The Cool-Kid Water Bottle, an ‘Ube’ Tank Top, and More Things to Buy This Week

This post originally appeared on September 3, 2019, in Add to Cart — the weekly newsletter for people who love shopping (almost) as much as they love eating. Subscribe now.

I’ll admit that I get most of my recipes from Pinterest. Inspiration comes from all over the place — my friends’ Instagram stories, memorable restaurant dishes, actually-good food sites — but when I’m wandering the aisles of Whole Foods late on a Thursday night, all that vague inspo gets boiled down to a few keywords (“tomato + white beans + vegan”) that I punch into the Pinterest app. The algorithm spits out a few options from cooking blogs with overly cutesy names, I open a few new tabs, and within just minutes, I’ve literally added it all to cart.

Yet I can’t quit cookbooks, and sales data would suggest I’m not alone. It seems as if there’s never been a wider array of beautiful, thoughtful, diverse cookbooks out there, providing inspiration for Pinterest scrolling as well as actual cooking guidance. Compiling Eater’s fall cookbook preview, I got amped about the idea of making my own pasta dough (American Sfoglino by Evan Funke), trying my hand at bibimbap (Maangchi’s Big Book of Korean Cooking by Maangchi), or making harissa from scratch (Sababa by Adeena Sussman). I may not bring the actual books into my cramped kitchen while cooking, where they’ll inevitably get splattered and sticky (not to mention take up all the counter space). But the inspiration that such hefty, visually satisfying books supply is very real.

This week, they’ll be making my Pinterest searches that much more interesting.

Things to buy

• Another bit of inspo: Antoni Porowski on the cover of his new cookbook with a towel slung perfectly over his perfect shoulder. Now I desperately need striped kitchen towels of my own.

• The fastest way to channel the youth: Buy a Hydro Flask water bottle. If you’re feeling particularly insecure about your age, cover it with stickers.
• A grease-proof, waterproof notebook with the look of a Moleskine? Yes, please.
• For those who love a good food shirt, the cheeky Filipino food T-shirts (including a purple “ube” tank) from Sarap Tees are a delight.

Things to know

• Boba has now gone full-on school cafeteria lunch, with Del Monte fruit cups featuring bursting boba balls filled with fruit juice.
• Cheetos’ latest marketing campaign includes a runway show and pop-up at New York Fashion Week, all under the banner of (get ready) the House of Flamin’ Haute.
• In the kitchen decor realm: If you haven’t read Curbed’s TV Issue, I highly recommend the piece on TV kitchen islands and what they represent in shows like Big Little Lies.

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