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| After Photograph accompanying Nina Simonds' essay. |
I completely ignored Nina Simonds' dumplings treatise, which is both heartwarming, full of history and stomach pleasing. In 1979, Simonds was a twenty-something, from a tiny New England town, who had gotten herself to Taipei some years earlier to study Mandarin, Chinese cooking, and Chinese culture. Her piece combined Chinese history with a raft of recipes for dumplings. It's interesting to note that her readers were meant to find won ton wrappers at Oriental markets and large super-markets. Why did I not notice them?
I wasn't paying attention. I probably didn't read the reviews for Los Angeles restaurants, or notice the ones by Caroline Bates, featuring Los Angeles' Hamayoshi and Hamasushi. In 1979, Gourmet authors were explaining the basics of sushi to their audience. Just as I had missed out on the advent of Beni Hana in New York, I remained a sushi virgin.
If anything, I drew even closet to my New England roots. High technology had taken over the dark satanic mills of New England's smaller cities and there I found work. Strange it was for an art history major to be teaching people how to make computers. But it paid the rent on my apartment in an 18th Century farmhouse, still owned by the same family whose ancestors built it.
My apartment was a narrow bedroom with a kitchen-dining room-living room across the stairs. A half-refrigerator, two burners and a narrow sink limited my options. The cafeteria at work and a pizzeria that made great meatball subs had to suffice.
Happily for the Yelp generation, Hamasushi is still going strong at 347 East 2nd Street in Los Angeles.
Simonds is now in her early sixties. She has authored 10 cookbooks, and has a video blog, Spices of Life.
If anything, I drew even closet to my New England roots. High technology had taken over the dark satanic mills of New England's smaller cities and there I found work. Strange it was for an art history major to be teaching people how to make computers. But it paid the rent on my apartment in an 18th Century farmhouse, still owned by the same family whose ancestors built it.
My apartment was a narrow bedroom with a kitchen-dining room-living room across the stairs. A half-refrigerator, two burners and a narrow sink limited my options. The cafeteria at work and a pizzeria that made great meatball subs had to suffice.
Happily for the Yelp generation, Hamasushi is still going strong at 347 East 2nd Street in Los Angeles.
Simonds is now in her early sixties. She has authored 10 cookbooks, and has a video blog, Spices of Life.
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