Mortar & Pestle

There's something about moving away from home that forces you to put a magnifiying glass on memories you left behind.

Before New York, I didn't cook, I didn't eat mushrooms, I didn't eat fish, I didn't eat greens– I ate quesadillas becaue it was easy. Dinners at home were always spent with family. At the time, this was just life, nothing special.

In NYC, life is different. Living under a makeshift lofted room inside a 4-person loft, one does not get the pleasures of eating together. Eating together means something totally different. Everyone is fresh out of school, hustling in the city, food is a new concept to us all. What is food? Is food the dinner you order over the phone? Is it the ramen you popped into the microwave because the kitchen is so dirty that you can't use the stove? Dinner becomes something entirely different. Mom isn't making you a delicious plate of enchiladas, now you have to scour the earth to find these ingredients, wait! How do you make the sauce? 20+ years of eating enchiladas and you have no concept as to how the sauce is made. This was my life.

Alongside the utter cluelessness of how dinner becomes dinner something else becomes apparent. Who do you eat dinner with? It's no longer family. It's people that you flat out don't know. I like eating dinner at 7, roommates like eating dinner at 10, boyfriend eats at work. So now, all one can do is pop that ramen into the microwave, sit on the couch and slurp the dinner down.

Being stripped away from what felt comfortable forced me to think about where I wanted to be in life. That's when my whole outlook on life began to change. All of a sudden being healthy, spending time with family, appreciating authenticity became important. I started to eat Kale and yogurt! I created dinner time with my boyfriend.

This is how Mortar & Pestle was born. It was a home for all the food experiences out there. The things that happen around the dinner table are often the sweetest moments in life.

Ideas

Post: Rethinking Email

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