I'm 25! Here's what I've learned from 24

I’ve slowly eaten through the incredible restaurants in my neighborhood, but I finally got a chance to enjoy Bogart Street’s crown jewel Eyval. This Persian restaurant has everything I love: subway tile, neon that isn’t tacky, and subtle sophistication. Oft ranked one of Brooklyn’s best restaurants, Meera and I came ready to feast. To drink, I had the saffron martini, a bright, thick yellow drink that I imagine would give Trump flashbacks to some wild nights. Meera had the sazarak, which is a much darker drink including Lebanese alcohol I saw on No Reservations called arak. We did four courses with the help of our extremely helpful server/acquaintance I met once before Mattt With Three Ts. First, barbari bread is Iran’s answer to focaccia. I was soaking it in labneh, which was in the second course (and my favorite), the mushroom borani. Mushrooms and truffle and poached egg goodness as an island surrounded by labneh. Needed. Third course was killer kabob, which  I was using as relief from the very hot pepper alongside it. The final course was a half chicken with this pomegranate/walnut sauce that felt like the culinary adaptation to “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” somehow. For dessert, rosewater creme puffs with pistachio. How lucky am I to live in a timeline where this restaurant exists. Maybe my new favorite place in New York. It’s upscale without being stuffy, filling without being oppressive.

I had a really fun birthday party on Friday at my apartment, and it was probably my favorite party I’ve ever hosted. Every person there loves me? Sign me up! Despite my joy, it’s still a bit overwhelming to hop to and from conversation and make sure everyone is having fun. I had a moment talking to my friend Kayla by the TV playing music, and the song “Charge It” by Michaël Brun came on. I don’t know anything about this DJ, but the song features Jozzy, Masego, and Bayka, who I enjoy thoroughly. It’s just an easy song to move to, either in an understated head-bop or a middle-schooler jump. I had it on earlier this week while I was stressfully zipping through work, and the dancehall/jazzy mashup was my elixir. When the song came on at the party, I halted conversation with Kayla so we could jump around. Upstairs neighbor activities, for sure. But it was one of my favorite moments of the night.  

The Nicki v. Megan beef. This has been one of the best times to be on the internet in the past year. I am so lucky to watch the wife of a pedophile absolutely spiral out at an Amazonian princess. It’s sad to watch someone who used to be such a titan in music throw away their legacy, especially for women, by relentlessly attacking a peer. “Hiss” is a genuinely good song. Nicki’s answer…well, try to find the song on Twitter instead of giving it a single stream then never hearing it again. I adore how my entire timeline is united under thee stallion empire and rallying for someone who’s been done so dirty by the world around her.

I haven’t been a great watcher this week. In the season I’m watching of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, we watched the contestant eliminated first come back midway through the season after a seven-month filming break for the pandemic only to be eliminated immediately again. Imagine that level of blue balls. All of this time with a score to settle only to fade away once again. Just crazy!

I’m on my podcast grind, and my new favorite is probably NPR’s Code Switch about the intersections of race and everything else. New Yorkers especially would benefit from listening to “What happens when public housing goes private?” about what’s happening with NYCHA (NYC public housing). Something I should have known but didn’t: Section 9 is true public housing founded by the federal government, while Section 8 is co-owned by private developers. The story was co-reported by Fanta Kaba, a 17-year-old journalist who lives in a Bronx NYCHA complex. NYCHA is presenting certain buildings with possible ownership changes that could make projects more expensive but also would bring about much-needed repairs. It’s a really complicated issue and most tenants aren’t presented with full transparency of what’s going down. This just shows the greed that continues kicking people out of the city.

I went to World Spa yesterday, which is an oft-TikToked, gorgeous spa in a very unassuming part of South Brooklyn. This was definitely a splurge, and I luxuriated in all of the grand saunas and pools. During my luxuriating, I was both disgusted and fascinated by the clientele at World Spa. I talk about my privilege quite a bit (I think?), and it’s always wild to watch people who are more out of touch than you are. Most of the patrons did not seem like they lived in the city, and I got to hear friend groups talk about travel in such a spoiled and unaware way. Talking about all of the islands they’ve been to in Europe and one of them going There are islands in Europe? A mother/daughter duo talking about people in the daughter’s life and her talking about a friend who is a startup CTO, and the mom knew what a CTO was! Then the mom talked about her dinner in a few days at Eleven Park Madison as if it were a casual affair. Please. I saw people with suits sitting around a cabana. Why are you at a spa and wearing a suit? Whatever, I probably had something stupid to say that someone else overheard.