A brief life update
Arriving to this point in my eating, cooking, and writing life has been a series of starts, pauses, and pivots. And some big life events. Between Dec of 2015 and May 2017, I got engaged, quit my job, moved across the country, bought a condo, moved into said condo, furnished the entire place, sold my car, bought a new Subaru (bc snow!), struggled with homesickness and winter blues, planned a wedding, got married in D.C., plus a second banquet in Texas... Someone later told me that most people plan only one big life event a year. Oops.
Last summer, I had the opportunity to manifest some serious shit in a 9-week hot yoga teacher training that has led me to this point now. With the help and encouragement of generous writers and friends I published my first piece (in nearly a decade!) with Inheritance Magazine.
This summer, I landed an incredible opportunity to intern with the American Food History project at a *local* museum in D.C. To be honest, I almost didn’t apply because I didn’t think I was qualified enough.
Imposter syndrome is real, ya’ll.
The ideas, projects, and conversations that I’ve been privy to have helped me distill my once nebulous cookbook idea into the building blocks for my project’s foundation.
I’m also doing the work to draw healthy boundaries around my physical, mental, and emotional well being. I’ve purged many “you should’s” from other people cluttering up my precious brain space (this will be an ongoing, but necessary process).
Future-self journaling is also really powerful stuff.
#Goals
My goal is to research, conduct oral histories, recipe test, write, and publish my cookbook documenting my family’s migration history from East and Southeast Asia to Texas (and now onto D.C.)!
While I will be (finally) writing down my recipes, I’m even more excited about the personal essays/short memoir pieces that will share my family’s story of survival, immigration, second-generation Asian American experience, resilience, growth, and abundance.
At the very least, I’ll self-publish this cookbook so I can hand my (future) children a book of their family’s history told through recipes and flavor.
In my wildest dreams, I’ll find an agent and publishing company that can help bring my vision onto a larger stage. Because, um, I might actually have 3 books in mind. Like I said, wildest dreams.
Here I am with a much clearer vision to move this project forward. As I do the work, I’ll continue to reflect on the question, “What is this really about?”, and keep you posted on how my answer evolves.
In the next few updates, I’ll share a bit about the framework I’m building to execute this project and some life-ish reflections that helped me arrive to this point.
Thank you for the encouragement and joining me on this journey!
加油!
Marsha
@princesshungry
This Week’s Specials
Here are my top 5 faveee food, writing, or food-writing pieces for the week. Occasional basketball or yoga appearances.
Writers, Protect Your Inner Life by Lan Samantha Chang
“We make art about what we cannot understand through any other method. The finished product is like a pearl, complete and beautiful, but mute about itself. The writer has given us this piece of his interior and there is frequently no explanation, nothing to be said about it. Often, the writer himself has very little idea of what he has created.”
Towards Chinatown by Melissa Hung
“In Chinatown, I manage in my clumsy Cantonese. I speak the language and I don’t. My pronunciation is decent, but my vocabulary is stunted. Some words come easily. Others I grasp for. They exist just beyond my reach the way the details of a dream tease the waking mind… What has been lost because Cantonese stopped making pathways in my brain as I was still growing? I fear that some fundamental part of me has been displaced, that my inability to speak fluently renders me incomplete. By losing my relationship to Cantonese, what have I lost in my relationship with my parents?”
The Crane Wife by CJ Hauser
“I realized it was not that remarkable for a person to understand what another person needed.”
The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker (book)
“At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play.”
Michelin restaurants and fabulous wines: Inside the secret team dinners that have built the Spurs’ dynasty by Baxter Holmes
“In the NBA, the Gregg Popovich meal is the dining room where it happens -- a roving retreat through which the Spurs have forged a team culture that's the envy of the league. But for those in the league who've not secured the invite, Pop's legendary dinners remain shrouded in mystery and no small amount of fascination.”