Kimchi Soup and Sir Ken Robinson

Last week, I moved into a cozy little cottage in Hamtramck. Hamtramck is a city-island, independent-from, but completely surrounded by Detroit. I have room on the second floor near the front of the house. It’s 9-by-8 or 8-by-8-feet or so, maybe half the size of the room I lived in from last November until now, and it’s perfect.

My little Ikea futon takes up 2/3rds of the floor space.  Chocolately open-frame shelves match the dark wood doors and look lovely up against the burnt orange walls. Above the light switch, there’s a gilded Klimt-esque painting that my childhood best friend Lauren gifted me long ago; above the head of my bed, a round paper lantern with red  blossoms and black branches. The light and the bed are in perfect symmetry with the front window, which is dressed in a green-gold textured panel curtain my mom sewed as a gift for our old apartment in San Francisco. My yellow banana-tulip trashcan, picture-mobile, and bottle of Grand-Dad Whiskey round out my nest.

I’d like to install some sort of wall-mounted two-shelf-system nestled between my bed and the wall, so I can stand and work on my laptop in the mornings and enjoy that early light, or plop on a stool to dash off a letter or write in my journal before bedtime. Perhaps next to that, near the door, a system of twine and clothespins and tacks to hang pictures, letters, relics from the week: a shrine to the ordinary inspiration of everyday life. Underneath, beside the white checkerboard heating grate, might be a small space to sit and meditate on the black barley-husk cushion from my retreat in Millersburg, Ohio (on the same trip, where I had the best meal of this year).  And somewhere, mirrors, positioned, of course, for good feng shui. In the meantime, my poppy-stenciled corkboard is patiently propped up against that wall, waiting for its side of the room to be realized.

Being in this room feels nice already, like being hugged.

Being in the whole house is nice especially because of my roommates, Siri and Marcia. We had our first weekly family dinner tonight. Barley and Kimchi-freezer-soup and RSA-animate videos. So great.

Basic recipe: Mince and fry garlic in a touch of olive oil. Toss in 1/500th of our overabundant chili powder stash and fry until Siri coughs. Sprinkle in furikake because it’s there. Throw in frozen puck of wonton sauce from an old Neighborhood Noodle event. Meanwhile, in microwave, defrost gallon bag of frozen chicken stock made from thigh bones leftover from satay-making, frozen fishballs & fake crab from epic Chinese New Year party, and mysterious frozen bean curd.

Hack semifrozen stock into chunks, add to chili-sauce concoction, and patiently bring to boil. (While waiting, consider sipping some chamomile-anise tea). Cut up defrosted seafood & beancurd with kitchen scissors and add, then add 1/4 bag of leftover frozen spinach, 6 frozen pork-leek dumplings and Noodle dumplings that accompanied the sauce. Add 2 cups of homemade cabbage-carrot-daikon kimchi. Bring again to boil. Add fish sauce, sugar, and sesame oil to taste. Throw a tablespoon or so of cornstarch in a bowl, scoop out some broth, whisk it up with a fork, then slowly add back into the big pot to thicken. Bring to a boil again, then beat up a couple of eggs and drop in so they form swirly clouds. Serve atop barley.

Finish off with peaches, watermelon, good roomie musing on social change, and a good RSA-Animate classic.