Letter to you | May 2024

Hi there, I hope this finds you well.

I have started reading a book about making coffee at home (one of my neighbors moved away/Marie-kondoed, so I got it for free!), and I learned about the Karlsbad coffee maker that looks like two teapots stacked together. Unfortunately, there is only one manufacturer making these coffee makers, and it is awaiting its reconstruction after a fire last year. I hope they resume production soon - would love to purchase one. Speaking of coffee, I had a conversation with a friend the other day about when we started drinking coffee. During the pandemic, my flatmate usually made a pot of coffee using a French press in the morning. Then she would text me, "Coffee is ready," usually with a coffee emoji. She was in charge of making the coffee, and I was in charge of cleaning the French press. I wasn't a huge coffee drinker before then. The pandemic is really when I started drinking coffee more frequently and regularly. I also watched a beautiful video by James Hoffman titled What Does A Great Cup Of Coffee Taste Like? To me, those French press coffees that my flatmate made were great coffee. They provided me with certainty and routine during all the uncertainty.

Lady Bird made me cry so much that my eyes had petechiae around them. I only realized it's a film by Greta Gerwig after I looked at the IMDb page. I still haven't watched Barbie. I did/still listen to What Was I Made For? a lot, though. I'm usually very behind on watching films. In a few years, maybe Barbie will give me petechiae.

I want to tell you about sticky rice. My grandma used to steam sticky rice in a wooden barrel. She would also cook some sliced beef to go with it. We would put the wooden barrel filled with piping hot rice, along with the plates of sliced meat, on a table just outside of the house and share with the neighbors. Form a ball with the sticky rice, use our thumbs to press down the center, and form a bowl shape; put the beef or other fillings in the middle and close the edges. Scrumptious. I was craving it the other day and found a restaurant that actually serves it very similarly. How lucky. For that, I count May as a fantastic month.

Yours truly :)