April favorites
roses, what I ate video, spring recipes, film and books
Welcome to mamaeats, a twice-weekly newsletter (Tues. & Sat.) inspired by a simple + seasonal home life. I’m a mother of three, avid reader, gardener, and home cook who focuses on nourishing, whole food meals with a focus on plants. This newsletter is my labor of love, and it means so much that you are here. If you are not already, and are able to do so, please consider becoming a subscriber to support my work here. This gives you access to all the archives and recipes (find the recipe index here), as well as cook-along videos which go along with most recipes.
This is volume four of a series for paid subscribers, in which I gather up some little notes on my delights lately: things I’ve enjoyed reading, watching, cooking, and doing this month— or, things in which I’ve found inspiration or beauty. A mixed bouquet of this and that, picked by me for you. This newsletter may appear truncated if reading in email; you will need to open it in a browser to view in its entirety.
film
Triangle of Sadness (2022)
I got a bee in my bonnet to make my way through some Criterion Collection films after re-watching A Tale of Springtime last month. I randomly chose a few options from the selection my library has, and the first was Ruben Östlund’s film Triangle of Sadness, which I found darkly hilarious with gorgeous visuals. I remember watching his 2014 film, Force Majeure, which I loved for its perfect portrayal of incredibly tense family/marriage dynamics. Triangle of Sadness is a satire of our wealth and appearance obsessed culture, from influencers to billionaires. It centers on a superwealthy group of Europeans on a luxury superyacht cruise who are waited on hand and foot. In a scene before the cruise begins, the woman in charge of the front of house staff tells her crew that they must never refuse a guest’s request, even if illegal or absurd, the answer must always be, “Yes, sir. Yes, madam. I’ll see what I can do.”
What ensues is hilariously dark satire and a grotesque seasick/food poisoning scene reminiscent of Monty Python (with a little Woody Harrelson cameo as the constantly drunk, largely absent captain with socialist views). In one of my favorite moments, an influencer has her boyfriend take photos of her posing with a forkful of spaghetti raised to her mouth, during dinner at a table with other guests, who are watching (squirm, so uncomfortable). After taking several shots in various poses, she sets the forkful back down on her plate and takes the phone back to review and edit the photos, dropping her smile and ignoring everyone else. One of the guests asks, “Aren’t you going to eat the pasta?” and she distractedly says, “Oh. No. I’m gluten intolerant.” Her boyfriend follows up with, “It’s just for the picture. She’s an influencer.” There are so many shrewd and perfectly eviscerating moments like this, that even at 2.5 hours, I was not ready for it to end.
A Taxi Driver (2017)
I also watched Jang Hoon’s film A Taxi Driver, which tells a simplified version of the incredibly brutal 1980 Gwangju Massacre in South Korea. I found this film to be incredibly touching- despite the bloodshed, it also focuses on the beauty of human connection, compassion, and empathy during times of crisis. Hundreds of taxi drivers banded together during the violence to transport and rescue the wounded and protect marching citizens, and many were killed doing so. This is story of one particular taxi driver and the foreign journalist who he transported, and the bond that formed between them. It’s based on a true story and by the end I was definitely crying.