Vol. 6, No. 40 | A Month Later...From Costa Rica

Hey Ya’ll!

I’m writing this newsletter in bed with an incredible view of the Arenal Volcano in La Fortuna, Costa Rica. I’ve held this image in my mind to power me through the last few weeks of the year. Now that it’s finally here, it’s as great as I thought it would be.

This month has been busy. Every week since Thanksgiving, I’ve planned on writing my newsletter and every week I got too busy to do it…And it sucked because I actually had a lot of things to say. Here’s a very condensed list of what I’ve bene thinking about:

• This story of a hotel guest finding out that their window opened up into a restaurant is so hilarious to me. Can you imagine opening up the window of your hotel room and seeing people eating dinner?!? I’ve seen some wild things in New York, but this might top the list.

• It seems like fish collar (exactly what it sounds like) is on every menu at the moment. I’ve seen it here and there before, but it’s definitely increased over the past year. Maybe it’s due to rising food costs, I can’t be sure. I tried explaining this phenomenon to my very Jamaican mother and she was completely baffled as to how they could possibly sell this part of the fish…for profit. She’s also worried that the price of whole fish will now increase.

• I was watching Power (or whatever it’s now called) the other day. I can’t remember what happens in the episode because I was so focused on the glassware that Method Man (I can’t remember his name on the show) had in his office. They were from Ikea. To be fair, I have some of these glasses at home and that’s how I recognized them. It just seemed really out of place when the entire scene was about custom suits and playing the part of a high priced attorney. Eh…not with those glasses you’re not. I think TV and film should have food and beverage consultants on set. I’ve watched too many things where the culinary choices don’t seem true to the character or the moment that’s being depicted.

• I had this in my newsletter notes and I don’t remember what it means (I also don’t know if I made it up or if I read it somewhere): “Pay attention to you because you don’t know the game everyone else is playing.” Do with that what you will.

• Back in April, I wrote an article for Plate magazine on catching covid and all the thoughts that went through my mind while I had it. When I wrote it it felt relevant, but by the time it was released in the summer it felt outdated. Everything was back in full swing…masks were fully abandoned…it seemed we’d reached a new moment in the pandemic. It’s six months later and I’m watching restaurants close again because of staff testing positive for covid. I honestly didn’t think we’d be here again and I don’t know how to process it.

  Stay safe out there.

Hope you’re all doing well! Happy Holidays!

I’ll be back next week for one last newsletter to wrap up the year. I plan on using this holiday break to plan out my newsletter for next year so that I can get back to writing consistently. If there’s anything you’d like to see more of next year, let me know.

Shannon