Lindsay's List: June 2024

It's the Pride Edition, baby!!! Savory sundaes, brat summer and a cheeky book recommendation

Jul 01, 2024

This June has simultaneously felt like the longest and shortest month of the year. It feels like the month has gone by in the blink of an eye, but when I really think back to the beginning of the month, it feels like a century ago. The month has been all over the place, and I feel like this month’s edition of Lindsay’s List might be a bit of the same. C'est la vie!

This month’s newsletter includes my first recommendations for several categories —books, albums and movies — and they all happen to be queer, which is a Pride slay!

You’ll also notice that the June newsletter includes this Spotify playlist of what I’ve been listening to this month. Moving forward, this playlist will only be going out to my paid subscribers. I’m still brainstorming more paid-only perks, but the monthly playlist will definitely be one of them. Either way, for just $5/month (that’s literally less than an iced oat milk latte these days), you can get a little extra access to my brain. And it’s even less if you become a yearly subscriber… just saying! June’s playlist is a little all over the place, which seems right considering how this month felt, and features a lot of music that’s related to my favorites for the month.

Now, without further ado, my favorites and flops of June 2024!!!

Upgrade to paid

The Favorites:

Skull Island Prawns at Red Hook Tavern
Location: 329 Van Brunt St in Red Hook
Transportation: B61 Bus
Cost: $18
The Skull Island prawns at Red Hook Tavern
The menu at Red Hook Tavern is definitely best suited for red meat eaters, but since I don’t eat red meat, I turned to our waitress for some recommendations when I finally snagged a reservation for Claire and myself on a Monday night. Lucky for me, our waitress suggested that we get the Skull Island prawns, which I had never seen nor heard anything about given that most of the hype around this Red Hook institution revolves around its dry-aged burger. The prawns come in orders of four and are doused in mojo — a sauce made with a generous amounts of garlic and citrus juice — and herbed butter. Each prawn was perfectly cooked and packed with flavor, not only from the rich sauces but also the acidity of a fresh lemon wedge and the punchiness of fresh herbs. We opted to order a side of charred sourdough with our prawns that came in handy to soak up all the extra sauce. I would 100% go through the hassle of getting a reservation here again just to eat these prawns on the patio on a nice summer day.
“All Fours” by Miranda July
Cost: $30.74
An afternoon reading session at Sunny’s Bar
After seeing one of my favorite book influencers post about how much she loved this book, I picked up a copy for myself on a recent trip to D.C. despite knowing little to nothing about the plot. The book, which I ended up devouring in about a day, is told from the perspective of a moderately-famous artist in her 40s who uncharacteristically decides to embark on a cross-country road trip from Los Angeles to New York. Instead of making it to New York, the narrator ends up on a very different kind of journey that had me re-evaluating my ideas of love, queerness, intimacy, marriage and womanhood. As a woman in my mid-20s, the prospect of aging can often feel overwhelming, especially in a society that profits off the anxiety that might come with having an aging female body. But this book reframed my perspective, showing me what growing into womanhood might look like when pleasure, desire and freedom are centered.
Savory Sundaes
Cost: Varying depending on ingredients
Sumac strawberry sundae and sesame salted caramel brownie sundae
I’ve always been a salty sweet kind of a gal, and lately I’ve been applying this philosophy to my at-home ice cream adventures. This month, I’ve had two savory-ish combos on repeat: sumac strawberries and sesame salted caramel. For the strawberry rendition, I get a really good vanilla bean ice cream (my preference is Häagen-Dazs) and macerate some hulled strawberries with sugar and sumac for at least 10 minutes. I top off the ice cream with the macerated strawberries, olive oil and a tiny drizzle of balsamic glaze, which sounds a little crazy but I promise it really works. The other combo is a little more straightforward — salted caramel ice cream (I prefer Jeni’s) and a drizzle of sesame oil on top. Sometimes if I’m feeling indulgent, I’ll warm up a grocery store brownie to soak up the salty, umami goodness and top it all off with crushed peanuts. Both combos are topped with Maldon flaky sea salt, of course!
“I Saw the TV Glow”
Cost: $20.88 (for one weeknight ticket at an Alamo Drafthouse)
I convinced Claire and our friends, Jake and Alex, to go see this A24 movie after seeing one trailer and hearing from a friend that it was both really good and really queer. The movie, which is directed and written by non-binary filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun, follows the life of an outcast suburban teenage boy named Owen who bonds with his equally strange classmate Maddy over their mutual obsession with a supernatural TV show called “The Pink Opaque.” It’s a bit hard to explain more of the movie without spoilers, but at a very high level, the movie examines the contrast between what life looks like for Owen, who stays put in his suburban town, and what life looks like for Maddy, who more surely decides to follow “her truth.” This movie made me think a lot about my own queerness and how lucky I am to create a wonderful and very queer life outside of the somewhat conservative NJ suburb that I’m from. Unfortunately, not everyone is privileged enough to escape where they are from to pursue a life of true liberation, and “I Saw the TV Glow” explores the detrimental — and potentially suffocating — effects of what happens when someone isn’t able to be true to themselves.
Skate a la Brasa at Pascual
Location: 732 Maryland Ave NE in Washington, D.C.
Transportation: 90/92/96 Buses
Cost: $40
The skate a la brasa at Pascual
The meal I had at Pascual was easily one of the best I’ve had in quite some time. While everything was delicious, the dish I keep thinking about is the skate a la brasa. I’d never had skate before and had been wanting to try it for a long time, and now I’m afraid I’ll never have a skate dish as good as this one again. The fish comes slightly charred with a smoky seasoning and flaky sea salt and is served alongside an assortment of colorful accoutrements, like cabbage, pickled onions and cilantro. It also comes with corn tortillas, which I used to make my own tacos with the skate — which was literally falling off the bone — plus all the toppings and a dollop of chipotle aioli. Altogether, each component of the dish came together perfectly in the warm tortilla with a ton of brightness from the fresh veggies, herbs and squeeze of lime. Truly, this was a perfect summer dish. (Also, I got a dirty iced horchata latte with dessert at this restaurant, and it was so good I have to mention it!)
Ramp and Cantal Escargot at Laurel Bakery
Location: 115 Columbia St in Cobble Hill/Columbia Waterfront District
Transportation: Bergen St G/F or B61 Bus
Cost: $8
The ramp and cantal escargot at Laurel Bakery
As a huge Place des Fêtes fan, I’ve been eager to try its sister bakery Laurel since it opened in the spring. I recently had a Monday off with little-to-no plans and used it as an opportunity to head to Laurel, which is admittedly a bit out of the way. Despite getting there a little past 1 p.m., I was still able to snag all the pastries I wanted and a particularly delicious and rich — but not sweet — iced oat milk mocha. Unsurprisingly, everything was so tasty, but the ramp and cantal escargot was by far the standout pastry for me. The laminated pastry is shaped like a snail (escargot, if you will!) and is impossibly buttery, but the slight bite from the ramps helps to cut through all the richness. Plus, the cantal cheese creates lots of perfectly crispy crunchy bits on the underside of the pastry.
“brat” by Charli XCX
"brat" is everywhere!!!
Last but not least, it should be NO surprise that Charli XCX’s latest album is on my favorites list for June. It’s literally impossible to go three seconds on the internet without seeing a “brat” reference, and for good reason. The hyper-pop vibe of the album is undeniably catchy — I literally have not stopped listening to it — but when you take a moment to actually listen and sit with the lyrics, “brat” has a lot to say about the feminine experience, overthinking and actively choosing to follow the fun. With “brat,” Charli affirms that even the baddest bitches are also just girls! While this is a no skip album for me, some of my favorites can be found on this month’s Spotify playlist (which will only be for paid subscribers next month). Also, I will die on the hill that this album is categorically queer!!!
The Flops:
Not-so-fun house: Despite the fact that I dislike like being around lots of children and standing in the sun for hours on end, I thought it was a good idea to try and go to the Astoria Park Carnival on a Sunday night. We ended up waiting more than an hour for the most mid chicken cheesesteak of my life, paid $10 to take photo booth pics and couldn’t even ride a single attraction because of how long the lines were. Note to self: carnivals are primarily marketed to children for a reason! However, there is a silver lining: Claire and I got to split a really epic soft serve sundae with hot fudge and peanut butter. The next time I attempt to heal my inner child by riding on a Ferris wheel, I’ll just go to Coney Island on a weekday.
Too soft soft serve: On a recent visit to Rockaway Beach, I attempted to bring some soft serve from Ripper’s from the boardwalk back to the beach for Claire and me to share. Even though it wasn’t that warm, the ice cream didn’t stand the test of the walk back to the beach and I ended up with melted vanilla soft serve all over myself and my belongings. A valuable lesson was learned: when you’re at the beach, bring the person to the soft serve NOT the soft serve to the person.
$17 chicken tenders: I went to a Mets game on Friday night and was so excited to have the full stadium experience: a cold beverage, soft serve and chicken tenders. Unfortunately, the chicken tenders were a complete flop and paying nearly $17 for three measly pieces of chicken and french fries that I had to salt myself was a hard pill to swallow. Ironically, this was not the only time I paid this much for chicken tenders this month, but the $18 ones at the Bushwick gay institution 3 Dollar Bill were actually well seasoned and flavorful. It’s hard to say I’d recommend $18 chicken tenders, but at least I wasn’t actively sick to my stomach about the fact I spent that much on the 3 Dollar Bill tenders.