Books, Inc.  505 NW13th Street, Gainesville, FL. Note the ominous green realtor's sign on the left, which everyone has been pretending not to notice.

There’s a comfortable uniformity to college towns. Visit enough of them and you’ll notice certain distinctive traits:… Read full post »

It’s not fast food. It’s not slow food. It’s... half-fast food! The second in an occasional, sloth-driven  series.

I admit it. I'm a total snob when it comes to Chinese food.

Growing up in  proud Chinese-American family, I used to be both puzzled and annoy… Read full post »

The expression “high on the hog” originated from the general belief that the choicest cuts of pork came from high on the animal’s anatomy – the back and upper legs. Thus, these cuts were more expensive, and those lucky enough afford them were said to be living (or eati… Read full post »

It’s not fast food. It’s not slow food. It’s... half-fast food! The first in an occasional, sloth-driven  series.

Back when I worked in the pastry kitchen of a swank beach resort,  I dreaded Sunday brunch.  The resort’s brunch was a $75-per-person af… Read full post »

In grade school, I learned to be a  patriotic American. At the front of every classroom was an American flag, and every morning for nine years (the school went from first through ninth grades), my classmates and I  stood facing it, right hands over our hearts, and solemnly rec… Read full post »

A beginning birder started showing up at my Audubon chapter’s field trips last year. She was friendly, smart, and ferociously curious; and despite starting out barely able to tell a penguin and an ostrich apart, a fantastically good sport in a group dominated by experts. She asked tons… Read full post »

I could have been a contender.

I was SUPPOSED to be a contender. I breezed effortlessly through grade school and high school, earning A’s on almost everything I touched. I boasted an impressive array of extracurricular activities, from multiple honors societies to volunteeri… Read full post »

 (Cross-posted at my birding blog.)

This Northern Parula flew 1,000 miles or more across the Gulf of Mexico – without stopping, eating, or sleeping – before landing in Florida during spring migration. This grueling flight took the tiny bird-- just over 3 1/2 inches lon… Read full post »

Last fall, Lucy Mercer initiated a project to bring Open Salon food writers – and the products of our kitchens – together in meatspace. As part of Imperial Sugar Company’s  Bake It Forward program, we’d each have a turn to receive a box of home-baked… Read full post »

In my family, cholesterol is the source of all the world’s trouble. Boatloads of the fatty stuff course through our collective veins with varying speeds of efficiency.  My parents regularly interrogate my sisters and me about our cholesterol levels and warn of the horrors th… Read full post »

(A slightly different version of this story appears on my birding blog. And yes, this is -- sort of -- about food.)

             Jake still hasn’t returned my call, my mother won’t stop calling, and for some stupid reason I pr… Read full post »

Every Asian-American has to deal with The Question:

“So...where are you from?”

It wasn’t until I was in high school that I finally realized why everyone was so baffled by my perfectly truthful one-word answer (“Pittsburgh!”) I’ve grown to dread the… Read full post »

What do you do when the person you thought you knew better than anyone else suddenly turns into something entirely different? What happens when you discover your most fundamental beliefs about the dearest person in your life turn out to be wrong?  And most importantly, what the he… Read full post »

Is it possible to crave something you’ve never tasted? Could you ever have an irrational, stalker-like obsession with a dish you’ve never encountered but just know you’re destined to love? I have.

 My obsession began several years ago, when I lived in California… Read full post »

When most people think of a steaming hot bowl of clam chowder, they don’t think of Florida. But they should.

I didn’t think about clam chowder when I moved out here, either. But I did think a lot about how bummed I was to leave behind the culinary… Read full post »

If life were fair or logical at all, I should have been the queen of party girls. I grew up in the Hollywood Hills (yes, those Hollywood Hills), only a stone’s throw from the legendary party district where Joni Mitchell, Jim Morrison, and Frank Zappa started their careers. On weekends,… Read full post »

Claude was my first and only – and I’m glad it was him.

He was a raffish blond who resembled a perpetually hung-over cross between Daniel Craig and Julian Assange. He spoke with a nearly incomprehensible French accent, which only added to his mystique. Women flung themselv… Read full post »

Ungrateful whining is an American child’s birthright. But if you grow up in an immigrant family, you have a whole battery of things to whine about that other kids don’t.

For one, your parents and their friends will insist on infesting every event with dorky, embarrassing… Read full post »

My scariest Halloween involved several confused Dutch semanticists, a screaming French-Canadian dressed like a skeleton, and half a dozen seriously mutilated pumpkins.

I was living and teaching in Vancouver at the time, and attending a Halloween party hosted by a young colleague of mi… Read full post »

When I made my ill-advised decision to go to cooking school, I chose a certificate program in pastry and baking. This choice was motivated by two factors: first, I’d heard that work in the pastry kitchen was slower paced and less stressful than work on the hot line. (This… Read full post »

When I was a kid, I had a couple of non-negotiable views about apples. First among these: they were fruit, which meant they didn’t count as dessert unless cooked and sweetened in some way. Apple pies and apple turnovers counted as suitable desserts. Slices of apple and apple piec… Read full post »

I dreaded every day of graduate school. I felt awkward and insecure around my brilliant and worldly classmates, and was terrified of my even more brilliant (and all incredibly famous) professors.

I shouldn’t have been. And now, after a decade of teaching in other programs, I rea… Read full post »

Every family cherishes its food traditions: a secret recipe, an immutable Christmas menu, or a  weakness for the starvation foods of the old country.

My family is no different. Our traditions have been largely shaped by my mother, who has a passion for matzo ball soup… Read full post »

Making things makes me happy. Friends and family often give me knitting yarn and cookbooks for my birthday instead of sweaters and dinners out. Nothing is more soul-filling for me than watching some useful – and sometimes tasty – object coming into being in my hands.

But l… Read full post »

A Canadian friend from college liked to say that Canada is more of a salad bowl than a melting pot. I wasn't sure what he meant by this at the time -- but I finally understood years later, when I moved to Vancouver for a teaching position at the… Read full post »