No. 33: Theresa Wangenheim
Mushroom picking in Austria, vanity plates, a trip to Siwa, bone broth and a plate collection
Theresa Wangenheim is the Munich-born & based genius behind sssssoupsssss, where she shares photos of and writes about soup (she also makes sssssaladsssss). After living in New York and London for 17 years, she’s finally back in Munich near her family, lakes/mountains, and a train ride away from her favorite countries to dine in. I will never really forgive her for suggesting topping soup with trout roe... I love it. Anyways, her first cookbook is coming out in August, but for now, from Theresa —
I. a cooking broth
This may not come as a huge surprise, but I am very fond of broth. I sip it for breakfast, at the slightest sign of a cold, as an afternoon pick-me-up, when I’m sad, when I’m happy, when I’m hungover... you name it. I’m a firm believer in the healing powers of stock, whether for external or internal ailments, and I find new ways to tweak it every time I make a large pot (which is at least twice a week). At the moment, I love adding lemongrass, ginger, lime leaves, and chili, for some extra heat. Chicken stock is my go-to (the iconic '90s self-help series didn't dub itself 'Chicken Soup for the Soul' for nothing - and millennia of Jewish grandmother lore doesn’t hurt). On any given day, you’ll find a large pot full of bones, herbs, and aromatics simmering away in my kitchen.
II. a simple pleasure
This is one of the sillier things about me, but I’m obsessed with vanity plates. I find driving very therapeutic, and seeing cute license plates makes me smile, whether they were intentional or not. I suppose it’s just another way for people to express themselves! Since I started posting them on my story, people DM me fun ones all the time. I first took notice while living in the US - there, the opportunities really are endless (within reason, I just learned). Did the guy in the G-wagon with the BPRESENT plate learn mindfulness at Burning Man? Who’s SRY LATE? In Germany, there’s a formula: city letter(s) + 2 letters + numbers. The stricter rules here make the plates all the more fun. Was CHA-OS 769 a coincidence? Was SE-XY 8273 on purpose? I don’t have a car of my own, but I do think about what I’d write on mine all the time.
III. a ritual
I grew up in Munich, just a stone’s throw from the Austrian Alps, and spent much of my childhood in the mountains of Tyrol. In the winters, my brother and I learned to ski, and in the summer, we played outside. Like most children, I loathed mushrooms, but my parents taught me early on how to identify the edible ones, and I soon became my family’s “truffle pig” for porcini and chanterelles. Now, older and wiser, I appreciate mushrooms not just for the treasure hunt aspect but for their taste. When it comes to porcini, somewhat counterintuitively, the little ones are better than the big ones. Porcini are lone rangers, growing alone under trees (unlike chanterelles, which appear in groups and can carpet whole patches of forest in bright yellow). Their elusive nature makes them all the more delicious - I keep it very simple when I find one, frying thin slices in butter and sprinkling just a bit of sea salt on top. HEAVEN!
IV. a trip
A dear friend organized a truly once-in-a-lifetime trip to Siwa, Egypt, a few years ago. We were a large group and stayed together in the magical Adrere Amellal hotel - a beautiful eco-lodge constructed of mud walls that seamlessly blend into the surrounding oasis. Nestled between palm groves and desert dunes, every day felt ethereal and surreal. At night, you rely on candles and moonlight to find your way - there’s no electricity (or wifi, or phone signal!). We took daytrips to nearby salt lakes, shopped for herbs and ceramics in town, and visited the Oracle of Siwa, famously visited by Alexander the Great in 334 BCE.
One of my most vivid memories was our very first lunch - we arrived to 45°C (113°F) weather and were served a stewy pea and dill risotto. I used to hate dill, but something about that dish altered my brain chemistry, and now I love it.
V. a collection
Sometimes I wish I was a Marie Kondo-esque minimalist with one set of matching plates and bowls, but the reality is that collecting a colourful mix of tableware sparks SO MUCH joy in me. This might seem odd, given the uniformity of my grid - but behind the scenes I have a growing collection of mismatched and colourful ceramic stuff - vintage and contemporary. The photo below shows a selection of my current rotation. The white bowl with my logo came from a recent event with Nymphenburg Porzellan, one of the world’s last remaining porcelain manufacturers that still completes every step of the process by hand. The blue mugs are my daily bone broth and coffee mugs - I got them from Workaday Brooklyn years ago. The blue-rimmed bowls are my signature soup bowls, in a few different sizes.
~ bulletin ~
los angeles
On view: Marcus Brutus’ Lotus Blossom at Harper’s. John McAllister’s Sometimes Splendid Seeming… Stellar Even.. Ripping at James Fuentes. Li Songsong’s The Past at Pace Gallery. Ed Ruscha’s Now Then at LACMA. Yoora Lee’s Shadow Etched in Stone at Nicodim. Carole Vanderlinden’s A Slipping Glance at Karma. Ella Kruglyanskaya’s See Saw at Jeffrey Deitch. David Kordansky Gallery presents Skin of the City, a solo exhibition of paintings made between 1980 and 2000 by Martha Diamond (1944–2023). Alina Perkins’ La Fiaca at Fernberger. Catherine Goodman’s New Works at Hauser & Wirth downtown. Oliver Lee Jackson’s Machines for the Spirit at Blum. Basquiat show at Gagosian. Inner Space featuring JB Blunk, Minjae Kim, Isamu Noguchi and more at Future Perfect.
new york
On view: Joe Bradley’s Vom Abend and Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato at David Zwirner. Danielle McKinney’s Quiet Storm at Marianne Boesky. Tanya Merrill’s Watching Women Give Birth on the Internet and Other Ways of Looking at 303 Gallery. Cara Nahaul’s Tender Island at Alexander Berggruen. Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within at Noguchi Museum. James Fuentes presents Color Codes, a selection of paintings by Kikuo Saito from the early 1990s, closes Saturday. The Whitney Museum’s Biennial. The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism at The Met. Max Lamb’s Inventory and Jay Sae Jung Oh’s Savage 2.0 at Salon 94 Design.
Affection Archives is a weekly look into the archives of yours truly (Arielle Eshel) and humans I admire. If you’d like to add an event to the bulletin, DM @affectionarchives or reply to this email.