I should not be allowed to have a blog.

I’ll just end up killing it.

I thought I had sworn off blogging after my 3rd or 4th ill-fated attempt at it almost ten years ago. But, like a moth to a flame or some other readily available example of a masochist, I find myself staring yet again into the abyss of online writing—this time thanks to the helpful folks at Medium.

I think the inexorable march of time is what is providing the reasons for this perhaps inadvisable attempt at blogging. The first reason is almost cliché: I’m yet another lawyer who is wondering if “the law” is my path to follow or if there are other paths for me to explore.

The second reason is informed by that march of time—I find myself at the cusp of my forties with a variety of hobbies and interests, but still wondering if there’s a singular thing into which I should be pouring my heart and soul.

The third reason is synonymous with the march of time—death and loss.

I lost my father earlier this year and, like virtually everyone who has suffered that type of loss, I was not prepared. Dad’s passing has affected me profoundly and probably continues to affect me in ways that I don’t realize.

But his passing also has taught me about how I related to him and how I relate to the people in my life. The constant theme in those memories and interactions is food. Food is how I often related and interacted with my parents. It’s also how I often relate to my girlfriend and friends. Food is how my mother, my girlfriend, and I have related to each other in the wake of his passing. More often than not, whenever the three of us are together, the conversation turns to food, cooking, and food cultures.

Relating to one another through food is neither novel nor unique to the three of us. It’s central to the human existence. I don’t want to pontificate on food and food cultures. Eddie Huang already does this and he excels at this. I don’t want to talk about straight food history either—LA Weekly’s Katherine Spiers does a great job of this on her terrific Smart Mouth podcast.

What intrigues me, though, is how certain foods can be so common to so many people, but with slight regional variations, e.g., dolmades. Or how my Taiwanese friend and I enjoy the same foods, but our love for those foods is informed by our totally different life experiences. These are some of the questions I want to explore and, hopefully, have some fun along our shared march in time.

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What IS the deal with food?

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