What I Ate, What I Remembered: Edible and Not Edible Highlights
From Kurt Cobain to Crystal Rooms: Notes on Mystery, Memory & a Damn Good Hummus
Hi friends—it's been a while! ✨
I'm writing to you from a gloriously sunny and warm spring day in London, and it's hard to believe that winter was just a few weeks ago.
The first half-quarters of the year have taken on a pattern in my life (not complaining): I trade February and March for Brazilian sunshine, swing by Italy for a taste of early spring, and return to London just in time for the next escapade.
It’s a bit of a trick I’ve pulled on the seasons—and maybe on myself—but it works. I get to dodge the worst of the cold, eat indecent amounts of pão de queijo, and pretend that Aperol counts as a vitamin if it’s consumed under the Tuscan sun.
Now that I'm back, slightly more tanned and fully caffeinated, I figured it was time for a little catch-up.
There’s a Swedish word I can’t get out of my head lately: “Jajjemän.” It helped me ride the emotional rollercoaster of leaving Brazil—because when you love people in many places, your soul no longer belongs to just one.
I first came across it in an interview with one of my favourite Stockholm chefs, Mathias Dahlgren. He described how people in the far north of Sweden begin almost every sentence with this upbeat affirmation. It roughly means “Yes, absolutely!”—but it carries a spirit that goes beyond agreement. It’s a nod to resilience, good cheer, and showing up with a can-do attitude, no matter the weather, the task, or the road ahead. Dahlgren tied it to everything from hauling sleds up hills to waiting patiently behind a snowplow, and it struck me how deeply this small word captures a mindset I admire.
“Jajjemän” isn’t just a phrase—it’s a posture.
🇧🇷 Coming Home to São Paulo (and Myself)
I’ve fallen hard for São Paulo—again, but maybe more deeply this time. Spending a month there, wandering its neighbourhoods and tracing the rise of its specialty coffee scene, felt like watching the city reintroduce itself to me. Streets like Ferreira de Araújo are blooming with cafés, design studios, and the kind of culinary creativity that makes you pause and smile. And still, nothing stirs my heart like the sight of those iconic buildings in Higienópolis—a skyline etched with memory, elegance, and a heartbeat I still seem to share.
This time, I went deeper: a long-awaited visit to Alex Atala’s D.O.M., where I tasted sauva ants—a citrus-bright delicacy that reminded me just how bold and curious Brazilian cuisine can be. I also took a soulful detour through Minas Gerais, passing through Ouro Preto and Mariana, where I reconnected with the country's coffee and cheese legacies and followed the steps of Tiradentes through winding colonial streets. After years of uncovering Europe’s hidden historical corners, it felt overdue to return to Brazil’s own.
And though I left a bit underwhelmed by the cuisine in Minas, Belo Horizonte’s Mercado Municipal delivered in full—as Anthony Bourdain knew it would. There, I tasted pastries that felt homemade in the best sense, and fell in love with a silky doce de leite that I still think about on quiet afternoons.
Being in Brazil made me realise something I didn’t know I was missing: I came back home to myself. Surrounded by friends who are family, and family who are friends—it was the kind of deep, grounding self-care that no spa day (the couple’s massage at Rosewood São Paulo and a blissful pause in their Crystal Room did me very good, tho!) or city break could match. A soft, golden nostalgia—a journey not just through streets and flavours, but through memory itself.
🔥 On My Radar
Essex Road area in Islington has recently blossomed into a vibrant hub for food enthusiasts, with a wave of exciting new restaurants and bakeries enriching the local culinary scene. Some highlights:
🍷 Godet
Address: 382 Essex Road, London N1 3PF
Godet is a wine-focused pub that blends the charm of a traditional boozer with a curated selection of French and European wines. Complementing the wines are nine rotating craft beer taps featuring UK breweries. The venue also hosts DJ sets from Wednesday to Saturday, creating a lively atmosphere. Food offerings include smashburgers by Perk’d Up Burger and Sunday roasts by The Ingredientist team.
🍽️ Albers
Address: 23a Englefield Road, London N1 4JX
Albers is a modern European café and restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The menu emphasises seasonal ingredients and includes offerings like small plates and Negronis. The establishment operates as a café during the day and transforms into a wine bar in the evenings from Thursday to Saturday.
🍷 Hector's
Address: 49a Ardleigh Road, London N1 4HS
Situated in De Beauvoir, Hector's operates as a bottle shop and espresso bar during the day, transitioning into a vibrant wine bar in the evening. The establishment showcases a selection of European wines and offers small plates inspired by continental flavours. The cosy setting includes a central marble table for wine tastings and a back room available for private dining.
🍽️ The Brave
Address: 340–342 Essex Road, London N1 3PB
The Brave is a bistro-pub led by chef James Cochran, known for his innovative approach to British cuisine. The menu features dishes like whipped chicken liver parfait and jerk-spiced chicken Scotch eggs. The venue offers a relaxed dining experience with an open kitchen and a spacious garden area.
🌟 What’s Sparking Joy
Lately, I’ve found myself circling back to feminist books, a theme that first lit a spark in me. I just finished Rebel Girl by Kathleen Hanna, her voice still ringing in my head like a punk anthem, and now I’ve slipped into Witches: The Undefeated Power of Women by Mona Chollet—a fierce, graceful meditation on how women who live freely—without children, without convention, without apology—have always been feared, and still are.
It’s stirred something old and familiar. I remember the girl I was—declaring myself a riot grrrl in the shadowed corners of a Catholic school, whispering Bikini Kill lyrics like prayers, quietly refusing the roles laid out for me. That rebellion, small and sacred, against gender roles and expectations, never left and wasn’t just a phase. It grew with me, softened at the edges maybe, but still pulsing beneath the surface. It’s shaped the woman I’ve become, and I see traces of it in every decision I make today. And here I am, years later, turning pages and recognising myself again in every word.
On gentler days, I find myself wandering along Park Road in Crouch End (N8), a stretch that’s becoming a little haven of obsession-worthy finds. Jumi Cheese has me hooked on their honey with truffle—so good it should probably come with a warning label (I joke it has fentanyl in it, but really, the addiction is real).
Just down the way, Change of Heart is a treasure chest of pre-loved gems, where I recently stumbled upon a Kindred of Ireland dress at more than 50% off. And then there’s the Urban Flower shop, whose tulips look like something out of a Dutch master painting—wild, elegant, and unlike any you’ll find at your average market.
These moments, these places, they’ve become small altars of inspiration in my week.
🖼️ Eye Candy & Culture
🎸 Kurt Cobain Unplugged at the Royal College of Music Museum
My current Seattle obsession, fueled by a wave of grunge nostalgia, seems to be following me around London. The Kurt Cobain Unplugged exhibition at the Royal College of Music Museum is a hauntingly beautiful tribute to a moment that defined a generation. Running from 3 June to 18 November 2025, the exhibition reunites two of rock history’s most iconic artefacts: Cobain’s Martin D-18E guitar, played during Nirvana’s legendary 1993 MTV Unplugged performance, and his olive-green mohair cardigan worn during the same set. 💖
This marks the first time these items are displayed together, offering an intimate glimpse into Cobain’s artistry and the raw emotion of that performance. Booking opened on 30th April, and given the significance of this showcase, securing a spot early is advisable. I naturally secured mine! See you there?
🔮 HEXEN 5.0 and Museum Paintings at Annely Juda Fine Art
I’m still mourning the missed chance to see Tarot: Origins & Afterlives at the Warburg Institute—a show that explored seven centuries of tarot’s evolution, from Renaissance Italy to modern mysticism. But fate offers a second draw: Suzanne Treister’s “HEXEN 5.0 and Museum Paintings” at Annely Juda Fine Art, which feels like a portal into that same symbolic realm, but through an entirely different lens.
Treister’s work reimagines tarot through a futuristic lens, blending alchemical symbolism with AI-generated imagery to confront themes like climate change and systemic power. Her pieces, including speculative museum paintings like the Museum of Machine Telepathy, invite viewers into a world where the esoteric meets the technological. It’s a compelling continuation of the tarot narrative, offering a chance to engage with the mystical in a contemporary context.
The exhibition runs until 3 May 2025, providing an opportunity to reconnect with the arcane and the avant-garde and also to experience something unapologetically weird.
🏛️ Secrets & Shadows at Sir John Soane’s Museum
Talking about weirdness, this past weekend, I visited Sir John Soane's Museum in Holborn, central London. If you haven’t been in a while (or ever), this is the time to go. It’s free, it’s strange, and it lingers.
What I was most impressed by during the visit was the sarcophagus of Pharaoh Seti I, one of the most beautiful and famous stone coffins ever found from ancient Egypt (Seti I ruled around 1290 BCE, father of Ramses II). In 1817, the Italian explorer Giovanni Belzoni found it in the Valley of the Kings. The British Museum passed on buying it because they thought it was too expensive. Sir John Soane (a mystical soul honestly), bought it in 1824 for £2,000 — a huge amount back then! He then built a special space inside his house to display it.
If you find it a little bit bizarre, don’t be impressed. Soane was obsessed with death, not as an ending but as a gateway to mystery and imagination. What’s even more astonishing is that every surface of the sarcophagus — inside, outside, even the lid — is covered in intricate scenes and sacred spells from the Book of Gates, one of ancient Egypt’s most profound spiritual maps, very closely related to the famous Book of the Dead.
If you find it inspiring, the Book of the Dead is a collection of spells to help the deceased navigate the afterlife and be judged worthy. It’s personal, moral, and widely used. The Book of Gates is more royal and cosmic—it maps the sun god Ra’s journey through the underworld each night, passing through twelve gates guarded by deities.
Both guide souls through the Duat, but while the Book of the Dead is about protection and judgment, the Book of Gates is about transformation and divine passage.
🍽️ This Edition’s Edible Highlights
🫒 Oma at Borough Market
If you find yourself near Borough Market, do yourself a favour and book a table at Oma. I went recently and haven’t stopped thinking about it since. Perched above the market’s hum, this Greek-inspired gem by David Carter and chef Jorge Paredes feels like a little escape—sun-drenched, intimate, and alive with flavour.
And let’s talk about the hummus. Silky, nutty, deeply satisfying—it might just be one of my favourite hummuses in the world. Paired with the wildfarmed laffa bread, it’s practically a course of its own. The tuna tartare is equally unforgettable—fresh, zesty, and perfectly balanced, with a touch of citrus that makes it sing.
🌮 Lucia’s at Hackney Wick
Tucked into the ever-changing mosaic of Hackney Wick, Lucia’s is the kind of place you stumble into and never forget. It's intimate, buzzing, and gloriously fragrant with the bold, soulful scents of Mexican cuisine done right.
Think handmade tortillas, smoky salsas, slow-cooked meats—and cocktails that hum with citrus and spice. It’s the perfect spot for a laid-back evening that still feels a bit like a celebration.
If you’re after real warmth—on the plate and in the room—this is one for the list.