Today I had the pleasure of joining my fabulous agent DongWon Song on his weekly stream, Agent Talk, while Seth Fishman’s away (briefly transformed into Seth Lakeman, a joke I wish I’d had the wherewithal to make during our chat, except that no one would have gotten it. L’esprit de l’escalier, where l’escalier is a winding hidden corkscrew of secret staircase you go up with a candle in one hand and damp castle wall beneath the other.)
(We did not coordinate wearing zipper-fronted clothes in our signature colours, I’m having a laugh about it.)
Anyway, this is not the first time I’ve had this kind of chat with DongWon in public, in which we talk about how we came to work with each other, what our working relationship is like, etc, and it’s always a pleasure. I usually rib him a lot more than I did today — instead there was a lot of just being a bit earnestly overcome by how much I love working with him, how good he is not only for the placement of my work but also the generation of it. I wish every writer a relationship with their agent as enriching and energizing as I find mine.
To the open thread part of this though — It’s a beautiful hot day outside and Stu and I are soon to go have a picnic. So tell me of picnics! If we were to have a big beautiful socially distanced picnic potluck situation, what would you bring? Do you have a signature dish you make for carrying to friends out of doors? Does a particular picnic stand out in your memory as good and lovely? What is your ideal picnic setting — a garden? A park? A beach?
I would bring hummus, naturally, and an array of veg, and possibly some homemade bread; the dearest picnics in my memory have involved brie and bread and figs and a sense of adventure, food brought along as provision in service of telling stories and being at ease.
Yaki onigiri: grilled rice balls. Hot off the grill. Maybe filled, maybe just with a tasty furikake all through, maybe plain. Made with Tamaki Haiga rice, like a boss. ;-) ;-)
I can’t recall the last time we had a sit-on-the-grass picnic, but a tried and true tradition has been taking picnic goods to Shenandoah National Park and having a meal up by skyline drive with a beautiful view in all seasons.
While I’ve never had a go-to picnic food, my normal go-to foods are potato leek soup or spiced pumpkin bread, only one of which travels well.
My favorite picnic was when I was six and had just been in the final showing of a university production of "A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley" (I was roped into it by my aunt, the Theater Prof.) My grandmother, who was famously anti-being-tickled, got chased around and around a picnic table by the young prof who played Marley. I remember thinking that I had no idea she could move that fast, or laugh that hard.
Little bite-sized foods! And I dig the brie, fig jam, and sourdough. Plus some wine. And need some tunes, though. Maybe 90's music? A playlist centered in rhythm and carefree beats. And friends.
I would show up with sourdough bread, some cheeses (brie, sharp cheddar, whatever else struck my fancy at the store), cutting board, and knife. Any fresh fruit that likewise looked good (grapes, cherries, ...).
Hmm, homemade hummus is usually my go-to, so I guess this picnic is going to have a lot of hummus. But if Amal has hummus covered, probably my curry chicken salad w/ grapes and deviled eggs. Best actual picnic was probably with friends in Munich, when we bought cheese, fruit, sausage, and bread at the city's farmers market and then hung out in the park to eat it.
How lovely! My go-to picnic food is cucumber sandwiches for sure, though I bake more these days, so I might bring pirozhki, with beef and potatoes and mushrooms. They're SO good, and the favorite food of my childhood.
One of my fondest picnic memories is in the UK near Ware. When my friends Paul and Joe got married, the post-wedding brunch the next day was a picnic out in a park. We ate a random array of food including much leftover Wedding cake (which included a lovely Victoria sponge), and it was casual and lovely! I would bring fresh fruit, probably berries and grapes.
Yaki onigiri: grilled rice balls. Hot off the grill. Maybe filled, maybe just with a tasty furikake all through, maybe plain. Made with Tamaki Haiga rice, like a boss. ;-) ;-)
I can’t recall the last time we had a sit-on-the-grass picnic, but a tried and true tradition has been taking picnic goods to Shenandoah National Park and having a meal up by skyline drive with a beautiful view in all seasons.
While I’ve never had a go-to picnic food, my normal go-to foods are potato leek soup or spiced pumpkin bread, only one of which travels well.
My favorite picnic was when I was six and had just been in the final showing of a university production of "A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley" (I was roped into it by my aunt, the Theater Prof.) My grandmother, who was famously anti-being-tickled, got chased around and around a picnic table by the young prof who played Marley. I remember thinking that I had no idea she could move that fast, or laugh that hard.
Little bite-sized foods! And I dig the brie, fig jam, and sourdough. Plus some wine. And need some tunes, though. Maybe 90's music? A playlist centered in rhythm and carefree beats. And friends.
I would show up with sourdough bread, some cheeses (brie, sharp cheddar, whatever else struck my fancy at the store), cutting board, and knife. Any fresh fruit that likewise looked good (grapes, cherries, ...).
Hmm, homemade hummus is usually my go-to, so I guess this picnic is going to have a lot of hummus. But if Amal has hummus covered, probably my curry chicken salad w/ grapes and deviled eggs. Best actual picnic was probably with friends in Munich, when we bought cheese, fruit, sausage, and bread at the city's farmers market and then hung out in the park to eat it.
How lovely! My go-to picnic food is cucumber sandwiches for sure, though I bake more these days, so I might bring pirozhki, with beef and potatoes and mushrooms. They're SO good, and the favorite food of my childhood.
I missed out on my usual trans anniversary picnic this year. I might've brought banana pancakes with maple syrup and blueberry.
One of my fondest picnic memories is in the UK near Ware. When my friends Paul and Joe got married, the post-wedding brunch the next day was a picnic out in a park. We ate a random array of food including much leftover Wedding cake (which included a lovely Victoria sponge), and it was casual and lovely! I would bring fresh fruit, probably berries and grapes.