Weekend links.

Donate here, in honor of Breonna Taylor.  Her life was worth far more than the drywall the cops were charged for. This verdict, plus the death of RBG, has made for an incredibly difficult week.  Is it November 3rd yet?

In less disheartening news, a delivery from The Kakao Guy, including burnt cheesecake (AED35 per individual cheesecake), and then Dan’s Home Food (my first taste of mac and cheese pie – !) had my need for carbs well met at the start of the week. Casinetto also sent me a beautiful collection of nibbles for aperitivo (my affiliate link is still active).  Hubs and I tried to go to Reform with Poppy for his birthday on Tuesday, but she wasn’t super interested. As guests, we liked that they were dog friendly, and had local still and sparkling water in reusable containers. I also swung by the new Simply Kitchen store at MOE, and found a bunch of stuff for the villa (they were kind enough to offer me a gift voucher, #transparency).

I also had the best week of pitching since March, so it’s kind of like starting over.  September 2019 – March 2020 was such a great time for me professionally, so I’m rolling up my sleeves and trying to get back to those levels.  Anyway, I’m glad to see places are recovering, and considering working with me — it’s all very flattering.

Probably too many links this week, but I enjoyed them all.

• Which Entemanns are the best Entemanns? Eater
• Free coffee on October 1st? One Life Kitchen has you covered. Instagram
• Love this way of rediscovering your cookbooks. Eat Your Cookbooks 
• Do restaurants drive gentrification in neighborhoods? Eater 
• Meal prep hacks leaned from culinary school. The Kitchn 
• Did someone say wine backpack? Elle
• Tangentially related to food, how the pandemic broke online shopping. The Atlantic 
• The new science of eating. The Guardian
• In case you care what Gwenyth Paltrow eats in a day (I personally think she needs more carbs). Facebook 
• Furthermore, as a lover of carbs, I appreciate this bread art. Instagram 
• Can someone smuggle this wine advent calendar to me? The Kitchn 
• Would I visit a store dedicated to sour patch kids?  Yes, I would. Grub Street 
• Watching this weekend, GBBO. Chowhound
• Eat Go See goes in hunt of Dubai’s best pani puri. Eat Go See
• Feel like checking out my latest book cover? Ann Benjamin

We’re going to brunch today at Bull & Bear and what a difference a week makes!  I feel much more mentally ready to go out and enjoy (from a safe distance as the other patrons, of course).  Next week sees the return of the book club, we’re out to Bombay Borough to discuss Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (which I should probably finish reading…).  Queue excitement for shopping: I’m going to pop over to Prime Gourmet to check out the range of Silver Fern Farms products, and look forward to grilling something up next week (#sponsored).

Top Three Dishes for September: As next week will (inexplicably) be October (!), I’m going to go ahead and list my favorite dishes for September.  1) Portobello Kinoko Katsu from Kushi by Reif, the 2) the beautiful Canard À L’Orange, at LPM, and the 3) Seafood Risotto at The Lighthouse.  What were your favorite dishes?  Or, are you holding out for something by September 30th?