“Mel”
Arroz a la Cubana
Teresa: Tell us about your meal and why you chose it.
Melissa: I'm using my mama’s Arroz a la Cubana recipe that she recently sent me over text (with very little deets on measurements of course. It was one of her dishes, among many, that I requested for special occasions. Or if she had enough money for the week, she’d make it as a celebration for that moment of abundance. It’s also a dish that requires the rice to be made into a perfect cup-shaped mountain, which was quite the spectacle for little me.
Teresa: Where were you born?
Melissa: Quezon City, Philippines.
Teresa: Favorite artists/bands?
Melissa: In my recent years: Kehlani, Frank Ocean, Jessie layers, and Napsters: Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. I can’t say any more than that because the ramblings of why their music is important to me, will be endless.
Teresa: What are your hobbies?
Melissa: Archiving words, images, and stories.; Different ways of surrendering to nature at whatever capacity I’m able to — camping, kayaking, hiking, picnicking, cloud gazing; Reading and annotating (another form of my archiving ways! I keep notebooks for quotes and words I don’t know or want to
remember);
And activities like Lego building and video games (hello Final Fantasy 7, where’s the second half?) that remind me of growing up with my brothers, who I love dearly but are time zones away. And I’m trying to revisit old habits, like scrapbooking/collaging and drawing, as a means to go back to old mindsets of finding joy and passing time.
