11 Things That Changed My Life This June

Summer comes with a packed calendar of weddings, barbecues, and Friday-afternoon road trips, which seem fun but can also feel like a second job. Which is why my modest mission these past two months has been to relish having to be nowhere—my phone dead, left behind, or Bricked—where I have no obligations other than to listen to my instincts and embrace the unknown. Helping me on that mission: I went to Japan last month for vacation, where my boyfriend and I put away our pinned-to-oblivion Google Maps and used our eyes, ears, and noses to guide us toward the good shit. (And reader, there is sooo much of it in Japan, a country that uses sing-songy jingles for everything and stocks cheap, fresh onigiri in all of its 7-Elevens.)

Below are a handful of the amazing new things I discovered by paying a little bit more attention to my surroundings. Some of them revealed themselves to me in unexpected places (though you do not need to travel across the world to find those places). Others evoke the kind of low-commitment, stress-free summer I myself will be striving for. Go forth with your phone in your pocket and unearth something new for you!

I was in the Larchmont Cookbook store the other day—a curated LA market that is, apparently, one of Dua Lipa’s go-to spots??—when I spotted the name of a peanut brand I did not recognize: The Englewood United Methodist Men’s Club of Rocky Mount, North Carolina. As I was reading the jar to learn more, a fellow customer spotted me and, in the low, convincing voice of a person who has eaten hella peanuts in a single sitting, said, “They’re so good.” Turns out these North Carolinian men have been running this delicious gourmet peanut operation as a church fundraiser (and bonding exercise?) for something like 70 years, and they have admirers in restaurateur Danny Meyers and Marlow & Sons. Obviously, I ponied up and bought them. They are maybe the best peanuts I’ve ever eaten.