Exhaling Life

Weddings are overrated. A friend once reminded me that I can afford to say this because I had a beautiful one, nearly two years in the making. Fair enough. Perhaps experience, and the aging that follows it, has a way of bringing certain things into focus, particularly what actually matters in a life. Amsterdam, Netherlands We are often told that what matters in the end is who surrounds us. I never drank that Kool-Aid. Perhaps the better measure is how we live: not how our lives appear through the eyes of others, but how we feel when left alone with ourselves in a room. The preciousness of a life is not found in the lifestyle built around it. It lives in the way we treat those whose lives we touch and those we simply encounter, including people who can offer us absolutely nothing in return. After all, can someone who does not recognize the preciousness of others, even total strangers, truly understand what precious means? And if they don’t know what precious is, how can they possibl...

Did you know that linguine comes from Liguria, in the northwestern region of Italy? It means “little tongues” in Italian. Nearly identical to fettuccine, I've been cooking with linguine more often lately. In part, this is because I've transitioned to eating more shrimp than salmon with pasta, somehow associating fettuccine with salmon and linguine with non-fish seafood, such as squid . Call it culinary logic of the highly personal variety. Ceramic bowl was wheel-thrown and glazed by me. This Lemon Shrimp Linguine was developed out of necessity: weekday hunger after a long day, when ambition is low but standards remain inconveniently intact. It balances the brightness of lemon and shrimp's gentle brininess with the creaminess of milk, the sharpness of salt, and zucchini's melancholy sweetness. Easy to assemble on the stovetop in a nonstick pan , this linguine is destined to become one of those recipes you return to over and over again. ING...

The trench coat began, quite literally, in the trenches, which is not usually where one expects a fashion classic to be born. Its roots reach back to nineteenth-century British waterproof outerwear, but the version we recognize today took shape during World War I, when British officers needed something lighter and more practical than the traditional greatcoat. Burberry and Aquascutum helped define the look: weather-resistant fabric, belted waist, storm flaps, epaulettes, deep pockets, and enough military hardware to suggest there was once a purpose beyond looking exceptionally good in the rain. at MOCA on Grand Avenue Women began wearing versions of the trench during the war itself, as they took on new roles in the workforce and military-influenced clothing entered everyday life. By the 1920s and 1930s, the coat had escaped the battlefield and joined the modern woman for travel, motoring, and city life. Then Hollywood intervened, as Hollywood tends to do. On-screen, the trench became l...

Somewhere between my failed attempt at Chef Eric Adjepong's Piri-Piri Shrimp over Coconut Grits recipe, published in The World Central Kitchen Cookbook to benefit Chef José Andrés's World Central Kitchen, and Bar Santos's Piri Piri Chicken, this Piri Piri Shrimp Orzo found its way into existence in my kitchen. Ceramic bowl was wheel-thrown and glazed by me. Which, in a way, feels entirely appropriate. Piri Piri itself is the product of culinary exchange. Chile peppers native to the Americas were carried to Africa by Portuguese traders, where they took root in places including Mozambique and Angola. There, the fiery peppers were combined with ingredients such as garlic, citrus, vinegar, and oil, creating the family of sauces now associated with both African and Portuguese cooking. Its precise birthplace remains debated, but its history is unmistakably one of movement, adaptation, and cultures influencing one another across continents. INGREDIENTS [serves 2] twelve medium-si...

This morning, the top five stories in my Apple News feed were: the U.S. and Iran trading strikes for the first time in weeks, from BBC News; one dead and 15 missing after sudden flooding at the Grand Canyon forced dozens to be airlifted, from Fox Weather; rescuers in Nepal racing to reach hundreds feared trapped in hydropower tunnels, from The Guardian; Congress finally talking about saving Social Security, from The Wall Street Journal; and, from ESPN, What Went Wrong? Novak Djokovic Knocked Out of US Open in First Round. Then, after months of food recalls and even a dog food recall, multiple states with impacted IVs as fiberglass detected in saline, from Newsweek, landed in my Instagram feed. Hermosa Beach, California, during record breaking heat While wondering how Novak Djokovic had managed to land among the morning’s apparent horsemen of the apocalypse, I laughed. None of it is funny, of course. Collectively, however, it is absurd. Perhaps my brain has been slightly cooked by the p...

One of the great signs of love is gifting. Another is sharing, which is why a very good men’s sweater should never be considered the sole property of the man who technically owns it. You bought it for him because you adore him, because he deserves something soft and handsome, and perhaps because you had the foresight to recognize that an oversized sweater looks particularly good with leggings, bare legs, or the vague promise of returning it someday. My favorite restaurant in Santa Barbara, California, Loquita There is generosity in this arrangement. He gets a beautifully chosen sweater, and you get visitation rights. Everyone wins, especially when the sweater in question has the right weight, the right drape, and enough room to suggest effortless intimacy rather than petty theft. Consider these eight options gifts for him, selected with love and impeccable taste. You will need to gently whisper to him that sharing is caring. 66 NORTH Varmahlid Shearling Sweater JavaScript is currently ...

It is one of those rare places in Los Angeles where I can feel authenticity and genuine warmth. When I first stepped into Bar Santos in Cypress Park, I was still recovering from my Portugal trip. If you recall from my IG Stories , a canceled flight, another delayed flight, lost luggage, falsely confiscated jamón ibérico, and the mystery of how airlines cannot distinguish between hotels and motels were traumatic enough to leave a mental scar. However, Bar Santos healed whatever wound remained. Piri Piri Chicken at Bar Santos The second time was to sip their Porto Tonico. I rarely talk about prices when it comes to bars and restaurants, but $9 for a drink, and a refreshingly delicious drink at that, is unheard of, especially in Los Angeles. While Porto Tonico got me back to Bar Santos, it was their Piri Piri Chicken that made me fall hard for them. It is very rare for me to try to duplicate a dish. Partly because I don't like to intelligently dissect what I am eating because it takes...