by: Kim O’Connell My mother’s kitchen is small and worn, like she is. Splatters from long-ago meals speckle the walls, in the places her arms can’t reach. The cupboards are packed with impractical pots she never uses, ones she got on sale in the back row of the Asian market years ago. Every counter is covered with sauces and spices, utensils and bags. In the middle of it all is my mother, her back curved like a spoon, her black…
by Dina M. Di Maio In the 1860s, there was a civil war between the North and South. Of Italy. The famous General Giuseppe Garibaldi led his troops through Southern Italy to liberate the people. However, revisionist history is showing that they didn’t necessarily want to be liberated. Many felt their homeland was under attack, and they fought to remain part of what was known as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. However, they lost, and the Northwestern region of…
by Leslie Pietrzyk While I was coming of age in the 80s, Tab was comfort food. The pink can of diet soda was practically an accessory for the girls on my Midwestern university campus. Even if you weren’t in a sorority, you wanted to give the impression that you could be, that you were the one who sniffed, no thanks, not them. It was comforting that one pink can allowed a girl like me to appear to fit in. I…
by Carmen Ng and Evelyn Li of Ocka Treats Healthy eating doesn’t have to mean denial. For two friends, Carmen Ng and Evelyn Li, the desire to indulge in sweet desserts while maintaining healthy eating habits led to the creation of their own line of raw, vegan treats. They share with us how their company, Ocka Treats, came into being—and offer a few delicious, chia-based recipes just in time for Valentine’s Day! Carmen Ng: Ever since I was young, I…
by Gretchen Hanson The San Diego of my childhood was not the glossy high rises of the center city or the quaint architecture of the Gas Lamp District. It was a gritty border town of often unpaved roads, homes that were little more than adobe covered cement and mangy coyotes who ate your unwatched cats. In huge tracts of brush, immigrants without the protection of documentation were living hard. Bars were on every main street corner and often smelled of…