A table full of dishes, glasses clinked for the thousandth time. Yesterday I ate at The Moorcock Inn at Norland Moor for the first time since before the pandemic, and it felt like coming home.
I've been thinking about what exactly it is that makes dining out so special to me. I love to eat, that's true, but there's something cheap about adding in the word "experience" to explain the other thing. Experiential dining is not what I'm after. I've craved a genuine emotional connection to the food, or more specifically, to the people who have gathered those ingredients, developed the recipe, cooked, plated and served it to me for months. Dining is for fun and socialising and for feeding yourself -- but what I've missed on top of that is the inspiration I feel when something tastes incredible. The next level of delight I feel when I eat and am transported to a different way of thinking to my own. Being given something to eat that's as thoughtful as it is delicious. Knowing I am experiencing something special, feeling it nourish my soul as well as your body.
I have not had the easiest of summers and denying food to myself is an effective but sad, depressing way that my mind elicits control over my life. Last week, in Edinburgh, I dissociated at a dining table, unable to eat a bowl of roast broccoli and chickpeas, knowing I needed to feed myself to be well. Realising that this was a culmination of a lot of different issues, knowing that I need to eat not just to live but to enjoy my life, I have turned back to the self-care techniques I abandoned earlier this year. I haven't had time for myself. I haven't had time to enjoy food. The reddest of flags.
So last night I sat with new friends, in one of my happiest of places, wrapped in the warmest welcome and coddled by thick stone walls against the world outside and I ate a rainbow trout dish that transported me to a pure sensation of happiness I haven't felt in weeks. Simple pleasure from sambal spices and perfect fire-roasted fish. A cure.
If you want to learn more about The Moorcock Inn at Norland Moor, I wrote about it for Pellicle last year.
Other Stuff
Adam Wells has written a beautiful piece on Welsh Mountain Cider packed with fascinating info and his trademark immersive descriptions of place. Massive bonus points for the term "malic library".
Vital notes on storytelling in wine as a marketing concept, who gets to tell these stories, and the real, important stories being told by some winemakers via their labels by Vinka Dantiza.
These ideas for features in a music mag are solid and I would absolutely pay to read this publication. Someone sort it out.
Laura Hadland's ethical beer list also includes ethical cidermakers, and is a step towards transparency and accountability in the beer industry that's sorely needed.
A fascinating and angering account of Cardiff's multicultural Tiger Bay area and how it was decimated by local authorities in the early 20th century.
Cerebral, cosmic sports writing about skating in the Paris Review. Did you ever think you'd live to see the day?
Eoghan Walsh's "History Of Brussels In 50 Objects" is a thing of dedication and beauty. This week is the sign from a 17th century inn, and a story about who might've drank in there, and what they might have drunk.
Ethical Black Metal. Can it be done? Astral Noize mag wrote a guide to make listening to this problematic genre easier.
Dissecting the Treat Brain -- a strangely reassuring article (in the FT of all places) that confirms we are all unable to function post-pandemic without little cubes of sugar in every corner of our mazes anymore.
There is a Carboniferous fossilised forest in Victoria Park, Glasgow. How did I not know this?
My Stuff
I'm super proud to have a piece published in Lecker's "Kitchens" zine alongside some truly brilliant writers. My piece is about refrigerators, and poverty. Fun! Buy the zine here.
I've not had the chance to write much beer stuff recently, what with opening Corto and having crippling depression (you can punctuate this with a 'lol' if you like) but here is something from June's issue about drinking loyalty that I quite liked writing, that taps into a lot of Burum Collective's "compound drinking" movement.
I'm now an Associate Editor for Pellicle magazine, which is incredibly exciting. If you're not a regular reader, pop along now and take a look at what we do. I'm really proud to be a part of the team and I think you'll love the writing.
I've written a few pieces for CAMRA's Learn & Discover platform this year, but I'm most proud of my Introduction To Beer Faults feature. Lucie Cook's illustrations really bring it to life, and I'm glad to have been able to write about a complex subject in an accessible way, and to make beer faults even easier to understand (and therefore beer easier to enjoy).
I have spent the rest of my time on a project I'm incredibly proud and excited to be a part of, but I can't announce it yet as the thing hasn't been officially launched yet. Suffice to say, if you're wondering where all my words are going, it's into this secret thing, and hopefully you'll see it materialise in the next month or so. Once thing I can say: it's about wine.
If you like reading my newsletters and feel like buying me a brew, thanks! You can do that via this link: www.ko-fi.com/shinybiscuit
Hermit 1 by Dianne Tanner