As the autumn wind quietly flies by and the leaves slowly drift down, the ground looks like a fall blanket. Fall is the season of nostalgia. It brings me back to my childhood in China. I can still see the endless golden rice fields and the sweat of hardworking villagers, and hear the laughter of […]
Comfort food
Posted inEat + Drink
Chicken and Dumplings from Here and There
Over the 30 years that I’ve lived in the United States, I still haven’t tried American chicken and dumplings. When I saw a few posts from fellow foodies, I was curious about this traditional comfort food. After reading some recipes, I found some similarities to my rural hometown’s dough soup. I know its name is […]
Posted inArts + Scene
After the Feast, Congee
Editor’s note: If you you went full turkey yesterday and find yourself still recovering from a run with the tryptophan dragon, longing for a piece of that same feeling but wary of where it will take you, fret not. There’s a balance to be found. In this piece originally published in 2017, Journal arts and […]
Posted inNews
NCJ Preview: Overcoming Childhood Trauma and the Limits of Stress Cooking
This week’s cover story is about how childhood stress and trauma connect to serious health issues in adulthood, like addiction and even cancer. But it’s not hopeless, as a program addressing adverse childhood experiences here in Humboldt shows — even amid the added stresses of a pandemic. Speaking of which, we’re also talking about the […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Comfort Food When There is No Comfort
I made too much Japanese curry last weekend. I chopped the onions, carrots, mushrooms and potatoes while talking on the phone with a friend who is struggling with whether to fly across the country to visit her ailing father. She was calculating the risk of traveling, how she’d manage quarantining before going near her parents, […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Chinese Comfort Food
The “Secret Menu” at Szechuan Garden (753 18th St., Arcata) might be more accurately titled the Student Menu. Owner Nina Zhao, a native of Shenyang in Northern China who took over the place five years ago, added the page and a half list because so many Chinese and Chinese American students from Humboldt State University […]
Posted inEat + Drink
After the Feast, Congee
Maybe you’re a more disciplined person than I am. Maybe after the preparations, the cooking, the gorging, the food coma and the dish washing that follow a holiday meal, you can spring up from the bed/couch/floor and begin chopping ingredients for turkey soup. Maybe, like my Sicilian mother-in-law, you’re already melting butter for a Tetrazzini […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Family Business
Good taste runs in families. In Arcata, Halleh Paymard keeps her Southern California family’s restaurant tradition alive with breakfast, brunch and Bloody Marys at T’s Café North. And in Eureka, the Tanski family makes its home at Gabriel’s with Italian dishes and remarkable wines. Gabriel’s216 E St, Eureka (707) 445-0100 Tuesday – Thursday, 11:30 am […]