18. Summer garden recipes!
On harvesting cucumbers in subtropical NYC and the woman who stole $270K for Gucci.
Today’s letter includes: The art of corporate credit card fraud, tennis courts made of antique rugs, a new restaurant from our friends at Thai Diner, and why hiring has tanked in the city that never sleeps.
Hi friends. I don't know about your place of residence, but this NYC summer has been relentless. We've been alternating between heat waves and thunderstorms with zero relief, not to mention those apocalyptic days when Canadian wildfire smoke turned the sky orange and the air toxic. I keep hoping this is a fluke, but ✨✨ science ✨✨ says otherwise.
Here's my new favorite depressing party fact: New York City has officially entered the subtropics. The US National Climate Assessment reclassified us from temperate to humid subtropical back in 2020, but most people seem blissfully unaware (though they're definitely feeling it).
The proof isn't just in the puddles. Botanists are spotting camellias, figs, and magnolias blooming in city parks—plants that belong in Georgia, not Greenwich Village. Meanwhile, New England vegetation is literally moving north to escape the heat. Welcome to subtropical New York, where the infrastructure was built for a climate that no longer exists.
Last weekend, however, was finally the perfect temp. And my little terrace garden seemed to have recovered from the perpetual beating the heatwaves were giving it. Previously we'd been getting a cherry tomato here and there and some herbs like basil, rosemary, sage, and dill (although the dill could be better), and of course Perilla leaf (Korean version of shiso), but last weekend we harvested our first cucumbers!
To celebrate, my sister Katie came over for a dinner on the terrace and I finally got to channel my inner Ina Garten. I think I honestly do love my husband Ben as much as Ina loves Jeffrey but I promise not to talk about it as much as she does! (also hi to Ben's mom Maria 👋🏻). The menu felt decadent but was very easy to execute a little in advance so I wasn’t still cooking when Katie arrived. It was exciting to source the majority of the veggies and herbs from the garden!
On the menu:
Burrata with Truffle and French Espelette Salt, homemade sourdough
Tomato Ricotta Galette
Cucumber Salad
Orange Olive Oil Cake
If you don't know what Espelette salt is, fear not, nor did I until Katie kindly brought me some home from her recent excursion to Basque country.
Espelette salt is what happens when the French Basque region takes its only AOC-certified spice—a sweet, smoky red pepper that's been replacing black pepper in local cooking since the 18th century—and mixes it with coarse salt. The result is an earthy, fruity blend that's just spicy enough (4,000 Scoville units, so basically nothing) to make your eggs interesting without requiring a glass of milk. You'll see strings of these red peppers hanging from balconies all over Basque villages each fall.
I'm sharing the recipes after the Party Talk section (except for the cake because my sister made that!) feel free to scroll on by if it doesn't interest you.
What's your Reddit strategy? Google's increasingly broken search results are driving hundreds of millions of users to Reddit—one of the last places online that still feels human. Advertisers have widely abandoned individual websites, but if you take away social apps like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and utilities like Google and ChatGPT, Reddit's closest competition among websites is Wikipedia. The irony? Being the final "island of humanity on a dying web" makes Reddit incredibly valuable to the very companies killing the rest of the internet. For marketers: If you're not thinking about Reddit strategy yet you need to. Reddit is also the top web domain cited by LLMs in June 2025.
Should I do it? I might! I'm sure most of you have seen the story about the Food 52 exec, Shannon Muldoon, who used the company card for thousands of dollars in personal expenses. Between 2021 and 2023, Muldoon stole more than $270,000 from Food52, including $126,000 worth of luxury clothing from Net-a-Porter and more than $17,000 worth of flights on Delta, according to court documents, though the total amount stolen is probably much greater. But if you haven't here are some delicious quotes about her:
“She would talk about it, she would wear it, she would tell us about her couch that’s vintage from Italy,” said one former staffer.
"Her clothes started getting better; her nail art was crazy; she got a lot of Botox."
"She'd send me Farfetch links for crazy Gucci jackets and be like, 'Should I do it? I might!'
Last August, a grand jury in New York indicted her for one count of grand larceny in the second degree. The real question I had was how did she do it -- especially in a digital world where it's so easy to analyze transactions quickly. Apparently she would tie her purchases to specific campaigns so they would be lumped into that bigger budget. "She was smart about categorizing her expenses per client, and that was a way of not getting flagged. It definitely required some intention and work on her end," a worker said.
Hiring in New York City is down, down, down. It's slowed significantly in the first six months of 2025. Just 956 private-sector jobs were added, marking the city’s slowest non-recession, non-pandemic payroll growth in decades, according to The New York Times. Other U.S. metros such as Los Angeles and San Francisco have also experienced sluggish job growth. I'm sure we have AI and the current administration to thank.
US debt just hit $37 trillion, six years ahead of schedule. The Treasury Department's latest numbers show we've blown past projections that didn't expect this milestone until after 2030. COVID spending accelerated everything, and recent tax legislation is set to add another $4.1 trillion over the next decade. For context, that's roughly equivalent to the entire GDP of Germany. The numbers are so large they've become almost abstract, which is probably the point.
A tennis court made of gorgeous rugs. Jaipur Rugs, an Indian rug company built a tennis court entirely out of antique carpets and had female artisans from rural Rajasthan face off against pro player Rohan Bopanna. Everything was handcrafted—the net took 15 days to weave from bamboo silk, tennis balls were made from New Zealand wool, even the rackets. The campaign celebrates their new London showroom while perfectly capitalizing on tennis mania. Considering that 17.78% of the world's population lives in India, it makes no sense that we don't see more through its gaze. That makes this campaign worth sharing IMO. Plus, it's visually stunning and tells a story about craftsmanship that feels genuinely meaningful rather than performative.
NYC's next chicken finger obsession is here. Mommy Pai's opened Friday (August 8th) at 203 Mott Street in Nolita, serving Thai-twisted chicken fingers from the team behind Thai Diner (SO GOOD). We're talking lemongrass and coconut flavors with eight sauce options, plus tropical drinks and Thai tea soft serve. It's takeout-only through a street window. The people are ready to claw for these.
Happenings: Resident's September Dinners are live. West Elm is having a 50% off sale. Acne sample sale in NYC. Suicoke is having their rare seasonal sale (they are the most comfortable shoes for real, for real).
For the Galette:
Dough:
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
3-4 Tablespoons of Ice Water
Filling:
1 pint cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1½ cups ricotta cheese
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons finely chopped basil
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Cut the very cold butter in half long ways, then turn it on its side and do it again, making the butter into 4 long cubes. Then cut, keeping the butter cubes together, cut half inch squares. Don't worry too much about the method, you just want to end up with lots of little squares of butter somehow without making it too warm.
Place flour, salt, and butter in a bowl
Coat the butter pieces in flour and use your hand to smash the butter cubes into the size of small peas. Add cold water and stir into flour butter mixture to combine. With your hands, form the dough into a ball, flatten and cover tightly with plastic wrap.
Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place oven rack in center position.
Stir together ricotta cheese, Parmesan, basil, salt, and pepper.
Roll out the dough into a 15-inch round and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Spread the ricotta cheese mixture evenly over the dough, leaving a 3-inch edge for folding over.
Arrange the tomatoes, cut-side up, on top.
Fold the edge of the dough up onto the top of the tart. Brush with the beaten egg.
Place the galette in the oven and bake for 50 minutes until the crust is golden brown.
Optional: Drizzle with olive oil and maldon salt. Serve hot.
For the cucumber salad:
2 English cucumbers or 4 small cucumbers, very thinly sliced
½ large red onion, very thinly sliced
¼ cup white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey or agave nectar
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
Freshly ground black pepper
For this recipe, a mandolin is your friend (always use the safety guard though!) If you don't have one that's ok too, but I think it's a game changer and they're not expensive. I have this one.
In a large bowl, toss together the cucumber, onion, vinegar, honey, and salt. Chill for 20 minutes.
Transfer to a serving bowl, leaving any excess water behind. Sprinkle with the dill. Season with several grinds of pepper and serve.
Don’t forget to give this letter a heart or re-stack if you enjoyed! <3
Gabby is just a gem. Hope I see you at Piija Palace again soon.
Thanks for reading! It would mean a lot if you gave this article a heart!
Okay those CUCES! 😍
Hi right back at ya! You can try Rose's couscous recipe with tomatoes and cucumbers, too. We added grilled shrimp and it was the perfect summer one-dish meal!