The Mixtape // 09.30.16

Happy Friday, friends! Jordan and I are setting out to accomplish something we haven’t done in months — see a movie in the actual movie theater. This is big, folks. Hope you have a great weekend — here’s this week’s mix of things that are worth sharing. 

So this week, I discovered the magic that is dishwashing soap in getting grease stains out of clothing. You may have been hip before, but for me, this is a game changer.

Whenever the “young people” we know have a new dance that they do, my husband Jordan is that 30-something-year-old dude who thinks he’s cool enough to master the moves. You should see the adoration in his eyes when a crowd forms around someone on the dance floor who is killin’ it. I love this video for how it breaks down the history of social dance and its significance in culture. I kind of teared up at the end.

This week, I caught up with a girlfriend of 15+ years who was in town from D.C. for work. We ate lunch at one of my favorite Harlem restaurants, Chaiwali (pictured above), eating new twists on Indian food, drinking delicious chai tea, and laughed and unpacked a lot as we talked about work, our families, this crazy presidential election, and how it can be hard for women to assert their needs when they’re in relationships. My belly and soul were nourished.

[Side note: if you’re into interior design, check out the duplex above Chaiwali, which is owned by the restaurant’s owner. I’m drooling.]

Has anyone watched the series Chef’s Table on Netflix? Each episode profiles a different world-renowned chef, and it’s so interesting to learn their approaches to cooking. The show is also so beautifully shot. I just watched this episode about the #1 chef in the world, Massimo Bottura, and not only do I want to find a way to visit his restaurant in Italy, I was also completely captured by how his relationship with his wife is completely intertwined with his success as a chef. When she says the line, “I married the restaurant,” I thought to myself, “Yes, and I married a church.”

And finally, if you haven’t listened to episode #562 – “The Problem We All Live With” of This American Life, I can’t recommend it enough. Go. Run. Listen. This is narrated by the same woman who wrote this fascinating essay in The New York Times, which I shared a few weeks back. Lots of thought-provoking stuff here.