Welcome to the T List, a newsletter from the editors of T Magazine. Each week, we share things we’re eating, wearing, listening to or coveting now. Sign up here to find us in your inbox every Wednesday, along with monthly travel and beauty guides, and the latest stories from our print issues. And you can always reach us at tmagazine@nytimes.com.
STAY HERE
A Vacation Villa Overlooking the Surf in Basque Country
 |
| Left: Villa Bamboo is the newest building at Villa Anvers, a collection of vacation rentals overlooking the ocean in Guéthary, France. Right: wood ceilings soften the concrete and sandstone structure. Senne Van der Ven & Eefje De Coninck |
About eight miles south of Biarritz, France, the Basque village of Guéthary — once a small fishing enclave — has become a draw for seasoned surfers who seek out a wave called Parlementia. The more design-inclined of those visitors might stay at Villa Anvers, a property overlooking the shoreline that since 2015 has been operated by the Belgian-German couple Ann and Frank Menschel. It includes Villa Harotaldea, a traditional Basque farmhouse known as an etxe, five apartments in a Basque-style outbuilding and the more contemporary Villa Belvedère. Each summer, the pair host pop-up dinners at long tables on the bluff. This July, the Menschels will add Villa Bamboo, a three-bedroom structure designed by the Antwerp, Belgium-based studio Going East, on the south side of the property’s garden. Wood ceilings and built-in cabinets are paired with raw concrete and roughly hewed, locally sourced sandstone walls. The materials, like the ocean-blue travertine sinks in the bathrooms, echo the area’s rugged coastal elements. “We didn’t want the new structure to compete with or overshadow the original Basque architecture of Villa Anvers,” says Anaïs Torfs, a Going East co-founder. Instead, the low-slung home disappears into the surrounding vegetation. Villa Bamboo opens July 10; reservations can be made starting April 10, from about $1,500 a night, villa-anvers.com.
GIFT THIS
Chocolate Bunnies That Offer Something Extra
 |
| Clockwise from left: Soma mango pomelo baby bunny, $15, cocoastore.com; La Maison du Chocolat milk chocolate bunny, $40, lamaisonduchocolat.com; Compartés 24-karat gold Easter Bunny, $60, compartes.com; andSons Easter Bunny mendiant, $24, and-sons.com. Courtesy of the brands |
Ahead of Easter, artisanal chocolatiers are releasing limited-edition bunny-shaped confections with distinct personalities. The Toronto-based chocolate makers Soma have concocted a mango pomelo baby bunny inspired by the flavors of a cold mango purée dessert soup from Hong Kong. There’s crunchy pomelo sugar, soft coconut bits and half a mango in each bunny. La Maison du Chocolat, from Paris, does a more traditional milk chocolate iteration with a delightful twist: the hollow rabbit is filled with chocolate sea shells. Compartés, a chocolate maker out of Los Angeles, has a solid two-pound vegan chocolate bunny that’s hand-painted in edible 24-karat gold. The chocolate store andSons, also in Los Angeles, has bunnies ornamented with almonds, pistachios, dried cherry, candied orange peel and passion fruit in a riff on the French mendiant, a bite-size dark chocolate disk sprinkled with nuts and dried fruit that’s popular at Christmastime.
SEE THIS
Nam June Paik’s Avant-Garde Video Art, on View in Seoul
 |
| Left: Nam June Paik’s “Media Sandwich” (detail) (1961-64). Right: Nam June Paik’s “Untitled” (2005). © Nam June Paik Estate. Photos: Ben Blackwell, courtesy of Gagosian |
Though the Korean composer, performer and artist Nam June Paik died in 2006, before the ubiquity of smartphones and social media, his work foresaw a culture defined by electronic images. In 1965, he staged the first exhibition involving a portable video recorder; in 1974, he coined the term “electronic superhighway” to describe the possibilities of emerging technologies. In one of his most famous performance pieces, “TV Bra for Living Sculpture” (1969), his longtime collaborator Charlotte Moorman played the cello while wearing miniature televisions encased in plexiglass boxes over her breasts. “I use technology in order to hate it properly,” he once said. A new show hosted by the gallery Gagosian at APMA Cabinet, an exhibition space in the headquarters of the Korean beauty company Amorepacific in Seoul, will survey his career, featuring significant works such as “Gold TV Buddha” (2005), his video sculpture of a Buddha statuette gazing at its own televised image that was a sly comment on self-absorption in an era of technology, as well as rare works that haven’t been previously exhibited, such as the early installation “Media Sandwich” (1961-64), which is made up of German electronics magazines, Japanese phonograph records and an antique rotogravure print. “Nam June always feels current because he’s always tried to humanize technology,” says his nephew Ken Hakuta, who oversees the artist’s estate. “We need his thinking as expressed in his art more than ever.” “Nam June Paik: Rewind / Repeat” will be on view April 1 through to May 16, 2026, at APMA Cabinet, Seoul, gagosian.com.
EAT THIS
Irish Food That’s Spicier Than Expected
 |
| Left: McCarthy’s, a new deli and bar in Tooting, taps into London’s growing love for all things Irish. Right: the spice bag, a Chinese-Irish dish, from the pop-up Scaldy, also in London. Left: via McCarthy’s. Right: courtesy of Scaldy |
Broadway Market in Tooting, south London, is one the city’s most diverse food destinations, where you can stock up on South Asian spices, West African produce and Brazilian meats. This past December, the cavernous space also welcomed an addition from closer to home: McCarthy’s, an Irish deli and bar that serves the spice bag, one of London’s trendiest dishes. First popularized at Chinese takeout restaurants in Ireland, the dish consists of thick-cut French fries and chicken strips mixed with bell peppers and onions that are wok-charred for a smoky flavor before being finished with chili and, at McCarthy’s, curry sauce. McCarthy’s, which also sells Irish goods like Clonakilty black pudding and barmbrack bread, is part of a fresh wave of Irish establishments to arrive in London. Moyletts, an Irish pub in Clapton that also opened in December, recently had a spice bag pop-up; Scaldy, a roaming purveyor of spice bags, is currently operating out of the Red Bull in Peckham. But the interest in Irish cuisine goes beyond the one dish: The Yellow Bittern serves Dublin coddle, a pork and potato soup, and Shankeys, an Indian-Irish joint in Hackney, has potatoes topped with spicy ghee and scallions. Nearby, Inis serves a hearty full Irish breakfast, while Emerald Eats has attracted long lines for its chicken fillet roll, a classic Irish sandwich. In London, it’s said that you’re never more than 10 yards from a Paul Mescal look-alike swigging Guinness or someone reading a Sally Rooney novel. Now Irish food seems set to find just as many fans.
GO HERE
A Portuguese Retreat With Rammed-Earth Walls and a Library of Mythology
 |
| Left: the main house at Rock Rose, a new hotel on Portugal’s southwest coast. Right: one of the property’s living rooms. © Piet Albert Goethal |
On a private hilltop near Melides, a village on Portugal’s Alentejo coast, the five-room wellness retreat Rock Rose, available only as an exclusive-use property, is surrounded by 25 acres of cork oaks, pines and strawberry trees. Its owners, the visual artist Marta Alvim and her partner Vasco Maya, an airline pilot, enlisted the Portuguese minimalist architect Manuel Aires Mateus to design the rammed-earth building whose ceilings are wood-lined and whose floors are set with terra-cotta tiles. A meditation room features a wood-burning stove and a library is stocked with philosophy books and volumes of Greek mythology. The outdoor saltwater pool is made from lioz, a Portuguese limestone, and is heated in the colder months. An Ayurvedic therapist provides massages and facial treatments; meditation, breathwork and bodywork sessions can be organized on request, and guests can take horseback rides and hikes along the Alentejo coast. Alvim and Maya worked with a gut-health specialist to design meals, which focus on anti-inflammatory foods and might include local fish with greens and a light broth or grass-fed meat with root vegetables and aromatic herbs. The duo are also developing a bespoke herbal tea inspired by the landscape surrounding the property, using medicinal Mediterranean plants such as the rockrose shrub. Rock Rose opens in May; from about $16,000 for a week’s stay, including breakfast, rockrosemelides.com.
VISIT THIS
A Korean Fragrance Brand Opens a Shop on Manhattan’s Lower East Side
 |
| Nonfiction, the Seoul-based fragrance company, is opening its first U.S. shop in Manhattan. The table is by the Los Angeles-based designer Doug McCollough and the light is by the New York-based artist Minjae Kim. Sean Davidson |
When Haeyoung Cha launched her Seoul-based fragrance brand, Nonfiction, in 2019, she wanted to emphasize the quiet power of fragrance. Applying it, she says, is “a moment to reconnect with yourself.” She kept the bottles minimalist, and the scents — like Santal Cream, a blend of fig, sandalwood and cardamom — soft and comforting. This week, the brand’s first U.S. store opens at 38 Orchard Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Cha chose the neighborhood for its mix of independent boutiques, bookstores and longstanding local businesses, which felt similar to that of Hannam-dong in Seoul, where she established her first-ever boutique. The new shop, designed with the New York studio Charlap Hyman & Herrero, is centered around a mahogany table, while tiles with hand-painted roses by the artist Pilar Almon surround a small sink where customers can test soaps. The brand’s scent library includes Gentle Night, which blends white tea and warm suede with creamy vanilla, and the Rose, from its newest collection, which has notes of red berry, geranium and musk. Nonfiction New York opens March 26, nonfiction.com.
FROM T’S INSTAGRAM
For Tschabalala Self, Art Is Romantic
 |
| Christian DeFonte |
The artist Tschabalala Self’s newest piece, “Art Lovers” (2026), was installed on the facade of the New Museum on New York’s Lower East Side to commemorate the institution’s expanded campus and reopening this week. The 13-foot-tall sculpture depicts a Black couple embracing, their mouths cracked open into wide smiles. Their limbs are comically exaggerated — a technique Self employs frequently across her practice and that gives the appearance of a body straining exuberantly against the limits of a mold or canvas. “I imagine the couple in ‘Art Lovers’ to be museum patrons,” she says, “possibly admiring one of their favorite works.”
Click here to read the full story about the sculpture and two pieces that have inspired Self over the years and follow us on Instagram.
|
And if you read one thing from T Magazine this week, make it: |
|
|
|
Read past editions of the T List here.
