Cook & Write with by Once Upon a Thyme.
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Stories
THE READING ROOM
The Reading Room gathers my essays on the foods that remember us — the meals, recipes, kitchens, cravings, and small hungers through which we inherit love, lose ourselves, find one another, and learn what the world has made of us.
Food memory · Literary Mama
The Stew That Saved Us
I had been told I could not have children. Years of trying, and then I conceived on my wedding night. By the thirtieth week I could not eat. A friend arrived with his sisters from Ghana, carrying serving dishes and saying nothing. After the third spoonful, I felt ravenous. Two days later, my baby had gained just over a pound.
Small Hungers · Inheritance
Half A Sandwich
By the time I bought the sandwich, I had already forgotten to feed myself. My mother asked for half. My daughter asked for the other half. And there I sat, empty-handed between them, understanding for the first time that the sandwich generation was not a metaphor. It was hunger. It was sitting in the middle seat of a taxi, realizing I was the bread holding the whole thing together.
Small Hungers ·
The Kindness of Small Deceptions
I sent my brother three items before my visit. I should have specified plain kefir. I didn’t, because specifying felt like a burden. What I did not think to do was look further into the fridge. My kefir had been there the whole time, waiting at the back. He did not need me to be easy. He needed me to trust.
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Friendship · Small Hungers
The Guinea Pig Between Us
There is a guinea pig standing between me and a friendship. I mean this literally. My friend has one. I am allergic. For more than a year I have not been able to go to her house. I cook. I host. I set the table. But I have never once sat in her kitchen watching her move through her own space. The guinea pig did not create this hunger. It only made it visible.