Assignment 3.2

 

5 students from UCSB are hunting for jobs at Camino Real Marketplace. They feel thirsty and stop by at Starbucks to get a beverage. They sit down to catch a breath. The student from Peru named Quinoa Tortilla Chips starts talking about how he misses his home in South America. Another student from Mexico named Holy Guacamole, says “Hey I thought you were from Mexico”. Quinoa says, “I get that a lot, because of my last name. But my mom met my Dad in Peru where they fell in love and got married. I was 8 when we moved here to the States. My roots lay in the ancient South American culture.” Hearing this the two other students  says, ” I miss home too.” Quinoa asks them where they are from. Speculous cookies says ” I am from Belgium.” To this Quinoa responds, “Oh is the other student, Brussel Sprouts from Belgium too?”.  Speculous shakes his head and says, ” No, he’s from Rome!”. English Toffee says “I am from Britain”. “Oh where the Queen lives!”, exclaim Quinoa and Guacamole. Shy Chamomile just smiles. Guacamole asks her where is was from. Chamomile in her soothing calm tone says, “I’ve travelled a lot of places like Europe, India and Western Asia.” Everyone is amused to hear that. Wise Quinoa then says,” It is amazing to know that each one of us is from such different lands and ended up here in the states”, to which Holy Guacamole says, ” That’s why this place is called a land of immigrants!”

 

Heat, fire, flame, burn. Humankind harnessed heat and manipulated fire to cook. The result? Increased longevity, geographical expansion, cultural development.

Present day. Sous vide. Means “under vacuum” in French. 1 pound, 1 inch grass fed steak, cooked at low heat in water, submerged in plastic. Hours later, the perfect steak. No flame, no fire. The result? Convenience and the optimization of the present human experience. What’s next?

Up all night waiting in the cold

Waiting for the doors to open, and the chaos to unfold

Sheer madness just to save some money

Running around making sure to grab all the items promptly

Starting to get hungry

Even though just a few hours ago I was about to explode with turkey

5 hours of hectic shopping

Was it worth all waiting and running?

Need to grab food, brunch

Lets go visit a friend, maybe we’ll get a discount, just a hunch

Food and coffee hit the spot

Makes all the aches in my body an after thought

Time for the bill, lets play a game of roullette

Loser pays the bill, but all the money you just saved this morning, lets not forget

3 out of 4 you save even more money

Too tempting, pull the trigger, friends are thankful

I’m thankful for the discount for family

 

It’s the day after Thanksgiving, and I am still thankful for the four day break I got from work and school. This is the time to sleep in. However, I am awake and trying very hard to go back to sleep. I am convincing myself that if I do not open my eyes, I can fall back in deep sleep. I’m trying! but its not working. The sun, shining through the blinds in my room, is not letting me to sleep in. “What time is it”, I wonder. It must be early. I roll around the bed to find a better position to fall asleep again. Also not working. With my eyes closed, I reach to the nightstand next to my bed in search of my phone. My hand slides across the wooden surface of the nightstand, but “no phone”. Where is my phone? I panic and opened my eyes. Ah! Right there, few inches away from my reach. I grabbed my phone and looked at the time, it’s 10:21 am.

Now it’s time for the usual ritual before getting up. Checking all the apps on my phone. My emails, text messages, Facebook, Instagram and looking at headline news. I’m done checking my phone, it took an hour. I’m getting out of the bed! I am not hungry , so no point in eating breakfast, more like lunch soon. I am telling myself, that I will eat lunch after my workout. It’s sunny outside with a cool breeze. It’s a mild manner weather, not burning hot or freezing cold, just a typical sunny California November. I am driving to the my favorite park to enjoy some late morning run. I end my run! I am not that much tired, but more hungary. Now, I am debating wether to go out to eat or go back home and make something to eat. Thoughts of making something at home, reminds me that I must do some grocery shopping. Naturally, that will be my next stop. Funny, how my Mom always says “never go grocery shopping when hungry.” I never knew why she says this. Maybe superstition, maybe just a saying she heard from somewhere.

I am putting together a list of things I need on the drive to the store. I don’t need much. Just milk, bread, eggs and maybe some onions. Before entering the store, I am examining the shopping carts to select the least noisy and shaky one. Now, I am pushing the cart in the store and am navigating through the aisles to get to the milk. On my way, I see a whole lot of cookies. They look delicious. I pick one, and before putting it in my basket, realized that the other one is on 2 for 1 sale. Naturally, I reach and pick two of them. Now, my large cart has three packets of cookies in it. I continue my shopping cart towards the milk aisle. I can see other deals all over the store. My favorite type of meat is on a 4 for 1 deal. This was enough to deviate me from my original goal of getting the milk. Now I am in the meat department, and putting packages of meat in my cart, thinking to myself that I will have steak for lunch. Next to the meat there is fish. They look fresh and on a daily deal. I grabbed two packs and though how I can have them for dinner or even lunch, either way they are in my cart. I cannot have steak without vegetables. I proceed to the vegetable section, and filled my cart with broccoli, carrots, cilantro, parsley, spinach, tomato and etc. While I am putting these in my cart, I am picturing the dishes that I can make with these for lunch and dinner.

I just felt very hungry, and noticed how full my cart is. It is time for me to checkout and go home to make the steak lunch I have been thinking about. Placing the items from my cart on the conveyor belt made me realize how much I shopped, but I was not surprised till I saw the final price the cashier rang up. $154.24! I walked into the store thinking that I only need some milk or bread, and left with eighty four items that were not even in my list.
I think this was due to my hunger. The picture of dishes I was craving pushed me to shop for things I really did not needed. Now I know why my Mom would say that you should not go shopping when hungry.

Story in Sequential Pictures

 

 

Full Size Image

Video

 

I only meant to purchase one thing,

and it isn’t what it seems,

upon the cashier’s ding,

came the inclusion of sugary dreams.

Oh how I tried to hold back,

and it isn’t what I lack,

Please don’t be taken aback

by the stacks of cookies in my sack.

A single main ingredient left for my recipe

was my only necessity.

It was all it had to be,

but sweets are my therapy.

I could say it’s for my family,

and have it assuage the guilt happily,

but it doesn’t excuse the reality

of having lived unhealthily.

On a given day in the big city

Passing by this regular store

The big yellow boxes caught my attention from the outside

I instantly remembered Christmas in the summer

The smell of sand and ocean

The smell of cake and chocolate

The most wonderful time of the year

Then back to this cold and brisk place

Full of energy

It brings me so much joy to find a piece of home

In another time and another place

That brings together past and present

Into the place and time, I call home now.

Cucumbers

 

Peel and Chop

 

Form and Prepare

 

Add other fruits

 

Serve and enjoy.

 

Monetize, start a business, learn the ropes.

 

VIOLATION! Stumble and fail. Learn the city health codes.

 

Restart, regroup, rebrand, navigate the system and follow the rules.

 

Shut down for the day and do it again tomorrow.

 

After a while grow and expand.

 

Offer more delicious choices.

 

The lines start small.

 

But then the crowds come.

rice
little grains of rice
thousand pieces of rice

rice from here to there
rice where I go
trail of rice

where i walk rice
charnock, national
palms on expo more grains

grain step
grain step step
from the field
across the field
grain step

where I walk
how I walk

Was broke and weary

But now with job and money

Ramen happiness

(audio recording of me reading the above poem; receipts date from 2002-2013)

My friend Mark and I had a plan to cook Mapo-tofu the night before Thanksgiving. The night before that, my other friend decided to join us. To serve the meal for three of us, we figured we needed to double the recipe. And so I had the task of getting extra ingredients.

If you have seen my map, you’ll note that there are lots of disturbances and chaos in my neighborhood. To maintain my sanity, I try to avoid being out during the busiest times of day. Being out in this neighborhood the day before Thanksgiving seems like my worst nightmare. The grocery store is just one mile away, yet it will take 15 minutes to get there by car. Finding a parking spot will take at least another 20. Going into the store to grab what I need, pay, and leave will take another 20.  Why does it have to be so difficult?!

But I did it. I overcame all the obstacles and managed to get the missing ingredients — jalapeno and silken tofu.

To celebrate, I wrote the following little poem to describe the flavor range of this delicious dish.

Dear Mapo,

 

The things I have done to make you come true

All the obstacles I have overcome

To taste you, to devour you.

 

We shall soon to be together.

 

Garlic and ginger,

Per my Asian roots, you are inseparable.

 

Ground pork lends a profound base

Browned until crispy.

 

Silken tofu softly coats my throat

Its tenderness warms my heart.

 

Little jalapeno, you give us tingles

Pairing nicely with Sichuan pepper.

 

Black bean sauce adds boldness

While holding hands with tomato paste.

 

Chicken stock brings it all together

Choreographing a perfect dance in a sauce pan.

 

Scallions garnish, and there you are.

 

You’re finally revealed to me.

To be tasted, to be devoured

To be together.

My receipt is from my trip to Porto’s Bakery & Cafe on Thanksgiving morning to pick-up my pre-ordered cake:

As you can see from the video, the line for those who did not pre-order was significantly longer than what I had to stand in:

Witnessing this line and driving through the crowded Topanga Canyon intersection, I noticed  a number of individuals having to wait in lines to complete their last minute to do list items. This inspired my poem about procrastination:

Procrastination.

I’ll decide tomorrow.

Procrastination.

I’ll finish it later.

Procrastination.

The moment is here and I’m unprepared.

Why do I do this?

Because the last minute is the only one I find productive.

 

Warm. Cozy. Smiling. Together. Inviting. True love. You just left…

 

I’ve traveled around the world to be with you.

 

 

Now I am here, we have unrestricted access to each other. Whenever I’m alone with you, you make me feel like I am home again.

Credit: The Cure

 

 

Still, you never bore me with your ability to morph into whatever I need you to be right now.
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Too much of you is unhealthy. But you’re intoxicating.

 

Moderation is the key to a good relationship. But I’m staying (and finishing my milk).

 

I can’t wait for our next date at Chimera, the coffee shop where we first met.

I miss you already!

 

The Bunny Flu All-Nighter

In my narrative, the irresistible cuteness of bunnies in need, a farmer’s dogged dedication to the farm, and the tiny rural grocery store that has everything and nothing come together in eight doodled panels.

At Rabbit Ear Farm, the bunnies are a constant fixture without a clear role or purpose beyond being and making bunnies. But like any good comedic foil, they inspire loyalty and subplots. Trips to grocery store in town 10 miles away, known colloquially only as Blaine’s, run by the eponymous Blaine himself, are made with deliberation and as infrequently as possible. Closed Sundays, after 5, and on all imaginable holidays, Blaine’s offers frozen meats, soggy lettuce and Kraft Foods everything. It’s also the town liquor store.  It is, however, the only place to buy so much as a can of soup for 20 miles.

My receipt, from the immortal Found Magazine, is a deeply desperate, needful purchase for only $10.21. The story is also influenced by my current role as family lay nurse, my new habit of working grad student all-nighters, and my giant white cat’s way of sleeping sprawled on his back, feet tucked up, like a fluffy ‘lil bunny corpse.

Here’s my receipt:

Here’s a little audio narrative that I made. Can you guys guess what I bought?

We buy and consume A LOT of La Croix. Every grocery receipt for the past two years has at least one line item of the sparkling water. My favorite flavor is Tangerine and when they first introduced it, I found only a single pack of it at a local Pavillions. I then went to two additional Pavillions stores to locate more. Thankfully, it is regularly carried at all our local stores. But the introduction of new flavors or the perceived rarity of other flavors has friends creating text chains to alert one another where new or rare flavors have been spotted.

Receipt

La Croix Haikus

No offense tangerine

I always call you mandarin

but love you no less

 

Hipsters have claimed you

Florida girls had you first

Is there not room for both

 

Sparkling can of water

Zero calories you have

Inspired addiction

La Croix Animation

View Larger Animation

Beyond death and taxes,

3 things are constant in Argentina:

Red Wine, Red Meat and Ice-cream.

[These 3 things] never lets me down,

I am able to see the stars, they’re shining bright

Everything’s alright tonight.

As one goes south in the world, with the exception of Australia, auditing becomes an art and science.

This receipt has one line for the actual purchase of ice-cream and seven devoted to required fiscal information:

*S.R.L

*CUIT

*IVA

*Type on consumer

*P.V. No

*C.F.V

*ING

Each number identifies this ice cream shop against one or many government agencies.

As one goes south, Banana Republics start blossoming and states become bigger and more difficult to deal with; I know finding the balance is hard.

I am glad it is Back Friday, maybe bananas will be on sale. At least banana-flavored ice-cream please?

I would like to thank Depeche Mode for inspiration, they “Never Let Me Down,” like ice-cream

And just for those over 35, some closing words.