R is for Resolve
and restaurants from January
In a recent personal discovery, it turns out I am quite an impatient person, a tenacious trait that permeates its way into nearly every aspect of my life. I have been trying to work out if it is a solely negative quality or if it balances out with some auspiciousness. Final result undecided but for the time being I’ve elected to refer to my stubborn streak as resolve.
Resolve, noun: the strong determination to achieve something
The difficulties in her way merely strengthened her resolve.
January - the month of resolutions, tried and tested, commenced and collapsed. I love a resolution but looking back over my past few years of listicles where the goals have remained indistinguishable, but almost always completed. I ask myself if these even count as resolutions or if I’m just reminding myself what type of person I am and want to continue being. One who reads, travels, exercises, has friends, is kind. (etc, etc, etc.) Less of a goal to work towards, more of a maintenance. My best friend always tells me that my goals have to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) and as much as I understand the sense of this acronym, my intentions are never SMART (and whether they are smart is another question.)
I resolved this year to leave the city more and ten days after making this resolution I was offered a job à nouveau outside of Paris. And so, as of this afternoon, I will be decamping to the countryside once a week to cook in a beautiful restaurant in the Perche in Normandy - Oiseau Oiseau. Straddling my time between Paris and Le Perche, meaning my new resolve will be to not spend too much time (money) in Pret à Manger in Montparnasse station. As I type this, the hour of my train is chugging closer and I am feeling a stirring of excitement, an untroubled anticipation of what this next destination will bring.
January also was a month of good eating, beautiful new openings from friends, and old classics that resolve to never change. My top five seatings of January will be shared below the paywall. To access all of the list and for much more to come, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to Alphabet Soup. This support buttresses and invigorates me to continue with this project.
Shopping List for you
A reminder of how to help in LA
A greedy Japanese thriller by Asako Yuzuki
J is for January
5 favourites from the longest month of the year
Possibly, the perfect (Parisian) Italian restaurant. When it comes to eating Italian in France, we should never rely on the authenticity factor when it comes to deco, style, service. Food, yes. But the rest does not need to feel veramente italiano, if we want the Italian job, we can be in Milan after a few hours on the Frecciarossa. Which is why I think that Pianoterra is so greatly admired, the foundations of the cuisine are solid but the adornments are modern and cool. Branded as a restaurant and gallery, I believe there is an architecture firm upstairs who designed the glassy, marbled interior. The ragu is the house special, served in a big platter if more than one member of your party orders it and the negroni sbagliato is the perfect drink for going to a house party afterwards where you only know the hosts. (Disclaimer: I drank this before going to said house party and on my return home ordered an Uber with the same start and finish address and wound up doing a very expensive lap of Ile Saint Louis before being booted out.)
