Micro-utopias for January

Bedside Mimosa, Chicken in Milk, Ritz Cracker Paintings, Kitchen Holidays

I have an excerpt saved on my phone from issue no. 3 of The Gourmand - which is actually an excerpt from Yours in Food by John Baldessari. He describes his morning ritual of boiling an egg and the conditions required to create what he calls a micro-utopia. A perfectly executed moment in an otherwise dicey day.

This idea, a micro-utopia, presented in this way, really stood out to me. At that time I was eating the same breakfast every day and started thinking of it as my own micro-utopia, a perfect combination of details - getting the specific kind of yogurt I wanted (full fat kefir), fresh fruit (sliced kumquats and raspberries) and hazelnut granola, what bowl I ate it out of, with what spoon.

Now the concept has expanded to take on more rituals and moments sprinkled throughout the day, weeks, months - everyday joys and simple beauty. At the top of this page is a photo I took in 2019 of a woman enjoying a decoratively sliced pineapple on a white table cloth - a perfect example of what, to me, is a micro-utopia. As we get deeper into January (and closer to Blue Monday), here are some others to consider: