Since being back in America, I have had to deal with exposure to things that seemed foreign to me after my years in China. For example, soap in the bathrooms, toilet paper in the bathrooms, dishwashers, clothes dryers, plain yogurt, and brown rice, to name a few. Readjustment hasn’t been all that hard in most [...]
When I lived in China, situations would arise when I would tell people I was Jewish. Once, I was at a restaurant for an official school dinner when we were served a chicken-brothy soup with dumplings in it that was strikingly similar to matzoh ball soup. My assessment somehow made it to the ears of [...]
Every year for Thanksgiving, my family and I headed out to the desert for a potluck lunch with my grandparents’ friends and their families. Though the location changed a few times, we were always out in the desert, eating turkey and hiking and playing volleyball. Every year one of my grandmother’s good friends, Susan, would [...]
If anyone in my life has influenced my cooking, it would be my paternal grandmother, Nana. Both my mother and father are good cooks, but with the triple whammy of an ultra-picky daughter, working, and, you know, raising two kids, they didn’t have a lot of time to devote to culinary endeavors until I was [...]
Western/American holidays in China have a totally different meaning than they do at ‘home.’ Having a Christmas party or a Thanksgiving dinner is, at least for me, more about nostalgia and comfort than about the actual holiday. I didn’t have a big party at my house so that we could all think about the Pilgrims. [...]
Bourbon Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Streusel: Absolutely totally butter-less. Unfortunately, not mess-less. Every silver lining has a cloud. I know Thanksgiving is over for everyone, but mine is on Saturday, so drool over all this and keep it in mind for next year. Bourbon Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Streusel From Food and Wine ½ recipe [...]
Food and religion seem to me to go hand and hand. My dad’s family is Jewish and my mom’s is Christian, so my brother and I were raised celebrating holidays from both religions. (And no, this does not mean twice the presents. It just means half the presents twice.) Except for some family bar/bat mitzvahs, [...]