When trying to envision how I would go about food recipe blog post assignment for class, my priority was to be able to experiment with a new technique that wouldn’t ruin the food even if I failed. This way, regardless of what happened, I would get to eat dinner. When brainstorming ideas, I thought of bak zhang (glutinous rice dumplings), alternatively known as zongzi in Cantonese, where the wrapping is half the boast. Relatively confident that I could dish out some pretty tasty filling, I settled on this food choice despite ominous warnings from folk on how much prep would be required for this dish. Bak zhang is the Hokkien name for it, and is the variation that my family makes. This dish is as regional as it gets. and can come with any number of modifications in seasoning, filling, and wrapping style from place to place, family to family. Perfect for this class. When I asked my mother for her bak zhang recipe, as expected she pulled one off the internet with a list …

Textures and structures from the last frolic before Joanne and Ivanne left Toronto, of Tommy Thompson Park on the Leslie Spit.

and so i was. and after the rooms were unlocked and the books had been deciphered, i wanted to love me too. and so i became a question. stepped back into unsolved.

so I crushed my chest into rubble,
waited on the moonlight to soften the ruin.

This makes me think about my hand, which although relatively fair for a Southeast Asian, is definitely not a white hand. Then I think of all the nonwhite hands holding books, and all the nonwhite hands writing books, and I put Old Goriot away for a while.