humanity
Humanity topics include pieces on the real lives of chefs, professionals, amateurs, inspiring youth, influencers, and general feel good human stories in the Feast food sphere.
Summer foods and eating disorders
Can you hear it? The sound of the ocean, the singing of the seagulls, the sun beating down on your skin making you feel like you are glowing. Like you are on top of the world even. Can you feel the cliché? To some, summer is one of the best times of the year, no school, total freedom to binge on food, travel the world, do whatever your heart desires. And for me it used to be. Until I turned 15, until wanting to binge on food made my stomach sick. For a few years I had been developing an eating disorder. But when I turned 15 something in me clicked. A part of me just really changed from hating the way I saw my body to loathing the way I saw my body. I stopped eating, I worked out too much, and I felt like I was on the verge of passing out almost 24/7. The hardest part about my eating disorder was the fact that I had always loved to eat. So when I stopped eating I finally realized something was incredibly not ok. Yet I tried to hide my eating disorder from everyone for as long as I could. Until one morning I woke up at six am extremely nauseous. For a good hour I was sitting next to my toilet wanting to throw up the nothingness that was my stomach. At that moment I finally asked for help. And that's what I got during the summer when I was 15. This summer, I am 15. I asked for help about a month ago and it has been insanely hard. About a week ago, I told my therapist about my love of food along with my giant sweet tooth. She challenged me so that the next time I eat something sweet to finish the dessert instead of eating half of it. My nutritionist challenged me to find safe foods. I had listed to her fruits, smoothies, and salads because they were low calories, they were what my eating disorder wanted me to say, to eat. But the part of me that asked for help, that is trying to fight away the disorder, knew I had lied straight through my teeth. My comfort food was not fruit or salads. It was ice cream, a cliché summer food but still, the ultimate summer food.
By Keira Mannion4 years ago in Feast
My Passionate Affair with Gol Gappey
If you're from the subcontinent like me ( India, Pakistan, Bangladesh), you know that nothing beats gol gappay in the summer. Nothing beats a crispy stuffed ball, full of flavours bursting in your mouth. My first intense relationship was not with a man, but with gol gappay ( water balls). It was the summer of 2009. I was a young and innocent desi girl. My relationship with Gol Gappays was friendly and cordial at the time. I would have them occasionally, when we went to Gerard Street, or at a wedding. It was that year, when I had watched a Bollywood movie called 'Rab ne Banadi Jodi' . There was a scene where Shah Rukh Khan and his love interest stop by a Gol Gappa stall to have some gol gappays before they head home after their dance class. They both challenged each other who could have the most gol gappays. One plate after another, they devoured the Gol Gappays. In the end, Shah Rukh Khan had won. It was then, my craving for gol gappays had turned intense. I stayed up many hot July nights tossing, and turning, thinking what was once friendly, and innocent, had now turned intense. These crispy balls filled with smashed potatoes, chickpeas, curd, sev, and tangy-spicy water were now tempting me, luring me towards them.
By Daniya Ali4 years ago in Feast
No Taste Like Home
My first time making my mom's famous potato salad didn't go so well. I had been living with my partner in our first apartment and, after being unable to visit my family for a while during lockdown, I was craving more than just a phone call and he was craving my mother's cooking.
By Sarah Shea4 years ago in Feast
The Glory Days
Ahh, the delectable harrows of summer. The sweltering sun, the incessant buzz of insects you can never quite locate, the all-out warfare upon the grimy waves of a public pool. Summer gave us quarter from education, gave us a sense of childlike joy to explore and play under the warm embrace of the sun. Summer is a pillar of our childhoods, as equally important as a concept as it is a season. You see, summer isn't just a time of year, it’s an experience.
By Daley Malpass4 years ago in Feast
Gridilla. Top Story - June 2022.
From the time I was young, I loved Godzilla movies. Godzilla movies and the Ultraman television show, but Ultraman is for another story. I remember getting excited every Saturday afternoon to see what “new” Godzilla movie would be showing on my local television station. My seven-year-old brain delighted in the different monsters each and every week. And you can imagine how blown away I was when I saw Jet Jaguar in Godzilla versus Megalon! But again, Godzilla versus Megalon is a topic that deserves a story all to itself.
By Briant Laslo4 years ago in Feast
Summer Watermelons
Summer Watermelons: Enjoyed with Mouths, Hands, or Hammers I have always thought of watermelon as the official food of summer. Other summer treats are great, of course. Ice cream is a good contender, but you can get it by the gallon any time of year. Watermelon is more specific to the summer season, which puts it in the lead. When I was about five, I buried seeds in my grandfather’s backyard. I thought that growing my own favorite food would be the best thing in the world. There were three melons growing when I checked the next time they were in season. The grownups gave me all the credit for the harvest, but I have a suspicion that they were the ones who planted and nurtured the melons we enjoyed that summer.
By Sean Elliot Martin4 years ago in Feast
Our Covid Summer
When I think Summer, I think of the impressive wall of heat that hits you on the face like you’re looking into a hot oven. The humidity is so thick, it makes the air heavy. Combined, you are just weighted down, like that nightmare where you are trying to run, but your feet are dragging, and each step is like pushing through taffy.
By Meghan Thew4 years ago in Feast
I Would Eat Them in a House and with a Mouse
Initially, when I think of summer, I think of a beach barbeque. I think of hot dogs, watermelon, pasta salad and even baked beans. As delicious as all of those foods are, they do not bring up the same level of nostalgia. Feelings are important when it comes to describing a food that brings you joy. When the smell, taste or look of a food can send you back down memory lane, it just adds to the satisfaction. The reasons why the foods I listed above do not do that, is because we continue to use them for many occasions outside of a breezy summer barbeque. For instance, Thanksgiving food has all the hype because we typically wait a whole year to eat all those traditional thanksgiving dishes. The wait and the anticipation is why our mouths water every year. This is why I decided to talk about a food that I rarely eat, that is green eggs and ham.
By Ashley Gilmore4 years ago in Feast
The summer catch
Fishing has always been a fun and relaxing way to spend summer with my family. From bass, blue gill and catfish me my grandpa and dad would catch a stringer full of fish from the pond behind my parent's house. I have great childhood memories of my grandpa teaching me how to catch and fillet the fish. My grandpa also had great skills of cooking our catch he shared with me. One of my favorite moments was when he taught me how to lay the catfish fillets in the pan to fry them. When my grandma and parents came back he hurried to his chair in the living room and acted like I was cooking on my own. We had a laugh about it I was only seven but learning how to cook great food. Another family favorite was his hush puppy recipe that is slightly sweet with a hint of onion. The dining room table had a large bowl filled with the fried catfish along with the hush puppies and fresh tomatoes and other vegetables from my grandpa's garden. Me and my older sister helped set the plates and silverware for everyone while my grandma made coleslaw to go with the catfish. We always had a great diner and the satisfying feeling of helping catch the fish we ate made me proud of our catch. To this day every time I think of summer I think of frying catfish even if I only caught one I would fry it for myself. Even if the fish wasn't biting I enjoy fried catfish at the restaurant me and my family go to with all you can eat catfish fresh from the fryer with coleslaw and baked beans. The restaurant also had a big pond with catfish in it. Me and my sister would ask our parents to buy fish food from the counter and we watched in amazement as the huge catfish came up to eat the food we threw for them. Even as an adult now feeding the catfish brings me great joy to watch them race to the kibble on top of the water like a group of vacuums they ate the food. Another great time was when I had some how lassoed a big catfish buy the tail with my fishing line while fishing with my dad at the pond. We still laugh at that story and how much I wanted to keep at least one fish to eat when I was a kid. I have lots of great childhood memories about catching and cooking fish and having fresh tomatoes and yellow squash with great food. That is why fried catfish will all ways be one of my favorite summer foods. And the sound of nature around the pond with a chorus of frogs and whippoorwills behind my parent's house as I fish is a good way to relax after a long day at work. Sometimes I bring a coffee can full of fish food and just watch the catfish eat just like at the restaurant. I keep the catfish well fed in hopes that they will grow big by the time I catch them. And just siting in a lawn chair and listening the fish peck the food from the top of the water is very calming sometimes I will even see a deer or two in the field on the other side of the pond. Even just a sandwich with a fillet and tartar sauce in it along with a few hush puppies or even a home grown tomato is enough to bring me back to eating our catch at my grandparent's house. That is how fried catfish became my favorite summer time food.
By Doug Lemons4 years ago in Feast
Endless summers and strawberries
Summer means different things to different people, partly driven by their climate. Folk in the northern hemisphere, often struggling in a snowy December, marvel at the idea of Australians in their midsummer, in shorts and barbequing at the beach: But that's the Aussie iconic summer image.
By Andy Killoran4 years ago in Feast
Operation: Deep Fried Reese's
Reese’s cups. Alone, they are more than enough. Their sweet, fluffy center with the perfect amount of crunch, filling your nasal cavity with the taste of artificial peanut butter that somehow tastes fresher than the actual thing. Their solid chocolate shell that provides the sufficient amount of protection for the peanut butter and satisfaction for its devourer when they take the first bite, feeling that dull crunch ushering their taste buds into a world of sugary goodness. If all that wasn’t enough of a draw, my favorite color was always orange as a kid. Again, Reese’s cups alone, are more than enough. After all, they made them into a cereal. But deep fried Reese’s cups? Well, that is a life-altering progression, and that is where this story begins.
By Kyle Maddox4 years ago in Feast
What do you like to eat in summer and why is it ice-cream?. Top Story - June 2022.
Dear ice-cream, I missed you so much. I know we had a rough time those past months. A cousin of yours was all over the place and we did not meet that much. I missed you. I missed all your tastes and variations, all your colours and presentations. Like every year, as soon as the sun comes back, you are the only thing I crave. Your existence itself is a cure for seasonal depression. Some say it is some kind of vitamin that I miss, but deeply I know it is you and only you.
By Amsha Olsan4 years ago in Feast
