Nicki Chen's Blog, page 10

Fictional Characters and the Food They Eat

I like to eat as much as the next person. I put blueberries on my oatmeal and bananas in my breakfast smoothy. I eat soups and salads for lunch, stews and stir fries for dinner, yogurt, cookies, and chocolate candy for snacks. But you wouldn’t exactly call me a foodie. That’s why I was surprised […]

Kava, Vanuatu’s Favorite Mind-Altering Drink

Having written a book with “Vanuatu” in the title, I thought I should mention something about the country’s most popular drink: kava and my first-hand experience with it. After all, you don’t live in a country for three years and not try out their most famous drink. Once! Kava has been around for ages. In […]

Salmon: A Bittersweet November Drama

My sister, Sue, was feeling grumpy. The mess of a kitchen remodel can do that to a person. It wasn’t a full remodel. Still, replacing the countertops and taking out the sink disrupted the normal running of her kitchen. And my sister likes a neat kitchen. So she called me. “Let’s go for a walk,” […]

Don’t Understand Something? Ask a Stranger.

Not long ago, my sister and I took a drive up Highway 2 to view the fall color. She’d been on I-90 the previous day on her way to Cougar Mountain, and shed observed that the fall color was better than usual this year. Of course, as those of us in the Pacific Northwest know, […]

Maybe We Can All Get Along–Some UN Day Thoughts

I thought today, United Nations Day, would be a good time to think about peace, cooperation, and getting along with each other. Maybe that was what William Shatner (Capt. Kirk) was thinking about when he returned from space last week with tears in his eyes. Like every other first-time space traveler, he seemed brimming over […]

A Life Dedicated to Plants, the Kruckeberg Botanic Garden

After a healthy lunch of borscht, spinach salad, and huge pretzels covered in seeds, my sister suggested a forest walk. She had a nearby destination in mind. And … another motive. She’d heard that the Kruckeberg Botanic Garden had cyclamen plants for sale that day, the first Saturday in October. She’s a big fan of […]

The Romance of Reading a Book … a Paper Book

There’s something romantic about a woman reading a book. There must be. Think about how many times a woman with her book has been the subject for lovely, romantic paintings. Google it. The page goes on and on. Monet is good with romantic scenes. And what could be better than this woman on a warm […]

Gardening in Vanuatu

My husband Eugene could have played golf. There were four golf courses in and around Port Vila, all of them quite beautiful and surprisingly inexpensive—or so we were told when we moved there. He could have taken up horseback riding, snorkeling, or scuba diving. So why did he decide at some point to spend a […]

Eating Out … Outside

Usually, I cook and eat at home. So, I consider eating out a treat. Maybe there’s even a tinge of romance to it. I’m thinking now of my first grasshopper—that cold, pale green, yummy drink I first tasted on a date when I was in college. Or better yet, the string trio serenading our table […]

Reading “You Can’t Go Home Again”

You can go home again, of course. But it will be different. And you will be different. I suppose that was Thomas Wolfe’s point when he wrote this classic of American literature. I won’t know for sure for a while, though. I’m only on page 172 as of this writing, and “You Can’t Go Home […]