Present Joys Featured Guest: Emily Fiffer
This week we welcome Emily Fiffer of Botanica Restauraunt & Market to share her present joys with us.
Emily Fiffer is the co-owner of one of our favorite Los Angeles restaurants, Botanica. They serve exactly the kind of food we love to eat, chock-full of flavor and variety. (Don’t sleep on their Recipe archive as well–the Caramelized Onion Magic is quite aptly named). Emily also authors the Substack, read, eat, repeat, where she elaborates on her latest literary and culinary consumptions. We’re especially inspired by the way she actively fills her time and attention with what personally nourishes her. Read on to discover Emily’s present joys!
Movement Outside; Google Maps Labels
Movement – specifically outdoor movement – is my meditation. I have a lot of physical energy and if I don’t move a ton daily I don’t feel calm. Thank goodness I live in LA! In my opinion, this city is much more walkable than anyone gives it credit for – take it from someone who walks/hikes 10+ miles daily. If I’m not hiking in Griffith, I’m driving to different neighborhoods and dropping pins. For the past ten years I’ve been Iabelling both my parked locations and any fruit trees I find. To date I have dozens of fig, arugula, kumquat – you get the picture – trees labels located around the city so I can reliably plunder copious walking snacks.
Old Books
I’m an avid reader (so much so that I write a Substack about books – and cooking!). New books are great (looking at you, All Fours), but for me, old books are where it’s at. One of my life’s greatest pleasures is plumbing used bookstores and unearthing books written by women who either never truly got their due, or who’ve been buried in history, or who aren’t from the US and whose work therefore just isn’t as easily accessible. There are so many unbelievable, important, fascinating and beautiful texts that exist; they just require a bit of a deeper dive. I read to escape, to feel inspired, to push me toward emotions I might not want to feel, to open my world to other possibilities. Old books feel more grounded, or at least grounded in a different kind of reality – one where phones and the internet didn’t exist. Books are a portal and if I can happily read for hours, uninterrupted (no phones!), I’m in heaven.
Revisiting Saved Voicemails
The year I moved to LA, I lost the person closest to me: my grandma Elaine. We went from living in the same city, speaking almost daily and seeing each other weekly to me moving across the country and, soon after, her decline and eventual death. For years leading up to losing her I started saving her voicemails on my phone as audio memos and uploading them to a Google Drive folder. Every year on my birthday (and, tbh, anytime I feel lost, lonely or just miss her), I revisit her messages. Hearing her voice brings me a physical sensation of simultaneous joy and grief (not to get too deep, but in my experience, grief can transform into joy with time). It’s a way for me to stay connected to her and feel her presence.
Keeping a Cookbook Collection in Full View
I have so many cookbooks! I keep them stacked as pictured above, in full view, along my kitchen counter. I love looking at their spines all jumbled together, a reminder of my travels and cooking experiences over the years. I don’t usually cook from recipes, but I use the books as inspiration for dish conception, or just dinner for myself. Sometimes I’ll grab one and read it cover-to-cover to immerse myself in a cuisine and remind myself what’s possible. It’s an excellent recipe for not getting stuck in a cooking rut.
Weird Coffee Habit (or any other strangely specific ritual)
Okay, the fact that I’m admitting this publicly is … huge (/ potentially humiliating). But I have a bizarre coffee ritual that I cannot quit, thanks to the Instagram algorithm that served me ‘whipped coffee.’ I’ve been doing it for about a year and have it down to a science: I put ice cubes in a nut milk bag and bash them with a rolling pin until crushed. Then I add the ice, instant coffee and cold water to a mini food processor and blend until it whips up into a delectable, frothy treat. I eat this standing up at my kitchen counter, re-frothing as necessary. I do all of this wearing earplugs because I fear the food processor whizzing the ice will give me hearing loss. I genuinely laugh at myself every day for doing this but I can’t stop! It’s too good and weird.
Solo Travel; Art Dates
For years now I’ve been taking myself on solo trips, both domestically and internationally. I absolutely love being alone, both in cities and in nature. I feel my most invigorated and connected to myself when I’m exploring at my whims, on my schedule, with my energy levels (high!). My travels take two forms: Full nature immersions (daily hiking, lots of cooking, zero music/podcasts allowed, lots of journaling) and city escapes. The city escapes are mostly defined by looking at art. I’ll travel to a city to see a specific show, then build a trip around it. I keep a Notes doc with every show I see and where I see it, and I like to revisit it to remind myself of the breadth of people’s creativity. Relatedly, I also take myself on (minimum) monthly art dates in LA, where I live. Galleries are a wholly underrated way to see art. They’re free, they feature artists you might not see in a glossy museum and on off days you’re the only one there.
A few more joys from Joyce and Michelle...
Ms. Frizz I might have shared this before, but I take so much delight in this little frizz control tool. Smells good and works!
Clothbound Classics Dreaming of a bookcase filled with these after seeing them in one at a UK bookstore.
Stepping Stones Delighted by the marvels of ancient Rome, including these stepping stones, found at Pompeii. The gaps between stones allowed for the passage of cartwheels as well as rainwater and debris. People would walk over the stones to stay clean and dry. Clever!
Armen Market Prunes Amongst the plethora of dried fruits at Altadena’s Armen Market sits a humble box of the largest, tastiest, and tangiest prunes I’ve ever eaten. My father-in-law is also an aficionado. To me, they taste exactly like the plums used in the Saladitos of my childhood.
Jessica Au I just finished reading Cold Enough for Snow and I loved it. (Mining the Nobel Prize list for next reads has not failed me). I also loved this quote from a Liminal interview Au did which reads: “It’s hard to describe but you can exist for a long time without language, without a way to recognise yourself in the world. And yet when you do finally see yourself reflected—even if these experiences are not exactly your own—it can open up a new way of thinking for you.”
Balthazar’s I just got back from New York and the singular best bite of the trip might have been the roasted chicken with chimichurri from Balthazar’s. It can feel rare nowadays for a restaurant to match both quality and ambience, so this was a pleasant surprise.
New York Marathon It was so incredible to catch the New York Marathon while we were in town–the energy was off the charts! Witnessing the culmination of all the runners’ training was so inspiring.
Henni Alftan Love the simplicity and intimacy of Henni Alftan’s paintings.
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