Things That Made Me Less Cranky: August 2024 Edition

It's nice to be back in a Brat Summer alternate timeline

Welcome to my monthly list of recommendations. It is made up of completely random things/events/moments that made me less of a raging, bitter, hag despite the dumpster fire that is our world. It also includes food-centric suggestions. Enjoy!

Idiosyncratic List of What Made Me Less Cranky

• Healed esophaguses

• Going to the emergency room for funny things, like ingrown hairs, instead of serious things (like perforated esophaguses lol)

• The friendship spark of people who love travel and food and who you happen to intersect with during a very specific period of their lives

• Surprise run-ins with old friends on the street, the subway, random bars

• Planned meet-ups with old friends bars, restaurants, homes

• Readings, especially one’s own

• Being an impromptu, temporary muse for a poet (in this case, Jayshawn Latrell Lee

• Yellow flower centerpieces at weddings

• Beaching it up

• Crushes

• Mercury retrograde (I said what I said!)

• The Brooklyn Public Library, unofficial sponsor of my working hours and provider of all my bookish needs while I live off a suitcase again

• Mending relationships to cities

• Thinking of the relationships you have to cities as if they were people lol

• IRL everything. Are you getting off the phone, the screens, all the apps?

• Remembering your therapist wisely telling you, “I hope you stay open to life surprising you in good ways” during the worst period of your life and realizing that he was right. Even better, realizing you were open to it.

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Restaurant of the Month: Clon

The presence of Venezuelan immigrants in Lima, and by extension Peru, has transformed the city for the better, even though acknowledging that is bittersweet—the Maduro regime continues to be a repressive clusterfuck prompting the mass migration. The steady influx of Venezuelans for the past decade plus has made it so that Lima now has a solid number of Venezuelan restaurants and a burgeoning Peruvian-Venezuelan fusion cuisine. Enter Juan Luis Martínez, one of the more acclaimed chefs of Venezuelan origins. His latest restaurant, Clon, offers up sophisticated, sexy dishes that play with Peruvian ingredientes, Venezuelan inspiration, and creations all of his own. Pillowy arepas, smoked corn, creamy coconut milk scallops, a flan that lingers on your tongue—they all feel like a seduction.

A freaking feast at Clon

Bar of the Month: Toñitas

Nestled in between some of the worst parts of gentrified Williamsburg, Toñitas is staying strong as one of the last Caribbean social clubs in the area. It was on my bucket list before I officially moved out in May but never got around to finding the right time and people to go with. This time around, I did! The place has everything I love in a neighborhood bar: cheap drinks, abuelitos and Latine hipsters lol. It doesn’t even have air conditioning, which is a plus in my book. Summer nights are meant for [tiny, backyard] patios anyway.

Best Thing I Ate: All the wantanes at Wantanamera

The only place I’ve seen wantons in chili oil in Lima! Their other dumplings incorporate Peruvian flavors like leche de tigre or chalaca salsa (lime, red onion, rocoto, tomato, and parsley).

Already dreaming of going back

Best Thing I Drank: 2021 Buondonno, Chianti Clasico, Sangoviese, Toscana (at LaRina)

I can’t seem to describe wine other than via vibes so this is what I think about this wine: It pairs well for those last days of summer, when you’re starting to get a little wistful about the ends of long days, hot nights, impromptu cocktails, surprise make out sessions, gossip fests with friends on a beach, the luxurious indulgence of reading a book while lying on grass or sand. There’s a chill to the air, and reality is rearing its mocking, little head, and you just want a hug. That’s what this wine is for.

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The Month in Newsletters

Missed an issue? I got you! (I know I’ve been scarce around these parts, thanks to a massive avalanche of freelance work, doctor appointments, and the restless nature of a NYC summer. September should be decidely more chill and productive.)

If you are a paid subscriber, Septembers’s Cranky Guide Writing “Hour” (it’s really more like 40ish minutes) will be on Mondays at 5 pm CT/6 pm ET starting September 9. I’ll be sending the link shortly.

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