Category: Writing
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F-Mart’s Mural Provides Beacon for Asian Community in Lawrence
F-Mart’s colorful mural in Lawrence, Kansas, acts as a beacon where people of Asian descent may find more than food for their table.
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Essay Excerpt: When Kansas Was America’s Napa Valley
“When Kansas Was America’s Napa Valley” is an essay I wrote for the series What It Means to Be American that explores the history of Kansas winemaking and grape-growing before and after Prohibition.
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Thai Tea’s Sweet Salvation
The unrelenting heat of the sun in Thailand takes its toll during late mornings and afternoons. Sunlight casts its brilliant glare and heightens the crisp colors of busy Bangkok streets. Spotting an iced tea vendor’s booth offers sweet salvation among the throngs of shoppers and fragrant food stands lining the open-air markets. Thai-style iced tea…
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Pilgrimage
Written November 2000. I did not want to spend Thanksgiving alone this year. My family lived in Kansas City and would enjoy Thai food and turkey without me for the first time in over thirty years. I had decided to remain in New England during my graduate school break since I planned on…
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Mother’s Day: Imprints Far East and Midwest
A photograph of my mom not too long after she moved to the Kansas City area from Thailand. After my dad completed his tour of duty in the Army, the newlyweds moved to the States and lived in the basement of his parent’s house until they got established. I don’t remember the dog, most…
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Kansas City’s Food Deserts
In many places throughout the United States, it is more difficult to buy an apple than french fries if you live in a “food desert.” Several counties in the greater Kansas City are home to such food deserts. Huge swaths of the U.S. population have little access to affordable and nutritious food. A new online…
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Asian Market Excursion in Kansas City
The spicy bite of red curry paste, the taste of sweet roasted coconut juice, the fragrant licorice scent of Thai basil, these ingredients draw me out of winter’s clutch, away from a snowy suburb in south Kansas City to Thailand. I don’t board a plane for my getaway. Instead, I navigate icy roads to Kim…