 We are so grieved as a team for the lives taken in Atlanta this past week; we reject and protest the racism, misogyny, and violence that has risen this past year against the Asian American community, and we want to send our love and support to our fellow AAPI cooks. We donated as a company to Stop AAPI Hate this week, and also shared this list of resources that might be useful.
One year ago, on a snappy March day, I went to the grocery store for the last time. I don't remember which trip was actually the last: Was it a cheese-and-crackers meander through Whole Foods? A run into the family-owned grocery at the end of my street for milk and pasta? A stop at the Japanese grocery for rice vinegar, Melona Popsicles, and the shrimp tempura my daughter loves? I haven't been back inside any of these places for 12 long months. We have been extremely cautious, for the sake of our children and those in our small pod, and one of my personal (and privileged) choices has been opting exclusively for grocery pick-up and delivery. But man, I miss grocery stores. The gleam of vaccine eligibility is in my eye, and browsing a grocery store in person feels like the greatest of tiny luxuries — one I look forward to indulging in very soon — after an entire year going without.
It's been a whole year, can you believe it? A lost year, a year of loss. We haven't begun to count the loss of so many lives, or the hardships of jobs lost and the economic insecurity our neighbors are suffering. It has been a year of reckoning, too, with racial injustice, inequity, and the need for change in so many profound ways.
These past twelve months were also defined by food. Caitlin Dewey, in this story we ran on Friday, explored the many ways people thought their cooking would change — remember that surge of sourdough? Making your own butter? Banana bread mass effect? In the early bewildering days of pandemic lockdown, I remember feeling like one of the few ways I had to put my chin up was to face provisioning and daily cooking with a smile and a plan. I packed my freezer, made a meal plan for the next two months, and got ship-shape in a way that I honestly rarely am in normal life. Some of these habits have persisted, like planning dinners on a shared Google calendar with my husband. Turning all the lemon rinds from cocktails into salt-preserved lemons? Not so much.
Grocery shopping, however, is the one thing that has indeed changed forever. We went from online grocery shopping as a relatively low-adopted option, to an unprecedented number of cooks with Instacart or Amazon Fresh accounts. While I look forward to wandering Saraga and Patel Brothers so much, I can't imagine my post-pandemic life without curbside pick-up too.
Aside from that, at the year mark of the strangest year most of us have ever had, the prospect of not cooking, of meals with friends eaten at a table you didn't set, and drinking a cocktail you didn't shake, is what I think many of us are dreaming of. Even though I run this cooking site, the one that urges you to cook more, I am with you, and honestly? If our traffic dips precipitously this summer as we flood the biergartens and ice cream stands, I'm fine with it. Besides, you'll all be back this fall, when the holidays promise to be bigger and better than ever, making up for lost time together with family and friends.
So here's to a year in, and here's to the year ahead: I can hardly wait to not cook with you.
A few links that brought me joy this week:
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MUST-COOK RECIPES Follow Us
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Sunday, March 21, 2021
So, it’s been a year…
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