Good afternoon, everyone.
Last night I saw 3/4 of New York City at How Long Gone’s live awards show, The Gonies. I sat in the front row next to Paul Needham, and in front of Brooks Reitz. The whole production was extremely impressive and a testament to HLG’s devoted fanbase, and friends like Alison Roman and Sam Hine and EMILY DAWN LONG and John Early and Andy Baraghani. J Mascis, of Dinosaur Jr., performed an awesome cover of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” at the end of the show. Maybe it’s because I was directly in front the speaker, but I got goosebumps. Jason and Chris are athletes of the microphone — day in day out just talking, talking, talking into the microphone. Take after take. Pretty special what that can build when people get addicted to hearing you three times a week.
Afterwards, I went to Coppelia (open 24 hours) for chicken soup with rice, and while I waited for my Uber I got a Marble Cruller at Donut Pub (also open 24 hours). I lost all of my headphones, so I’ve been carrying around a copy of The Paris Review. In the car, I finished the first short story in the latest issue, and cried one tear. That postgame also felt just like heaven.
Today’s newsletter includes: Jason Stewart on why burgers are like omakase, a Brooklyn Heights reality check, an exclusive on Seventeen and Cosmopolitan’s new fashion director, Alysa Liu taught me a conversation-starting party trick, New York restaurants are already ordering Christmas decorations, why one WSJ fashion editor started posting on TikTok this week, and the kindergartenification of the modern adult.
In which I compare the drama and purity of burgers and omakase sushi for fashion week. By Jason Stewart.
This week on Feed Me, we’re observing Smashion Week — a weeklong celebration of burgers, smash and otherwise. Today, Jason Stewart (half of the podcast How Long Gone) writes about nigiri and hamburgers — both of which are to be eaten with one’s hands. I’ve been listening to Jason speak about food for a long time. In fact, I often think that How Long Gone is my second favorite food podcast (after Expense Account). I think you’ll enjoy Jason’s funny comparison.
Six years ago, giggly-high on mushroom chocolates at an Airbnb in Sedona, Arizona, I wrote my first (and one of my last) Substack essays, about the Travis Scott burger at McDonald’s. It was peak COVID, and driving a pickup truck through Death Valley in the middle of summer to binge episodes of “Girlfriends” on a different couch than the one at home felt like the right thing to do. Chris Black and I had only been recording How Long Gone, the podcast that is now my job, for a few months, and I was still adjusting to life on the road, working from home wherever that may be. I found it funny and fitting to write about two things I hated (Travis Scott and McDonald’s) in such a tranquil and mystical locale. I even made my now-wife take a photo of me standing on the turquoise-blue arches, N95 mask and all, at their Sedona location, the only McDonald’s in the world with this rare colorway. Meanwhile, a wild bobcat roamed the open-ish backyard, Cheshire-style, almost egging me on to do my best to write an essay about a burger that I couldn’t even finish. Six years later, writing this on my birthday, my life has changed for the better in every way but three: I still hate Travis Scott, I still hate McDonald’s, and I’ve found myself, once again, writing about burgers for Substack. (Thanks, Emily.)
“Burgers are the only dish on the menu at a fancy restaurant that reinvents itself with each bite.”
I often catch myself referencing the “no soy sauce” initiative of purist sushi chefs in my everyday life. These hardliners spend all day treating rare and expensive fish with the respect and care it deserves. Maybe curing it between sheets of kombu, or soaking fillets in vinegar to accentuate each species’ flavor. Plunging this perfect protein into a Kikkoman bath reverses days, sometimes weeks, of care. And this action tells others around you that you’re unable to appreciate the delicate sweetness of a golden eye snapper; you’re probably hoping the next course will feature sriracha mayo, or a flap of wagyu beef that you can film being blowtorched.