Four Comforts for the Cruelest Month

Rec Center #8: April 2025

Welcome to the April edition of Rec Center, my miscellaneous recommendation series! You can find recommendations from previous months in the Rec Center archives. Otherwise, the Lillian Review of Books publishes book reviews, mainly of classic and/or Jewish and/or speculative literature.

Yamitsuki - “Addictive Cabbage”

This dish lives up to its name. Cabbage is a god-tier vegetable, and I’m all for fun new ways to enjoy it. I used Taiwanese flat cabbage from a local Korean market, doubled the garlic, and omitted the umami seasoning (due to a guest’s dietary restrictions), and it turned out great: simple and flavorful. Perfect way to incorporate a lot of volume and fiber, particularly if you are determined to get abs this summer for once in your life, before you die, please god. 

Pic from JustOne Cookbook.

Firefly (2002)

I’ve been taking advantage of the post-Severance, pre-Andor vacuum to re-watch one of my favorite TV shows of all time. A pair of fugitives hide out on a rakish-yet-honorable smuggler’s spaceship in a Wild West mid-future. Space cowboys plus zombies, with a sprinkling of Confederacy mythos and Chinese aesthetics (light yikes). 

There’s a reason Firefly is everyone’s favorite. Everything but the CGI holds up against any prestige TV of today: distinctive, lovable characters, snappy dialogue, strong storytelling, incredible sets, costumes, and immersive world-building. While there is an overarching plot arc, it’s refreshing to watch a show that is truly episodic, with a clear beginning, middle, and end to each 45-minute installment, rather than a 10-hour movie, each part of which is individually unsatisfying (lookin’ at you, Severance). 

Of course, now that Andor and The Last of Us are back, it’s time to return to the content mines, hi ho, hi ho.

Air Fryer Crispy Pork Belly

I’ve made this Cantonese roast pork belly from The Woks of Life before to some success, but the requirement to dry out the skin in the fridge overnight has kept me from making it again. Except for the rare braised brisket or Korean oxtail soup, I shy away from multi-day cooking projects. Foresight? I don’t know her.

Luckily, Chris Joe of CJ Eats has asked the most important Millennial question (“can I make it in my air fryer?”) and developed a super crispy pork belly recipe that’s ready in about an hour. Highly recommend! Warning: this will absolutely undermine your springtime shred.

For My Next Trick, I’ll Need A Volunteer by Warren Zevon

Real ones know that, about a year ago, I fell hopelessly in thrall to the criminally underrated Warren Zevon. I drove my husband mad by listening to Excitable Boy and his self-titled album on repeat constantly for a few months. In general, I favor sparse, stripped-down production, but the theatricality of Zevon’s lush, Beach Boys-style arrangements and Wall-of-Sound harmonies somehow fit his literary songwriting. The dramatic climax of The French Inhaler gives me goosebumps every time. 

Gradually, my obsession waned, and Zevon joined the regular rotation in my ever-growing sad bastard music playlist. But recently I’ve been feeling the compulsion to put on Warren Zevon while I wash the dishes. Now that I don’t have to listen to Desperados Under the Eaves or Veracruz 57 times in a row, I’ve been branching out a little more. As perfect as his 70s albums are, I’ve been discovering that he continued to make good and/or interesting music through until his death in 2005. (E.g., his 1989 William Gibson-inspired album Transverse City is interesting but not uniformly good, imo. I do like Splendid Isolation, though.)

For my money, For My Next Trick, I’ll Need A Volunteer off of the 2000 album Life’ll Kill Ya is up there with the best songs Zevon ever wrote. It’s catchy, funny, and terrifically sad. A jaunty tune about heartbreak that’s your own fault. 

Put me in chains and I will escape
Better not wait up ‘cuz I might be late
I can make love disappear
For my next trick, I’ll need a volunteer

As a songwriter and storyteller, I honestly think Warren Zevon is on par with Tom Waits, and yet Zevon doesn’t have a fraction of Waits’s name recognition or cultural capital. Why is being a Tom Waits fan ‘cool’ but Warren Zevon enthusiasm is Midwestern dad-coded (at least according to my friend Ethan)? Am I wrong about this? Is Warren Zevon actually super hip and I just didn’t get the memo until last year?

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 Thanks for reading, please let me know what you think if you take me up on any of these recs! See you space cowboy…

-Lillian