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Fried Eggs & Rice: A Series by Writers of Color on Food
A collection of work written by writers of color that focuses on food and all of the cultural, emotional, and spiritual significance it has for us. Fried Eggs and Rice speaks to the soul and ancestry of our food, the profound connections and emotional impact of what we eat and how we prepare it.
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A thank you to all of the writers across the nation who believe in this project and submitted their work.
September 2023
The Privilege of Cheese
By Elisabet Velasquez
In this introspective personal essay, Elisabet Velasquez uses cheese as a way to discuss how our connections to food can be directly tied to socioeconomics, government policy, and history. In clear and witty prose, Elisabet delves into difficult topics and reminds us that food is an important indicator of both our cultural and political existence.
August 2023
Pandemic Loco Moco
By Shirley Huey
During the height of the COVID-19 lockdown, Shirley Huey revisits and reimagines a side of the road meal on an escape to Hawai'i that provided comfort and peace to her during another tumultuous and uncertain chapter of life. In this deeply personal essay, Shirley helps us discover the emotional impact of food and the ways in which meals become comfort, recognition, and memory.
July 2023
Grandma Essie's Vanilla Pound Cake
By Debra J. Stone
In Debra J. Stone's creative non-fiction essay, she revisits memories of her grandparents and the home they held through a distinct connection to a delicious dessert. The dessert becomes a link in her memory to them and to Rondo Avenue, the Minnesota neighborhood where they owned a home. Touching on family memory and historical record, Debra J. Stone's essay reminds us all how a dish, even a slice of cake, can root us in our memories and histories.
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May 2023
Stealing Torticas and Joy
By Connie Pertuz Meza
In this beautifully descriptive creative non-fiction piece, Connie Pertuz Meza describes an innocent childhood caper to steal a treat from the kitchen with a favorite cousin. The piece uses the juxtaposition of their realities to create a sense of communion between the two and a memory that is forever etched into her heart. In lush scene setting and diction, Pertuz Meza reminds us all that our childhood memories can often lead to the deepest reflections.
May 2023
Sancocho for the Soul
By Nia Ita Thomas
In Nia Ita Thomas' creative non-fiction piece, a lesson in the kitchen from her mother to learn a family recipe becomes a reflection on her mother's life, her relationship with her mother, and a beautiful example of love found in the making a meal of plenty when life feels limited. Told in thoughtful and beautiful prose, Nia Ita's personal essay reminds us all that a family recipe can often be an opening door to familial connection and reflection.
April 2023
The Invention of Piece-Pahz
By Devi Laskar
Piece-Pahz is a short-form creative non-fiction piece from Devi Laskar, digging into a memory about a family-made after school snack, the simple joy it created for the writer, and the poignant connection between family members from its making. In direct and vivid language, Devi paints a picture for the reader of the meal and the people in her world.
April 2023
I Have Eaten Under Her Skies
By Yamini Pathak
I Have Eaten Under Her Skies is a poem detailing a mother remembering painful memories while preparing a meal she feeds to her child. Described by Yamini Pathak in delicious detail and lush emotion, the poem touches on how food can be a remembrance of some our most haunting and poignant chapters and speaks to how feeding someone we love can honor that remembrance.
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January 2023
Apartment 1G
from "Where We're From"
By Angelique Imani Rodriguez
Where We're From is a short story collection of flash fiction that revolves around the residents of Ventana Court, a fictional apartment building in the West Bronx at the start of the new millennium. Each story provides a unique glimpse into the lives of the people who live in the building, painting a vivid picture of their hopes, dreams, struggles, and triumphs. In Apartment 1G, an aging mother passes on a culinary tradition to her daughter, who uses the wisdom to save her own life.
October 2022
Zhou
By Sharline Chiang
In this beautifully written fiction piece, a young girl goes in search of her mother on a cold winter day and it's the prepared meal her mother leaves behind that is the first sign of her absence. With a theme of a journey in search of something, both physical and emotional, the use of imagery and juxtaposition breathes life into this gorgeous short story.
September 2022
Handmade Sabor
By Pilar Egüez Guevara, PhD
In this creative non-fiction piece, Pilar details her quest to perfect a favorite recipe from her mother. Using a clear and direct voice, Pilar discovers that food preparation often requires us to be hands-on and that it's through this hands-on preparation that flavors are really made.
August 2022
Heirloom Sushi
By Patti Kameya
In this thoughtfully written creative non-fiction piece, Patti Kameya writes about reconnecting with her roots through the food that her family has prepared for generations, reminding us that there is power in the remembrance of these culinary traditions and that what we are told is "authentic" may only speak to the marketing and not to the deep cultural and personal roots of the food.
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July 2022
Sopa Ministry for the Grieving & Unmothered
By Vanessa Mártir
Written with a skilled eye for language and incredibly poignant pacing, Vanessa Mártir's creative non-fiction piece speaks to the ways in which the food we prepare can become a silent communication, a way our grief is processed, and even become life lessons with each time we prepare it.
July 2022
Strawberry Mud
By Shizue Seigel
This incredible and thoughtful creative non-fiction piece reminds us that there is a history connected to the food we buy, even the strawberries we put in our smoothies. Informational and moving, this piece braids the author's family history with the historical relationship many Japanese Americans have with the United States.
May 2022
Humming in the Kitchen: An Ode to My Father’s Cooking
By Anam Ahmed
This poignant and luscious creative non-fiction piece delves into how food can be a link to our most precious memories with loved ones who are no longer with us and connects us to culture, family (both blood and chosen), and to the very kitchens the meals were prepared in.
April 2022
Noelia and Amparo
By Glendaliz Camacho
This short story set in La Romana, Dominican Republic details a rivalry between two very different women who utilize food to communicate with one another. Riveting and delicious, this piece reminds us all that there is power in the food we make and who we make it for.
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March 2022
I Summer In Yankee
By Nia Andino
This lush prose poem set in the Caribbean describes a summer where a little girl turning eight feels out of place in the place of her roots. Andino gives us rich snapshot scenes and emotions, with themes of place and the experience of being FROM two places but lacking a sense of belonging to either.
February 2022
A Piece of Home
By Danielle Buckingham
This beautiful and heartfelt creative non-fiction piece reminds us that sometimes it is the most everyday meals in our families that are the most significant and that recipes, often shared in ancestral oral tradition, can be the one thing to ground us to who we, and our people, are.
