The fourth annual Apartamento cookbook, an homage to eggs, compiles favorite egg recipes and the stories behind them from 16 of the world’s best chefs, food lovers and culinary taste makers, from Tokyo to Tunis.
DYLAN WATSON-BRAWN - Fried Eggs
"I don't like fried eggs very much - only if they are done in one particular way. This technique is based on a classic French recipe I read when I was a kid, from Fernand Point, the chef behind La Pyramide. According to him it's the only way to cook fried eggs. Point drank a magnum of champagne every day; he lived a very good life. I only cook fried eggs when I am feeling very ambitious and I have an ample amount of butter on hand."
INGREDIENTS (serves 1) 1 egg 100g butter 1 sprig thyme and some picked leaves 1 garlic clove Salt and pepper 2 pans (one non-stick or cast-iron pan and one saucepan) METHOD First, you need a very good egg and very good butter to make this recipe. In the restaurant we like to use butter made from the milk of a Jersey cow named Ursula, and the eggs come from the chickens of the Maran breed. Heat up about half of the amount of butter in a non-stick or cast-iron frying pan, then warm the thyme and the smashed garlic clove in it. When the butter sizzles- the pan needs to be quite hot- crack the egg into the pan and cook it on one side. Simultaneously set up a small saucepan to heat the rest of the butter. When you start to see some caramelisation on the edges of the egg and the white is still not set, pour the hot butter over the white and finish with some over the yoke. Immediately remove the egg from the pan and dress with salt and pepper. Finish with some of the pan butter.
BOOK Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall "Through her prose, Mikki Kendall exposes the egregious blind spots of the feminist movement and gave me a better understanding of how to fight for the rights of all women, not just the ones who look like me. To gain equality for all, some of us, myself included, will have to swallow some difficult truths—this may be inconvenient and uncomfortable, but this is precisely what it takes to stand in solidarity and to listen to the voices of the women who have been oppressed by a movement that should’ve been helping them all along.” — excerpt from Kirsten Miller in Idun’s recent journal post of must-reads. Order Hood Feminism from Semicolon, Chicago’s only black woman-owned bookstore HERE.
ART Artist, Kenesha Sneed L.A.-based designer, art director, painter, and ceramicist. Working between two worlds; the digital and the natural Kenesha Sneed's art is one of form, function, and expressive colors. Discover her work HERE.
ORGANIZATION BlackFem Inc. A feminist organization that focuses on giving girls of color the confidence, skills, and resources to build and sustain wealth. Utilizing an integrative educational model, school partnerships, and with a focus on intersectional feminism BlackFem empowers underserved communities. Donate and learn more about BlackFem HERE. FILMS Le Cinema Club Rather than one film here is a list of films featured on Le Cinema Club by a young British-Nigerian filmmaker and artist Ayo Akingbade. The list of films she loves engage with the history of race, protest, and political struggle. Find the list of films HERE.
SHOP Sincerely Tommy This Brooklyn-based concept store focuses on emerging women's wear and art. Owned by Kai Avent-deLeon, the shop is a constant source of inspiration and community empowerment. Discover more HERE.
Idun’s Mission: "Inspiring and empowering women to wear what they find here with confidence.”
We haven’t done everything we can to fulfill this promise. As a shop in St. Paul committed to bringing interesting and talented independent designers to you, we sorely missed the mark in bringing BIPOC designers and artists into our store.
We're focused on changing this.
The past two weeks have been focused on the needs of our local community, specifically donating and volunteering with organizations fighting systemic racial injustice and rebuilding our city. We will continue these efforts here at home, and work as a team to continue our education, specifically reading through Rachel Cargle’s book list https://bookshop.org/shop/Elizabeths.
Long-term, Idun has signed pledge15, meaning at least 15% of our shelf space will come from Black designers and makers. We have missed so many talented and artistic designers that we would be honored to carry and be a part of the Idun family.
This shift in our offering will be reflected in our upcoming collections.
Art inspires everything we do at Idun. We are committed to collaborating with Black artists, within design, photography, content, dance, poetry, film, and more. We have a growing list of artists in mind that we are beginning to reach out to for future collaboration opportunities.
Lastly, we are investing in fighting wealth inequality. We are giving monthly to Black Fem Inc., which focuses on financial literacy, designed to serve BIPOC girls as young as three, all the way through to adulthood. We believe empowering women starts with equal opportunities within education and financial literacy, and we are committed to supporting these efforts through recurring donations.
The opportunity to reassess where we have fallen short only shows me how much more we can do to create a more interesting and diverse expression of our vision at Idun. Please email me with any comments or concerns at Dahlia@shopidun.com.
Books have this magical ability to transport us into worlds that are not our own. They have the power to move us from the mundane desk job to a spellbinding forest or a quaint village outside of a city we’ve never traversed. They allow us to feel seen, heard, and understood. They let us know that we are not alone—even in this.
Reading has always been a powerful form of escapism, but it feels even more relevant in the age of quarantine. As I sit alone in my apartment, yes, there are feelings of loneliness, but I’m also reminded that I can easily move into another world by merely flipping a page. So, during these unprecedented times, I’ve found myself turning page after page, escaping to worlds that are not my own, engaging in the principles and knowledge of writers who are thousands of miles away or hundreds of years apart, but whose words are no less poignant.
Maybe you too are hoping to find solace in a world that is not your own, or perhaps you’re hoping to be immersed in a conversation that makes you see the world in a different way, or maybe you’re longing to feel seen through the enigmatic words of a poem. I have felt each of these as I’ve waded through the hours, days, and weeks of quarantine, and this is what I’m reading to feed my soul.
Fiction
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi This book had me spellbound from the first sentence, “Nobody ever warned me about mirrors, so for many years I was fond of them, and believed them to be trustworthy.” From there, I became absorbed by Oyeyemi’s magical retelling of the fairytale “Snow White,” which hinges on the structure of race in America, the politics of passing, and the cultural idea of beauty. The story of Boy Novak gripped me until the very end—if you’re looking for a book to get lost in, this is it.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky Through a series of letters addressed to an anonymous reader, I became intimately acquainted with the ups and downs of 15-year-old Charlie as he tries to navigate the throes of high school. Not only did the book leave me reminiscing about high school, but it also brought me into deep thought about mental health and how our bodies protect us at certain times and open us up to heal at others. Perks reminded me that we all struggle with painful or traumatic things, but we don’t have to go through them alone.
Non-Fiction
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall I picked up this book knowing that it would forever change me and the way I think—not unlike Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me (side note: if you haven’t read this one, you should!). Through her prose, Mikki Kendall exposes the egregious blind spots of the feminist movement and gave me a better understanding of how to fight for the rights of all women, not just the ones who look like me. To gain equality for all, some of us, myself included, will have to swallow some difficult truths—this may be inconvenient and uncomfortable, but this is precisely what it takes to stand in solidarity and to listen to the voices of the women who have been oppressed by a movement that should’ve been helping them all along.
Almost Everything: Notes on Hope by Anne Lamott I feel like I dogeared nearly every page of this book. It was exactly what I needed in the moments of despair and uncertainty that sometimes feel like they might swallow me whole. Anne Lamott gets it, and instead of running from it or sugarcoating it, she embraces it. Like when she says, “Every day we’re in the grip of the impossible conundrum: the truth that it’s over in a blink, and we may be near the end, and that we have to live as if it’s going to be okay, no matter what.” Lamott reminded me that life is hard and it will inevitably be filled with things that cause us immense anguish, but joy will surprise us, even in the midst of this.
The fourth annual Apartamento cookbook, an homage to eggs, compiles favorite egg recipes and the stories behind them from 16 of the world’s best chefs, food lovers and culinary taste makers, from Tokyo to Tunis.
BOOK 
A selection of must-reads by