Fife Arms in the Scottish Highlands. Luxurious brooding in tartan? Yes.
For more on this topic, Eleanor Cording-Booth has a robust rundown of 24 European hotels for design lovers over on her Substack,
. Bookmark it!!And anyway, here’s a 9-hour playlist of hotel room air conditioner sounds.
Miscellaneous real estate + interiors to admire:
Who wants to go in on this $22M piece in Charleston, SC?
Or this stunning Victorian mews house in London - all for a cool million & some (in either GBP or USD) - the diffused light over that kitchen!
Not for sale (that I can tell), but a sweet “camp, colorful, kitsch” Christmas cottage in Somerset
What a delight, this Camp Wandawega in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, a beautifully restored summer camp that hits just about every mid-century American camp/lodge detail
I don’t watch The Diplomat, maybe you do, but I did learn that the US State Department has an Art in Embassies office whose entire function is curating art in U.S. consulates and embassies!
Other items of note:
There is a calculator for everything !!!
Need a nostalgia hit? MyRetroTV lets you “watch” television from any era via catalogued YouTube videos. I will be honest that the 90s TV station has really sucked me in a couple of times. They don’t make TV spots like they used to!!!
Tons of great stuff to be found in the Public Domain Review, from essays to images to film and beyond. For your consideration, snowball fights in art, 1400-1946!
Listening to:
A couple of playlists from record label Numero Group, like Diner (“where the night owls and early risers convene”) and the one we played all Thanksgiving, Eccentric Deep Soul
Long Time to Be Gone, Nora Brown (2022) - KWs: Appalachian, banjo, bluegrass, traditional folkways
This performance of “Fire,” Lizzy Mercier Descloux (1979), the swag!!!
APPLE CIDER BRAISED CHICKEN
Every Thanksgiving, my brother-in-law Zach and I nix the traditional turkey for our family dinner. The last few years we have made variations on roasted chickens; we call them “dueling chickens” and they are a fun way to get creative with the main dish. This year’s hot new bombshells at the villa were a miso & mirin-marinated number (Zach’s), and a more rustic apple cider-braised guy with greens. We covered sweet and tangy and savory flavors between the two, and they went really well together!
It may seem like a lot, but it’s really a fairly straightforward recipe, very liberally adapted from Lidey Heuck’s at the NYT.
INGREDIENTS
1 whole chicken, spatchcocked (under 5 pounds, or you could do this with leg quarters), brined overnight, or for at least 3 hours, in a solution of 4 tbsp:4 cups of water -- as much as needed to cover the chicken
Za’atar rub: 3-4 tablespoons of za’atar (depending on the size of your chicken), 2 teaspoons of salt, 2 teaspoons of black pepper
3 medium shallots, chopped
5 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
1 tsp., smoked paprika
¾ cup apple cider
3 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp. whole-grain mustard
1 cup chicken stock
1 bunch of green onions, white parts chopped into rounds
1 leek, sliced halfway vertically and white part chopped into half-moons
~12 oz. of kale (I use the bagged kind because it’s easiest to work with and I’m lazy, but if you’re using fresh, just de-stem and tear the leaves into bite-size pieces)
¼ cup, shredded Parmesan cheese
WHAT TO DO
Heat oven to 350. Rub the chicken all over with za’atar mixture, and set skin-side down in a large oven-safe skillet (I use my biggest cast-iron skillet) that’s been just oiled. Sear for about 4-5 minutes on medium heat, flip over and cook until browned, 2-3 minutes more. Remove to a plate.
Add the 2 tablespoons of butter, and fry the shallots and garlic. When fragrant (not browned), add the cider, cider vinegar, and mustard, reduce by about a quarter, then add the chicken back to the skillet skin-side up. Pour the chicken stock around the chicken but be careful not to pour it on the skin or cover the chicken with any liquid. Stick in the oven and roast until a thermometer reads 160 on the breast (about 25 minutes).
Let the chicken rest again on a cutting board, add your kale, green onions, and leek slices into the skillet, combine the ingredients on the stovetop and let cook until wilted and brightly-colored. Remove the ingredients to a serving platter and sprinkle with the Parmesan, then rest the carved chicken on the greens. I added sliced Pink Lady apples as garnish to the platter, but not necessary.
Always enjoy your posts, Emily, with the many excellent links. The mid-century camp kitchen looked a lot like the Georgia O’Keeffe kitchen we just saw in Abiquiú, NM—similar spices and stove, probably a bit like the one I grew up in too, come to think of it. The cider chicken sounds scrumptious!