Author: doodledweller
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Natto
Last year, I made tempeh, a fermented soybean from Indonesia. It is a quick ferment, ready within 48 hours. The mold to ferment tempeh is rhizopus oryzae, which is also used to make Mao tofu, a delicacy of the Anhui province of China. This summer, I made natto, another quick ferment soybean from Japan. The…
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Drawing
Adult coloring books have been a thing since a few years. These are of intricate details and repetitive patterns, designed to induce calmness and zen for stressed out and anxious adults. Else, they can surely alleviate boredom for a few hours. They are compelling reasons to pick up the pencils, regardless of one’s ability to…
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Kintsugi
Alfie is a play adapted into film in 1966, and again in 2004. As a young woman, I loved this movie for its witty lines and beautiful characters, namely the womanizer that is Alfie. What’s Alfie like? Listen to his impression upon Aphrodite, “beautiful she was; perfect female form; chiseled features; exquisite. I stood in…
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Ikigai
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the Japanese concept ikigai as “a motivating force; something or someone that gives a person a sense of purpose or a reason for living”. It is to give meaning to life, a raison d’être. Here, we have furthered it into a venn diagram consisting of four circles: what the world…
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Discourse on Happiness
Happiness is a popular and well-studied field in the US. As Americans, we care about our happiness a lot. The right to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” is written into our declaration of independence. We’re inclined to think that everyone else does, too, but the pursuit of happiness is not a universal pursuit. …
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Kvas
The first time I tasted kvas was in the city of Yekaterinburg in Russia’s Siberia. It was a perfect thirst quencher for a sunny and moist summer day. How hot can it really get in Siberia at such high latitudes? -but that it is landlocked allows its summer temperatures to rise to a sizzling 90’s…
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Kombucha
This year, I signed myself into the pro-probiotics camp. As they are the bacteria intended to do amazing things for your gut, probiotics are the golden child of the wellness movement. Thanks to their supreme popularity of late, there is a plethora of fermented tea products, aka kombucha, available at your grocery store. Since all…
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300 Degrees
Slow-smoked beef brisket is among the most amazing American food. That a slab of brisket can be made so tender and flavorful is pure wonder and purely wonderful. Again, time has proved itself to be the magical ingredient to transform all things anew, both in textures and in flavors. The brisket spends hours over smoldering…
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Agile
Among the greatest social challenges today is how to help marginalized populations productively with minimum unintended consequences. Especially from a policy perspective, to draft a strategy often comes with assigning attributes to certain groups of people, often with negative statistics such as gun violence, drug abuse, and domestic abuse. These statistics have an unfortunate tendency…
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The Dreamer
Solitude: the state or situation of being alone. To be alone, but not to be lonely is not an innate ability. In fact, we’re born with an opposite inclination. Humans are social animals, meant to bond with our kins; and to belong is to feel safe. Yet, we’re also profoundly alone. One sees the world…
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