Sonya's Patates Braavos: Edition #4 💌🥔

TLDR: biz updates; IG ISR roundup; cool things

welcome note 👋 

Hello, new and OG brave potatoes! ICYMI, you can read past newsletter editions here. Enjoying your time here? Share with others!

This past Friday was International Women’s Day: I attended an 8 am (horrifically early for me) breakfast for students & alumni at Telfer, had tea with my 60-year-old friend Leah in Sandy Hill, then my 20-year-old friend Ola came over to do film photography, then we attended Wall Space Gallery exhibition opening with all women artists, had delicious dinner at The Belmont on Bank St. and then saw the orchestra play at the NAC. While the performance was beautiful, a part of it was about war and occupation of Paris during WW2. I have quite enough war I’m following as it is so it was difficult to be in the present moment.

random cool things corner

• In an effort to consume less saturated fat, I got Sproud—a pea protein milk—and it’s amazing. Turns out it’s Swedish!

• It has a mild pleasant flavour, great texture, and works well in coffee, soups, and dough alike.

  

business updates

• I am filling in as a managing editor at Apt613 2 days a week and it’s been fun! Love sorting through the pitches and organizing people.

• Sent my contract to the copywriting resources client—this is how long it takes to get a deal done when you work with busy people (it’s actually a red flag if someone is ready too fast; usually they are desperate)

• Had a great call with Roger—we are supporting a Jewish advocacy content creator in Israel (I mentioned visiting sometime and he immediately invited me to Shabbat dinner to meet his wife and kids 🥹)

reading list 📚 and ⭐️NEW: subscriber submissions⭐️

• I interviewed a local composer who created a requiem for OperOttawa, honouring 14 Canadian women leaders through history (including my mentor’s aunt Shirley Greenberg!). Going to see it imminently at 2:30pm!

• Did you see something cool or meaningful this week? Reply to my email with the link and I will include it in the next edition!

food corner

Big week for cooking!

• made Costco wontons in restaurant quality: with gochujang and mirin broth, with soba (buckwheat) noodles, obviously green onion, and sriracha mayo

• made my first-ever Dutch baby—highlight of my week—and layered it with my homemade shakshuka (traditional Middle Eastern dish popular in Israel)

• revived Kraft Dinner leftovers (it’s a balance, ok) with caesar dressing and bacon bits and it was delicious

• roasted veggies to make soup today

• watching “Pressure Cooker” on Netflix—an amazing blend of fine dining cooking and cliquey reality TV

Special Report

Almost done watching “American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders” on Netflix and it is phenomenal. Very engaging and stimulating, learned a lot about our neighbours down south… (if you like to criticize governments, the US in the last 50 years is a great place to start and played a huge part in Iran becoming what it is today…) Highly recommend for the docuseries/true crime/Watergate enthusiasts.

politics corner: Israel-Hamas war 🇮🇱🇵🇸

• During Women’s History Month, believe Israeli women. While Hamas refuses to release any hostages or even agree to any ceasefire deals that many in the West so desperately call for (plz direct questions to Hamas and not Israel who is trying to get the deal done with Egypt and Qatar and the US mediating), horrific sexual violence (now confirmed with a UN report) continues for the hostages. You bet their country is going to try and get them released. And high civilian casualties are part of Hamas’s war strategy btw. Deliberate. Gaza is a pawn for Hamas. To create an unprecedented divide in the West and waves of awful antisemitism we are seeing now, being justified. If the IDF didn’t do anything, you bet other groups would be next, by the way…

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