Episode 15: The Artist’s Plate

In this new episode of CC Stories, we invite you to join artist and illustrator Maggie Cowles at the table. She shares some of her favourite places to enjoy dishes that blend memory and pleasure. Much like her drawings, food in real life is also about shared moments, reminiscence, and celebration. Between New York and Los Angeles, she lets us in on some of her best-kept spots—places she loves to visit, alone or in good company. And now, we’re delighted to share her favourite addresses with you.

The fried rice from Night + Market

The illustrator behind Table!, who offers an endless array of table scenes, where dishes from around the world unfold before our eyes, joined us for CC Stories and confided that she has far too many favourite dishes to count.

She tells us she has a special fondness for the fried rice dish from Night + Market Song, a Thai restaurant in Silver Lake (Los Angeles). Their rice is topped with ikura and uni, two ingredients widely used in Japanese cuisine: ikura is salmon roe, and uni is sea urchin. For her, these two ingredients make the dish incredibly indulgent while still rooted in a casual and comforting setting.

And according to her, the ideal way to enjoy it is right there at the restaurant: “At a slightly cramped table, with a beautiful bottle of wine and a table full of other dishes. You really can’t go wrong with anything on the menu.”

Maggie Cowles grew up in New York City, so whenever she returns (which is often), she knows exactly where to go to satisfy a craving.

“When it comes to NYC, my favourite meal has to be a bagel (or a bialy if I’m lucky) with cream cheese & lox.” She tells us that she has had bagels from places all over the city, but that it is less about the place and more about that comforting first bite.

Bagel with cream cheese, salmon, and cucumber

“Growing up, we’d wake up early and drive to Brighton Beach for bialys and lox. By middle school, my friends and I would get a bagel for lunch at the deli down the street ($1.50 for a bagel and a Snapple!). Anytime I’m back in New York, it’s one of the first things I eat.”

A bialy is a speciality of Ashkenazi Jewish origin that is very popular in New York. It is similar to a bagel, but it is baked rather than boiled, and unlike a bagel, it has no hole.

Maggie’s perfect bagel is plump, never thin or overly crisp: “Inside, the cream cheese should be piled sky high, I’m talking an inch! For lox, I love pastrami smoked or a classic gravlax. Maybe a tomato slice if it’s in season, capers, and onions. Ideally eaten at home straight out of the paper bag, with my iced coffee.”

Maggie Cowles’s homemade bagel

Table! by Maggie Cowles has just been released. It is the first book in the Petites Choses collection, a series of books for both adults and children.
Two launch events are planned this spring, and you can meet Maggie:
• on May 27 in Los Angeles at the Now Serving bookstore (Far East Plaza, 727 N. Broadway – Unit 133),
• on June 2 in New York at Big Night (154 Franklin St., Greenpoint).