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A Single Serving of Soy Milk (RECIPE)

Last week, my relationship ended. The dissolution had been months in the making. We were desperate miners trying to pass off pyrite as gold. For a while we believed we could. But in the end we couldn’t.

Last week was also when New York City was ravaged by below-freezing temperatures. Being indoors felt sad, so I filled my schedule with outdoor activity in hopes of sparing no time for nostalgia. Yet the cold city thrived with warm memories. Mine. His. There was his old apartment in the East Village where he lived after college. His favorite pizza joint. The cafe in Clinton Hill where he’d begrudgingly get his egg sandwiches. “Horrible service. But convenient,” he’d always say. My tear ducts throbbed whenever I’d see a couple canoodling in public. He and I were such unapologetic offenders of public canoodling.

Shopping at Whole Foods was the worst. The aisles were stocked with stories.

Daikon: The first time I cooked dinner for him.
Ribeye: The first time he cooked for me.
Kale: Every single time we ate dinner with his kids. God, I miss his kids.
Nuts: We had only been dating for a few weeks when he left for a month-long photo shoot in Texas. I woke up in his bed the day he left, hung-over and hungry. I stumbled into his kitchen in search of provisions and found an empty bowl and a jar of nuts on the counter. Next to the still life display was a Post-it note that read, “And the yogurt in the frig for breakfast. XX” He had written “frig” but I didn’t care that the “d” and “e” were missing or that he was missing, because everything in my life had fallen into place at that moment. And at that moment, I was at his place, blissfully eating his yogurt.

Recipes, Thoughts, CookingDiane ChangFebruary 15, 2016soy milk, chinese food, drinks, soybeans, cooking, Po-Po, grandma, blender, love, alone Comments

Soup, Spices, and a little Sorrow (Recipe)

Dad and I sat comfortably on the couch together. Our shoulders touched and our knees probably did too. This was our sitcom family moment, 20 years too late.

I visit with my father a few times a year and toggle between my “broken woman” and “dutiful daughter” personas, a little pissed about his absence during those complex and sometimes mortifying teenage years. (I’ll never forget the times my friends would ask about my dad, and I would say he’s a traveling business man. I mean, he’s an electrician.) Before I leave his house, I dutifully quiz him on his diet and finances. He’s always consuming too much canned foods or spending too lavishly. A “few times a year,” is probably enough for both of us.

But here we were, half-pretending to be close and half-experiencing an unusual father/daughter bond. He was ecstatically bragging about the beef noodle soup recipe he recently perfected, born from an old family recipe. I was happy to see him so enthusiastic, especially around me.