grace noh

new york, U.S.A.

curator

“I realized I made too much Dalgona, so I decided to freeze it and turn it into Dalgona ice cubes. I’ve given a new life to Dalgona - as lobster cubes.”

March 16, 2020.

It’s official. Today is Day 1 of home quarantine. Normally, I say goodbye to my 1-bedroom apartment by 9:00am and let the silence hang out for the rest of the day. I don’t charge any fee for the silence to hang around my apartment. This morning was different. I placed my laptop on the long wooden table in my living room/dining area instead of on my desk in the office. My apartment is quite small to tell where the living room begins and where the dining area ends. I’m still debating whether I’m sitting in the living room or the dining area.

5:18pm - I suddenly had an urge to have a cup of sweet coffee. I normally don’t drink sweet coffee. It’s not my thing. But perhaps with a new change of air with the spread of the pandemic, my body seemed to crave for a change too. I remember watching a post on ‘how to make Dalgona coffee,’ which is a sweetened Korean coffee that is made from whisking coffee and sugar together for 400 times (or more). Who would whisk it for that many times? That turned out to be me today.

The coffee was okay. I wouldn’t make it again. But I felt some kind of excitement as I was whisking it. What was that, I don’t know. But it felt nice.

I realized I made too much Dalgona, so I decided to freeze it and turn it into Dalgona ice cubes. I’ve given a new life to Dalgona - as lobster cubes.

March 17, 2020

Today is Day 2 of home quarantine. Today I witnessed the almost empty jar of strawberry jam saying ‘yes’ to the freshly baked bread. The jar has been sitting in the cold refrigerator for months - nobody desiring it, nobody giving love to it.

I decided to bake today. I haven’t baked for years. Why? For a typical reason that many would give. I’ve been busy with life. The stickiness of dough is always the annoying part of kneading. But what I love about baking bread, which I’ve forgotten the feeling of it for years until today, is that the stickiness eventually disappears if I continue to knead it. It turns into a soft and fluffy dough. The dough should thank me for giving it a nice massage today.

The bread came out to be perfect. Soft on the inside, and crusty on the outside. The oven surgery went well. I couldn’t wait for it to chill. I could have eaten it as it was, but the almost forgotten strawberry jam in the refrigerator popped in my head. I introduced them together. The jam was immediately gone. I had finished it. The bread is now left behind, alone. I’ll introduce it to a new jam tomorrow. That’s life. You move on.

March 21, 2020

Today is Day 6 of home quarantine. I’m starting to get used to staying home and not wearing any makeup. You’re welcome, my skin.

5:09pm - I made a strawberry short cake today. I had a sudden craving for a semi-sweet, fluffy sponge cake with fresh cream and strawberries. I finished the top decoration with sliced strawberries. I suppose I made space for the strawberries to have a big family gathering. 30 of them were gathered on top of the cake.

I don’t remember the last time I had a big family gathering with relatives. I’m still trying to figure out when it was. My memories tend to romanticize my past. I tell them to give me facts, but they are naughty sometimes and deepen my thoughts to the ‘good old days.’

I sliced a piece and placed it on a plate. Coffee. That’s what I needed. I brewed coffee and my apartment was full of coffee aroma. I took a bite of the cake. It was good. It was exactly what I was looking for. I had a sip of coffee. The coffee completed the cake. The queen on the coffee cup stared at the cake intensely. I could see her desire. But Dear Queen, you can’t have everything you want in life. The cake is mine.

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