 Hello, I'm Yujean. I live in Philadelphia and like books, foxes, and espresso.
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Last night, Georgia and I went to the restaurant Vedge, which just opened in Center City. The owner/chefs of Vedge had another restaurant that I regrettably never made it to before its closing over the summer, and I was determined not to make the same mistake twice. The entire menu here is vegan.
  Our meal kicked off with some bread, a salad, and this board of spreads and fresh, tiny root vegetables.
 Including this fine and out-of-focus carrot.  This crepe was maybe my favorite dish. I had to remind myself (several times) not to lick the plate.  Hello Georgia.
 It took a long time to order because everything on the menu sounded irresistible, but I saw gochujang as one of the ingredients in this tofu dish and knew that was one thing I definitely wanted.
 Five dishes in and it was time for dessert. Again, how do you choose just one? You can’t. So you order three.
 Like this choco-taco, which featured burnt wood ice cream. Burnt wood. Swoon. Ice cream trio: hibiscus, apple pie, and blackberry cheesecake. (Choco taco lurking in the back.)
  And this nice cheesecake with figs.
Everything was outstanding, including the service. Absolutely and without a doubt one of the best meals I’ve ever had.
So lately I’ve been finding myself putzing around the kitchen more often than usual. I made my first (!) apple pie a few nights ago, and it was consumed in record time, leaving me no time for documentation. Last night, I decided to a small pizza for Kathryn and myself. To my dismay, the bell pepper and broccoli I’d been banking on as toppings turned out to be long past their prime, but I kept calm and carried on.
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350F. While it’s warming up, toss together the dough ingredients and knead. Mine consisted of flour, water, baking powder, and salt. There wasn’t any active dry yeast around, so these alterations resulted in a crispy crust rather than a fluffy one.
 Step 2: Flatten and apply a light coat of oil. This supposedly prevents the dough from soaking up tomato sauce.
 Step 3: Toppings! I had a jar of pizza sauce, which means this pizza isn’t entirely homemade, heh. I spooned some out and sprinkled it with fresh garlic, rosemary, basil, and nutritional yeast (read about nutritional yeast here if you’re unfamiliar) followed by a bed of fresh spinach, roasted peppers, and breaded tofu. When your toppings are all set, place the pizza in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
Breaded Tofu: I portioned myself a little less than half of the block. I pressed out the water and cut it into smaller sized pieces. Then I dipped each piece into almond milk, and rolled it around in my breading mixture. That consisted of breadcrumbs, paprika, black pepper, salt, and cayenne pepper.
Tick tock, tick tock
 Voila!
Step 4: Slice.
Step 5: Devour (not pictured). Bon appétit!
My friends hosted a Thanksgiving themed dinner last night. Some of the dishes served included: a lemon & rosemary roasted chicken, couscous with almonds, two casseroles, coconut rice, sweet potato/chickpea/peanut stew, butternut squash soup, butternut squash risotto, several salads, two macaroni and cheeses, homemade pizza, collard greens, and at least five desserts! The exposures/colors of the pictures are all over the place, oops.
   Danielle with her casserole. One of our fine hosts, Max. There were two macaroni and cheeses (one sweet, one savory) and both were from old family recipes..   Alice & Gus. Dinner tunes played from here.   Pear pie! It tasted even better than it looks.       Andrew’s (vegan) strawberry shortcake. Divine, I swooned over this forever, etc. The lovely Chris. We did so much of this.  My contribution to the party. 
I did manage to be captured in one photo, happily stuffed and imbibed:
 
Happy Friendsgiving! Like Thanksgiving, except with friends instead of conquest.
My first video? That’s actually a complete exaggeration. It’s more a short clip I filmed while playing with Ellington‘s new camera back when we went to the Poconos. Starring Georgia and Ellington, in order of appearance.
Untitled from E Wells on Vimeo.
I spent the better half of a recent Sunday afternoon poring over the sixth issue of Elephant Magazine. One of the featured artists is Nomoco, whose pieces manage to be emotive and whimsical. (And beautiful, of course!) Skill aside, I’m also drawn to these because she repeatedly incorporates my favorite shades of blue and green.
Copped her bio from her agency, Bernstein & Andriulli:
Nomoco was born in Japan and currently lives in London. She graduated from Osaka University of Arts, Japan, majoring in Graphic Design, subsequently graduating from London College of Communication, UK, with a BA in Graphic Design / Illustration, and Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, UK, with an MA in Communication Design, majoring in Illustration.
She has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions in London, Milan, Tokyo, Singapore and New York. Nature and the French horn are her inspiration, and she enjoys playing with ink and its organic movement. She also produces work under her full name Kazuko Nomoto.
           
Images via Pocko and Bernstein & Andriulli.
I was many miles away from home a few days ago, off being a wild, young, and carefree thang. My summery adventure came to a sudden halt when I found myself shouting about a shooting pain in my right hand. Almost immediately, I saw a bee – or was it a wasp? – fly away. Now my hand looks like this. The sting’s on the side of my middle finger’s second knuckle. Later that night, I was also blessed with a mosquito bite on the first knuckle of that same finger. I’m allergic to mosquitoes, so the one-two punch of this sting and bite have effectively transformed my right hand into a swollen, bloated puff.
A second interesting thing happened last night. My friend Hannah is visiting from Boston, and we met for dinner at the sushi restaurant Fat Salmon. The food and service were both stellar, but I don’t think the guy sitting next to us thought so because he proceeded to vomit all over his table.
What a strange weekend this has been.
Kathryn and I have been taking care of our friend’s cat for a few days. His name is Tea. He’s deaf, so he doesn’t wake up from sleep unless you pet him or walk past him very closely. Tea is a living, breathing marshmallow-cloud hybrid. I’d say he’s an angel, but he has a habit of repeatedly nuzzling against my legs right after I’ve applied sunscreen, which apparently doubles as an adhesive when humidity, a heat wave, and cat fur enter the equation. He also does this right after I come home from working out (read: sweaty) or out of the shower. This makes me feel crazy, so I make a fuss, but he doesn’t hear a thing I say.
 One eye is green and the other is blue.  His favorite place to sleep in our apartment is this paper bag. He scratched a hole into one of the bag’s corners. He’ll crawl in and stick one of his legs out through the hole, then blindly reach his way around. An invitation to play, basically.
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From now on I’m challenging myself not to shoot at this angle unless it’s absolutely imperative.
The cabin was a cabin indeed – very Americana with a sailboat motif.
Ellington in the morning.
View from the front steps.
Some of our friends went sailing while Georgia and I canoed to a nearby island and trespassed on it for awhile. (The sail eventually went up!)
We went swimming, of course.
So did the dogs.
Georgia.
I was thinking about the picture above when I took the following:
And I thought of both of them when I took this.