Fish Tales, Ditalini Soup, Anchovy Butter, Slickbacks
What do these things have in common?
Hello, folks! If you follow me here, you’ve probably seen my mini-series, My Week in Six Photos, in the Notes section. I love compiling the photos because they remind me that despite feeling like a reclusive troll, I *am* getting outside and socializing with my peers. I thought I’d try to extend the series into a medium-format missive. These times are dark-sided but I’m going to try my damndest to make the quotidian something to anticipate. Beyond that, writing about everyday occurrences will help my writing practice and get the creative juices flowing for newer, possibly longer writings. Anywho, without further ado, here is the inaugural shmedium format release of My Week in Six Photos.
Nettie Jones’ Fish Tales:
Despite its original publication dating back to 1984, I recently discovered Fish Tales via Reparations Club–the coolest bookstore/community space in the LAnd. After learning a rudimentary overview from their TikTok page, I Googled the book’s jacket copy, and the synopsis gripped me as if in a bear hug. Picture it: A married 1970s party girl balancing lovers and life while straddling between the New York demimonde and the affluent Black Detroit community awaiting her back home. Melded into the madness are torrid affairs and a best friend who works as a gay hustler. Does that not sound exhilarating?! My favorite protagonists are unlikable antiheroes and I can feel my dislike sprouting up before I’ve cracked the first page.
There’s only one hiccup. The book is 30+ years out of print, and the republished novel isn’t for sale until April 15, 2025. Nevertheless, I will do as my mom often advises and change my perspective. This release will be a light at the end of this frigid winter tunnel. If the hope of spring isn’t reason enough, Fish Tales was the final novel acquisition made by Toni Morrison during her tenure as an editor at Random House.
…and you know Ms. Morrison’s pen was penning!
Ditalini Soup:
It’s tedious trying to figure out what to eat every week. Hell, it’s burdensome managing to feed myself every week! I only have so many recipes in my repertoire, and every once in a while, I’ve gone through them all and/or find them uninteresting and unappealing. That’s when I do what all millennials of a certain age do: I go to Pinterest. Last week, while scrolling, I found a recipe for a flavorsome creamy parmesan ditalini soup. After a quick perusal, I found the recipe to be easy enough and that I had a few of the ingredients in my cupboards. I jotted the few missing necessities onto my grocery list. I found almost everything on my weekly trip to TJ’s except the ditalini (or tubetti). That was a different story. I couldn’t find the damn noodle at any of my typical haunts, and I really didn’t want to go to Target. Luckily, I live uptown and near a robust Italian neighborhood. I was able to find the ditalini in a 90-year-old noodle shop, Borgatti’s. It was a pleasant Saturday field trip, perusing the bakeries. The chaotic and packed old-school delis were a refreshing dose of “old New York.” (They were also passing out free soppressata.)
The next day, Sunday, I made the soup, and it turned out delicious! I followed the recipe to a T but added a few extra veggies like mirepoix instead of only onions, fire-roasted tomatoes for additional flavor, and Northern beans for some needed legumes. It was nice standing in my kitchen, watching true crime, and setting aside time to nourish myself with new, hearty, and tasty things! I froze half for a week on the horizon when future Yaminah is too tired to fathom, let alone cook. She better be grateful.
Anchovy Butter:
Last week, I ventured to SoHo to dine at the Musket Room with the Black Beauty Club. I was excited to go because: 1. A room full of brilliant, kind, and fashionable Black people is a no-brainer and 2. I’d heard fabulous things about their executive pastry chef, James Beard Foundation semifinalist Camari Mick. Count me in! My palate was primed for the postprandial delicacies before I’d arrived. However, my chakras were rocked before the first course reached the table. After I settle into a corner table with three other brilliant Black women, the waitstaff poured the Rioja, and set the table with a standard starter, airy and spongy sourdough bread paired with whipped butter. However, upon the first bite, a flavor note beyond the creamy saltiness of typical butter jumped out. There was a nibble of umami in every bite. It took me a while to clock, but eventually, my seatmates named the ingredient for my dawdling brain: anchovies! “Oh, that’s fancy! I can make this at home!” I immediately noted.
And make it at home, I did! The piquant brininess of the anchovies mingling with the roundness of velvety butter was easy to mimic. As a side dish to my ditalini soup, I popped a sourdough slice in the toaster and mixed two tablespoons of butter with four slivers of Fishwife-brand Cantabrian anchovies. (Cento is also a fantastic and accessible brand I stock in my pantry.) My regular-degular bread isn’t as light nor is my butter as whipped as the Musket Room but each bite takes me back to the first bite, a.k.a. last week.
I’m surprised I haven’t eaten an entire brick of Kerrygold at this point. As someone who lacks any modicum of self-control around delicious food, it’s been a practice of restraint. I want to slather this stuff on everything: bread, pasta, savory oatmeal. Maybe I’ll buy two loosie eggs from the bodega next week and try it for breakfast! Hmmm.
Slick Backs:
Finally, I think I created the best slicked bun of my life last week. The hail mary hairstyle was a solution to the “problem” of back-to-back dinners, events, work, and partnership deadlines. I didn’t have the necessary 48-hour break that a [good] braid-out demands so a sleek bun of filthy hair was the remedy.
My hair is remarkably dense and kinky, so “sleek” is usually not in the same sentence as “hair” when I’m discussing styles. Thankfully, God saw fit to birth me after the invention of gel and mousse, otherwise I would have left the house resembling Wanda Dean— at the end of Holiday Heart. For that reason, the honor and glory go to Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner, Ceremonia’s Pequi Styling Gel, and Not Your Mother’s Curl Talk Activating Mousse.
I’ve been using the Trader Joe’s Tea Tree Tingle duo off and on since high school. I always end up spinning the block though because the shampoo gets my hair feeling squeaky clean and the conditioner has the perfect slip for detangling. The price point is also widely accessible compared to my other go-tos. Ceremonia’s gel came into my life via PR gifting and it frankly caught me by surprise. I didn’t expect it to work on my hair! I used it for a last minute ‘do and it became my regular. Beyond taming my strands, it doesn't flake. Gone are the evenings of flaking gel giving the appearance of excessive dandruff! The last ingredient of my slickback cocktail, mousse, gives my hair hold and a little goes a long way. I also use the mousse when I’m doing braidouts to fight against humidity. There’s no extraordinary introduction story. I bought the mousse at a run-of-the-mill beauty supply store near my house when I attempted a stretched braid-out and figured a mousse could help. (It didn’t. The hairstyle was an utter fail. Think: Mia Thermopolis before Pedro introduced her to a blowdryer but with less definition). I didn’t want to waste my money so I ditched the mousse in my beauty closet until it could come in handy. A hand it offered indeed.
I need to layer the products in a specific way for the best slick effect, and my process is as follows: First, part the hair down the middle, then make a horizontal part just above the ear. You should have three sections. Wet the hair and apply conditioner to detangle each section while keeping them separated. Once detangled, apply a bit of gel followed by mousse to each section. Twist the back section into a bun, then brush the front portions back, wrapping each section around the back bun and securing it with a hairband and bobby pins. The bun should consist of three sections, or strands, as I prefer to call them. This helps maintain sleekness and creates a fuller bun that isn’t lopsided.
There are pros and cons to this hairstyle. Pro: Resorting to hermit behavior because “my hair isn’t done” is no longer an excuse. Con: “My hair isn’t done,” is no longer an excuse. Moreover, I have a habit of leaving buns in for days because they’re so easy to rejuvenate. Give me thirty-five minutes, three products, and a brush, and I’ll give you…a princess.
I think I’ll end this latest dispatch here. I hope you enjoyed my attempt to make the mundane magical. I’m already pondering ideas for future pieces! Please subscribe (if you haven’t already done so) and comment. I love hearing from y’all, even though I can be terrible at responding timely. (I’m working on it.) I enjoy hearing your thoughts and how you connect with what I’m writing. Until next week. Ciao for now!
I was delighted! Entertained! Influenced! Thank you for this.
Definitely influenced but I might need a TikTok tutorial accompanying that slick-back explanation lol