Open Throat
On my lobster overdose, books about big cats and writing on planes
Last week, I was on Cape Cod. I’ve been going for one week a summer every year, with two exceptions, since I was eight. It’s my favorite place and I wish I could stay for the whole summer and live my best Elin Hilderbrand life. But alas, I have to work for a living.
While I’m there, I try to eat seafood for every meal (one, because how can i not when it’s that fresh, two, my parents are footing the bill… love you). This year, I went all in on lobster in a way that I guess I haven’t in a while, so by the end of the week I was like… please, no more lobster (this is probably the bougiest sentence i have ever written)… but man, was it delicious while it lasted.
Lobsters I ate on the Cape
Knuckle Sandwich - this sandwich is, as the name suggests, filled with the knuckle meat of lobster, topped with bacon, guacamole and lettuce between two slices of texas toast. this used to be my favorite sandwich but they skimped on the knuckle this year! sad.
Lobster Benedict - i mean…. need i say more?
Lobster & Chorizo Bolognese - honestly, we need to give this a little fanfare. this was described as “half grilled pound and a quarter lobster, creamy chorizo ragout, pappardelle pasta, burrata, garlic bread,” what came out was a beautiful bowl of pasta, with a buoyant ball of burrata on one side and an intact lobster, sliced in half, on the other. it has been many a year since i have actually had to crack into a lobster and fish the meat out, and i gotta say, i’ve never felt more alive
Lob & Lob - a small lobster roll and a cup of lobster bisque— the IDEAL combo! and so silly to say out loud.
Lobster Roll - the classic, i get it cold. they did NOT skimp on this one, though i will say the “market prices” are out of control… a lobster roll should not be more than $30, come on now.
Seafood Stew - a bisque with scallops, shrimp and lobster. this was the last bit of lobster i consumed before my last meal which was an absolutely delicious scallop, parmesan risotto with asparagus
Thank you lobsters, bugs of the sea, for gracing my plates last week. It will be another year before I eat you again. Probably.
What I’m Reading
So, I got a lot of books while I was on vacation (8). You see, there is this used bookstore on the Cape that I love that never lets me down. And then there was a library book sale, and that’s basically for charity, so how I could leave empty handed... But what I didn’t need to do, was go to Skylight Books upon my return. My intentions were pure, but I saw a book by Mary Shelley that I had never heard of that sounded amazing and I just could not leave without it, you know???
Open Throat by Henry Hoke - This was a delightful fever dream of a book. Inspired by P-22 (the mountain lion that lived in griffith park and died last year), the narrator of this book is a mountain lion who lives in Griffith Park and listens to the conversations of hikers and meditates on his upbringing and his hunger and what would happen if he ate a human, one in particular. He shares the park with a nearby homeless encampment that he refers to as town and his people, but when a fire breaks out, he’s forced down into the streets of “ellay” and has a new kind of adventure.
It’s such a short, fascinating read, written largely in lower case, stream of consciousness that made me deeply care about this cat! There are a couple set pieces toward the end of the book that I really loved and probably won’t ever stop thinking about.
This also checks off book by a living man from my Summer Reading List Bingo card — I am free now!
The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand - When Hollis Shaw, internet famous food blogger, loses her husband in a car accident, she decides to head back to her native Nantucket and host four friends from four different periods of her life for a Five-Star Weekend. She invites her childhood friend, Tatum, who never left the island and resents Hollis for leaving her behind, her college friend, Dru-Ann, a sportscaster who is in the midst of getting cancelled for a misunderstood mental-health related comment, Brooke, a friend she made in her thirties who has had enough of her husband’s inappropriate behavior, and Gigi, a woman she’s never met but became friends with through her website, who is keeping quite a few secrets.
Like all of Elin’s novels, this was full of juicy drama and great food descriptions. There is truly nothing like cracking open an Elin Hilderbrand novel on the beach. It’s one of my most treasured simple pleasures!
What I’m Writing
On the plane ride to Boston (from which i then take a bus to the cape, an odyssey that is well worth it), I watched American Fiction, which in part a movie about writing, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One, because… why not, and wrote a much needed scene for Novel 2 in my Google Doc on my phone.
It’s honestly bliss to write on a plane when my phone is disconnected and no one can disturb my peace, not even me. I did not finish my draft edits before I left, but I’ve returned feeling inspired and motivated to work on the last few chapters.
I think I’ll have it done by this weekend, which means I’ll be making a trip to Staples to print it out so I can read it more easily and make notes on the page as needed.
Last night I was actually having fun with my editing and enjoying the pacing of the last few sequences in the novel and feeling stressed for my main character even though I know exactly what happens to her! Yes, I made her up, but she feels like a close friend that I enjoy spending time with and living vicariously through. You know what I mean?
I still need a new name for Trish though. It’s hard to change a name when it’s been that way in your mind for so long. She also doesn’t physically appear in the book, she’s only alluded to — a friend that the main character was close with in college but they slowly lost touch… so she needs a name that you’re going to remember even though you don’t really meet her.
Please send help in the form of suggestions.
A feeling I love—
It’s been a long day,
A long flight,
A long ride back from the airport.
You’re dehydrated, so tired you have a headache.
The car pulls up to your house and you lug your suitcase inside and you unlock your door—
In the doorway you pause, to see if anything is different,
but it’s all the same, just as you left it,
yours.
And also—
Sitting crossed legged on the beach at twilight,
the sand soft and cool beneath your bare legs,
thinking about all the girls you were before this,
and maybe, finally, this one is your favorite.
That’s all from me this week! Stay Tuned.
