Food and Friendship

C. was my land-lady in Montreal during the summer of 2004, a.k.a. The Summer of Tears.  She rented a room to me in her home in the Plateau, letting me know that although the third floor where I stayed only had a kitchenette, I was welcome to cook in the large kitchen on the first [...]

Of old haunts

To tell the truth, there’s not much I miss about Boston.  Apparently, it’s been raining these all summer.  Most of my friends from grad school have moved away.  It’s way better to have a full time job than to be a grad student.
But I do miss local, fresh, affordable seafood.  I almost crawled into the [...]

Life after

I’m back!
I’ve wanted to post so often over the past year.  But it turns out that writing a book while teaching full time is no small thing, and every time I thought about a post, I would guiltily think about all the things I could be doing to further my career: getting to bed early, [...]

Weirdest Birthday Present Ever

I got a durian for my birthday.  How weird is my life?
I have fond memories of this infamously stinky fruit.  It’s a favorite of my mothers, and she will fight you for the last piece.  It’s been years since I’ve had one, but thanks to the global food market, my friend Anthony delivered one, frozen, [...]

El Premio Arte y Pico

I am honored, pleased and generally tickled to have received an El Premio Arte Y Pico blog award from Karen at Rambling Spoon. I’ve been following Rambling Spoon since I first discovered food blogs almost two years ago. Reading her reflections on food and human rights in Southeast Asia inspired me to start [...]

The Dissertation, the Oregon Coast, and a Few Raw Oysters

Vacation? Who said vacation?
I meant a writing retreat, the only kind of get-away available to me this summer. It started in January: an idea, the reality of the dissertation and a looming deadline, some conversation, scheming and scheduling. So it happened that I went all the way to Pacific City, Oregon to [...]

The Lessons of Summer–Finally!

Crêpes with Strawberries and Crème Fraîche
Summer has finally arrived in the Upper Midwest. Due to the cold and wet spring, strawberry season has been delayed by three weeks here, making us all the more anxious for the first taste of local strawberries. Some friends gathered for the very first strawberries of the season. [...]

Pizza Crust Reconsidered

Let it never be said that I can’t change my mind.
Remember that Todd English pizza crust I loved so much? It was the only pizza crust I’d made for years, but then, I stumbled upon 101 Cookbooks post of master baker Peter Reinhart’s Neapolitan-style pizza. One bite of this crust, and my stand-by [...]

Happy New Year!

May 2008 bring you much peace and joy!
The Rice and Spice Cupboard will be on hiatus for the next couple of weeks. I’ll see you all at the end of January. Until then, cook well, eat well, and live well.

A Picturesque Thanksgiving

I have no excuse for waiting so long to post pictures of my family’s Thanksgiving festivities, other than that I seem to have disappeared into the vortex of grading, exhaustion, and general holiday time-suck that seems to engulf most professors every December.
I considered not posting these at all, since Thanksgiving has by now receded [...]