The very first lesson in my Greek Sign Language class was how to order coffee. My standard order at the time was “frappé, sweet with milk:” a frothy instant coffee beverage practically synonymous with Greek café life. The fact that coffee was our first lesson did not surprise me one bit – my coffee order…
Author: Ariana Gunderson
American Gold
I had six of them hidden in my luggage under the bed. Mailed from the US to Germany, these 6 boxes of gold were a secret I would not share. Perhaps ‘boxes of gold’ sounds over-the-top, but they were truly precious. And anyway, the neon orange packet glowed fluorescent when I sprinkled it over the…
Quiche Must Reads
Quiche is perhaps one of the most divisive items on an American brunch menu. I have encountered quiche as a food that is coded as female, high-maintenance, and snobbish. What are your associations with quiche? Do you eat it? Personally, I far prefer to read about quiche than to eat it. Here are some quiche-relevant…
Food + Trauma: “In Memory’s Kitchen”
Though only just beginning my thesis research on how food is used as a response to trauma, I have found in cookbooks several impressive examples of how people experiencing and recovering from traumatic events have used food as a means of coping with the unfathomable. In Memory’s Kitchen is a published collection of recipes, edited by…
Reminiscents: Greek Mountain Tea, Scent, and Memory
I hold the tea like a bouquet of flowers, thumbing the soft fuzz of leaves and buds clinging to brittle, woody stalks.[1] I breathe in and smell incense: the inside of a small church on Monastiraki square where I stop to light a candle; a censor waved by the German teens who dress up as…
Ariana Gunderson 