Illustration by Adrian Tomine for "Magical Dinners" by Chang-Rae Lee in the New Yorker Food Issue (November 22, 2010).
Read: "Magical Dinners" by Chang-Rae Lee in the New Yorker Food Issue (November 22, 2010)
Lee's writing in this piece is divine. Frank and vivid:
"[My mother] cooks an egg for me each morning without fail...there is always a fried egg, sunny-side up, cooked in dark sesame oil that pools on the surface of the bubbled-up white in the pattern of an archipelago; try one sometime, laced with soy and sweet chili sauce along with steamed rice, the whole plate flecked with toasted nori. It'll corrupt you for all time. But one morning I'm finally sick of it, I've had enough....I steal into her bedroom with my plate while she's talking on the telephone with Mrs. Suh...and drop it onto her best shoes, black patent-leather pumps. And here's the rub: there is no sound a fried egg makes. It lands with exquisite silence. This is the dish I've been longing to prepare."
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