The news has been disheartening, to put it mildly, in the last few weeks, from the release of the video recording of Ahmaud Arbery being chased while jogging by two white men and shot to death to Christian Cooper, birding in the Ramble and having a white woman call 911, threatening to falsely report that “an African American man is threatening me and my dog,” to the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota at the hands of a group of cops, one of whom put his knee down on Floyd’s neck, which eventually killed him. All of these incidents were caught on video. Two of them led to murders. One of them went without arrest or indictment for two months due to unclear circumstances (I suppose black deaths don’t matter unless the public knows about them to those in charge in Georgia?).

I read this story by a black woman about raising a black son today. The title of it is “When my beautiful black boy grows from cute to a threat.” She talks about all the compliments she gets about how cute her little son is, but she worries for his future when one day, he will have to watch his back literally everywhere he goes because his body will be seen as a weapon simply because of his skin color. I cried reading about her constant worry about her son. Would he come home? If he didn’t call, could he possibly have been shot and killed for zero wrongdoing other than being born with darker skin? A black colleague of mine, who did his undergrad work at Harvard, talked about the need he had to wear his Harvard sweatshirt in neighborhoods that were predominantly white or of a higher socioeconomic class because he felt that this would ensure that people would see him as “legitimate,” as “not one of those” black people who could potentially be a threat.

My stomach has churned and my eyes have burned this week, watching these horrific videos, remembering that somehow, we are actually in the year 2020, but it certainly does not feel like much progress has been made. Every day feels like a dystopia, with the terrible leadership of this country to COVID-19 to racism being a consistent, persistent threat that so many people, even some people of color, refuse to admit is an issue. How can anyone possibly think we are in a post-racist world, particularly with a president who outright calls black protestors “thugs,” which is essentially a code word for “(bad) black person”?

It doesn’t seem to matter what people of color do, but they are always seen as doing wrong. Protest by kneeling? Then you can always leave this country. Protest by going in the streets? They’re thugs. This is what President Dipshit has said. Yet somehow, when white people do it, whether it’s after major sporting events, at state capitols to protest wearing masks with their machine guns in hand, they need to be listened to and empathized with. What kind of a “leader” do we have here?

I didn’t think this period could get worse, but I feel like we are at our lowest of lows now. I can’t stop thinking about all the injustices that people of color face and the sheer ignorance and stupidity of so many in this country who either actively or passively allow it continue happening. Silence benefits the oppressor. You are either actively against racism, or you are for it.

Since yesterday, the news has been buzzing around a Memorial Day incident that happened in the Ramble, a protected part of Central Park here in New York City that is known for its vast and diverse array of flora and fauna, particularly birds that you would never quite imagine in the middle of a concrete jungle. That early morning, a white woman had allowed her dog to go unleashed in this area, which is against the rules of this section of Central Park. An avid birder, who happened to be a black man, was also in the area and noticed that this dog was running around unleashed, and asked the woman to leash her dog. They started to argue, and a debate ensued, which ended with the birder recording the woman on his phone, as she not only nearly strangled her dog but said she would call 911, asserting that an “African American man was threatening my and my dog’s life.” She called them, insisting they come immediately, and the birder also yelled and said they should come, too. There are a lot of terrible and ridiculous aspects to discuss about this from white female privilege to abuse of power to racism to subconscious racism masked as “fear” as this woman called it, but I’m not going to go into the details here.

My cousin sent me an updated article this morning, noting that the woman had been fired from her job after her employer initially put her on forced leave. He said, “Black man calls racism and the whole world listens. An Asian person calls racism and no one listens.”

While my initial knee-jerk response was to tell him that he was being pathetic, that he has no idea what it’s like to be a black man in a world where a black man cannot even jog on a road safely without fear of being shot and killed (and, having the perpetrators get away with it unnoticed for over two months, for that matter), that his problems are nothing compared to that of a black person growing up in this country, I didn’t say that and thought about it for a bit. And I realized that there actually is some element of truth to what he said.

Why do I say this? Well, since COVID-19 broke out in China and literally made its way across the globe, countless racist incidents, from slurs to graffiti to vandalizing of Asian-owned businesses to outright shootings and stabbings, have been committed against Asians everywhere. And you know what? I learned about the majority of these incidents not through CNN or the New York Times or Fox News, but through local media sources, Asian social media groups I belong to, and even Asian personalities in the arts and food world I follow on Instagram. It never made any major headlines when an entire Asian family was stabbed at a grocery store in Texas by a racist, enraged man. When I learned of the Asians who were stabbed in Melbourne, Australia a month ago, no one was really talking about it. And then there’s the most recent incident in San Leandro, California, where a white woman physically went door to door to every house she knew had Asian people inhabiting it and posted a letter telling the families to “go back where you came from.” She eventually got arrested with a basket of these racist letters in hand. “If you are a woman or man and was born in other country, return, go back to your land immediately, fast, with urgency,” the note said. It ended with “One American, white, brave, that serves the Nation or USA is going to live here.”

There’s no major headlines about this in The New York Times, in CNN, and like Breitbart really cares. It’s like the model minority stereotype of Asians has truly hurt Asians in the long run here because we’re supposed to persevere, be silent, and just work hard and shut up to become successful and have “good lives.” The media do not care about Asians, and they won’t cover them in news because society doesn’t seem to care. It’s sad, but it’s pretty true.

So, I didn’t tell my cousin he was being pathetic. I just said that there was some truth to it. However, it’s not like black people have it better AT ALL than Asians because while these headlines may make the news, what laws and actual enforcement are happening to improve the lives of black people here….?!

After some nudging from one of Chris’s former colleagues, I’m seriously considering finally tackling a cooking project I’ve been wanting to do for over eight years but just never made the time for: making handmade, no-pasta-machine pasta. I had a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated that I cut out of one of my old magazine issues, but just never got around to it since it seemed quite labor and time intensive. But my desire to do it was reawakened after seeing Chris’s colleague’s homemade pasta, and after watching America’s Test Kitchen’s video showing how to make it.

In the video, which is less than 4 minutes long, you can see the process from beginning to end. Clearly, they had at least four different cameras filming the person making pasta at the same time, otherwise they never would have had so many different shots at different angles at the same time. Because of this, the video got so many comments on YouTube for it because of how “professional” and “helpful” it was to have so many angles, which they said was unusual but very much wanted.

Yeah, that’s easy to do when you have an entire production team, tons of equipment, and 4-6 different cameras. It’s not possible at all when you are just a wee person in her home kitchen with one camera and an occasional camera man (Chris), who tries to take many angles at different points at different times. This is why filming cooking takes soooo long. All those different angles are really key and what people want.

While all the previous Memorial Day weekends have been pretty memorable for us because we were traveling and exploring different parts of the world, this Memorial Day weekend, we’ve been stuck at home with our usual, everyday routine.

So what did I end up having us do? I put that homemade citrus vinegar cleaner to work and cleaned our fridge, stove, and outside of our stainless steel appliances. I even took a video of Chris cleaning the fridge and remarked that this was the best Memorial Day weekend ever. He was not amused and looked at me glumly, resenting my video and humor.

Well, if we aren’t going to go anywhere, we might as well make sure our house smells and looks clean.

At least the weather was really warm and sunny.

Chris thinks that quarantine has made me go nuts in that I have been cleaning pretty much everything in sight. I started even more domestic-goddess type activities, such as regrowing my scallions, reorganizing my spice drawer, and now making my own citrus vinegar all-purpose cleaner. I started following a few different #nowaste personalities on Instagram that I’ve found inspiring. In a country like the US, where waste is always plentiful because we have so much of everything, it’s actually really sad how often things are wasted. Even if we remove the waste that comes from people who refuse to take leftover food home, the people who refuse to eat the dark meat on chicken and consume only the white, there’s so much waste that happens even before food gets to consumers via the suppliers/processors. On top of that, there’s the waste from food we eat. Sure, there’s food that goes bad before we realize it’s bad. Then, there’s the waste that happens from consumers who just follow dubious “sell by” labels and don’t bother checking the food via smell/taste tests themselves. They throw out perfectly good food just based on a dumb label that is hard to interpret. Then, depending on how you want to characterize it, ends of celeries and cilantro stems are wasted because people don’t like to eat them; carrot skins and onion shells can be used in chicken stock; even citrus peels are actually edible! So how do we actually get the most use out of what we have?

One handle I follow suggested that if we are not using citrus peels in cooking to instead add them to a glass container and store in the freezer. Once full, fill the container with white vinegar and keep in a dark, cool place for two weeks (like under your kitchen sink. Two weeks later, the vinegar will be fully infused with the oils and extra juices from the citrus peels, and you can strain it to then use it with equal parts water for an all-purpose cleaner. In general, it’s not great to use vinegar to clean granite/marble countertops since the acid from the vinegar can actually etch these natural stones.

I took the container out from under my sink today to reveal a deep orange liquid that smelled extremely fresh, fruity, and sour. If you hate the smell of vinegar, this is the DIY cleaner solution for you! I love the idea of contributing less waste to the environment with actions that are actually within our control.

This is our first Memorial Day weekend not traveling as far as I can remember. Last year, we were in Colombia, and on this specific Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, we were exploring the colorful town of Guatape two hours outside of Medellin and climbing up this big tower overlooking the gorgeous bright blue Guatape lake. Two years ago for Memorial Day weekend, we were in Oaxaca and Mexico City. In 2017, we explored Nova Scotia. In 2016, we were hiking through Zion and Bryce National Parks in southern Utah. In 2015, we explored Ohio and Kentucky with Chris’s parents. In 2014, we traveled to upstate New York and the Adirondacks with his parents, and in 2013, we went to the Pacific Northwest and saw Seattle and Portland. During our long weekends, we are usually traveling and exploring somewhere, eating different food, seeing different sights. This was an adjustment for us. Yes, this whole thing screams privilege, but that was what we were used to. And now, we have no travel to look forward to, and the only reason to go outside seems to be to go to Central Park, which we already do every single day.

My manager keeps telling me that I need to take time off to rest and unwind, recharge, refuel. But again, I’m already doing all the things I want to be doing – cooking more, video editing, reading, listening to podcasts, organizing and cleaning up the apartment… what else is there to do? What more can I do without being able to do the things I love most? Yes, we’re lucky that we’re healthy, have a safe place to live, have enough food, are still gainfully employed.. but what do we look forward to now, even during long holiday weekends? Does this even count as a “holiday weekend”?

When you stock up on supplies during normal periods for your home, you think exactly that: what do I normally use, and how long does it typically take to use up said item until you have to buy more? Because Chris and I normally travel both for work and pleasure pretty frequently, our “normal” usage of regular household items is likely lesser than the average couple or family who have jobs that keep them local. So it was strange to see what our usage of these items was like during the last nearly three months of forced shelter-in-place in our apartment.

These are general changes we saw in what we used vs. did not use. Most of these are not surprising, but was just more comical to me:

Increase:

Hand soap, body soap/shampoo/conditioner, dishwasher tablets, all-purpose cleaner, baking soda, dish washing liquid, kitchen and bath towels, sponges, hand lotion

Decrease:

Hand sanitizer (I mean, we really only use these when we’re traveling… because we always have access to soap otherwise, right?), makeup, sunscreen, contact lenses

Same:

Laundry detergent, paper towels

I’ve never understood people who constantly use hand sanitizer while at home or in work settings. Are you really just too lazy or believe you’re “too busy” to go to the restroom and wash your hands? If you are so deluded and arrogant in thinking you are too busy to go to a sink to wash your hands for 20 seconds, maybe you do deserve to get a cold or virus.

It’s funny how quickly habits can change in a society that seems dogged about its civil liberties and rights. Once upon a time, Americans made fun of Asians both in Asia and in the U.S. who would go outside wearing masks. They said they looked stupid, that they didn’t actually help with the spread and transmission of colds, flus, viruses. When the concept of wearing a mask seemed to finally be pushed by our flawed CDC, a number of machine-gun-bearing, pro-American freaks across the nation stormed around their state’s capitol buildings, holding signs and yelling that being forced to wear a mask when leaving their homes stripped them of their American freedoms, that wearing a mask was akin to being forced into slavery.

Do these people even know what slavery actually encompassed — across the world and in the very country that they call home? Because if they actually had any understanding of this in the slightest, they’d realize that being asked to wear a mask — to protect themselves, is not even remotely in the same realm as slavery.

Then throughout the month of April, the number of Americans wearing masks outside their homes grew and grew. During the first week of April, the number was around 30-40 percent depending on the area of the country. Then, now that we are in May, the data is showing that over 80 percent of the country is wearing masks when leaving their homes. And it’s even become a fashion statement: Nancy Pelosi seems to be color-coordinating all her masks with her outfits when in public and doing her usual House Speaker duties. There are new thinner, summer-ready masks that are being marketed and sold for park/beach wear. Social media influencers are modeling their different styles of masks on Instagram and TikTok.

So I thought to myself, if mask-wearing is part of our new normal, maybe I should start investing in color and pattern coordination, too, since why not? We have no idea how long this will last, and if it’s for the next year, a $10/mask investment really isn’t that much… especially considering that all the things we normally spend money on, such as eating out, socializing, travel, theater, are nonexistent for the near future. I went on Etsy and was overwhelmed with all the options: pattern or no pattern? Pockets? Adjustable straps? What size will fit my face vs. Chris’s? Filters or no filters? Extra room for the nose to allow for better breathing? Hmmmm.

Then, I checked the mail this week, and it just so happened that a colleague who I’ve been collaborating on a project with sent me a custom-made mask with my last name on it as a gift for our work together.

I guess this is the beginning of my mask collection? A year ago, I never would have thought I’d even own one mask. Now, I’ve got two along with all the airplane eye masks we’ve been using as make-shift masks.

Since 2013, I started a conscious goal to read at least 12 books per year. I read a good amount of news, breaking and long form, and I listen to a lot of podcasts, but I wanted to commit myself to reading actual books, especially since I’d learned that as adulthood responsibilities really kick in, people tend to de-prioritize books… as depressing as that sounds. I’ve kept a running list of books read each year, and between 2013 and this year, I’ve met my goal all except two years. Last year, I read 18 books, which was my highest year since I started tracking, and this year, although we are not even through May yet, I’ve already read 11. Shelter in place, with no social life and no travel, has certainly enabled me to read more. I read across pretty much every medium: physical books, Kindle, and audio. I don’t necessarily read “current” books, but I read books that have been on a long “to-read” list, and then occasionally reprioritize books based on availability via NYPL/Libby, or what I just feel in the mood for.

I told my colleague yesterday that I’d read 11 books already, and she couldn’t believe how productive I’d been since quarantine began and commented on how much of a sloth she was next to me. She said she really only reads books during her vacations, which she takes maybe two per year. That made me wonder what the average number of books Americans read per year was. The last time I could find data on this from 2011, it looks like the average number of books read by Americans who read (key: this is people who already label themselves as “readers”) was about 12 per year. That sounds high, but that’s because averages cannot necessarily be trusted, as these are skewed by crazy outliers, like those who are retired and read 80 books a year, or overachievers like Bill Gates, who reads at least 50 books per year. So a better number to choose is the median number, which is actually four books read per year by the average American. That actually sounded higher than I thought, as I thought it would be around 2.

So I suppose my goal is “average,” but my actuals are far above the median. But then the next question is: how do we define “book,” and just because you listened to an audio book does not necessarily mean that you took anything away from it? I try not to continue reading any book beyond the 100-page point if I do not find it interesting since I think that at that point, if you haven’t gotten my attention, you are actually taking away my attention from other books that are likely better and better to me.

Books are a good escape. They’re a way to learn about topics and people and places that you don’t always get exposed to. I guess it’s no wonder I am reading so much more now than pre-quarantine since I cannot go anywhere and explore physically. The exploration now needs to be done virtually and via books.

I’ve now finished editing and uploading 40 videos to Yvonne meets Food. It’s taken quite a lot of time, energy, and wrist/finger strength, but it’s been gratifying to see the work getting done and see my subscriber count slowly inch up. I’m officially at 151 subscribers now, which is not necessarily a huge thing to celebrate just yet, but it’s still a long way from when I was just hovering around 40-50 when I began this journey. I just finished editing my first of two Bali videos, and in the first video, I get to try Babi guling, or Balinese roasted suckling pig, for the very first time.

Last night, I dreamt I was back in Ubud eating Babi guling again, and I was filming a video where I was eating it and describing the tastes and textures to the camera man (who was not Chris). Was this actually something I was doing for real work? It’s unclear in the dream. Maybe one day it will become a reality, but in the meantime, I just need to keep chugging along and get these videos out.