Lately, I’ve been trying to create respite from the screen, as my friend @healingwithouthiearchy suggests. It’s not something I feel apologetic about, yet I often hear people saying sorry for being offline, feeling the need to explain the necessity to rest, feeling the need to champion an apology in the name of self-care/mental health. If I learned anything from the last 14 months, don’t explain a thing.
Til next time.. the algorithm will sort itself out later.
Writing | In Progress
In Lunchbox Moments Zine news: Zine sales are still open for a limited run of print preorders. Excitingly, we have press up with KQED (the Bay Area’s PBS affiliate) and Food and Wine.
A lunchbox of storytelling recordings: I had a pretty literal three minutes of fame during the United States of Asian America Festival 2021 Kick-Off and Sowing Agency Opening Showcase. A few of our contributors were featured in What’s In Your Lunchbox? (hosted by the City of Palo Alto) as well as The Rooted Recipes Project x Forging Our Futures (again part of the USAAF).
In my own news: Belatedly, I pressed ‘publish’ for the pastry page on my portfolio. Writing-wise, I have a piece in the Write Now! SF Essential Truths anthology (on sale June 30th) and will be reading from that piece on July 22nd in the Attending bullet below.
Kitchen Kernels
The Sacramento springtime was charmingly mild this year. By “mild,” I mean I only saw one (dead) baby rattlesnake between my house and the river on exactly April 1st and it only tickled the mid-90s in late May. Local strawberries from the Southeast Asian farmers just ten minutes down the road from me were as sweet as summer in late April. My oven is out of commission after a heavy few weeks of recipe testing - but that may just be as well given the cruel heat. For my friends who reside in the current heat dome that is the Pacific Northwest, I wish you all plenty of icy thoughts and dreams of air conditioning.
Kitty Kernels
Two of the most sassy cats in the Sacramento area turned two in April and also celebrated two years of their “gotcha” anniversary in May. The above photo is how Oren and Nezu looked two years ago, before they forgot they were siblings and learned to hate each other.
How to Survive..
Attending
Write Now! Writers of Color Essential Truths Virtual Book Launch | San Francisco: June 30th @ 7pm PDT and East Bay: July 22nd @ 7pm PDT: Two events celebrating the new anthology featuring an impressive 130 BIPOC writers and artists with Bay Area ties, in response to the pandemic and its intertwined upheavals.
Reading
East Bay Tibetan community’s rich history revolves around food by Shirley Huey: In her first byline for East Bay Nosh/Berkeleyside, fellow Lunchbox Moments curator Shirley Huey traces the diaspora of the East Bay Tibetan community through food. I used to visit the Shangri-La Vegan on Linden (Oakland) in the early 2010s, though interestingly, the macrobiotic vegan fare there isn’t traditionally Tibetan.
Every Tuesday… by illyanna Maisonet: Paywall, but this piece from illyanna’s newsletter encapsulates nostalgia and life in San Francisco in the early 2000s. Also she coincidentally mentions my high school.