Micah's Read of the Week, Vol. 92
Micah goes viral, Long live the martini, Micah Recommends, Recipe Corner, and more.
Hello, and welcome to Micah’s Read of the Week. I’m sorry we’re late. You’ll see why below. Also, please tap the heart button above. One like = one 🙏.
This is a newsletter filled with things Micah Wiener finds interesting.
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Micah’s most viral tweet ever
I’m sorry I didn’t publish Monday. I had too much fun Sunday. Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Cheverere.
Wellness Is Dead. Long Live the Martini.
“I watch these kids hammering martinis and I’m like, good Lord.”
Last week we talked about Sobriety. Before that, we talked about Wellness. This week we’re on to martinis.
Something interesting happened between the sober-curious boom of last summer and the vodka-laden, cigarette smoke-filled lines that have been forming outside of New York’s bars and restaurants this spring.
Historically, martinis are a drink of gravitas for me, conjuring images of tailored suits, men with money clips and thick stacks of cash, or my dad after work at the bar of a Chinese restaurant waiting for our family’s takeout order. But the martini culture I’ve been observing recently looks nothing like this. I’m talking about tables of friends around burgers and French fries, sloshing back martinis in front of the flash of phone cameras. Twenty-somethings ordering another round at happy hour (a death wish, if you ask me). Massive batched martinis at spring kickbacks (another death wish). “Ordering a martini” has become an activity, something that someone does as much as something that someone drinks.
“You are not wrong about this martini thing,” Toby Cecchini, the owner of Brooklyn’s Long Island Bar says. “It caught everybody unaware. In the same way that years ago all these 20-year-olds were ordering old-fashioneds all of a sudden. We went from making four or five of those for older customers a year to every kid across the bar ordering old-fashioneds without any idea of what they were. I was like ‘What the hell is going on?’ and everyone was like ‘Oh, it’s this show Mad Men.’ But where is the martini coming from? Complete blowback from the pandemic.”
“Suddenly, six months ago, the martini was wiping everything out. I was like, ‘Oh my God, we did 71 martinis last night? And 36 gimlets?’ I recently turned to my business partner and was like, ‘I guess we’re just a martini bar now.’ I watch these kids hammering martinis and I’m like, good Lord.”
Martinis are also a move away from the whole natural-wine bonanza of a few years ago, a drink that offered some kind of higher moral imperative of being closer to the land and less processed or whatever. Martinis offer no such sanctimoniousness: “They’re not good for you, they’re just good,” posits chef and entrepreneur Jonah Reider. “A martini is judged on the execution: so impossibly ice cold it’s surprising its not solid, one elegant garnish, dangerously filled to the top of the most inconvenient un-ergonomic glass shape of all time — and preferably with leftover martini sitting in a spillover cup sitting on ice.”
A lethal martini is the perfect antidote: “It’s everything that we weren’t raised on: It’s salty, savory, and able to get you shit-faced, quick. This is such an escape from the sweet alcoholic drinks of our past and the seltzers of pre-pandemic.”
New Yorker Cartoon of the Week
Micah Recommends
Helen Hollyman’s New Newsletter, The Link
When Helen writes, you should read it. She’s funny, smart, and always interesting. She now has a newsletter. You should subscribe below.
Welcome to The Link, a bi-weekly newsletter making the connection between “regenerative farming,” and you—city slickers, country mice, and everyone living in the in between—every other Sunday.
Willie Nelson’s new album, A Beautiful Time
Willie celebrated his 89th birthday last week with a new album, his 4th (!) since the pandemic started. He also played the official grand opening of Austin’s new Moody Center.
The album is good. Wistful, but still funny and charming like only Willie can be.
There are also some fun covers. Enjoy.
Recipe Corner
Za’atar Chicken Cutlets With Cabbage Salad
We’ll start with a haiku:
Cutlets with a twist.
Dinner’s ready in 30.
This is healthy, right?
TAHINI SAUCE
1 small garlic clove, finely grated
½ cup tahini (such as Soom)
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
CHICKEN AND ASSEMBLY
3 large eggs, beaten to blend
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup panko
½ cup raw white sesame seeds
⅓ cup crushed dried thyme and/or oregano
¼ cup sumac
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 1½ lb. total)
Kosher salt
Vegetable oil (for frying; 3–4 cups)
½ head of green cabbage, thinly sliced
½ small red onion, very thinly sliced
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
6 salt-brined Middle Eastern–style or other pickles, halved lengthwise, sliced on a diagonal
TAHINI SAUCE
Whisk garlic, tahini, lemon juice, oil, and ¼ cup water in a small bowl to combine; season with salt.
CHICKEN AND ASSEMBLY
Place eggs, flour, and panko in 3 separate shallow bowls. Mix sesame seeds, thyme, and sumac into panko.
Working one at a time, hold a long knife parallel to a cutting board and cut chicken breasts in half, slicing along a long side to make 4 thin cutlets. Place a cutlet between 2 large sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap. Using a meat mallet or rolling pin, pound to ⅓" thick. Repeat with remaining cutlets.
Season both sides of a cutlet with salt. Dredge in flour, shaking off excess, then dip into egg wash, letting excess drip back into bowl. Dredge in panko mixture, pressing firmly to adhere. Repeat with remaining cutlets.
Pour vegetable oil into a large heavy high-sided skillet to come ½" up sides. Heat over medium until an instant-read thermometer registers 400°. Working in batches and returning oil to 400° after each batch, carefully lower cutlets into skillet with tongs; cook, turning halfway through, until deep golden brown, about 4 minutes. Transfer cutlets to paper towels to drain and sprinkle lightly with salt.
Place cabbage, onion, olive oil, and lemon juice in a medium bowl; season with salt. Toss, lightly squeezing, until cabbage is slightly wilted. Add pickles and toss again just to combine.
Serve cutlets with cabbage salad and tahini sauce.
Roasted Cod With Parsley-Shallot Sauce and Broccolini
Let’s get healthy this week. Please, I need this after Sunday’s espresso martinis.
1 1/2 cups lightly packed fresh parsley leaves and tender stems (from 1 bunch)
1 small shallot, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon salt, divided
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 large bunch broccolini (about 8 ounces), trimmed
4 (6-ounce) fillets cod, thoroughly patted dry
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees.
In a small bowl of food processor or mini-processor, combine the parsley, shallot, mustard, lemon juice and 1/8 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper, and pulse until finely chopped. Drizzle in 3 tablespoons of the oil and continue to process, stopping to scrape down the sides if needed, until the mixture is smooth and creamy. (If your processor allows for the oil to be drizzled with the motor running, do that.) You should see tiny flecks of parsley in the emulsified sauce. Transfer the sauce to a jar.
On a large, rimmed baking sheet, arrange the broccolini in a single layer and drizzle with the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil. Season with 1/8 teaspoon of salt, toss to coat, then push the broccolini to one side of the baking sheet. Arrange the fish onto the other side and season with the remaining 1/8 teaspoon each of salt and pepper.
Roast for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the fish flakes easily with a fork and the broccolini stems are tender and the tops are lightly crisped.
Divide the fish and broccolini among 4 plates. Top the fish with the parsley sauce and serve.
Mango Dessert Cups
2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
1/3 cup boiling water
2 cups fresh or frozen mango chunks (16 ounces/453 grams), divided (see NOTE)
1 cup (240 milliliters) light coconut milk
Honey, to taste (optional)
1/3 cup (30 grams) unsweetened shredded coconut, for garnish
In a medium bowl, cover the gelatin with the boiling water and immediately stir until it's dissolved.
In the pitcher of a blender, combine 1 3/4 cups (12 ounces/340 grams) of the mango with the coconut milk and blend until smooth. Add honey to taste, if desired, and blend to incorporate. Add the gelatin mixture to the blender and pulse a few times to combine.
Divide the mixture among six (6- to 8-ounce) ramekins or jars. Cover and refrigerate until set, about 3 hours.
Finely dice the remaining mango. Top each cup with a sixth of the diced mango, sprinkle with the coconut and serve.
Did Micah practice yoga this week?
Yes. 60 minutes Saturday at Black Swan with Leslie.
That’s 16 in-person weekend classes in 17 weeks this year. Namaste.
More Micah
Podcasts: Mind of Micah, Back Door Cover, Too Much Dip
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