The March R.E.P.O.R.T.
A stack load of new recommendations.
This is the Salad Days R.E.P.O.R.T. It’s the thing that started this whole Substack!
We know you love recommendations, want to discover more independent brands and are keen to hear about cool things to do in London, so we started writing our monthly R.E.P.O.R.T. It covers everything we’re reading, eating, playing, obsessing over, recommending and treating ourselves to. We hope it will make for useful and interesting reading, and we send it out once a month.
This content is exclusively for you, our gorgeous subscribers, and we’ll strive to fill it full of top tier suggestions every time. It will always remain free and all past issues are available here. Thank you so much for being here.
READING: MY WILD AND SLEEPLESS NIGHTS
Liv found this for just a few pounds in our favourite book charity shop in Streatham Hill, and I immediately stole it to read while I was away for a few days. I’ve loved all of Clover Stroud’s other books and My Wild and Sleepless Nights was no different, I tore through it in a couple of afternoons. Her writing is so beautifully heartfelt, but completely raw and full of truth, even if it’s sometimes unflattering. This is her musings on motherhood; Clover is the mum of five children who she’s had at different stages of her life, her first as a twenty-something and her most recent at 41. Even though I’m not a mum myself I’m always drawn to real women’s stories and find it interesting to immerse myself in their perspective. This was really moving in so many places as Clover talks about losing her own mum at just 16.
EATING: KIMCHI AND CHOCOLATE NUTS (NOT TOGETHER)
On a quest to improve my gut health I set about adding a few fermented foods to my diet regularly, and the last frontier of that was finally trying kimchi. I’ve never been naturally drawn to it, I’m not sure why because like every good Millenial I’m obsessed with funky briney acidic flavours. On a day out in Herne Hill I stopped at one of my fave delis, Dugard and Daughters, and was reeled in because this Love Fermented one has a Great Taste award – that black badge loves to see me coming! It said it was on the spicier side and worked well with eggs so I thought I could add it to my morning scramble. In a week I’ve already been through one jar of this and have been back to buy another, it is SO EXCELLENT. It’s fresh and crunchy and adds a whole new dimension to eggs but also salads, salmon and rice. My second food obsession this month is these Forest Feast salted dark chocolate covered almonds which I was inspired to buy after I saw Hope Batchelor add them to her savoury snack plate, and I spied another Great Taste award which made me feel justified about paying like £4 for them. THESE ARE ADDICTIVE and I’ve had to hide them at the back of the cupboard so I don’t eat them all at once. Divoon.
PLAYING: WHITE LOTUS (OBVIOUSLY) BUT ALSO TIK TOKS ABOUT ALL THE FASHION IN THE SHOW
It goes without saying that we are watching this TV masterpiece. Mondays can’t come around soon enough to catch the next episode. But as Mike White is known to weave hidden symbolism and meaning into almost every element of the show we are also watching a hell of a lot of Tik Toks where people dissect every single outfit worn by each character. As well as just being interesting from a costume point of view, seeing all the thought and effort that goes into creating an entire resort wardrobe for like 20 people at one time, these creators use this info to create different theories and hypothesise about who is good, who is bad and what’s going to happen in the show. One of my faves just from a fashion knowledge point view is @great_dayn and I also found this one from @lexopedia0 really insightful and interesting! For more reading outside Tik Tok I’ve been loving the Substack Cult Classic which has lots of thoughtful articles that discuss the show’s fashion from different points of view.
OBSESSING OVER: NOUGHTIES STYLE
Our dad randomly sent us a load of pictures from holiday we took in like 2004/2005 and it bought all the glittery oversized belt extreme straightened hair of it flooding back to us in low pixel detail. We’ve been immersed in so many fashion memories since then reliving the best of noughties fashion and we can’t get enough of it!! I never thought I’d look back at this era with fond memories but something about the low rise jeans and pashminas has got us remembering what fun fashion was back then before everything was taken so seriously and photographed and edited for social media to within an inch of its life.
RECOMMENDING: THE COACH MAKER’S ARMS
Our mum’s really into doing our family tree so over the years we’ve visited quite a few places around town where our past relatives lived and worked. Some of them were coach makers in central London and so she wanted to visit The Coach Makers Arms behind Selfridges just because she liked the thought they might have drunk there one day. It was originally built 140 years ago on what was the banks of the (now buried) River Tyburn but today is a super cute pub that’s more of a boozer for just drinks downstairs, with a lovely newly decorated “dining room” upstairs. We were a bit worried it would be too fancy but were pleased to find at its heart it’s just a good pub with friendly service, delish fish and chips and a gorgeous interior. Obsessed with the high shine dark green ceiling and specially designed menus. It was a really pleasant place to spend a few hours for lunch and perfectly located to mooch around Marylebone after.
TREATING OURSELVES TO: A PERSONALISED HAIRBRUSH
I need a second hairbrush so I always have one on the go when I’m washing and drying the other (I have super greasy hair so find I need to wash my brush quite often!) and look what will be at our next market at Battersea Power Station! By Mehshake offers custom hairbrushes and claw clips, but she’ll also have a range available at the market with different phrases and words on if you want to take one home then and there. I know it’s cheesy but I’m thinking about getting a “Bride” one just as a cute little reminder of getting married this year. If this isn’t your thing then hold the phonesssss because maker Mehreen will also have personalisable claw clips too where you can add on your choice of charm to dangle off of it! The cutest thing I’ve ever seen! She’ll be trading with us on Saturday along with 29 other amazing brands.
I’ve got my eye on those gorgy customised brushes and clips😍