Hi – I’m Rebecca. Thanks for visiting my little corner of the universe. I started writing this journal when my husband and I moved from Los Angeles, California to Maplewood, New Jersey after being west coasters all of my life and basically half of his. It was time for change, and change is certainly what we got.
Ever since we relocated, it feels as though the universe has affirmed and agreed with our tremendous morphosis. I being a native Southern Californian, while I’ve always loved visiting places with cold winter weather, had never experienced living in it. Waking up to it, walking and trudging through it, determining the best and safest ways to continue living with and in it. My in-laws, Easterners all their lives, joked that it was just a matter of time that I would catch the next flight back to sunny Southern California at first sight of a snow storm.
But none of that happened.
In fact, our first winter as east coasters was one of the most pleasant seasons we had ever experienced. It got cold, sure – but we had only one major snow storm, which was definitely a doozy. Overall though, it was short, and before we knew it, the weather warmed up again. If I had to complain about the anything, it was actually the terrible mosquitoes that I had to fight off of every inch of uncovered skin when I stepped outside between May and August. They were HORRIBLE. So horrible, that I would swell so badly from bites on my legs, a couple of my pants became super tight around my leg from the painful and hot bites right behind my knee. I’d take a few piles of snow and cold before dealing with raised swollen insect-bitten flesh, any day…
I digress.
Instead of running away and returning to the warm place I called home for 97% of my life to that point, we stayed put. I stayed put. And I started to quickly fall in love with these new surroundings, these new climates, these new seasons, these new experiences. My new home.
“The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
And so, here I am, and here is this journal of mine. My purpose is sharing – sharing experiences, memories, and those small mundane moments in everyday life that make everyone human. What better central nucleus to do so than through food. Food is after all the thread that runs through and binds our different cultures, our joys and pleasures, our love for each other, our identities. What we eat, banal or extraordinary, reveals so much about each of us. As cliche as it may be, food and the art and science of its creation truly is the most ancient language of human history. Its instinct is overshadowed by its refined civility and ability to bring complete strangers together who otherwise would never commune, savoring flavors, textures, aromas and blissful satisfaction – together.
I love that. I love all of that. All of that cliched, and some may say vacuous, philosophy about food and its irreconcilable focal role in life. Food is why Maslow’s hierarchy of needs stands true. Food resolves the instinctive physiological demands; it reflects love and belonging; but most importantly, food has brought me a level of self-actualization and a deeper and richer meaning to my own life. Especially my new life in new places with new people and environments.
From the smallest to the greatest joys of making a mess, experimenting with new ingredients, reliving fond memories through old recipes. This is what living in the present means to me. And the stories that surround each meal, each scent, each flavor are poetic in and of themselves, intertwined and beautiful in their earthly simplicity and profound in their spiritual mosaic.
And since leaving Southern California, my experiences have truly become richer. Even though we left the mecca of some of the most diverse and authentic cuisines on this planet, I brought with me all of those many exquisite and genuine memories, inspiring me to recreate them as often as possible. And now, surrounded by an even greater array of cultures, flavors and traditions, my mosaic has become filled with even more color, more texture, more awareness, more humanness.
I’m here to share my simple and mosaic experiences with you. I do hope you stay for a little while and enjoy, and please say hello.
♥ – Rebecca / G2GS